KANE CLIQUE 

It takes a lot for Erica Kane to be generous where her insular family is concerned. That’s the problem. 

Where a soap opera loses my investment in a character is when the character loses, gives up or never shows much generosity. 

In Erica Kane’s case, that ungenerous nature is dangerously close to losing my interest in her as a nearly life-long fan – ever since I fell in love with my surrogate mom on-screen in the early ‘70s. . .a fascination shared by millions, including head writer Megan McTavish. 

I admit, I do not like Erica when she is ungenerous. She can be mean, nobody does mean like the Diva of Daytime, trading juicy, clever barbs with one rival or another, or putting an upstart like Greenlee in her place. 

But ungenerous is another story. 

The last two weeks or so, I’ve been witness to a series of unnecessarily ungenerous gestures, not just on the part of La Kane, but La Kane’s female progeny. 

The entire scene at the Salsa nightclub had me reaching for the Pepto Bismol, questioning whether the supposed heroes and heroines, Ryan, Ethan, Kendall and Greenlee, meant to give off their Hitler vibe. They went too far in ganging up on David and Krystal, liars, cheats and heartless bastards sure, but far from deserving of the public humiliation and back alley beatdown of a racist, a serial killer or child molester. 

Kendall was made to look heroic for beating a dead horse with Krystal, Greenlee joining in a little too intensely just to – IMHO – get in Kendall’s good graces again. 

Ryan, I can no longer stomach anymore anyway, but who is he or Ethan for that matter to bully David in the back alley like David was no better than a rabid dog? Shades of the abusive stepfather Ryan suffered under, I’d gather, and Ethan just trying to keep up with Saint Ryan and his leftovers. Let’s face it, those scenes of over a week ago did these characters no favors. 

But how can I be surprised when the leader of the pack, Erica Kane, cannot be bothered to genuinely, actively feel for anybody but her own in the aftermath of the baby-switching reveal? She SAID she felt sorry for JR. She SAID she understood what JR was going through because Bianca went through it. 

But, I think Adam yelled at Erica to shut her trap once, all of her compassion amounted to no more than one big fat empty platitude based on her desire to squire happiness for her own at any cost, even to outsiders supposedly considered friends. The gist, just say anything to placate JR, because what matters most is Bianca, don’t bother really putting yourself in his shoes, just fake it. 

What a hypocrite, too. 

SOD editors followed the trend of many astute fans in bringing up Erica’s own Babe-like history not so long ago (also under the penmanship of McTavish). 

Erica did to Maria exactly what Babe had done to Bianca, but without the friendship or the regret (during the kidnapping). Erica hated Maria, always did, and justified her actions through that hatred and that infamous Kane sense of entitlement. 

The good of that predecessing story was that Erica went to prison, did her time, and learned her lesson. She never stole another woman’s baby again. 

Well, maybe not every aspect of the lesson. 

Because there’s Erica yammering at Krystal (and this week, Babe) about how they done did her precious daughter Bianca wrong and should pay and pay, as if they committed a mortal sin like massacring a kindergarten class in Russia. When David tried to bring up Erica’s own hypocrisy, he was summarily shut down by Erica as that having nothing to do with this. 

Worse than even Erica’s merciless stance on the baby-switch, is her negative attitude toward Ethan, who’s done nothing to her or her own since he got there. 

Simply because Ethan’s from Cambias stock, and therefore must be as rapist-minded as his uncle Michael, Erica has gone about treating him like a social leper about to violate one of her daughters. Despite Bianca’s emotionally redeeming generosity of Ethan, welcoming him non-judgmentally into the fold, giving more than she should of herself and her child in the DNA testing (that baby has probably gotten more holes poked in her than any other). . . or even Kendall’s embrace of him as the man who helped bring her out of her Ryan-hating shell and was the sole person sticking by her when everybody else, including family, and that pansy emasculate, Jackson, questioned her integrity in the Greenlee poisoning matter. . . Erica still refuses to give. 

I personally don’t understand it, or her cold, ungrateful (Carly-like) manner toward Ethan, who’s done nothing but remained stalwart, noble and sacrificing for her two daughters. 

And, unlike other fans, I see nothing developing between Erica and Zach. Spoilers indicate Maria softening toward Edmund and turning on Zach, all signs pointing to another missed opportunity for the able, buxom actress Eva LaRue to move on outside the Edmund vortex. That’s a shame, considering the heat generated by Maria and Zach simply gazing at each other in a crowded room. 

Anyway, all of this ungenerosity leaking bitterly from Erica Kane leaves a lot to be desired in her family reunion with Bianca, Miranda, Kendall, with Opal and Myrtle dusted off for the spectacle. I question whether the Kane women ever deserve such generosity, such a miracle, when they often can ill afford it themselves for others. 

If TPTB keep pounding me over the head with their simplistic formula of good and evil, they’ll lose me.

GRAPHICS BY SCOTT BILSTAD