General Hospital blog - August, 2025
August 1st, 2025
Jason goes over what he's learned about Britt with Anna, who agrees with his theory that she faked her death, possibly with tricks she learned from Faison. She notes that Britt wanted to leave town when she started showing symptoms of Huntington's, so Jason should let her stay "dead." Britt doesn't have much to do at the Five Poppies when she doesn't have data from Dalton, but the manager, Pascal, isn't okay with her leaving. Part of it is because of a history of bad driving (she hit a donkey) and part of it is because whoever they're answering to doesn't like her being out and about. Pascal thinks he's shut down Britt's attempts to get her car and go into town, but she barges into his office and demands her keys. Unfortunately for her, it's while Pascal is on the phone with Jason, who hears her voice. Brennan tells Josslyn and Vaughn that their focus needs to shift from Dalton to whoever ended up with his research. They're on their way to Dalmatia to do recon at the Five Poppies while posing as a couple on their honeymoon. Josslyn worries that ditching Dalton will give Emma an opening to take over her job, which could land her in the middle of something dangerous. Brennan's like, "Why don't you worry less about that and more about convincing everyone that you and Vaughn are in love?" Dante does some investigating at the pool, learning that Danny had contact with Greta the courier the same day Dalton handed off his research to her. Thanks to Danny's surprising memory for details, Dante can place Josslyn there at the same time. He also keeps an eye on Emma as she continues trying to seize opportunities to be around Dalton. Gio warns her that she's verging on overbearing, which could turn him off. Emma plans to snoop around the lab during a presentation Dalton's giving, but Gio points out that he would expect her to be there. He offers to do the snooping for her. Alexis calls Sonny out for kidnapping Marco, reminding him that Marco saved Kristina. She thinks Kristina is becoming too much like her father, and not just in terms of impulsiveness. It's no surprise that Kristina fully denies that Sonny would ever go after Marco. Marco probably doesn't appreciate that, but he does appreciate that Kristina saw a different side of Natalia and is sorry for his loss. Lucas asks Felicia how Bobbie was able to put up with Sonny for so many years. Felicia thinks she was just able to weigh the good things about him against the bad and put her relationship with Carly ahead of any negative feelings she had for Sonny. She advises Lucas to speak up when he feels he needs to but be careful not to ruin his relationship with his sister. Lucas almost immediately runs into Sonny and, after seeing Kristina and Marco talking, threatens to tell her about the kidnapping.
How fitting that Britt tanked her own faked-death hoax by not being able to keep her mouth shut.
I think I love Pascal.
Anna's exactly right. Britt faked her death for a reason, so they should let her be. That said, I would love it if he, Josslyn, and Dante all ended up at the Five Poppies at the same time and had to explain themselves to each other. Josslyn would be like, "I'm only going to say one thing about this: Do not tell my mother you saw me."
I need "Britt hit a donkey with her car" to be the new "Britt threw Emma's doll in a fire."
Let's also not tell Jason that Danny answered a cop's questions without supervision.
I predict that Gio will get caught in the lab and be torn between facing the music and letting Dante help him get out of it.
I would say that Kristina won't believe Lucas' claim that Sonny kidnapped Marco, but I also didn't think that Willow would believe the stuff Curtis told her earlier in the week, so I'm not a good judge of this sort of thing.
How is it evening at the pool and 3:00 in Alexis' office?
August 4th, 2025
Josslyn tells Carly that she's going to Australia for a couple of weeks to help a friend of Jane's. She's reconsidering her relationship with Vaughn and is going to take some time to decide if she should say with him. Josslyn then tells Emma that she's resigned from her job with Dalton, and that if he offers it to her, she should turn him down. Emma buys her story that Dalton kept hitting on her, but it's not clear if that'll be enough to deter her from taking advantage of the sudden job opening. Anna runs into Obrecht, who now feels bad about that whole faking-Robin's-death thing in the wake of losing her own daughter. They both regret putting their job and a man (respectively) ahead of their children. Anna decides to tell Carly that Josslyn's working for the WSB, but when Carly tells Brennan that Anna's coming by and why, he has Anna kidnapped. Emma wants to be the one to break into Dalton's lab, but Gio convinces her that he has less to lose. He cautions her against doing too many things that would ruin her relationship with her family, and he confides that he misses his. While Kristina gives Cody another $10,000 to hurry things up with Ava, Ava presents Alexis with an offer she can't refuse: After one final payment of $1.5 million (to Ava alone), she'll hand over the key to the place where the wrecked car is being stored and destroy all other evidence against Kristina. Alexis notes that Ric could still cause trouble, but Ava thinks the threat of being brought down by their blackmail scheme would keep him quiet. Alexis jumps on the deal, of course, while Ric cluelessly hangs out with Molly and Elizabeth. Also clueless: Britt, who thinks her biggest concern right now is that her boss doesn't answer her calls quickly enough and won't let her leave the resort. Brook doesn't want to move forward with the adoption process until she's at least made some progress with Gio, even if it takes a while for that to happen. Chase says he's fine with that, but then he lies about being called in to work to escape the conversation, which can't be good.
Josslyn's story for why she's leaving her job with Dalton is brilliant. I don't think it'll make Emma stay away, though.
If they want us to see Anna's abduction as suspenseful, they shouldn't have shown it directly after a scene where Brennan went to make a phone call. They couldn't telegraph it any more that he's behind it.
Are you telling me that Kristina's plan has been 95 percent successful? That it might actually go exactly how she wanted it to? Are we talking about the same Kristina?
By the way, how is she financing her scheme? Insurance money from Charlie's?
I'm desperately clinging to the hope that Britt's working for Jerry.
August 5th, 2025
Brennan tells Anna about his Dalton investigation and Josslyn's involvement, ensuring that she can't tell Carly anything because she'd be committing treason. Anna thinks he should give more thought to how Carly will react when she finds out that he recruited her daughter during a vulnerable time in her life. While Brennan's move keeps his mission under wraps, he inadvertently helps Anna get a step ahead of him. He mentions that Josslyn and Vaughn are going to Dalmatia, which Anna knows from Jason is where Britt is. Turner knows that Marco made a false statement about his whereabouts after Natalia's memorial, but he won't retract it, so there's nothing she can do. He tells Sidwell that he didn't bother to rat out Sonny because he knows Sonny covered his tracks well enough to get away with the abduction. Sidwell finally reveals why he paid off the judge to give Michael full custody: The bribe will look like it came from Sonny, and Sidwell hopes that, on top of him facing criminal charges, he'll lose Michael for allegedly interfering. Turner then accuses Sonny of cheating in a softball game, because she can't go a single day without thinking he's done something shady. Jason doesn't think that Sonny should keep letting her attack him in public, but he's using it to serve his own purposes. Every time she zeroes in on him, she's showing bias, which will hurt her if she ever tries to bring charges against him. Willow gets some encouragement from Chase, who even offers to testify on her behalf at the visitation hearing. Carly is much cooler toward her, though she appreciates Willow's apology for what happened when she showed up at the house after the wedding. Curtis is ready to commit to fixing his marriage, thanks to some surprising inspiration: Portia's courage in standing up to Drew. Tracy tells Sidwell and Marco that she's going to tell the police about how some of Sonny's laundered money made its way into Deception. They warn her that because she didn't come forward sooner, she'll be facing a PR nightmare that will destroy the company. Michael shares his theory with Dante that Willow was the one messing with Daisy. He doesn't want to do anything about it yet, but he knows that if he's right, Willow really shouldn't be around the kids. Carly and Lucas basically agree to disagree about Sonny, but he sticks with his decision to move out, since he doesn't want Donna to be exposed to any tension between them.
