VII. Sonny Steps In (1/27)
Sonny: "What, no brownies?"
Elizabeth: "I know you're busy."
Sonny: "You're probably here because of the dinner I promised you? What happened?"
Sonny: "I'm going to take care of this."
Elizabeth: "I can't move back."
Sonny: "Just until I get this thing, you know, with Sorel under control."
Elizabeth: "Sonny, it would be like saying I was wrong to help Jason."
Elizabeth: "I don't--I don't understand why any of this is happening. I was just friends with Jason."
Sonny: "Your--I know. Your life's not going to be your own for a while."
Elizabeth: "Ok, I understand."
Sonny: "Yeah. I'm going to--I'm going to--I'm going to do the best I can to try to fix this as soon as I can. I'm sorry."
Elizabeth: "Hey, Sorel's the bad guy, not you."
Sonny: "Jason wouldn't have been in that studio, he wouldn't have needed your help if it wasn't for me. I let things get out of control, and innocent people suffered. I won't let that happen again."
We cut from Sonny's last line about the innocent to Carly.
Two quick things. I remembered, in this scene, that Elizabeth had once brought Luke brownies as well--and that she and Lucky made them on their night in Wyndham's (which looked conspicuously like the Scorpio kitchen). Also, I can't believe that Elizabeth is this naïve about Sorel, etc. She would continue to reason things out so that she didn't have to have a bodyguard, just as she would reason that she could see Jason and would be in no danger. Didn't Lucky teach her better than that?
Terry: "So Joan and I had to compare notes--Her tape missed Wednesday's show (no big loss, as I recall, lots of Emily/Juan and that idiotic 'save Liz with a baseball bat' crap); mine missed yesterday. So she filled me in on the next step in the Liz saga--puke. Oh, Joan, I forgot to tell you about the lengthy flashbacks Liz had Wednesday (it was Wednesday, wasn't it?) in which she remembered every hug, every time she straddled that bike, the kisses on the cheeks. Ick Ick Ick."
"I am beyond crazed that the post-Jason mourning we are getting is all from Liz not Carly. Okay, I know Carly is busy worrying about the bun in the oven, but it really does offend me that her only references to Jason are about 'he's not hear to save me like he always did.' Yes, we did get her talking about him to her mom in the restaurant last Friday, and we did see how she missed him, but even then the accent seemed to be on her wanting him there to help her out and about her assumption that Bobbie would bail on her as Jason had. What we don't get are scenes of Carly talking about how much she misses her best friend, the man she wanted to build a life and family with, because she loves him, not just because she needs his help to get out of a jam. I want to see Carly mourn, go through those stages of grief where she convinces herself he'll come back, she gets mad at him for abandoning her and Michael, etc. etc. Hey, her heart is/should be broken, and we're not seeing that as much as we should coz we're watching her have to work quickly to figure a way out of the Sonny knocked me up mess."
"It's the contrast to Liz that pisses me off, I guess. Liz gets to mourn Jason; of course, having mourning Lucky for a year, she's getting good at that. But while I never was one of those 'she forgot Lucky too fast' folks (good lord, she moped around for ages, seemed to me, and has always brought him up way too regularly for my taste), I do find it ridiculous that she'd carry on about a friend of a few months leaving town on a level that doesn't exactly approach the mourning for the death of her true love, but does seem darn excessive."
Amy: "I just can't get behind the 'look at Elizabeth's big loss' thing this time. I've seen her lose something major in her life, more than once. This just doesn't compare. She's a snotty brat to Nikolas (who's a snotty brat himself), but out of the blue she's tight with Jason and we're supposed to cheer for them and be sad that she's lost him. From strictly an Elizabeth-an perspective, this just doesn't measure up."
Terry: "Here's what bugs me most. Why on earth would anyone go after Liz to hurt Jason? Why not Carly? Is she under Sonny's protection? Nope. Michael? No, Sorel doesn't try to snatch the kid, just to menace Liz. Yeah right."
