Finally! FINALLY! Someone gets to have a grown up conversation with Sonny Corinthos about why his “shoot first and ask questions later” policy is just a tad bit dangerous (like the plague, diving without a parachute, and flying a plane without refueling). You’d think that shooting his pregnant wife in the head while she was delivering their child would be a bit of motivation to become a little more reflective and not so blantantly self-indulgent in his rage. That would mean that you a – live in known universe and adhere to the laws of phyics and reason, and b – you haven’t imagined Sonny as a living person who is totally so cool, and that he would totally be your best friend and play Xbox and Dungeons and Dragons with you if he knew you. I’m not sure the GH writers could claim either of the above.
While I expect to hate any moment that gives Patrick the right to utter the big, “I told you so” moment to Robin, I did savor this one just a bit! I didn’t enjoy seeing Robin shot, it was awful. I did enjoy the fallout once she was ok. Patrick fearlessly snarling at Sonny to get out? Thank you, writers. Robin telling Sonny that he should have been more concerned for Emma’s emotional well being? Awesome! For little Emma to have to say to her father that “Mommy was shot” was excruciating. What child should ever witness the violation of a parent or any loved one? The short answer is none, but when Sonny is a part of your life, it’s evident that at some point your children will experience an event that most children won’t ever witness – and that’s scary when you realize that fact includes soap children was well. Most soap children have never seen their parents shot in their own home:
That scene is devastating. (And P.S. LOVE new little Emma. She could teach a few of her older colleagues in daytime how to convey emotion). What that scene also tells us is that:
1. Sonny’s disregard for Emma’s psychological pain is an indication of his inability to consider his own children’s psychological pain – given that he loves Robin as if she’s family. His own expectations of becoming a victim of his lifestyle seems, as the writers convey it, to mean that his stubborn and irascible egocentrism allows him to believe that everyone, children included, should be able to accept death, and anything that falls shorts of that is… WINNING!… Loser. He is only lucky that the gun wasn’t aimed in Emma’s direction when Robin fought to stop him from killing Jax. No one knew the child was in the room. She could have just as easily been a victim of a stray bullet. Just as he expects his children to recover from kidnapping, assault, and the constant threat of becoming victims of his enemies, he expects children who don’t live with daily violence to live happily with the consequences of violent outburts.
Further consider the Doomsday Don’s treatment of his firstborn, Dante (another shoot first/ask questions later victim) . Sonny spents months on end trying to convince everyone of his great love for his son. Then he assaults Dante in order to be able to get to Jax. Killing Jax was more important to Sonny than the already fragile relationship he has with his first born.
His children, other people’s children, they’re all for show, and how little they count when they’re in the way of what Sonny wants.
2. Sonny is blinded by his hatred. DUH, right? It’s not just the obvious things (like the fact that he DRIVES people away, not that they leave because they’ve been tricked by others or that they’ve misunderstood)… it’s the little things, too. How was Robin supposed to live in that house, with her family, if Jax’s blood was spilled in her home? For Sonny, replacing the carpets, drapes, and cleaning the walls would have been sufficient, for people who’ve chosen to save lives – not take them, it’s not that easy. They wouldn’t find comfort in new drapes knowing that unseen traces of a good man’s life were left in their hardwood floors, the pores of their walls, and in their memories. They would remember Jax in that room and remember what Sonny did to him.
While Jax’s death would haunt the Scorpio-Drakes, it would have given Sonny endless satisfaction. As Carly pointed out, Sonny does not care that he killed her father and has taken every possible father-daughter moment away from her. Yeah, Carly, who cheered Sonny on when he set Jax up to lose custody. At least there is some point at which she says NO… too bad that point is death (or least death as far as they know it).