I can't believe I'm siding with Brennan over Anna, but here we are. She needs to stay out of it.
Sidwell can definitely pull off framing Sonny for paying off the custody judge, but I don't think Michael would believe it if Sonny said he had nothing to do with it.
Willow thought Carly would show her compassion when she went by the house? She's met Carly, right?
Is Portia going to stop being annoying now? I won't hold my breath.
I like that Michael and Dante agreed that Selina wasn't behind the Daisy stuff because there's no way her men could have changed a baby's onesie.
August 6th, 2025
Laura asks Dante to consider letting Rocco talk to Obrecht about Britt. Dante's softened on the topic and thinks it might be okay, but he knows that Lulu will never agree. In fact, Lulu is currently trying to convince Carly to help her get Obrecht out of town before Rocco becomes too big of a fan. Carly declines, partly because of the whole Jason factor and partly because she can't be fully anti-Britt after Britt saved Josslyn's life. She thinks that sooner or later, Rocco will see Obrecht for who she is and this whole thing will blow over. Plus, with Britt dead and Obrecht mostly harmless, there's no threat to Rocco. Tracy tells Lucy, Brook, and Maxie that she's changed her mind about going to the police about the laundered money. Brook and Lucy are on board, but Maxie wants to do the right thing. Tracy points out that Natalia could have done something illegal that they haven't uncovered yet, and it's better to keep quiet and protect their company. Maxie gets outvoted, but Brook and Tracy worry that she might tell Mac anyway. Obrecht tries to get some time with Rocco, but Jason talks her out of it by pointing out that she'd be putting him in a bad spot with his parents. He's not opposed to them staying in contact, but he thinks Obrecht should be full transparent, which means telling Rocco that it was her idea for Britt to be his surrogate mother. Meanwhile, Danny encourages Rocco to do what he wants about Obrecht, not what his parents want. Sonny and Turner continue their thing where you think she might actually be interested in him, but he's mostly being nice because he knows it'll serve him down the line. He mentions that he's surprised that Michael got full custody of the kids, and he's sorry that Willow's being punished. Turner's surprised that he wants what's best for the kids instead of just wanting his son to win. Chase tries to appeal to Michael on Willow's behalf, but Michael doesn't want to have even the briefest conversation with him about the kids. Chase won't let it go, and Michael can only tell him that there are things he doesn't know about that make it a bad idea for Willow to be around the kids right now. Willow accidentally lets slip to Isaiah that Drew has been blackmailing one of their bosses, then swears him to secrecy.
I'm so sick of the Britt apologists. Dante and Lulu have every right to want to keep Rocco away from Obrecht and shield him from hearing good things about Britt. I'm not saying they would be right to bar him from talking to Obrecht, but their feelings are totally justified, and everyone needs to stop downplaying what Britt did. That said, Carly's right – if they wait long enough, Obrecht will show her true colors and Rocco will learn for himself what she's really like.
Obrecht, go spend time with your actual grandson.
Chase, I love you, but stuff it.
Sonny and Turner's conversation might help him in the future if Sidwell's scheme comes into play. She'll be skeptical that Sonny bribed the judge when he told her he didn't fully support her ruling.
Does Willow ever stop talking about herself?
August 7th, 2025
With Josslyn out of the country, Trina takes over the task of trying to talk Emma out of working for Dalton. Emma is still moving forward with her and Gio's plan, but Anna's on to her, and she arranges for a building inspection ahead of Dalton's presentation. The building fails, so the presentation is canceled. Emma's sure that Anna's behind it, and she tells Gio she'll just have to find another way to keep Dalton away from the lab. Jordan's Sidwell scheme has stalled, as the only progress she's made is developing a theory that Marco is the one running his illegal business dealings. She wants to reassure him that she's trustworthy and can be let in on his secrets. He may not have reached that point yet, but he definitely trusts her, since he lets her sit in on a discussion with Lucy about Deception. Lucy happily tells them that Tracy and Brook agreed not to go to the police about the laundered money. Sidwell seizes on the fact that Maxie isn't completely on board and could be a wild card. Ava can barely get Ric's attention while Elizabeth is around, so she makes plans with Cody instead. Things quickly get a little sexy, and this time when they kiss, there's no slap afterward. Kristina knows better than to celebrate the success of her plan before the evidence is all destroyed, but Alexis thinks they've pulled it off. Kristina feels a little bad about the way her use of Cody has hurt Molly, and when she spots him getting close to Ava, she makes sure Molly doesn't see them. Drew wants Sidwell to give him whatever he has on Sonny, presumably because he thinks it'll hurt Michael when it comes to custody. He also hires Martin to dig up anything on both of the Corinthos men. Mabel, the president of the HOA at Anna's apartment building, busts her for having Outback and complains to Laura. Instead of saying that this is completely ridiculous and that she has much more important things to spend her time on, Laura tells Anna to rehome the dog. Fortunately for pretty much everyone in town except those who care about Scout, Drew is now taking actual steps toward moving to D.C. Ric hires Martin to help him secretly end his partnership with Ava. In case anyone has forgotten or missed that episode or something, we're reminded that Drew knows more about Martin and Stella's insurance-related activities than anyone should be comfortable with. Brook and Sonny are filler.
Let me make sure I have this straight. An actual current plotline on this show is that Emma brought home a stray dog, the president of the building's HOA doesn't like that Emma brought home a stray dog, the president complained to the mayor about the dog, and now the mayor is saying that the dog has to go? This is a legitimate plotline? They are devoting actual screentime to it? What is going on??
Also, so far this month, Trina has had less screentime than the dog.
Anna: (to Outback) "Come on, let's take care of the city." Gio: "Look, they're on paw-trol!" Anna: "No. No, no." Ha!
I can't stop laughing about Drew thinking he would stand even the slightest chance going up against Sidwell.
Are they going to write out Kirsten Storms for the rest of the year by having Sidwell kidnap Maxie?
Ava's face when Ric went to kiss her is the same face I would make in that situation.
Why was Alexis acting like she was going to ask Drew to let her have custody of Scout when she only wants to take her to the ballet?