Amy: "Ya, but that was an easy add-on by the writers. After all, people who Jason cares about are in danger because of his job all the time, not just Elizabeth, not just now--this isn't a new situation. Of course Sorel conveniently doesn't go after Emily, to whom Jason actually does write... I loved that when Liz was telling Emily what had happened, Emily and Juan were all concern for Liz, but neither of them mentioned that they could be targets too."
"Mob violence serves as a nice, easy, plot device on GH. When you need to send somebody out of town, the mob heats up. Otherwise, it's gummi bear central."
"The bomb at Liz's studio only served to give me some great scenes with A Martinez, and to give Elizabeth the 8th step on her 12 step program towards becoming Robin Scorpio reincarnated. I loved Liz--once. And I still say it's a shame that Jason's departure shortchanged her, Jason, and Carly all in one fell swoop. Pttttth."
Terry: "I am so disappointed in the deterioration of Liz. I was not a fan of hers a first, as some of you were. When she was rude bad sister and Sarah was angelic good sister, I just found it clichéd and couldn't really get into why I should root for her over the well behaved, just because we like to root for the subversive. Guess you can tell I was the good older sister in real life. But then, in real life, I too rooted for the wild child, my little brother Michael. On GH, I just didn't get into Elizabeth the smoking pizza-orderer."
"And then she got raped and developed that adorable relationship with Lucky, and to my great surprise, I started to like both of them. By the time he 'died,' I was, you know, a big Lucky/Liz fan. And I felt she had evolved nicely from rude teenager to feisty young woman. I liked her (hate the word, but it fits) spunk. Then Jason happened, and she became the most annoying creature since Juan. Now I can barely stand to watch her."
"If I had taped yesterday, as I thought I had, and seen her declare that she couldn't move back to grandma's house because it would dishonor Jason, I would have puked. What is this junk?"
"Okay, so that's a pretty long rant considering I didn't even see yesterday's show. But I've seen a lot of Liz in recent weeks, a lot more than I wanted to, and she's on my last nerve."
Arda: "Ick indeed. The Wednesday show was one of the worst I remember. My guess was that the writer whose name I didn't recognize was a new person they were trying. Not only was it full of Emily/Juan and Liz/Jason flashbacks, but none of the acts ended with any cliffhanger moments to make you want to stick around. I remember long fade-outs with every act--probably because there was not enough dialogue. In short, Joan, you didn't miss a thing."
"I'm very annoyed with the focus on Liz/Jason, too. Every time they have one of those scenes, I feel like I've fallen into another dimension--sort of like parallel times on Dark Shadows. Was there a big love story between Liz and Jason in parallel times? It's irritating."
VIII. In the Life (1/28)
Sonny: "Yeah. See that man outside in the brown coat?"
Elizabeth: "Mm-hmm."
Sonny: "His name is Francis. Starting right now, he's going to be looking out for you."
Elizabeth: "A bodyguard."
Sonny: "Hopefully, you'll forget he's there. I'm here to tell you how that works."
Elizabeth: "Ok. I'm not complaining."
Sonny: "No, that's--it's not going to last forever. Just until I get this thing with Sorel straight, you know. We need to play it safe because, you know, I don't want you to get hurt because of me."
Sonny: "Hey, Tammy."
Tammy: "Hey."
Sonny: "I hear you're still fierce with a baseball bat."
Tammy: "Oh, yeah. You ought to check me out with a shovel sometime."
Elizabeth: "So this Francis guy. Am I supposed to give him my schedule or something?"
Sonny: "No. You just act like he's not even there."
Elizabeth: "That may take a little practice."
Sonny: "Francis has a lot of practice. You just get on with your life."
Elizabeth: "This has got to be one of my stranger experiences."
Sonny: "If you need anything, you let me know."
Elizabeth: "I will. You, too, ok? Like in case you need emergency brownies or something."
Sonny: "No breaks unless you got backup. I don't even want you to blink unless you're covered. The girl stays safe at any price."
Terry: "Francis the bodyguard--I thought that Francis was the name of one of Sonny's silent hunks who got blown up ages ago. Am I confused?"
