Auntie Mamie

Mamie is back, and so is Jill. Will they both give us a thrill? Jack and Diane will say vows again, but the real question is, will Phyllis bust in?

Dear readers, I love it when soaps surprise me. It delights me to my core. Discovering that Aunt Mamie finally bested Jill after a decades-old feud made me giggle with glee.

But Aunt Mamie is working with a mysterious someone whose name we don't yet know. Y&R fans have been debating this, and Cane's name came up, as did the AWOL Ashley's name. Tucker is suspected, and others mentioned Malcolm or Olivia. But the name that excited me the most was Drucilla. Her body was never found, so who's to say she isn't alive, just regained her memory, and is having Mamie front for her to return to her kids? I hope that's the winning guess. Who do you think it could be?

I was trying to explain this engaging storyline to my husband, who does claim he doesn't watch soaps but somehow knows a lot of character names. He said, "Is that the one with Cricket?" Yeah, about 20 years ago. But wait, Danny is back, so I'm sure he will call her Cricket a time or two.

I am enjoying the use of flashbacks to classic scenes, and I hope this continues. Y&R has a lot of continuity, so they have the same actors playing Jill, Mamie, Jack, Ashley, and Traci. Of course, Neil and Drucilla's flashbacks would be fantastic, too. But I am not enjoying the black-and-white flashbacks of two days ago. Those I could do without. I suspect they were just time fillers while the writers' strike lingered to extend the scenes they had filmed. Now that the strike has ended, I hope those fillers vanish.

Watching Victoria as a spectator to someone else's messy family drama was fun. The glee in her eyes at the mayhem tickled me. The Newman family drama hasn't been nearly as civil as the Chancellor/Winters group, so maybe she got some pointers. Victor making Adam serve as Nate's assistant was cold. Worse yet is that Nate is being incredibly smarmy about it. I wonder how long those two will be able to play nice before punches are thrown. Do I remember wrong? Didn't Nate used to be nice when he was a doctor?

I don't enjoy lopsided storylines. I don't like it when one person is always the punching bag. On General Hospital, that person has been Sasha for two years. On Y&R, Adam has been the pariah of his family for even longer. I'm ready for the writers to change the narrative. I say let Adam win this round. Kick snooty Victoria to the curb, just as Victor threatened that he would do if she refused to give her brother a chance.

Victoria has been the apple of her dad's eye for so long and hasn't been very gracious about it. She unceremoniously kicks Nick to the curb to promote her boyfriend and constantly works to undermine Adam. She lost the throne, and now I want to watch her lose the favorite child designation and watch Adam get the glory. Just so you know, this does not come from a bad experience of my own. I was an only child, always the favorite and spoiled rotten.

I am always drawn in by redemption storylines. I wholeheartedly believe in redemption and know that people can change. Is Adam sincere? I think he is. I don't think he'd be dropping the name of his deceased baby to make his case if it weren't true. Losing Ava wrecked him, and losing Sally hurt, too. I believe Adam genuinely wants to be a better man worthy of the love he craves. If I am a sucker for believing him, that's okay. I've been a sucker before.

I also want to hope that Phyllis is capable of change. The scenes from Friday's show between Danny and Phyllis were so poignant. Danny's words of concern and encouragement to her were exactly what Phyllis needed. It left me wishing that Danny might play a key role in Phyllis' redemption. Michelle Stafford and Michael Damian still have mad chemistry. Sure, it would make Christine's head explode, but I'm okay with that. I know many people are rooting for a Danny and Cricket reunion, but that's too vanilla for me. I want to watch a sexy, messy Danny and Phyllis fling. She already inspired him to finish his song. She's his muse; he can be her Jiminy Cricket conscience, reminding her to fly straight.

Sally blabbed to Nick about Adam kissing her, sparking the embers of Nick's rage again. On one hand, it's good to be honest with your partner. On the other hand, I'm sometimes on the side of keeping your mouth shut. Some things don't need to be volunteered when it will cause a ruckus. My question with Sally is this: does she enjoy the ruckus? Does she get off on watching two brothers fighting over her? I can't decide if the writers want me to think Sally's motives are pure or if perhaps she knows that telling Nick will make him angry. If Nick dumps her, maybe Sally can return to Adam without feeling guilty for leaving Nick?