August 8th, 2025
Laura asks Dante and Lulu to make peace with Obrecht for Rocco's sake. They reluctantly agree, so Laura arranges a sit-down with the three of them to decide how much contact Obrecht and Rocco can have. Dante and Lulu set reasonably guidelines, but Obrecht objects that she deserves more, as Rocco's grandmother. She seems to truly think that that's what she is, and that Britt is more his mother than Lulu is. Dante's like, "Okay, new offer: You get nothing, and you pray I don't find past charges against you that I can have reinstated so you go back to prison." Anna messes with Brennan by pretending she's going to tell Carly that Josslyn's in the WSB, then bringing up Lucas' statement against Sonny instead. Anna tells Brennan that she'll keep quiet unless/until Josslyn gets in too deep and she gets to tell Carly what her boyfriend has been up to behind her back. Then she goes to Jason and urges him to go find Britt after all. Portia lets Isaiah know that not only is her professional situation sorted out (at least for now), her personal issues are on the way to being fixed, too. Stella sees them chatting and is concerned that Portia isn't professional enough with Isaiah. Fortunately, that's overshadowed by her happiness that Portia and Curtis are working things out. Now that the established boundaries are back in place, Jordan decides that she and Curtis can be friends again. Isaiah spots them together and, like Stella, seems to think that they're a little too friendly. In related news, I'm already exhausted by whatever is going to happen next. Britt goes on strike to protest a temperature issue in her lab. By the time it's resolved, she's had a few too many drinks and tells Pascal she can't work. He's furious with her, but she doesn't think he can do anything, since their boss wouldn't appreciate him hurting her. As they're bickering, Josslyn and Vaughn arrive at the resort. Alexis vents to Jason about Drew's intention to move to D.C. and how it'll just cause more instability in Scout's life. Jason agrees that Sam wouldn't want her separated from the rest of her family, and he asks Monica to try to change Drew's mind. Drew tries to get Elizabeth to talk to him about Willow, but she wants to stay out of it. She tells him to give Willow room to put her life back together and start making decisions for herself again. Because he can't go five minutes without trying to ruin someone's life, Drew puts the wheels in motion to have Stella investigated for insurance fraud.
Why is everyone acting like Dante and Lulu are being unreasonable? They don't have to give Obrecht a single second with Rocco. And am I the only one who remembers how she kidnapped him twice?
"Her blood is in his veins." Um, what the f%$# are you talking about? Does Obrecht – a medical doctor – not know how surrogacy works?
Hmmm, if only Lulu had a best friend who was close with Britt and could tell Rocco all about her. If only the writer remembered that such a person existed.
Three cheers to Anna for not only screwing with Brennan but finding a workaround to ensure Josslyn's safety without committing treason.
All the talk about Isaiah's cabin better have some sort of payoff.
I actually enjoyed Britt maneuvering a day off.
August 11th, 2025
Obrecht goes way over the line, all but calling Lulu a bad parent for leaving Rocco to find Charlotte, and implying that her years in a coma were anything other than involuntary. Laura goes off on her and Obrecht backs down, agreeing to whatever limitations Dante and Lulu want to put on her time with Rocco. Later, though, she tells Nina that if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll handle things the way Britt would want her to. Josslyn and Vaughn check into the Five Poppies without seeing Britt (or vice versa) and easily sell their story that they're newlyweds. Fanfic lovers, please take note that the "there's only one bed" trope is in use here.ithout mentioning Josslyn or Dalton or going into detail, Anna tells Jason that the WSB is investigating the Five Poppies, so it can't be a coincidence that Britt is there. She's not sure Britt was the one who faked her death, or that she's at the resort of her own free will. Jason promises not to reveal that Anna has told him anything, and he quickly makes a reservation at the resort. As Ava tells Nina that she's celebrating her impending breakup with Ric by arranging a date with Cody, Cody confides to Tracy that he's being paid to romance her (though he does like spending time with Ava). Tracy thinks he's too good to do something like that and should think more highly of himself. Apparently that works, because Cody calls off the date. Alexis wants to try to extend the limits of a grandparent's visitation rights to the point where she can get custody of Scout. Molly's skeptical that she can pull it off, even more so when they determine that they have nothing to present to a judge to prove that Drew is an unfit parent. Molly thinks it's better to play nice and not antagonize Drew so he can't cut off access altogether. Brennan lets Carly know that the Port Charles bureau of the WSB was opened for one specific investigation, and now that it's heating up, he might have to disappear for a little while. Carly's fine with him keeping secrets his job won't let him disclose, as long as he's honest about the other stuff in his life. Britt's boss is using her medication to control her, so yeah, he's a bad dude.
Laura rendered Obrecht speechless! Keep it up, Mayor Collins!
"Things would be different if Britta were here." Yeah, Dante and Lulu would be telling both of you to stay away from Rocco.
I kind of want Vaughn to Mulder-in-Arcadia this mission, laying it on thick and really playing up the fake honeymoon stuff.
"Ava served her time." No, actually, she didn't.
Okay, it was one thing when Michael said Wiley is nine, but Scout is absolutely not 12.
August 12th, 2025
Josslyn has already planned out how she and Vaughn can tackle their assignment and get everything done quickly (though it looks like she wouldn't mind if they were forced to keep spending time together in close quarters). Vaughn meets Britt and tries to get information about the resort out of her. A combination of friendliness and abs charm her, but the fact that he's a newlywed and seems to be flirting turns her off a little. Whatever, the important thing is that Josslyn sees her. Danny sneaks Scout out of Lila's Kids and takes her to the Quartermaines', since she hasn't been over there for a while. Jason tries to fix things by calling Alexis, when he should really be calling the camp to tell them that Scout is with family before they can tell Drew that she's missing. Alexis promises to talk to Drew about making sure Scout spends more time with her family, but things get off to a bad start when Drew arrives and Danny tears into him for not giving Scout what she needs. In response, Drew tells Chase to arrest him. With Obrecht staying at the same hotel where Rocco works, Lulu is unhappy to realize that they can interact whenever they want. She plays to Carly's ego to get her to come up with a reason to kick Obrecht out. She then takes things a step further by agreeing to adopt Outback so Obrecht can't. Drew approaches Willow at work, and though Lucas steps in to chase him off, Willow is more than capable of standing up for herself. It's going great until Drew learns that Scout went missing from camp. Willow softens toward him and tries to reassure him, which Lucas observes from a distance. He calls her out for being too nice and compares her to an addict who can't stay sober. Willow notes that Lucas doesn't have any room to comment on her bad taste in men, considering his past with Brad. Lucas accuses her of putting Drew ahead of her kids, and things get so heated that she slaps him (and immediately regrets it). Emma confronts Anna for getting Dalton's presentation canceled, and Anna fully admits it and confronts her right back for recklessly pursuing dirt on Dalton. Gio thinks that now that she knows everything, Emma will have to call everything off, but she plans to lie low for a while to make Anna think she's dropped it, then get right back to it. Carly plays meddling big sister with Marco, warning him not to try to make Lucas pick a side between Sonny and Sidwell (as if he's going to back one over the other). She also advises him to step back now if Lucas is more invested in the relationship than he is. Marco chooses not to engage with her, which is the correct response. Alexis asks for Marco's view on her chances of getting custody of Scout, and he agrees with Molly that it's not likely.
Josslyn saw Britt a lot earlier in the week than I expected. I figured we'd get some close calls and comedy-of-errors-type stuff with them just missing each other for a while.
Apparently Scout IS 12, so why do they write her like she's eight?
I can't believe I'm on Willow's side about something, but she was right to bring up Brad. Lucas needs to stay out of her business.
That said: WILLOW. THERAPY. IMMEDIATELY.
So we're done with the dog now, right?
