ONCE UPON A DREAM…

Oh, I'm sorry! Was I SLEEPING??? Listen, if it wasn't for you guys, my fast forward button would have gotten quite a work out this week. Maybe it's spring fever but I'm getting a bad case of apathy about several of the story lines. Chloe's music box dreams, Eddie Maine's return, the gripping story of Juan and Emily's sexual attempts, Roy's imprisonment, Helena's whereabouts, will Lucky speak? Will someone (*gasp*) see him?? None of this has any interest for me any more. It all seems to have dissolved into so much white noise. I would think it was burn out, except that there are a few angles that I find extremely interesting.

First and foremost, of course, is the intense chemistry between Sarah Brown (Carly) and Maurice Benard (Sonny). After the lead balloon of a connection he had with Lisa Vultaggio (Hannah), MB is drinking in working with SB like a man dying of thirst in the desert. Say what you want about Brown as a person (and many have dissed her, including Steve Burton at fan events), but she has a definite hold on the character of Carly and she and Benard are wired for sound. I'm grateful that although their romance is moving along at a fast pace, it doesn't feel rushed. You get the feeling that Sonny and Carly had an attraction and admiration for one another all along and their bond of the baby and kindred spirits have brought them together. It was sweet to hear Sonny admit to Carly how much he enjoyed having her and Michael in the house and to have Carly confess how much she enjoyed being there. Dragging out the passion and the tension throughout a couple of days before they finally kissed was a nice touch. I also enjoyed the reference that Sonny made saying, "I don't do dessert," alluding to his association of Hannah with making dessert. I am looking forward to the wedding, which I think is likely to happen, though not in a traditional way. It wouldn't surprise me if they were married in the labor room, with Carly huffing, puffing, screaming and griping between contractions and vows. What a sight that would be. Although spoilers have been hinting that there is a tragedy in the works, I think it would be a colossal mistake for the writers to kill of their baby to prove that Carly and Sonny would remain together regardless.

I really like the new film style that is being used with flashbacks. The soft focus lends a gentler feel. I enjoyed how Felicia's encounters with Mariah and Maxie were shown in flashback rather than real time and thought the scenes were well done. I also think it is wonderful that GH is taking the approach that they are, by having Felicia be required to face the effects of her absence on the girls and her marriage. Too often (as with Luke and Laura), it is portrayed that a parent can just light out for a few months and return as though nothing has happened. It was ridiculous when Luke and Laura were coming up with excuses for jetting back and forth from Switzerland to the Carolinas to PC. Although this was largely to accommodate the actors' schedules, it created a nasty lack of continuity in believing that they were really married and together. In soaps, children are treated as though they are impervious to instability. Lucas (by the way, did you know that he was born the year before Maxie? He was born in 89 and should be 11 while Maxis was born in October of 90 and should be 10 - go figure) has had more dads than I can count. Lulu has lived in about fourteen different places. Maxie and Georgie are jetted off to Texas at the slightest thing. Jason and AJ spent their childhoods in boarding schools. This time the writers have really hit the mark after being long criticized for sending the girls on an endless yo yo between Port Charles and Texas. They tackled the issue head on by forcing Felicia to face the consequences of abandoning her family in favor of trekking around the world with Luke, regardless of the nobility of the cause. Mariah was the voice of reason when she cut through Felicia's arguments of how important her trip was to say, "at the expense of your girls?" When Felicia answered, "I didn't realize that was the case" you could hear the echo in the hollow of her words. No matter how much the girls showed her they needed her, no matter how many times Mac laid it on the line, Felicia didn't realize this was going to cost her. She thought that she could come home, make nice, do a little penance and all would be well again. Instead, she lost everything. There was an excellent opportunity for a wry line. Bobbie told Mac, "Felicia isn't going to take this lying down." If *only* Mac had said, "Why not? That's how she got here."

Hmmm. (affect my best Valley Girl accent). Well WHY in the world is CHLOE having all these NIGHTMARES? I dunno…could it have to do with the fact that she has a tumor the size of a watermelon and she's taking a series of wacky drugs? Also, it is mentioned frequently, behind Jax's back most often, that she's having excruciating headaches all of the time. Call me a wuss, but when I've had migraines, there's no way I could be up bopping around, racewalking, combing Russia or dancing. I guess excruciating is a pretty subjective word. She mentioned that she couldn't place The Sleeping Beauty Waltz, which surprised me since she seems like someone who would have every Disney movie ever made committed to memory. Maybe the tumor was pressing on that memory. Chloe's dad is being brought up often and a viewer wrote to me to suggest that maybe he is none other than Mikkos Cassadine. We know that he left when Chloe was five and that her mother romanticized his flaws. We know that he was gone often. Who knows what ol' Mikkos was up to 20-25 years ago? What's one more bastard daughter? It would be an interesting turn for Alexis and Chloe to turn out to be half sisters and for Helena to have nearly killed one of her late husband's errant spawn while trying to take out another. Maybe the music box was one she had as a child that her father gave to her and Helena somehow took it back. If I'm remembering correctly, Chloe's mother is no longer alive. Did Helena exterminate another of Mikkos' mistresses? This could be quite a juicy story with some good potential.

Good Lord, the ranting and raving and bitching and screaming! Alan, Bobbie, Monica, AJ, Emily, Edward, all of you, need a nice warm glass of shut the hell up. Alan and Monica made quite a scene in the PC Grill with Sonny, then later with Rae. I love how amused Rae is by Monica's tacky display of shrewhood. I kept thinking she was going to spray all around Alan to mark her territory or something, while Rae just sat back with that crooked smile an shook her head. Alan was nothing more than a big, goofy baffoon, though he did stir awake when he was alone with Rae.

Bobbie amazes me more all the time with her demands that Sonny *DO SOMETHING* about Roy. Sonny may be connected, but he can't exactly make a conviction for an assassination attempt on a public official go away…at least not immediately. Larkin laid it out fair enough to Roy as far as I heard. Roy committed a crime, he got a sweet deal with the FBI that allowed him to be with Hannah, he didn't fulfill the agreement, so he's back in prison. Nothing really shady about that. Larkin may be a nogoodnick, but he's got the truth on his side.

Emily…don't get me started. I've wanted to smack her for a while and her plan with the trust fund as well as the way she talked to Carly really took me to the limit. If any of my kids spoke to an adult the way she addresses Carly, regardless of whether or not the adult deserved it, they'd have a long talk with Mr. Discipline. I couldn't believe the things she was saying to Carly when Carly was trying to make it through a touchy situation, set up by Emily herself by taking Juan to Jason's to make out. If ever a kid needed a good spanking, this was it. But why should Monica or Alan say anything to Emily about respect issues? They would have condoned every word she said and helped her when she ran out of breath.

I guess the most distasteful scene of the week was when Elizabeth and Emily were talking about how she and Juan almost "did it - tee hee tee hee tee hee." It's hard enough to watch them make out in pubescent technicolor, but to have to listen to the recap was a little too much. I understand that there is a teen demographic that must be reached, but ewwwwww.

Lastly, the spoilers for OLTL say that Rae has learned that her daughter is probably in Llanview, so Eve is out of the running. Looks like Sophia is the lucky girl

See you next week!

LINES OF THE WEEK (SLIM PICKINS)

ALAN (regarding Monica): "I am not in love with her. I can take her or leave her."
LILA : "Oh, we know, dear. We know."

CARLY (to Sonny after he takes her donuts): "Did you steal Christmas, too?"