F You Ron!

I have complained about the propping of Todd and Tea individually, but most glaringly has been the propping of the two of them as each other’s true love. It appears that Ron Carlivati’s premier couple are not as successful as he thought they would be, so Ron has pulled out all of the stops to make both Todd and Tea look sympathetic. This cannot work because this premise is purely the antithesis of their true nature. These two have left carnage wherever they go. Todd does whatever he wants to, to anybody he wants to and Tea comes along and cleans up his messes, well unless he messes over her and then it’s, “Poor Me! Todd has hurt ME more than he’s hurt anyone”. Todd is the same way. He can hurt others without any remorse, but have someone do something to him and he cries like little a bitch.

It was bad enough that Ron utterly gutted Blair as he threw her in the middle of what he called a triangle. He made Blair needy and pathetic as she went after Todd who gave her no reason to care about him. Months prior to Blair’s re-newed feelings of love for Todd, he had raped Marty, in what infamously came to be called a, “rapemance”(called that because of the insensitive bastards who think women really do have rape fantasies and long to be raped.) Todd had plotted to steal their daughter’s child upon her birth. He then planned to desert his children and run off with his rape victim.

Blair was appalled by his actions. It should have been Blair holding Todd off at a distance, but Ron wrote it the other way, and that just does not work. Then there is Tea who mopped, wiped and cleaned up all of Todd’s messes. All the while looking down her nose at Blair, holding her in distain because of her place in Todd’s life and judging her abilities as a mother.

The revelation that Todd and Tea had a child together has been built with the fanfare of the Second Coming; however there have been several glitches in the storytelling. One was the fact that the audience had been told over and over again that Todd left Tea on the island seven years ago to return to Blair, Starr and Jack, then suddenly, we are introduced to a fourteen year old girl who was conceived on the island seven years ago. For viewers who have watched the show for years, they know this is ALL wrong because this sorased child is older than Jack, Todd’s second child.
Once the reveal was set up, Ross “Moon-Doggy” Rayburn, surfer dude, one of the main characters in this sad tale became a raging lunatic, but viewers know that Ross Rayburn, the non-biological father of Tea’s daughter, has been made to be the fall guy to prop Todd and Tea. When the writers are through with him, Todd Manning will look like a choir boy.

Viewers are not as stupid as Ron thinks they are, and they are letting their feelings be known. They are outraged over the ridiculously dark turn Ross has taken.


Here are some of the things being said about Ron’s sacrificing Ross in order to justify Tea’s actions and to make Todd Manning appear to be “Father of the Year”.

-“Todd is just so - ugh, I can't think of the fitting word. He figures out Dani is his bio-child and it becomes all about what he wants. Who cares that Dani isn't ready to hear the truth. Todd is about to lay claim to yet another kid.
I'm supposed to root for Todd and Tea in this?
Nope.

I'm rooting for Ross. And I'm rooting for Dani.”

-“I'm with you on this one. Given the choice of fathers and a mother who has done practically nothing but lie to that child from the moment Dani was introduced, I would rather see Dani with Ross eventually, after he has had some help with anger issues. But people seem to forget that Todd hit Tea once. He cracked her across the face and knocked her unconscious and as I recall the circumstances were similar, with Tea screaming in his face.”

-“As for Tea. In my opinion she handled things in the worst way possible with her deception. Also, she has certainly shown that she could live without her daughter for the time she had her locked up in boarding school, an ocean away, without explanation. She may well have scarred that child for life! Some mother!”

-“You make good points about Ross and his behavior. This may be a case where the actor is bringing a great deal of depth to a role that the writers never expected or wanted. Because when I look at Ross, I see a man who has been manipulated from before he came to Llanview, had his child stolen from him, and during the last argument with Tea, he was physically abused. Yes, HE was physically abused."


-“I wanted to smack Tea silly today. It didn't take Tea long to twist the knife in Ross' heart. She is bragging that Dani is with her real father. I don't believe for a minute that Tea sincerely believed that Ross was Dani's father. The Tea I know and hate would never give up a chance to find out if Todd was the father. She can cry all she wants, but the way she is treating Ross now proves that she is not going to be reasonable with visitation etc. Tea the barracuda will really allow Ross visitation? Does she really believe that once she tells Todd that Dani is his daughter he will allow Ross anywhere near her? What a heartless witch. My heart was breaking for Ross today.”

-“You know, I like Tea - well, I liked Tea up until today. Ross is abusive? How about Tea made every wrong choice in the book and that drove Ross over the edge. I'm not saying Tea deserves to be beat up or raped. No one brings that upon themselves. But her actions fed a fire that could have been tamped out.”




