Critic’s Review Hits and Misses: The Week of October 21-25

Soap Hub looks at the Hits and Misses for the week of October 21-25 in the worlds of Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, and The Young and the Restless.

Hits and Misses

What we think worked and didn’t work.

General Hospital

HIT: Violet’s emotional goodbye to the Quartermaines. It was inevitable that once Finn (Michael Easton) got out of rehab, Violet (Jophielle Love) would have to join him. He’s moved to Seattle, where he has a new job (Seattle Grace, maybe?). Anyway, we didn’t expect to get hit so hard when it came time for Violet to bid adieu to her family. Yuri’s (Cyrus Hobbi) goodbye to Violet and Violet’s goodbye to Amanda Setton’s Brook Lynn (“You’re the one I’ll miss most”) are the ones that hit us the most.

MISS: Goodbye, Sam McCall. With every scene of people visiting Sam (Kelly Monaco) before her, the vibe turned more bittersweet. Yes, the drama and the emotion hit harder, and that’s what a soap wants. But it felt overwhelming to see a character of over 20 years go through this experience, knowing what inevitably is going to happen — the end result, anyway. We’re not looking forward to Kelly Monaco’s exit.

MISS: A judge vacates Heather’s sentence. Why not send Heather (Alley Mills) back to a mental health facility before letting her go free? Or add the condition that her release comes with mandatory outpatient therapy? Ric announcing the news at The Savoy to some of the people most affected was tough. Then, seeing a free Heather whooping it up as she walked the halls of GH free, it didn’t hit us right.

HIT: Lucky asks Isaiah to operate on Lulu. Two things we understood about Isaiah (Sawandi Wilson): 1) He didn’t want to operate on anyone because of his last experience. And 2) He considers Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) to be his best friend. We understood, but we didn’t feel it. Not until Lucky asks Isaiah to dig deep and operate on Lulu (Alexa Havins) despite his baggage. He ultimately agreed, which is a decision that serves to help everyone involved.

MISS: Not enough Nina Reeves. Lately, Nina (Cynthia Watros) arrives on the scene in the middle of episodes, and she listens to other people’s problems or talks about Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) or Drew (Cameron Mathison). Hopefully, the powers that be are brewing up a good story for Watros to sink her teeth in.

MISS: Breaking up Sasha and Cody. Love Sasha (Sofia Mattsson) being Robert’s (Tristan Rogers) daughter, even though it came out of nowhere. But does it have to come at the expense of Sasha and Cody (Josh Kelly)? Those two spent enough time apart. However, we are intrigued to see what the purpose of splitting up Cody and Sasha is all about.

READ THIS: Here’s what to expect next week on GH.

Days of Our Lives

HIT: Billy Flynn. This catfishing Chad DiMera story to acquire the DiMera fortune has been a confusing storyline. But the marriage of Fake Abby to Chad brought out the best in Billy Flynn.

HIT: Brady forgave Sarah. Brady (Eric Martsolf) couldn’t really deny Sarah (Linsey Godfrey) his forgiveness, knowing how abhorrent his actions had been. However, Sarah’s lying to the cops means she saved Brady and prevented her husband from committing the worst crime. In the process, her lie messed everything up. It was harder to get Brady out of his predicament once the truth was revealed. And now, Fiona’s (Serena Scott Thomas) walking free. EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) let her go. What kind of justice is that?

MISS: Goodbye, Stefan. What? This came from nowhere. And just when we started warming up to Stefan with Cherie Jimenez’s Gabi Hernandez. (Read the details of Bradon Barash’s exit here)

MISS: Kristen going after Titan/Xander giving up Titan. Why is this even a thing? Everybody keeps letting Kristen change the parameters of her blackmail attempts. Somebody needs to figure out a way to work around her unrealistic deals! You’d think Xander could, but he’d give up the world to save Sarah. And while that’s a really nice thought, he had no right to give the whole company away. He wasn’t thinking about anybody else but having his apple pie life. So thankful Philip (John-Paul Lavoisier) showed up when he did.

HIT: Rafe and Gabi talking about their extended family. It was a simple scene featuring Gabi (Cherie Jimenez) and Rafe (Galen Gering) discussing a relative who had recently died. Undoubtedly, it set up the arrival of Cousin Javi (Al Calderon). But it was still nice to have a non-toxic conversation.

MISS: Johnny calling Chanel a cheating s–t. This confrontation is still making us seethe. It’s one thing to believe your spouse cheated. It’s another thing to call his wife what he did. From here on out, Johnny DiMera has some making-up to do. It won’t be easy, but he just went from hero husband to zero husband.

HIT: Chanel covering up Johnny’s mouth with cake. Loved Chanel telling her husband that her mama told her never to talk with food in her mouth. And she took a piece of the cake and crushed it over his mouth. Wow. A very strategic placing of the cake that we may have watched a couple (or three times). It was a satisfying moment, and Raven Bowens really pulled it off.