There is WAY more yum where that came from:
3. It’s likely that in the take down of Sonny Corinthos, this one vile act that FINALLY turns everyone against Sonny may also be connected to Jason’s storyline and may be the final nail in the coffin. Everyone hating Sonny so quickly makes me wonder if these scenes are re-shoots and are tied into Jason’s eventual recovery. IF Jason wakes up and becomes a new person, as has been hinted in GH promos, what will he become? WHO will he become? Assuming he has no memory of being Jason Morgan, he can become anything and anyone he wants to. Let’s assume he wakes up remembering what he’s done, but it’s as if someone else commited those acts. He dissociates, disgusted by the acts committed by the man with face. After a period of self-loathing, he moves away from the mob life and rejoins the Qs (rebuilding the family).
Suddenly, Sonny is totally and utterly alone. The only true friend he’s every had is gone. Carly finally sees Sonny for what he is and she’s done with him (whoda thunk that would ever happen!?!) Brenda has escaped his clutches. His children are angry at him. Robin won’t speak to him. His world is shattered. Given the sudden onset of the Sonny disgust, I’m not sure if the storyline is meant to garner sympathy for the character or serve as the lead in to character growth:
- Will Sonny change and permanently put the mob behind him, becoming a legitimate business leader? If so, that new role should come with a less Valdermort worthy wardrobe. There’s no shade of black and gray the lollipop mob boss hasn’t worn. It’s time to let it go.
- Will he be “redeemed”, GH style, when it’s revealed that Anthony Zacharra really is a bigger monster than Sonny? That Anthony has successfully killed before our eyes, and that Sonny’s kills are offscreen is not redepemtion. The writers should know that.
- Will he assume that saying he’s sorry is enough, or will we see true remorse from Sonny who works to make amends with those he’s wronged? Sonny will eventually be forgiven, I have no doubt about that, but it’s a process that should take time, and maybe not have forgiveness be given from everyone. Robin will forgive, of course. Even after her shot her in front of her daughter, she didn’t want to have the police called. She put her license on the line, and that of her husband’s, by treating a gun shot wound without reporting it.
What can’t happen is having the writers “save” Sonny by having him fall into a bout of depression and blame his recent actions on his bipolar condition (they’ve gone to that well far too many times). It works about as well as having him continue to fault his stepfather for the fact that he continues to kill others for a living and puts his children at risk.
What also won’t work is for Sonny to become all goodness and light. Who would buy it?
What would/might work is making Sonny the new Luke in the sense that he becomes the show’s new anti-hero, the anti-hero Luke once was, at least. Sonny could spend his days not worrying about other people’s problems (like now) but get involved when he has to protect those he loves, or others, from bad guys by working with Dante to bring them down. Luke Spencer and Robert Scorpio become Sonny Corinthos and Dante Falconeri. Luke and Lucky become Sonny and Dante. It takes a while to get use to the thought of it, I know, but give it some time. Wouldn’t anything be better than the doom and gloom Sonny brings to the show, now?
Do you know what I remember most about young Elizabeth Webber? I remember two things.
The soap reality is that Liz has been nursing a looming addiction of her own, one that keeps tearing her family apart and hurting everyone who dares to love or trust her. Elizabeth’s addiction is to impossible love affairs. Zander Smith. Ric Lansing. Jason Morgan. And now her obsession turns to Prince Nikolas Cassadine – her fiance’s brother. Why is she with Nik? Because as much as she ‘loves’ Lucky, she believes that she’s ‘in love’ with Nik. For now, given the fact that we get little more than ‘happy happy hump hump’ scenes from them, it feels more as if Liz is in LUST with Nik. Short of him leaving money on the table for her, or her leaving money on the table for him, it’s hard to tell their relationship apart from any other ‘transaction’. It’s just one more opportunity for Liz to hurt Lucky, and to remind him that he’ll never be enough for her. No one will.
She’s doing this FOR Lucky, don’t you know?
