Goodbye, farewell, but no amen

There have been too many goodbyes when, almost immediately after a loved one's departure, another beloved character appeared to be on the way out also. Will Tara's diabolical plan backfire to chase away the very person she desired as her own? Will Chelsea return with Connor after Adam trusted her to leave town with his son? Will Victoria be able to let go when Ashland's time has come to an end? And where's Mariah? It's pouring cats and dogs (or not) in Two Scoops.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have been paying more attention to the dcor in the homes and offices of our beloved characters in Genoa City, and I have stumbled upon a recurring theme. Each place has been decorated with either pictures of their family members, which is no surprise, or with portraits of horses. That's pretty much it. Family members and horses. It's just such a strange mixture. I mean, why not have a little variety and have a few sketches of puppies or kitties -- or would that be too controversial? If Victor had a shot of his favorite breed of dog hanging on the wall, would the cat people of the world throw a tantrum? Or if a print of a gorgeous Abyssinian cat adorned the mantel of a fireplace, would the dog lovers send in their hate mail? This mystery boggles the mind.

But then again, how many Y&R characters own a pet? Not counting the horses on the Newman Ranch (which could explain all the pictures on those walls), none. At least, not at this time. The last one that had a pet was Connor, who had a poor, weak little kitten, supposedly on the brink of starvation, that he had rescued and brought home. You remember...the cat, who was so full of vim and vigor that he had immediately sprung out of the box and was ready to play. I wonder what happened to that cat. Oh, no, maybe Connor did kill it, after all. He was practically on the road to being a serial killer at the time. More than likely, though, he got bored with it, and they gave it away. Or that's what we can pretend, anyway, since the cat disappeared into thin air like most pets on soaps.

The longest-lasting pet on Y&R that I can remember was Victor's dog Zapato. Before Patty poisoned him in revenge for chewing up Mr. Kitty (her stuffed cat), even when Zapato wasn't on camera, we knew he was around to give Victor companionship and love. Zapato was a staple of the show as Victor's companion. Speaking of Patty, she also had briefly owned a live kitten, appropriately named Kitty Kitty, to comfort her when she was at her wackiest. But I'm afraid there was only so much help that Kitty Kitty could give to Patty then. Maybe if a little puppy had comforted Chelsea when she was going through her rough time, she wouldn't have gone so far off the rails, but probably not. A pet can only provide so much peace of mind, but at least Chelsea wouldn't have felt so alone.

So, Chelsea poisoned Rey, believing in her delusional mind that it would help her to get back at Adam and Sharon; she confessed to doing the deed; she received a term in a mental institution instead of jail time for doing the crime; and then she was released after only a few months because she claimed that she was cured? Wow, now everyone who commits a crime knows how to beat the system. Well, if they're on a soap, that is. And then after Adam agreed to her release, Chelsea wanted more -- the moon, the sun, the stars. She wished to bid a temporary toodle-oo to go to Anita's side in Minnesota with Connor in tow, and when Adam didn't agree at first, she put her scheme in motion. Chelsea ran to Sharon to plead her case, after her so-called apology, which I never really heard.

And both Sharon and Rey completely fell for it. Chelsea played them like a fiddle as she mastered the strokes of her con. Sharon begged Adam to reconsider, and because Sharon was the one asking, Adam had a total change of heart. It's funny that although Sharon and Rey saw that it wasn't okay for Chelsea to be apart from Connor for that lengthy amount of time, it was okay for Adam. Fathers just can't catch a break, even in this modern day and age. So, Adam was willing to let him go, even though no one was really sure that Chelsea was mentally stable, since she was released only by Victor's good graces, which didn't go far once he found out about her plan. Victor was right when he told Adam that sentimentality, generosity, and weakness were not good when it came to Connor's future.

Although Victor tried to convince him to not let Connor go with her, Adam would not back down. Wow, some of dear old Dad was coming out when Adam chose to stick to his guns. Victor eased up a tad when he heard that Rey would be the court-assigned officer to accompany Chelsea on her trip. Yet, as a counselor, Sharon didn't look too convinced, either, since Chelsea had not been given the good-mental-health stamp of approval by an honest, respectable psychiatrist. However, Nikki and Adam were certain that Chelsea and Connor truly needed each other, which would be the best medicine. You'd think with all the Newmans' money and connections, they would get a second opinion on Chelsea's stability -- but Victor did fork out the dough to have a tail put on her when she left.

