There were several confusing things about Leo going to confront his mother, Diana, on Days of our Lives. We’re going to get to all of them. But the big question is: Haven’t we seen this before? Only over on The Young and the Restless?
Truth Tellers
First, we wondered why Leo (Greg Rikaart) got so worked up over Diana (Judith Chapman) telling him some obvious truths. Leo is a terrible person. He knows it. It’s why he went into therapy with Marlena (Deidre Hall). He wants to stop being a horrible person. But Diana hasn’t seen him in months. How would she know that?
Mixed Messages
Next, we were confused as to what exactly Leo’s issue with Diana’s parenting was. On the one hand, he accused her of making him feel insignificant, unlovable, and worthless by never supporting him or his interests. Then, after the commercial break, Leo told a long, rambling, as usual only amusing to Leo, story about how Diana had led him to believe he was a great musician and singer, on par with Billy Joel, calling him her “Piano Boy,” which led to Leo making a fool of himself at his school talent show.
So which is it: Was Diana too fawning or too withholding? His whining about her being both seemed to support Diana’s supposition that Leo would have been unhappy no matter what she did.
Emmy Bait
But the detail that really got our attention was…where have we seen this before? Sure, soaps love their sad, abusive childhood stories to humanize a formerly vile character. Xander (Paul Telfer) got one. Ben (Robert Scott Wilson) got one.
It wasn’t that. It was that we’d seen this exact same scene, with the exact same lament, “Why didn’t you protect me from my abusive Daddy?” with the EXACT SAME ACTORS. Before they were Leo and Diana on DAYS, they were Kevin and Gloria on Y&R.
Kevin seduced Lily (Christel Khalil) and gave her a Sexually Transmitted Disease. He tried to kill Colleen (Lyndsey Fonseca). He also, at one point, wore a chipmunk head. But then came the story of his abuse at the hands of Terrible Tom (Roscoe Born).
Abuse Mom Gloria didn’t stop. Abuse big brother Michael (Christian Le Blanc — who shared a health update) ignored to go out into the world to commit his own horrible crimes. (And if you think he didn’t invoke stepfather Tom as part of his own rehabilitation tour, fear not…he did.)
So we’ve seen Rikaart and Chapman play all of these beats, which made the rerun just that much less compelling. Or, was it more compelling due to this)? If you watch Y&R, would you like to see more of these two on-screen there? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
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