Arda: "I wondered the same thing myself for a minute. But I think Jason has mentioned Francis within the past year, so perhaps what was unusual was seeing Francis. I couldn't remember ever having seen a face to go along with the name."
Amy: "Jumping in to say that yes, we have seen Francis, who was a bodyguard of Jason's/Sonny's. He appeared, for perhaps the first time, in the scene in which Carly found Sonny in that bad state. She came to the door and complimented Francis's tie (which amazingly matched her outfit). Since then we've seen him a couple of times doing errands for Jason. I'll leave the rest for later, I think, and say only that I hate Liz now. (Oh, and if Francis is watching her, after such a nice flirtatious relationship with Carly, then I'll puke again.)"
Terry: "The Robinization of Liz is nearly complete, and I am ready to puke. Now we have a 'you're not bad, Sonny' scene in the diner with Liz playing Robin's part, and Sonny falling all over himself to protect this twit for no good reason I can see, but apparently as a tribute to dear departed Jason. One particular annoyance for me is that Liz, like Robin before her, seems to take all this fuss over her in stride, almost as if it were her due."
Amy: "Yes, and we had that series of boring-yet-ugly fights when Robin and Carly lived in the same house with Michael. We're starting to get the same thing with Liz and Carly. Bottom line, I got the feeling that Robin knew that she couldn't get rid of Carly--that Jason wouldn't let go of her. Ironically, Elizabeth didn't have that conviction, because she didn't really know much about what was going on with Jason and Carly, but now Jason can let Carly go, and Elizabeth loses out too."
Terry: "Okay, so Luke never, as far as I know, worshipped at Robin's shrine, so he's a different but related rant. I know, I should be touched that he's worried about Lucky's girlfriend, and I know why Lucky is on his mind right now, and he'd hate to find Lucky only to bring him home to discover dear old Liz got blowded up in his absence, but crimminee."
Arda: "This didn't bother me. When Luke walked into Kelly's I was waiting for him to say something about the bodyguard. I'd have been disappointed in Luke if he didn't notice the muscle *G*. I didn't take offense though because Luke's concern for Liz doesn't come from the Jason angle but from the Lucky angle. Plus we were reminded again about the deteriorated relationship between Luke and Sonny."
Amy: "Well, and Luke might think that Liz was part and parcel of getting Lucky back to a place from which he could accept his old man."
Terry: "And on an unrelated and unhappier note, does anyone else fear, with a fear that makes Hannah look like a viable alternative, that we are headed toward a Liz/Sonny/Carly triangle? Yep, I know we're just getting some Sonny/Sonny bonding that is very reminiscent of Robin/Sonny, and I hate it even on that level. But I keep thinking about how when she first started buddying up with Jason, the soap mags were filled with reassurances that this was not the start of a romance, but only a friendship, and look where we wound up. This would be beyond sick and ridiculous, but I worry anyway. Tell me I'm delusional, please."
Amy: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
From Terry's update: "Tammy, tell me true: Liz is bussing tables when Sonny comes in. He's there to let her know he's put a bodyguard, Francis, in charge of watching over her. We see that Francis has taken up conspicuous residency outside the door of the diner. Sonny tells Robin, er, sorry, Elizabeth, "I don't want you to get hurt because of me." (A brief rant--what the heck? First we are asked to believe that Sorel would come after Liz but not Emily, Lila, Monica, Carly, or Michael, none of whom get bodyguards. Okay, I'll go along with that if I must. But must we have a rehash of Robin and Sonny as well?-- I'll protect you, little girl. Oh, Sonny, you're not a bad man. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.)"
"As if the dialogue weren't saccharine enough, she threatens him with brownies: Tammy joins Liz and Sonny and he fills her in on being under protection. She thanks him and moves on. We get more of Sonny assuring Liz she will be safe. He apologies again--ARGH--and she tells him she's glad he knows what he's doing. She promises him brownies, and he tells her about his cooking skills, and then he leaves. On the way out, he tells Francis, 'The girls stay safe at any price.'"