August 13th, 2025
Josslyn spies on Vaughn and Britt (who gets very flirty with the supposed newlywed) until Pascal finds her. She tells him that Britt is getting too close to her "husband," angling for information but instead accidentally sending Pascal to break things up. He lectures Britt on not keeping to herself like she's supposed to, since it would only take one appearance in the background of a social media photo for her to blow up everything. Josslyn tells Vaughn who Britt is, and they guess that she's involved in Dalton's research. Drew won't listen to reason about wanting to have Danny arrested, but fortunately, Chase has enough reason for both of them. Since Scout asked Danny to take her to the Quartermaines' and went with him voluntarily, there isn't enough to make a case that she was kidnapped. Jason knows even before Drew admits it that this is an effort to mess with him, so Jason/Drew relations are at an all-time low. Even worse, Drew now thinks that Danny is a threat Scout needs to be protected from, a belief he's sure Sam would back up. Because Alexis didn't call him after learning that Scout was missing from camp, Drew is going to bar Scout from seeing her, Danny, and the rest of their family. Marco witnessed Willow slapping Lucas, and he offers to back Lucas up if he wants to go to HR. Lucas, to his credit, acknowledges that he stoked the fire and should have stayed out of Willow's business. He wants to let the whole thing go, though he tells Elizabeth that if Michael didn't already have custody of the kids, he might report Willow to keep her from them. Despite sending Willow home and warning that the slap could have serious consequences, which Willow totally gets, Elizabeth thinks that she just needs time to get herself together and has a good shot at coming away from the visitation hearing happy. Anna bugs Brennan about Josslyn's safety in Croatia, which is followed by Colette bugging him about Josslyn's competence in the field. Brennan sees nothing to be concerned about, and when Vaughn finally checks in, he's satisfied that he made a good decision. He'll likely change his mind about that when he learns that Colette called Pascal to tell him that "Chris" and "Kelsey" are actually WSB agents. Marco quickly fills Sidwell in on Willow's mental state and encourages him to pull the trigger on his Sonny set-up now, because if he waits too long, Michael will maintain custody and Sidwell will lose his leverage. Brook tries again to convince Maxie to keep the laundered money quiet, but Maxie has too much at stake to risk the company falling apart. Sidwell is still keeping an eye on her, and he's very interested to learn from James that Maxie mentioned needing to discuss something with Mac. Gio tells Rocco that he's not as sour on Brook because of her decision to place him for adoption, but now it's more about how she blew Rocco's life apart. Rocco says he's happy about it, actually, but that doesn't make Gio feel more forgiving. Carly doesn't fall for Obrecht's guilt trip that kicking her out of the hotel will make Rocco mad at Lulu. Obrecht tries to get Anna to vouch for her supposed redemption, and somehow the conversation becomes about Anna's history with Brennan, and I lose interest.
Josslyn, if Britt wanted to try to spare her family from seeing her decline and die, why would she make them think she was murdered? That would be worse!
Drew should leave for D.C. sooner rather than later, before Alexis kills him and stashes his body where no one will ever find it.
Carly's way too generous to offer to pay for Obrecht's room at another hotel. She should make Lulu pay for it.
They need new prop books. By now, everyone has to have read that Pierce Rupp thriller that keeps popping up.
August 14th, 2025
Kai diplomatically disagrees with Drew's plan to move to D.C. permanently, but Drew is all, "I've lost so much, like Willow and Oscar and my daughter's mother who I haven't been with for more than five years, and Scout is all I have left." Molly approaches the same topic in exactly the way you would expect her to, but Drew is so determined to stick it to Alexis that he won't listen. Also, now Molly and Kristina are going to be cut out of Scout's life, so things are actually worse than they would have been if Molly had done nothing. Dante is tired of giving Gio space, since he's only using it to stay away from his parents, so he wants to do something to shake things up. Brook urges him to do just that, but without her, since she doubts her involvement will help. At the same time, Sonny and Michael separately encourage Gio to remember how important family is and try to work past his anger. Trina tells Stella about the reason she and Kai split up, and how his confessed love for her doesn't outweigh the fact that he chose his loyalty to Drew over his loyalty to her. Stella thinks Trina might still come around, though, and she encourages Kai to make more of an effort to win her back. Kai interprets this as "buy her a drink at the pool," and though she'd still prefer to avoid him, she thanks him for the gesture. Isaiah is dismayed to hear that things are good between Portia and Curtis, so I guess that answers the question about his feelings for his boss. He asks how Jordan fits into things, and Portia says she doesn't, since she and Curtis are back to how they used to be. Isaiah looks poised to tell her that he saw Jordan and Curtis chatting, but he ends up keeping it to himself. Ezra's latest issue with Laura is that she wants to expand the public library. When she gets the support she needs for it, he accuses her of having Sonny bribe the necessary people. He seems confident that he'll dethrone Laura in November, and he warns Anna that if/when he does, she'll lose her job, too. Someone anonymously sent Turner a basket of spa products, and she tells Sonny that if he doesn't respect her boundaries, she'll have him charged with harassment. Chase remains on Willow's side of things even after hearing that she slapped Lucas, because Willow's just misunderstood and overwhelmed and blah blah blah, enough of this. Anna's concerned that Jordan's enjoying the perks of her new job so much that when it comes time to turn on Sidwell, she might not be able to bring herself to do it. Laura and Sonny have the same conversation they keep having about the visibility of their friendship, and if I have to listen to it one more time, I'm going to start biting people.
If Molly couldn't get through to Drew – and in fact got herself and Kristina blacklisted along with Alexis – things aren't looking good. Hopefully someone will point out to Drew that cutting Scout off from her family will make her resent him, and she'll likely find a way around it anyway.
Yes, Isaiah! Way to mind your own business!
All of this is just making Chase look dumb. I don't like it.
Curtis really needs to tell Michael that Drew is plotting against him, and that Willow was going to go along with it. Actually, Willow could win some points by telling Michael that first part.
August 15th, 2025
Vaughn kicks Josslyn off their assignment, not wanting Britt to see her and compromise their undercover status. Josslyn protests, arguing that Vaughn needs backup, but he insists that he'll be fine on his own. Not five minutes later, he almost gets shot by gun-toting server. Josslyn returns just in time to either save him or shoot him (it's not clear yet). Jason checks into the Five Poppies and almost immediately sees Britt. Michael, Wiley, and Drew are all at the Metro Court restaurant at the same time, and though Tracy tries to help Michael head off awkwardness, he decides not to make an effort to avoid his uncle/nemesis. But while Michael's talking to Tracy about Gio, Drew approaches Wiley, telling him that Willow misses him and Michael should let them see each other. Once he's sent Wiley off with Tracy, Michael faces off with Drew, who asks when he's going to stop lying to his son about his mother. That gets him punched in the face. Turner goes to Sonny's to apologize for being too hard on him, because just like every female ADA and fed before her, she can't resist his charm. Donna invites her to join them for dinner, which Turner does. Drew comes straight there after the fight with Michael and announces that he's going to make Sonny do his bidding in exchange for not pressing charges. He has no idea that Turner is hiding in the next room. Isaiah asks Felicia for her advice about the Portia/Curtis/Jordan situation. She wisely tells him to do nothing, because if he says anything to Portia, she might shoot the messenger. Isaiah decides to talk to Jordan about it instead, but before he can, she starts chatting with Stella, who then gets a visit from some fraud investigators, so that trigger just got pulled. Portia is adorably nervous about a date with Curtis, which Trina hopes goes well almost as much as Portia does. So no one tell her that Curtis was just hanging out with Jordan, toasting the fact that she has a new apartment and looking like he might still have some feelings for her. Stella questions Tracy's decision to support Measure C along with Drew, considering how much she hates him. Tracy's like, "There's someone else I hate even more, so I had to suck it up." After Drew's ill-advised run-in with Wiley, Tracy decides to withdraw her support and vows to take him down.