MISS Fiona going free. This was an infuriating development, considering it’s not up for debate. Fiona did it. Brady and Sarah clearly remember what happened. Even with Sarah’s lie and Brady’s shaky memory, this case should have seen the light of day in court.

READ THIS: Here’s what’s to expect next week on DAYS.

The Bold and the Beautiful

HIT: Lawrence Saint-Victor is being utilized more. Carter has been on a lot lately, and we appreciate it. We’ve been asking for this for a long time.

MISS: Carter has to learn to read the room. While Carter’s tight with the Forresters, he will never truly be family, not matter what they say. After all, they can turn on him in a second. We’re already seeing that with Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), who likes to be the one in the room who’s in control. Maybe he needed to ease these ideas in instead of going full blast.

HIT: Deacon pointing out the similarities between Liam and Ridge. We did not mind Deacon (Sean Kanan) bringing up the similarities between two wafflers like Liam (Scott Clifton) and Ridge (Thorsten Kaye). In fact, if Deacon wanted to create a Ted Talk around this topic, we’d be on board.

MISS: Why aren’t Deacon and Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) thinking about Carter for Hope? The two kept talking about Liam and then someone like Carter. Why aren’t they thinking about Carter for Hope (Annika Noelle)? It’s odd.

MISS: Please stop with this Logan versus Forrester rivalry. Every character that comes on is basically summed up as either Logan or Forrester. Are we headed for an all-out Hatfields versus McCoys war?

HIT: New characters. Ivy (Ashleigh Brewer) returned, and Electra (Laneya Grace) was introduced. Please keep bringing in more characters. Or bring back characters from the past. We approve.

HIT: Will and Electra meet-cute at Forrester. The ring, Will (Crew Morrow) on his knee as if he was proposing, was adorable. The jury’s out on the chemistry between Will and Electra, but we’re willing to take a wait-and-see approach.

HIT: Hope’s mystery motives. She’s hyping up Carter to go do battle and stand up to Steffy. What are her motives here? Are they genuine? Or is this a case of master manipulation? That’s what’s interesting here. We have no idea yet. It could go either way.

READ THIS: Here’s what Lawrence Saint-Victor says Carter is thinking on B&B.

The Young and the Restless

HIT: Audra and LIly talk businesswoman to businesswoman. At first, the conversation between Audra (Zuleyka Silver) and Lily (Christel Khalil) felt icy. But soon, the two realized that they had a lot in common, including being screwed over by The Great Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). Now, could the two team up to take Glissade and Abbott-Chancellors away from the men? That would be nice.

MISS: Victor’s reasoning for going after Jack. Victor says that the reason he’s unleashing holy hell all over Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) is because of that devastating night Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Jack spent in the hotel room. Every time Victor justifies his current actions using that night, it feels like he has completely overcompensated for not being the one to be there for his wife.

HIT: The Winters quality family time. There’s been something about the quality time with Devon (Bryton James), Nate (Sean Dominic), and Lily that we’ve really enjoyed. They listen to each other vent, and they listen to each other’s advice. And then they listen to the rejection of said advice. And they continue to spend time together. It’s fun to watch.

MISS: Sally and Billy do the inevitable—they kiss. In a very predictable fashion, Sally (Courtney Hope) and Billy have been getting closer and closer. Some of their interactions involve alcohol, and so, this week, a buzzed Billy walked a buzzed Sally to her room, where they proceeded to kiss.

READ THIS: Here’s what to expect next week on Y&R.

HIT: Sharon relies on her psychological knowledge to pacify Daniel. At the beginning of Daniel’s (Michael Graziadei) visit, he was the aggressor. He wanted to know what Sharon (Sharon Case) and Heather (Vail Bloom) talked about the night she did and why she was at their place. But by the end of the conversation, Daniel was so much more calm and wondered why he even visited Sharon in the first place.

Sharon used her therapy voice, she tried to relate to him. She gave him advice about leaning on his friends. She used every psychological tactic she could to make him rethink what he knew. And then he left peacefully. It was a brilliant job. Sure, she fell apart afterwards when she hallucinated Cameron again. But, for Daniel, she kept it together.

MISS: Jack makes a faux pas during his heated conversation with Traci. Traci (Beth Maitland) simply saw a family in pain and couldn’t believe Jack had asked Diane (Susan Walters) to leave the Abbott house. To him, their marriage was over. Diane was every bit of the golddigger everybody thought she was. Meanwhile, Traci gave her version of Jack and Diane. How they overcame so much to be together and even though nobody believed a thing she said when she first returned, they saw how she had changed. And became believers in their relationship.

Unfortunately, Jack acted like Traci the author made their whole story up, and said that it’s her job to “spin love stories out of thin air.” Traci was trying to get Jack to see that his relationship with Diane was worth fighting for. She simply wanted him to be happy. It got us thinking that if Jack and Diane’s marriage imploding is just a ruse in their plan to make Victor pay, then Jack needs to apologize to Traci after the dust settles.