Victoria didn't appear like she'd ever be ready to say a final farewell to Ashland, as she seemed to become more emotionally involved with him as time passed. If this was all a scheme to win her over, it appeared to be working, since Victoria has gone from wanting to partner up with him for a merger between Newman Enterprises and Locke Communications to becoming more bewitched by the powerful mogul, and it was possible she was even falling in love with him. But would Victoria have fallen for Ashland if his days weren't supposedly numbered? Or was that part of the allure? Could Victoria turn their story into a fairytale, where his life would be spared, so they could walk into the sunset together, arm in arm, his company entwined with hers? Oh, that would be so touching.

Some weird stuff was going on between Ashland and Tara that didn't appear to be divorce related. There appeared to be a bit of an overreaction from both to Ashland's mild attack at the park, although that could be because he thought he had been invited to a picnic, which wasn't meant to be. How could such a simple invitation by text be so misconstrued? It was understandable that Ashland wouldn't want Harrison to witness his father in less-than-ideal circumstances, but Tara went overboard in trying to comfort Ashland. You would think that she would have been more concerned about wanting to protect her son from seeing his father in such dire straits. And when Tara demanded to delete Sally's taping, that, too, was way over the top, except she sent it to herself before deleting it.

Tara has already shown she's phony baloney when she so sweetly drove Summer out of the country. Was the paternity test for Harrison faked, too? It would make sense, since Jason Thompson, in true Billy Abbott and ChancComm fashion, let the cat out of the bag that Michael Mealor will be leaving as Kyle, which Mr. Mealor later confirmed. So, if Kyle joins Summer in Italy, he must learn that Harrison is not biologically his son, since Kyle has always claimed that he would never leave his boy. So, we will be saying a fond farewell to Kyle, too. With all the goodbyes, it reminds me of the M*A*S*H finale, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," only in this case, it would be more like "Goodbye, Farewell but no Amen." There's just too much dirty dealing going on for any amens.

And sure enough, the next thing you know, that unflattering video of Ashland was all over the town, the country...shoot, it probably even made its way to Timbuktu. While Victoria and Ashland turned the bad into the good by using it as a distraction away from their merger, Billy and Lily decided against putting the video on the ChancComm website. And after seeing that their competitors had stolen their thunder, Billy realized that the better story would be to find out what anonymous person was trying to take down Ashland. Of course, Sally will get the blame for that, since she's the one who had taped it at Tara's request. Oh, that was the reason behind the mistaken invitation. Tara knew that Ashland would get upset and would react about Kyle's presence at the picnic. Of course!

So, of course, Tara ran to Jack with her own pity party, crying about how bad Ashland looked when he yelled at her and claimed that they hadn't been like that during their marriage. Tara hated that her personal life had been exploited, even though she was the one who had leaked, or should I say, deluged the video all over the world, and she exclaimed how grateful she was to have her new family, the Abbotts, to support her. Oh, she's good. She had both Jack and Kyle eating right out of her hand. Chelsea would do well to take refresher courses from Tara in the art of being a con. Tara's always so gracious that no male can ever see it coming.

Victoria and Ashland then felt the time was right to blindside all of Genoa City with their big news through a video press conference, which was rather dizzying as they flipped back and forth from one to the other on camera. Victoria announced that Newman Enterprises and the Locke Communications Group would merge, and Ashland revealed that Victoria would run the huge empire, since his health was forcing him to take a step back. The entire community was abuzz that Ashland was ill; Billy was concerned that Victoria's new role as a titan would take time away from their kids; Sally was stunned, since she thought her video had been deleted; and Victor was furious with Nikki, since she had known but had never told him about the merger. Oh yeah, blindsided is the right word.

Yet, Victoria appeared to be smitten with the compelling man, who felt that she deserved more than just watching him fade away as his illness progressed. After the press conference, Billy wondered if Victoria was trying to impress her father with her smart and strategic corporate move, but it was possible that Victoria was attempting to replace Victor with Ashland in her heart, since the two were quite similar. Although Ashland was reluctant, Victoria convinced him to move in with her and the kids. When Victoria asked Billy to keep their kids more often due to her new roomie, he exclaimed, "You're inviting a dying man into your home, and you're kicking your kids out?" Come on, it was only for a few months. But really, the kids shouldn't be watching Ashland waste away.