There's a theory floating around that Britt and Dalton are working for Peter, which I think would be what finally does me in.
I love how, on Monday, Britt was so sure she would never be seen by anyone she knows, and now, not only has Josslyn already seen her, but Jason saw her literally five minutes after he got there.
Carly picked out that light-colored suit for Jason, right? I can't see him wearing it otherwise.
Drew is about to blackmail a mobster with the DA in the next room. Fantastic.
Donna, shoot your shot on your biggest birthday wish. Ask for a pony. You just scored Daddy a major win.
We all know it's only a matter of time before the latest Brenda doppelganger has the same character arc as all the previous ones.
August 18th, 2025
Josslyn wounds Vaughn's would-be assassin, and when he won't give up any information, Vaughn finishes him off. Josslyn is shaken by the whole thing and reminded of the night she killed Cyrus, but she insists that they stay at the resort as long as they can. She thinks Britt might tell her who she's working for. Vaughn isn't convinced, but he defers to her and focuses on getting rid of the assassin's body. Josslyn goes as long as she can before handling her feelings by sitting fully clothed in the shower, where Vaughn joins her. Jason and Britt pretend not to know each other while she rushes Pascal away from him. Eventually he makes it to her room, but there's probably too much going on right now for them to be able to have a happy reunion. Drew has three demands in exchange for not pressing charges against Michael: Michael has to ask the court for a new visitation hearing, and Sonny has to give up his piers and leave town for the near future. Sonny knows that Drew's top priority is getting Willow her kids back, and he notes that even if that happens as a result of all this, Drew will never get the credit. Ultimately, Sonny won't play ball. Turner is appalled that Drew would go this far, but she won't be able to do anything about it, since she'd have to reveal that she was at Sonny's house, which would put her career at risk. She warns Sonny not to retaliate and vows to keep a closer eye on Drew. Drew then goes to Sidwell and Marco to revel in what he sees as an inevitable success in either getting rid of Sonny or getting rid of Michael. Sidwell thinks that the latter is a bad idea, since it could invite retaliation from Sonny, but Drew is too intent on getting Willow her kids back that he's willing to do things Sidwell doesn't approve of. Later, Sidwell tells Marco that Drew might be a liability. Maxie consults with Martin to find out whether Lucy, Brook, and Tracy could oust her from Deception from going to the police over the dirty money. He tells her she would be safe because of whistleblower laws, but her relationships with her colleagues would probably never recover. She wants to talk to the DA anyway, and she considers giving the others a heads-up, but Martin tells her not to. It looks like it might not be an issue anyway, as when Maxie joins Lucy for a Home & Heart appearance, she ends up collapsing on-camera. Portia's predictably annoyed when a call from Jordan interrupts her and Curtis' evening, but when they find out that Stella's being questioned, they spring into action. Stella seems to be the only one who isn't worried about the investigation into her recent insurance claims. Martin offers up his services as her lawyer, but the investigators tell him he can't represent her since he's a person of interest in one of the claims. Flora talks to Brook about what Lois told her previously and tries to get her to set aside her anger at her mother. Brook wishes she could, but she can't help feeling that if Lois had been honest with her sooner, especially when Brook revealed that she wanted to find her son, things wouldn't have happened the way they did. Marco questions Sidwell's feelings for Lucy now that they seem to be getting closer. Sidwell has only nice things to say about her and definitely sees her as an asset.
Ryan Paevey's announced return (YAY!!!) supports my theory that Britt's doing whatever she's doing because Nathan's alive and her boss is holding his recovery or whatever over her head.
I assume Sidwell put something toxic in the face cream, but how did he know Lucy or Flora wouldn't use it?
Federal crime or not, no one's sending Michael to prison for one punch.
No one seems worried that Donna will blab about her and Sonny's dinner guest, which is 100 percent something she would do.
August 19th, 2025
The face cream gave Maxie a heart attack, terrifying Spinelli and Felicia. Lucas and Elizabeth are able to stabilize her, but they haven't figured out the cause. When Lucas suggests that it was the face cream, Lulu looks like she might be inspired to investigate. Josslyn and Vaughn have sex, then silently agree not to talk about it. They also agree that Britt is the key to figuring out what's going on with Dalton's research, so Josslyn will try to get her to spill something useful. Jason can't get Britt to tell him anything about how she survived Heather's attack or faked her death, or if she even had a choice in the matter. She's angry at him for faking his death and ditching him for Carly (or at least she's acting like that's why she won't talk to him), and she orders him to leave her alone. After he finally leaves, she calls someone and reports that they have a problem. Turner asks Anna to open an investigation into Drew, who she accuses of abusing his office. She can't tell Anna anything more than that, so Anna isn't persuaded, since a lack of evidence could lead to her losing her job. When Drew comes to them to report that he was the victim of a crime (which he's had Elizabeth document at the hospital), Anna's surprised that Turner takes the assault as seriously as she does. Sonny summons Michael and Diane so they can figure out how to deal with Drew and his threat to Michael maintaining full custody. It's going to come down to witness testimony, so whatever happens is mostly out of Michael's hands. He shares that he thinks Willow was behind the stuff that happened with Daisy, but he hasn't gone to the police because he doesn't have evidence. Carly blames Nina for how things turned out with Willow, Michael, and Drew, since she spent months sitting on the information that could have ended the whole mess. They have a big fight that ends with Carly inadvertently pushing Nina in the Metro Court pool and vowing to keep her and Willow from ever seeing the kids again.
"The face cream gave Maxie a heart attack" is an actual thing that happened.
Nothing should ever happen that makes Spinelli cry.
Why did Flora go to the hospital and then do nothing? She's not secretly aligned with Sidwell, is she?
Vaughn is going to need to cover the mark on his neck from his near-garroting, or people are going to come to some interesting conclusions about the "newlyweds'" bedroom activities.
I'd love to see the look on Drew's face if he had Ric tell the judge that Michael hit him, and then Lucas was like, "Hey, so, speaking of people being hit in the face..."
I laughed really hard at Cynthia Watros' delivery of "how you doin'?" to the hotel employee who was watching her and Carly.