*YnR’s NuMalcolm? Not workin’. I’m trying, folks, I really am, but as good as it is to see Darius McCrary on screen again, this was just the wrong role to cast him in. Though… given the choice between keeping him as Malcolm and keeping KC’s Lily, he wins hands down! Malcolm Winters was an iconic character and unfortunately, McCrary’s interpretation falls flat. I’ve seen McCrary’s work in other projects (including CBS’s 
* Does anyone else think that ATWT’s Simon and Henry would make a far hotter couple than Luke and Noah? I’m so tired of the on-again-off-again nature of the Nuke relationship that I’m ready to see ATWT’s PTB replace them, NOW. Pay attention ATWT’s writers. OLTL’s writers are separating the men from the boys and writing a real relationship between two characters – who just happen to be gay. Watch and learn… Speaking of OLTL:
* For most of the year (plus), All My Children has been largely unwatchable. Color me surprised when I got gooey and nostalgic for Hayley and Mateo’s return (more Hayley than Mateo). Watching Adam soften while talking with Hayley and joke about knowing something about raising ‘difficult children’ was the most priceless moment of that episode for me – Hayley of the dyed dark punk rock hair, now a mother with a wild child of her own. I thought about Brian Bodine, Uncle Pork Chop (Trevor), Natalie down the well, Janet from another Planet, Adam’s dark dark days (which really were different from just his ‘dark’ days), Stuart and Cindy, scheming Arlene Vaughn, the Santos family – even preachy mom and dad, Edmund and Maria, Erica and Dimitri, Bad girl Kendall and sweetheart Del Cooney, The Martin clan, Jeremy, Laurel and her brother Michael, Cliff and Nina, Palmer and Daisy, The Montgomery Brothers and their feud, Brooke English, Phoebe and Langley, Chuck and Tara, Beloved Mona and Myrtle, Ellen and Devon, Mark Dalton, Tom and Sean Cudahy, and so much more… sheesh). I know that not all of the above mentioned characters were on screen at the same time but just those few moments with Adam and Hayley opened a stream of AMC consciousness and I felt warm all over. I miss All my Children – the real All my Children.
I’m all about the ‘I told you so’ lately and I want to hand one out to the writers of GH. I’ve never been impressed with the casting of James Franco in the role of ‘Franco’ and have been horrified by the drooling and self-congratulating linked to the casting of JF in the role. The fact that the character was named Franco was enough to tell me about the lack of creativity attached his development. It seemed to be all about stunt casting and the hope that a primetime/big screen actor could save GH from falling ratings.
Quit making Carly an idiot who treats Jax’s child as Sonny’s future ‘kidnapped bait’ child. It’s disgusting. Notice that when Carly was listing off the children who were protected by Sonny’s grace, she included Josslyn, and not Molly? STOP IT!
Nora Buchanan. Nora is the woman who slept with her ex, Sam Rappaport, and passed his child off as her husband Bo’s child. Even better is the fact that she did it for Bo– whose son was recently killed. That was the rationalization she gave for betraying her husband, she most saintedly did it FOR his sake – all the while knowing that Sam was deeply in love with her and knowing what the emotionally fallout might be. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for all involved, after Bo and Sam’s deep pain, it turns out that Matthew was Bo’s son after all. Now we have Nora, who’d been warned/pleaded with/begged not to marry Clint because she didn’t really love him, has now left Clint to be with Bo – during a dark time in Clint’s life.
The storyline seems to be shaping up into one in which the person in need of rescue may be KIM, not Clint. He’s as intent on using her as she was on using him. I hope that doesn’t happen, because despite my exhaustion with female-male May-December romances, there’s something about this pairing that I like. Nice touch, writers, on having Kim’s plan fail when she underestimated his ability to hold his liquor. BRAVO for letting Clint walk away despite Kim’s offer to let him spend the night and having him warn her to quit while she was ahead. I could root for them as a couple – with Melissa Archer’s Natalie fighting with Kim and making her work to prove her love for Clint. I could <gulp> just as easily root for them developing a strong father-daughter relationship (Oedipal, I know) or have them remain as good friends. Either way, I’m hoping to see far more of Clint and Kim than Bo and Nora. SON’s 
Two words: Carly Manning. Two more words: EPIC FAIL. There are some soap staples I can’t get enough of: scheming liars who are eventually figuratively beaten down and forced to eat their own misery. Bad boys who are only clever by half and outwitted by their victims, victims they eventually fall in love with. Anything to do with corporate intrigue. Good old-fashioned romance. Deep dark family secrets – that have nothing to do with long lost children.