-“What we get is "Tea as victim" and Todd will come to her rescue. GMAFB.”

-“So they'll destroy the father Dani knows and then she can find out he bio dad is a gang rapist who has physically abused her mother. She should definitely become emancipated and never speak to any of them again”.

-“Todd is a sperm doner where as Ross is the one who has raised her for 15 years of her life.”

-“Watching the Todd/Tea mess today it occurred to me how excellent Michael Lowry's performance has been, and how there was natural tension in the big scenes these last couple days, even amidst the UCG with Tea gagging and making those hilarious noises and faces. The biggest problem with all this is Todd's character, and the treatment of Tea vs. Blair and Ross (and Ross vs. Todd).”

-:As to the Todd/Tea/Ross mess, thank you Lord for the fast forward button. Even Danielle, who's only been around a couple of weeks, grates my nerves. Must be because of who her parents are”.

-“Not as funny as Rachel's claim that Todd wasn't a threat. "You gotta be shittin' me!" Todd is the same sociopath who not only physically attacked Rachel herself, he terrorized her mother Nora while she was blind, punched her best friend in the face, traumatized his other bio daughter and tried to steal his own grandchild-and that's just a few of Todd's crimes.”

-“I dont care, I dont care... The only person that I like in this story is Ross. Tea, Todd and Danny can sail back off to the time wrap island never to heard from again. The freaking mentioned the whole Jack thing again with Danny standing in the room. Its all so stupid!!!”

-“TnT really know how to make a workday go longer. This Todd propping is really fucked up and quite hilarious. Todd's the only man who can save Tea from herself? Hilarious! That was the funniest line today.”


-“I don't know what annoys me more, the way Ross was thrown under the bus or the fact I still sympathize with his character despite seeing his brutal struggle with Tea. A man physically assaulting a woman is not something I think should be played ambiguously. I'm really hating on that bitch and her "all the marbles" attitude to her child. Who else thinks it's ok to pull that kind of shit and consider it good parenting? Oh that's right, TODD!!!! And by the way, jackass, the man who raised that girl for 15 years certainly is her "Dad" , at this point you are nothing more than a sperm-donor.”

-“Tea being choked didn't touch me one bit.All I kept thinking was poor Ross.Something is wrong with that.”

-“Yeah, being Rossed is basically getting the fast track to villainy. Ross got transformed over night despite all interactions being the opposite of what our "heroine" was saying and then they decided 'rut-roh... we can't make a liar out of Tea!'”

-“If viewers hate it, then I don't see how it gets the job done. The entire point of this story is to push Todd/Tea and their spawn as the ideal family. If a lot of people spend more time slackjawed at blatantly plot-driven, schizo writing and being disgusted at just what a lunatic the show's beloved Tea is, then it takes away from any of the supposed rooting value in this mess.”

Sweepless in November

Another November Sweeps that should have been swept under the rug. Head Writer, Ron Carlivati, promised the viewers thrills, chills and world travel, and all they got were a bag of nuts and a coke. He took them from London, to Seattle, to Detroit, to Napa and back to Dear old Llanview. I have to give it to Carlivati, his bags of nuts, though stale, were filled with variety.

The two lead stories were the return of Mitch Laurence and Todd’s revelation that he had a daughter with Tea. Included among the mixed nuts were Dorian’s symbolic marriage to a woman, Kyle and Oliver’s reunion, Rex finding out who his father really is, Jared being killed and Matthew getting his operation.

Let’s start with Mitch’s return from the dead “yet again’! I saw his face, and I heard his voice, and I was as enthralled as I was the first time Mitch appeared. This man is the ultimate “evil”, and just having him on the canvas gives Ron Carlivati to just have a free for all. There is nothing that Mitch will not do. Nothing is sacrosanct, to him accept loyalty. During Mitch’s previous tenure in town, his reign of terror was ended when his daughter, Jessica, killed him, and to make sure he was really, really dead her uncle, Todd poured poison down his throat and cremated him. So, here Mitch is, very much alive and well, physically any way, and once again he is terrorizing two of his last victims, his daughter Jessica and her twin sister, Natalie, who also happens to be Mitch’s ex-wife. Mitch orchestrated a very eerie reunion in Napa Valley at Jessica’s dead husband’s vineyard; chief among the guest was Jessica’s dead husband, Nash. Yes, Mitchell Laurence is THAT evil. Also present were Jessica, Natalie and Natalie’s husband Jared, who was being framed by Mitch. Super cop John Mc Bain and his new side-kick, Brody (who happens to be the lover of Jessica) arrived just in the nick of time, but that did not stop Mitch from shooting Jared, who later died of his injuries.