Well, Jack and Sally appeared to have put their goodbyes behind them by starting anew -- but only as friends. Being around Sally again has sure put the smile back on Jack's face. It was nice to see it again. And it took Jack off the back burner once more. He needs to stay front and center in his own storyline again. There's no doubt that Sally will disappoint him once more, probably when he finds out that she had a part in ridding JCV of Summer, but I hope it will be awhile before that happens. I sure hope that he will stick by her side if and when she is accused of being the anonymous creep who spread the video around. Sally really had nothing to gain by doing that, and hopefully, Jack will see that, and Billy could be her strongest ally, depending on how much he overheard in the park.

Once Billy said that he saw Sally and Tara together in the park, Phyllis was ready to help Billy expose Tara, because she suspected that the blonde had chased her daughter out of town, so she played nicey-nicey with Tara to throw her off the track. Oh, dear, Tara will quickly learn that it's never good to get on Phyllis' bad side (although some wonder if Phyllis even has a good side.) Although he hadn't heard enough to help Sally, Billy still wasn't sure that she was in cahoots with Tara but promised to work with Phyllis to find out. Take no prisoners! Phyllis tried to sway Jack's thinking about the mother of his grandson, but as much as he loved Red, he wouldn't budge. And then Tara boo-hooed her way into getting Jack to side with her. Yep, Phyllis had a new and worthy opponent to battle.

Abby and Mariah should have been suspicious when Stitch kept telling them goodbye, only he never really left. And the next thing you know, Mariah was suddenly missing. Hmm...seems like there may be a connection. Stitch may resent Abby's happiness with her new family, and the problems with his son, Max, could very well be affecting his mind. But Sharon confirmed that Mariah was safe and sound and had only lost the charger to her cell phone. What a fake out! But wait...Abby and Tessa were concerned that Mariah was only responding with texts, no phone calls, and after his many goodbyes, Stitch suddenly decided to stick around and offer his help. And he blamed Tessa's past for Mariah's possible abduction. Stitch was like a wolf in sheep's clothing, guarding the lambs.

Elena had better watch out, because Amanda's sis was gunning for her man, and it appeared that she would do whatever it took to get what she wanted. Yeah, I have a feeling that Imani has pretty much always gotten everything that her heart has desired. But how rude was it when Imani tried to horn in on Nate's date with Elena! What nerve! Imani left, but Elena had better keep her eyes on Nate whenever Imani's around.

Insolence obviously ran in that family when Sutton demanded that Amanda and Imani meet with him privately and then proceeded to tell Amanda how to defend her mother. It didn't take long for Amanda to kick his booty out the door. Devon and Amanda were still very certain that Sutton was the culprit behind Richard's death, and Amanda swore that she would prove it. But the attorney found it hard to find anything about her grandfather's past that she could use against him in court, so she went to Lily for advice. When it comes to digging up dirt, Victor always seems to know where the secrets are buried, so Amanda met with him and hoped that Victor would be able to force Sutton to reveal himself. Between Devon's money and Victor's power, Sutton doesn't stand a chance.

While it was understandable that Nikki was excited about joining Victoria and Ashland as the powerhouses of the merged companies, it was a little strange that she didn't consider how her husband might react to the news of this merger, which would certainly affect Victor's new company, Newman Media. And Victor sure wasn't happy -- at all!

Faith and Moses briefly considered becoming more than just friends when the fear in the pit of Faith's stomach caused her to put on the brakes. Nikki pointed out to the teen that the fear might actually be excitement and that she should think about giving it a chance. The couple continued to teeter-totter as Faith wanted to take things slowly. Oh, the angst of young love!

When Sally was taping the infamous video, she was standing behind Ashland and Tara in the park. But the video clearly showed both of their faces, as if Sally was filming from in front of them. Wow, the progress of technology is truly amazing, isn't it?

Of course, Victor bragged to Jack and took all the credit for Victoria being able to get the big prize of the merging of the two companies. Victor surely must have meant because Victoria had only wanted for her father to be proud of her. But it would be rather fun if Victor really had done something behind the scenes to make the merger happen.

Until next time, please stay tuned. And take care and please stay safe!Teddi

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