August 20th, 2025
Maxie's loved ones wait for news on how she is, but Lucas can't provide them with many answers. Her heart is okay, which should ease Felicia's fears that the gift they got from B.J. decades ago has outlived its use. Everyone keeps trying to reassure themselves and each other that Maxie will wake up and everything will be okay. Lucas finally gets a clue about what happened in the form of a mystery enzyme in her blood that Anna suspects is the result of poisoning. Drew lets Martin know that he wanted Michael to hit him so he would risk keeping custody of the kids. Everything Drew has done has been for them and Willow, though Martin notes that sleeping with Nina didn't exactly help any of them. He doubts that the witnesses will give Drew any support, including Stella. Drew dismisses her, since she's being investigated for insurance fraud, and Martin gets suspicious about how Drew knows about that. Even though she knows about the blackmail, Turner has to proceed with Drew's case against Michael, to Sonny's annoyance. Drew is frustrated when Chase reports that none of the witnesses he interviewed remember seeing Michael hit him. Drew accuses him of a cover-up to help Michael, which Turner really doesn't appreciate. Drew then suggests that someone bribed the witnesses to lie. Martin is the only witness who hasn't given a statement, and it looks like he'll back up Drew's story. But when Drew's statement contains flat-out lies, Martin hesitates to sign off on it. Curtis goes to Alexis for guidance on Stella's situation, which Stella still thinks is no big deal. Yes, she's changed some dates so people would have the coverage they deserved, but she's never committed insurance fraud. After hearing more about the cases under scrutiny, Alexis determines that, actually, she has committed insurance fraud. When Stella mentions that one of the people she changed dates for was Martin, Curtis easily puts together that he must have told Drew, who sent investigators after Stella because of their rivalry. Lulu goes to Maxie's to give Georgie and James an update on her condition, and she surprisingly welcomes Obrecht in when she arrives. The two of them give the kids an age-appropriate, not-too-anxiety-inducing overview, and Lulu genuinely appreciates Obrecht's help. Gio tries to offer Emma comfort over Maxie's condition and how shaken she was seeing Anna scared for her. Lucas confides to Elizabeth that saving Maxie made him feel like he'd redeemed himself a little for not being able to save Sam.
Spinelli's vow to propose to Maxie when she wakes up would be more exciting if we didn't know that she might still be married...
That's twice now that Drew has given a false statement to the police. Is anything ever going to come of that?
By painting himself as a victim, Drew is just making himself look weak and pathetic. Michael can make it worse by getting a restraining order to bar him from going near Wiley.
I enjoy how people keep failing to stop themselves from laughing at Drew's dramatics.
Curtis remains one of the smartest characters on the show.
In contrast, why are they suddenly writing Stella as if she's an idiot? She knew exactly what she was doing. Yes, it's awful that this is the way the system is, and I don't judge her even a little for what she did. But she knows it was wrong. She knows what insurance fraud consists of. She knows she committed it. It's more in character for her to admit it to Alexis and not be sorry for it.
August 21st, 2025
Martin agrees to sign Drew's witness statement if he drops the insurance investigation. Drew won't, so Martin tells Turner that he didn't see Michael hit Drew. Martin ends up fired, but at least he still has his soul. Drew goes straight to Willow and tells her that the Corinthoses have manipulated the legal system, which could spell disaster for her custody case. He swears that he can help, and Willow appears to be ready to accept that help. She even lets him hug her, which Nina sees. Lulu is shaken by the possibility that Maxie could fall into a coma, and Obrecht seems genuinely sympathetic, considering Lulu's own experience. She also feels bad that Lulu missed time with Rocco, both while comatose and when he was with Britt. Lulu admits that she might have overreacted to Rocco's interest in Obrecht, though she can't forgive Britt for all the chaos she caused. Brook wants to keep her distance from Maxie's family right now, since she feels like that's Lulu's terrain and doesn't want the tension between them to cause any problems. Tracy tells her that, while it's nice of her to take a step back, she needs to set that aside and be there for her friend. Also, she needs to acknowledge that she and Lulu are a lot more alike than they would care to admit. Brook decides to call a truce with Lulu, who has the exact same idea. Curtis wants revenge on Drew, but Stella decides to take whatever punishment comes her way and admit defeat in this battle. Martin apologizes for his role in everything, letting Curtis and Stella know that Drew has lost another ally. Sonny warns Turner that Drew might harp on his suspicion that she's on his payroll, but she's not intimidated by him. The two practically flirt, because of course they do. Diane tells Sonny that she knows exactly what he's up to, and she wonders if he's playing Turner or the other way around. Molly attempts to write a romantic scene between her protagonist and the guy Molly wants her to be with, but thoughts of Cody distract her. She tries to strike up a conversation with Cody, who blows her off because he's focused on showing support to Felicia. Kristina explains the situation to Molly, who realizes that Cody is different from the way she thought he was. Later, she admits to Michael that she might have feelings for him. Ava learns from Nina that Ric isn't representing Willow pro bono after all. Nina swears her to secrecy, but I'm sure that won't last, especially since Ava is gunning for Ric, specifically in hopes of sabotaging whatever might redevelop between him and Elizabeth. She confronts him for locking her out of their accounts, and he tells her it's just temporary, so she doesn't make any crazy purchases. He then tells Alexis that he wants one final payment and then the blackmail will stop. Cody laments waiting so long to reveal his paternity, since he could have been spending that time with this family, and might now miss out on a better relationship with Maxie. Tracy admires how he's stepping up for them now and hopes he's learned something. He has – namely, that he shouldn't run scams anymore, which means he might be about to tell Ava what's really behind their sudden closeness.
There's been speculation that Drew is going to be murdered, which I would normally be happy about, but...I'm not. I think it would be a lazy way to wrap up this storyline. We need an explanation for why Drew went dark.
Maxie's going to wake up to Nathan and Britt alive and everyone getting along. She'll think she's dead and in Heaven.
Molly named a character Clint Buchanan? Cough.
Why does Ava want to sabotage Ric and Elizabeth if she's doing with him? Just for fun?
I'm surprised Alexis has Ric in her phone as "Do not answer" and not something derogatory.
August 22nd, 2025
Josslyn and Vaughn's self-imposed deadline to find Britt passes, and Vaughn decides that they need to tell Brennan everything. While he does, Josslyn does a final search of the property. Instead of Britt, she spots Jason. When she goes back to the room to tell Vaughn, Pascal confronts her with a gun. Cody confesses to Ava that his first encounters with her were for reasons other than what she thinks, but she ends up making a bigger confession to him: She let things proceed how they did because she wanted to make Ric jealous. That said, she's going to stay with him as long as she can because it drives the Davis women crazy. She vents about Kristina and Alexis, and when Cody tries to defend Molly, she complains that Molly is the worst of them. Cody quickly backs off of his decision to be honest with her, and they end up making out. Molly tries to more or less talk herself out of liking Cody, since doing so goes against who she is. Michael urges her to stop thinking about how badly a relationship with him might turn out and instead think about how good it could be. Molly decides to go see Cody, so of course, she sees him making out with Ava. Willow needs a character reference from a family member, so she zeroes in on Kristina, the only member of the Corinthos contingent who was nice to her while Michael was in the hospital. Kristina admits that she was faking it because Willow was gatekeeping access to Michael. Plus, someone had to facilitate conversations between him and the kids while he was in Germany, since Willow wasn't doing it. Willow plays the "you were almost a mother, too" card, which just makes things worse because Kristina still sees herself as a mother. She won't do anything to help Willow, who she says is a bad parent. Elizabeth leans on Kristina to testify on Willow's behalf anyway, since Kristina knows what it's like to make a big mistake that could easily ruin one's life. Nina tells Ric to convince Willow that she has to stay away from Drew in order to get her kids back. He'd better do that soon, because she's already called him to tell him she needs his help. Lulu shares her fears about Maxie with Laura, who thinks she'll be able to handle being there for Maxie just as well as Maxie handled being there for her. Laura tries to get her to be optimistic, since they don't know for sure that Maxie won't start recovering soon. Pascal points Greta in Jason's direction as he tries to find out who at the resort is with the WSB. Britt isn't happy about that. Maxie's condition has Carly feeling empathy for people, especially Felicia, who's at risk of losing a second child, something Carly doesn't think she herself would be able to survive. Brennan tries to be encouraging while remaining clueless about what's going on at the Five Poppies.