Jared’s death involved several key players since he is married to Natalie, whose mother is non-other than Victoria Lord Riley Buchanan Carpenter Davis Banks, who happens to be married to Jared’s father, Charlie Banks.

Todd and Tea Have an Insta-Kid.
In May, Tea whispered to Blair that she had a “BIG secret”, one she had never told to another living sole, and ever since then viewers have been speculating about what the “BIG secret” was. Immediately, they came up with a secret child, and voila, Todd and Tea have a child that she has kept a secret from him and everybody else for some seven or fifteen years. Tea’s seven lost years were played up from the time she first came to Llanview a year ago. Those seven years were played up when Blair had Rex investigate Tea’s lost years. Rex came up empty the first time he looked, revealing that it was as if Tea had disappeared during that seven year time period after she left the island with Ross, the man Todd hired to kidnap his two children, Starr and Jack. SEVEN years were suddenly turned into fifteen years when it was finally revealed that Todd and Tea had a fourteen year old daughter with Todd. Yes, a fourteen year old daughter who was conceived seven years ago. She is actually older than her half-brother, Jack who was to be kidnapped, thus leading to Todd, Tea and Ross being stranded on an Island, Somewhere in the South Pacific. This “BIG” secret became more convoluted every day, as the writing continued to change when plausibility did not fit Tea’s motive for hiding her child away from the father who raised her for fourteen years, and the father who is oblivious to the fact that he has a fourteen year old daughter. Here is where all plausibility breaks down. Tea left her husband of fifteen years to defend her ex-husband who had been charged once again for raping a woman whom he had raped when they were in college. So, Ron had/has the awesome task of showing the viewers that Ross is the most violent man on the planet, next to Mitch Laurence. [Wow! How to do that?] Well, let’s start by having Ross threaten to rape Blair and have Todd, the rapist rescue her. [Not enough?] Then let’s have Ross choke the shit out of Tea when she tells him that “their” daughter is not “their” daughter, but she is “her” daughter with Todd and let Todd, the man who tried on several occasions to kill a woman who was pregnant with his child rescue her. [Still not convinced?] Well, you will just have to wait to see what magic tricks Ron has up his sleeve concerning Ross Rayburn and his evil ways.

Todd comes face to face with his bratty, obnoxious daughter. He has a few choice words for her brattyness and she has a few choice words for his arrogance, such as “jerk” and “pervert”. Through continued questioning, Todd discovered that Tea has a daughter and when the wheels finally get into gear, he figures out that she is also his daughter. Later, questioning Tea, he says, “She is mine, right?” and after the drama of having rescued Tea from near death, seeing his daughter rush into the arms of her father, Ross Rayburn and upon being arrested, Tea sticks the DNA test results into Todd’s pocket and says, “Congratulations! It’s a girl!” [personal note: I would have given anything to have seen those scenes played out by Roger Howarth.]

Matthew Gets His Operation
After months of fighting his parents, Matthew got his operation, but not without a few detours, one of which took him to a private school in London where he met Danielle Rayburn, the fourteen year old daughter of Tea and Todd. Matthew’s parents tricked him into thinking that they had accepted his decision to have the sensitive spinal cord operation, telling him that they were taking him to Seattle Washington. Instead, he was dropped off at the Warrick School in London. Matthew instantly bonded with Todd and Tea’s Insta-Kid and they plotted and made their getta-way with the help of Matthew’s devoted friend, Destiny. When Matthew and Danielle arrived at the hospital, the surgeon said he had some free time on his hands, and he set up the procedure. The doctor was unable to complete the procedure due to complications, so Dr. Evans was flown in. He completed the surgery, which was a success. Matthew felt sensation in his legs and moved his toes on Thanksgiving Day.

I’m not sure of the success of this November Sweeps. Those things are usually measured in numbers, how many viewers watched, what percentage of what demographic tuned in. As a long time viewer, I have mixed feelings. I can so easily accept the return of Mitch Laurence, who is pure “evil” , from the dead than I can accept the convoluted, daily spin of why Tea kept her child a deep dark secret and the bizarre out of birth order, sorasing of the TNT Kid. Ron Carlivati believes that he can tell the audience anything that he wants to tell them and they will accept it. Ron is right and after a few months, faithful viewers won’t remember that Danielle should be younger than her brother, Jack and new viewers won’t care at all. For me, I condemn Ron’s constant re-writes and his distortions of characters and history in order to foist Todd and Tea’s story on the viewers, but I give Ron credit for the way in which he is able to bring so many characters together on one canvas.