I am unsure which direction this is headed. Still, I did notice Nick drifting closer to Sharon and telling her that she's always a calming influence in his life. He said to her that she was always the voice of reason in the room, and that was one of the things that initially attracted him to her. Hmm. If Nick goes back to Sharon, then Summer can have Chance. But what about Kyle? Well, I don't know. Audra dumped him, but Tucker ordered Audra to get back together with Kyle.

Why does Audra keep answering her phone? She's already confessed to the Newmans about her role in the coverup at McCall, so Tucker really doesn't have any leverage over her. Oh, wait, she slept with him again. But so what? Almost everyone in Genoa City has slept with everyone else. Why should Audra be any different? Oh, yeah, because Nikki is patrolling her sex life.

Readers, I don't want to sound mean because I like Trevor St. John, but it seems like Tucker is always bored. This has left me asking whether Tucker is bored or if it's his portrayer. In some of the scenes, he kind of mumbles his words with no expression on his face, and I think, "Are we supposed to think Tucker is depressed that Ashley left him, or is that all that gas that Trevor St John has in his engine?" What is your take on this?

And now I am going to wade gently into controversial waters...There was an intense discussion on Twitter this week regarding the fact that two strong Black female characters were sidelined, and their male leads went on to be paired with white actresses. The tweet states that Elena and Amanda were "replaced" by Abby and Victoria. As of my last check on Twitter, this post had 367 likes, 47 retweets, 13 quotes, 10 bookmarks, a ton of comments, and 26,100 views! Clearly, it struck a nerve.

The post, which is embedded below, noted all the Black and Latino cast members who have vanished into thin air, like the Rosales family. Aunt Mamie is back, but will she bring more Winters family members with her? How do you feel about this? Do you miss having more racial diversity on the show, or is it a non-issue for you? I would love to hear your input.

I miss Mishael Morgan and would love to see her back, but as I understand, she left of her own will. But that doesn't mean we can't add some new cast members to the canvas to make Genoa City look a bit more like an average American city with a plethora of races and nationalities.

Something I was thinking about today: when I was a kid, the moms and grandmas used to call soaps their "stories." As in, "I have to go, Marge, my stories are coming on." Because there were no DVRs or VCRs back then, you had to bet at home when your show aired, or you'd never see it again! No reruns, no streaming. The Dark Ages. And when I thought about that, I thought about how I would tell this week's episodes to someone as a story.

"Jack and Diane are getting ready to renew their wedding vows."

"Wait, what? Didn't they just get married like a month ago?"

"Yes, but I guess it didn't take."

"Also, Phyllis hacked into Billy's bank and moved money from Jabot into his account to make it look like he was embezzling."

"Oh, no! I'm so worried about Billy! What will happen to him when Jack finds out and thinks he stole from Jabot!"

"Oh, no, not to worry, they figured it out immediately, and it was over in five minutes."

"So, you're saying that it took Tucker longer to convince Phyllis to hack into Billy's account than the entire storyline took?"

"Yup."

Do you see what I'm getting at, dear readers? The stories aren't especially story-ish right now.

One unexpected ray of sunshine in Genoa City this week was seeing Hayley Erin back on-screen as Nikki's new assistant, Claire Grace. Claire appears to be on the up and up, which means she may not be willing to go along with Audra's shenanigans. I am interested to see where that storyline will go. I wonder if anyone will tell her she looks like Abby.

Another pleasant surprise was having Jess Walton back on the canvas and not just on Zoom. I mean, you can't have a hair-pulling catfight over video. I miss the old days of Jill and Catherine going at each other sometimes. Thank goodness for YouTube.

What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Aunt Mamie ask Jill to do her nails? Will Sally get to take off that hideous green jumpsuit they had her in last week? Will Kyle's mystery wedding date be Claire? Will Diane's elegant blush gown end up on the cover of Restless Style? Will Jack's new vows add a note about tearing up the post-nuptial agreement from their last wedding so Diane can take him for everything?

Will Nate and Adam become besties and form a legitimate work relationship? Will Daniel be happy to hear that Heather and Lucy are moving back to Genoa City, or terrified? Will Phyllis crash the wedding and spill coffee on Diane's gorgeous gown? Will Tucker determine if the Abbotts actually are a cult, and if so, will he join? Will anyone explain to me why Diane and Jack would invite Chase and Sharon to their vow renewal? Will Phyllis be Danny's muse for nine more songs and give him a whole new album?

Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.Tamilu

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