Josslyn and Vaughn searched the entire resort and didn't see Britt OR Jason? Maybe they're not that great at being spies.
Does Josh Kelly get some sort of prize for being shirtless for the entire episode?
I enjoy flustered, crushing-like-a-tween Molly.
If Elizabeth is going to insist on getting involved in something she should stay out of, she could at least not be snotty about it.
Of course Carly found a way to make Maxie's situation about herself.
Also, Carly can't imagine how it feels for Felicia to sit by her possibly comatose daughter's bed? Carly, whose son spent a year in a coma? That Carly?
August 25th, 2025
Maxie is now in a coma, and Lucas wants to move her to Boston for specialized care. Spinelli refuses, thinking it's better for her to be around her loved ones, but Mac and Felicia trust Lucas' judgment and approve the transfer. Maxie's family and friends say goodbye to her, trying to stay optimistic that she'll recover. Alexis meets with Drew for what she thinks is a peace summit, but it turns out to be an opportunity to have her served with a restraining order. He plans to give the same treatment to Molly, Kristina, Danny, and Rocco. Alexis goes off on him loud enough for others at the Grille to hear, calling him abusive and vowing to do something unspecified to him that will erase him from everyone's memories. Martin and Laura hear the whole thing but agree that if asked, they'll say they didn't. Kristina tells Ric that she knows all about the blackmail. She tries to excuse her murder attempt as a mistake, arguing that she didn't intend to hurt him and Elizabeth. Ric points out that when it comes to the law, intentions don't matter when you're committing an act that might kill someone. He taunts her so viciously that she seems to briefly consider stabbing him with a letter opener, but she calms herself. Cody admits that he's only been hanging around Ava because Kristina paid him to come between her and Ric. Even though he says it was for Molly's sake, Molly isn't impressed. Ava's furious and joins Ric and Kristina's argument, which soon turns into one between her and Ric. He informs her that he cleared out their accounts, including her secret ones, and converted their millions into Treasury bonds that, in 30 days, will give him everything and Ava nothing. Even more furious now that what she sees as her divorce settlement is going to Ric, Ava clocks him over the head and knocks him out. Britt seems tempted to leave with Jason, but she insists that she has a great life and doesn't need rescuing. She also wants him to leave because seeing him reminds her of home, which is too painful for her to think about. He agrees to leave her alone, but he gives her a burner phone in case she needs his help.
If they don't bring Nathan back after having James mention him and give Maxie his badge, the writers are sadists.
I changed my mind. Go ahead and kill Drew off. I don't want to watch him anymore. Unfortunately, Alexis is going to be the main suspect if he's murdered. But on the plus side, Jason has an airtight alibi.
The thing with Kristina and the letter opener would have been more dramatic if the weekly preview hadn't shown Ava hitting Ric over the head.
I hope Cody hasn't spent his money yet, because Kristina might make him give it back.
Why did Ava go to Alexis' instead of looking for Kristina?
So...is Josslyn okay?
August 26th, 2025
Pascal busts Josslyn as a WSB agent and tries to get her to tell him what the agency knows about the goings-on at the resort. She won't tell him anything until she knows Vaughn is okay, so he has Vaughn brought in. Minions beat him up, which doesn't make him break, but the threat of torture gets Josslyn to spill that all the information on their mission is in a locked box in Brennan's office. Pascal already knows about it, since Colette found it and told him to get the combination. Josslyn provides it, but Vaughn berates her for giving up classified information, even if it was to save him. Alexis gets home before Ava and Kristina can figure out what to do with Ric. Alexis wants to call the police, but Ava vows to take her and Kristina down with her if she's arrested for attempted murder. The three women determine that they all have enough dirt on each other to force all of them to keep their various crimes quiet. That means they're forced to work together to cover up Ric's visit to the house, which they do by hiding his car and restraining him in the basement. Anna gets drunk and pesters Brennan to get Josslyn out of the WSB before something bad happens to her or it ruins her life like it did Anna's. Brennan thinks Anna's decisions are what ruined her life, since the WSB didn't force her to work with Faison and become a double agent. Also, he's tired of people telling him how to do his job, because Colette just did the same thing by urging him to abort Vaughn and Josslyn's mission. Sidwell offers Lucy comfort over Maxie's condition and urges her to put her energy into Deception. Lucy's worried that the presumed connection between the face cream and Maxie's illness will cause lasting damage. Sidwell invites her to come home with him, and he's probably glad she declined when he finds Colette waiting for him at Wyndemere. A brief conversation reveals a number of interesting things: Sidwell poisoned Maxie with a compound he got from whoever Britt's working for, and his goal is to get a controlling interest in Deception so he can use it to carry out no-doubt-nefarious plans. Cody tells Dante what he's been up to with Ava, and how he regrets the way it's affected Molly. Meanwhile, Molly gives Michael a Cody update, lamenting both how things turned out there and Kristina's use of him to meddle in Ava and Ric's relationship.
I think Vaughn and Josslyn staged their fight, suspecting that Pascal was listening in. Eden McCoy seemed to be going a little over-the-top with it in a way she normally doesn't. Plus, how would she know the combination to the locked box?
Help, I think I love this Ava/Kristina/Alexis team-up.
Where did they get a ball gag? Where did they get a ball gag??
Carly should be allowed to see Ric so she can taunt him for being held prisoner. A little "oh, how the tables have turned" moment.
Hey, Anna, maybe go comfort Mac and Felicia instead of bugging Brennan. I don't even like him and you have me feeling sorry for him.
I doubt anyone's surprised that Sidwell was behind Maxie's poisoning, but it's a nice twist that he got whatever she was given from the Unnamed Big Bad.
I'm so tired of Cody's "I'm such a screw-up" routine. Maybe some day Molly can break him of that habit.