Well, I could have used one of those pseudo-superior pains in the ass yesterday. I would have been too busy arguing with one of them to watch GH. And then I wouldn’t have had to question my sanity. Am I taking this all too seriously? Is there anything enjoyable about GH’s ‘Suckpranos’ any more? If Claudia’s death scenes were supposed to create an atmosphere of edge-of-your-seat drama? They were an epic FAIL! If they were supposed to make me despise Sonny, Carly, Jason, Sam and the rebirth of Michael “MyKill” Corinthos? They were an epic SUCCESS!
I felt dirty watching Sonny tell Jason to bury Claudia as close to hell as he could – considering the fact that everyone keeps talking about what a great man and great father he is ( most especially from the mouth of NuLois/Olivia Falconeri, who didn’t bother to let him help her raise her son. It’s on coincidence that Dante/Dominic is the only one of Sonny’s adult/near-adult children who isn’t a wreck of a person). His statement was also mind-blowing given the fact that Sonny spoke those words as if he and Jason wouldn’t soon see Claudia in hell. Wait, I forgot, they’re the good mobsters.
If I’m spinning this into a positive, the writers have also proven that Alexis is right, FINALLY (even if unintentionally). Kristina and Michael are siblings, but they’re very different people. Kristina has a chance, if she stays away from her father. She has a mother who doesn’t believe that sunshine shoots out of Sonny’s private parts. Her mother doesn’t think the mob life is glamorous, despite the stupidity of having slept with Sonny in the past. She wants better for her daughter. I hope the writers allow her to remain consistent in giving her daughter a fighting chance.
Sonny’s ‘Hot Mafia Don’ act wore off on me long ago. Imagine that the GH brass gave us the Sonny Corinthos that so many of us have longed for. Imagine Sonny Corinthos as an upstanding citizen and pillar of his community after the mob has been disbanded and run from Port Chuckles. (I know, some GH fans have suggested a painless, or even painful, death for the character as an out of the mob mess. Others have suggested that Sonny leave all together, to never return. How can you reform a man who so callously orders the death of other poeple?)
Sonny’s new peer group could now become Jax, the newly rebuilt Quartermaines, Nik Cassadine, and the occasional random character thrown in. Could he take Jason with him? I’d hate to see that. The bromance needs to end. Jason needs to go his own way. Having taken so many lives, I wouldn’t want to see him go back into medicine, as Jason Q once wanted. The hypocrisy would kill us all, unless there was an epiphany taking place and Jason finally realized the magnitude of his actions. If he went into medicine, he’d have to work in a clinic setting that treats the poor, not at GH. It would open new storylines for both the show and the character. It’s possible that Jason could end up working in a group home, something that would allow him to turn young lives around. If Jason and Sonny worked together, we could never get the image of their psychopathic former lives out of our heads.
They know that talking with Mac is useless because he doesn’t want to go back to his old life of picking up the pieces for everyone else. He’s happy again and his happiness is like a drug that leaves him wanting more. What Mac doesn’t realize is that his drug state is both literal and figurative. Elle’s original plan was to slowly drug Mac, eventually killing him – until she learned about Robin and Patrick and knew they would investigate his death. She then begins working on ‘plan b’… setting Mac up for murder. If he can’t be made to pay for her father’s murder, he should be made to pay for someone else’s. She realizes the irony of taking a life to make Mac pay for the life he took, but she rationalizes her actions by planning to take the life of someone who ‘deserves’ it -unlike her heroic father.
Coffee At Cafe Russe 