August 27th, 2025
Drew swears that he can get Willow her kids back, but he also swears that he wanted to tell her about his fling with Nina and that she wouldn't let him. She believes both of those things, so when Nina catches them together and begs her not to have anything to do with Drew, Willow has nothing to say to her. She tells Drew that if he can actually get her kids back for her, she'll go back to him. Nina warns Drew that if he screws things up for Willow again, she'll kill him. Marco may or may not have heard that, but he definitely knows something's up there, and he offers Nina his assistance. Molly confronts Kristina over her arrangement with Cody, but it's mostly just a contrivance for them to both be in Alexis' house while Ric is in the basement. So is Sonny's arrival to talk to Molly about Turner. Alexis checks on Ric, who thinks she's stumbled across him and can free him before he realizes that she's in on his captivity. She tells him that they'll let him go in about a month, after his bonds mature and they can get back the money she embezzled for him. Ric offers not to tell the police anything if Alexis lets him go right now, but Alexis would rather work with Ava, since she's promised to hand over the evidence that Kristina tried to kill Ava. Speaking of Ava, she gets Lucas to write her a prescription for sleeping pills, which I assume mean that Ric's month-long captivity is going to pass pretty quickly for him. Kristina visits Ric next and advises him to put the next month in perspective: He'll lose 30 days (during which no one other than Molly will miss him), but she and Molly lost a child because of Ava. Curtis, Portia, and Isaiah try to step in when the fraud investigators return, but they can't do anything to keep Stella from being arrested. Earlier, Curtis stopped just short of blaming Portia for Stella's troubles, so things are already tense between them when he calls in Jordan to help. She tries to get a higher-up from the DEA to call off the investigators, but that doesn't work. So now Portia's mad at Curtis for turning to Jordan for something she couldn't even accomplish. Gio and Brook wind up at a church at the same time, with the same intention to light a candle for Camilla's birthday. Gio invites Brook to stick around for a while, and they have a nice conversation about his relationship with Camilla and how happy Brook is that Gio got to be her son. Deception is struggling, which makes this the perfect time for Sidwell to swoop in and pretend to play hero. He tells Lucy he'll invest to keep the company afloat while she gets it back on track. Gio and Marco bond a little over having lost their mothers, but when Gio insists that Sonny had nothing to do with Natalia's death, any chance of them being friends goes out the window. Marco goes straight to Sidwell and urges him again to tell Sonny about the bribed-judge set-up before he misses his chance. Lucas tells Elizabeth that Ava and Ric split up, so she should expect even more attention from Ric. He admits that he's enjoying spending time with Ava and likes living with and not thinking about what comes next. Elizabeth teases that he's waiting for Marco to suggest that they live together.
Alexis should be taking advantage of this situation to get Ric to convince Drew to drop the restraining orders.
"I've done nothing wrong." Stella's making it really hard for me to feel sorry for her.
Yes, this is exactly the right time to be jealous, Portia.
The Brook/Gio scenes were nice. I think she said exactly the right things.
I love that Elizabeth's response to Lucas saying he actually likes Ava started with "ew."
August 28th, 2025
Having learned from Marco that someone bribed the custody judge, Drew tries to use that information to force Michael to ask for shared custody. If he won't, Drew will make sure Sonny gets arrested and rig things so a judge gives Willow full custody. Michael doesn't buy his claim about the bribe, and not only does he refuse to do what Drew says, he threatens to have the visitation hearing postponed indefinitely. Drew already has a next step in mind, and it involves Carly somehow. Michael quickly tells Sonny about this latest development, believing Sonny when he says he didn't bribe the judge. Sidwell is upset that Marco went rogue and made a move based on his feelings. Now Sonny is a wildcard, and if he figures out who really bribed the judge, Sidwell could be in a lot of trouble. Sonny hasn't gotten that far yet, but he knows he can get answers from the judge. Sidwell knows the same thing, so he'll have to rush to get to her first. Curtis admits to still resenting Portia for her lies about Trina, even as he's been waiting for that to pass so they could be a family. Portia throws Jordan in his face, thinking she was his rebound after his marriage ended. Curtis has no time for this, and when Portia gives him the old "if you walk out, I'll know we're done," he walks out, because he has bigger things to worry about than his wife's insecurities. Meanwhile, Isaiah accuses Jordan of still being in love with Curtis, a topic she has no interest in discussing with him ever. When Portia falls apart after her fight with Curtis, Isaiah swoops right in to take his place. Brook points Dante in Gio's direction, wanting their son to have at least one parent with him while he struggles through Camilla's birthday. It goes as well as Brook and Gio's conversation did, but Gio tells Dante that he's still not interested in getting to know him. He asks if Dante's mad at Camilla for never telling him about Gio, but Dante knows that she was always focusing on Gio and never intended to hurt Dante or Brook. Dante also finally apologizes for how he treated Gio when Rocco got alcohol poisoning. Brook is glad to know that Gio was loved as much as she would have loved him as a child, something she's always wondered about, but she's worried that she'll never have the kind of relationship with him that she wants. Tracy thinks she should be optimistic, since Gio's still young and his feelings about her could change. Stella's situation has Martin and Tracy on the same side for the first time ever, and Tracy agrees to do whatever she can to help. Martin finds a way to blame her for everything, while Tracy blames him because his big mouth is how Drew found out about the fraud in the first place. Stella's starting to grasp that her actions might actually have very big consequences. Alexis tells her that she's just being targeted because of who she is, not what she did, but I don't think that makes her feel any better. Also, Trina is now involved, though she doesn't do anything; we should probably just be glad that she's getting screentime.
I'm going to guess that the judge is the person whose body Rocco and Danny see in the harbor in the weekly preview.
That's two men now who have gone from Jordan to Portia. I very much do not get it.
Isaiah had so much potential, but they've already ruined him.
It was different with Brook, since Gio said she could stay, but Dante really should have waited to approach Gio. He went to church for a reason. Let him do what he went there to do. Talk to him later.
What was the point of Sonny going to the police station? He has nothing to do with that storyline.
August 29th, 2025
Britt gets suspicious of Pascal, who's apparently keeping Josslyn and Vaughn in a room close to her lab and isn't subtle about not wanting her nearby. She gets the guy guarding the door to leave and goes in, but instead of rescuing the spies, she leaves them there. Curtis slams Drew for going after Stella to get under his skin. Kai overhears them fighting and finally gets clued in that Drew is scum. Drew makes it worse by lying that he's going to do what he can to help Stella. Kai gets confirmation that Drew sent the investigators after her in the first place, and just like that, the hero-worshipping is over. Portia and Isaiah hook up, though neither of them seems all that happy about it afterwards. Their clothes are back on by the time Trina comes by, wanting to know the connection between Drew and what's going on with Stella. Portia tells her all about the blackmail, relieved to have all her secrets out, even if it means Trina now has the burden of knowing that this has all been because of her, in a way. She goes to confront Drew and instead comes across Kai, who immediately tells her what he learned and apologizes for ever siding with Drew. Willow tells Elizabeth that she's getting back together with Drew, not because she actually wants to but because she thinks that's her best chance to get her kids back. The fact that he was able to keep her from seeing Michael in Germany isn't a negative – it shows how much power he has. She's willing to do anything necessary and sacrifice whatever she has to sacrifice to get what she wants. Elizabeth is shocked to hear that she plays to get full custody and keep Michael from his kids. Rocco has been served with his restraining order, but with Jason out of town, Danny hasn't gotten his yet, so he'd like to find a way to see Scout. Carly cautions him not to do anything that could stir up trouble. Drew interrupts, doubles down on keeping the boys away from their sister, and just generally makes himself look as horrible as everyone already thinks he is. Then he uses his knowledge of the judge's bribe to pressure Carly to get Michael to back down from full custody. Carly won't play ball, and when Drew threatens to do worse to Michael than he did to Stella, she vows to kill him if it comes to that. Elizabeth overhears, but considering how she feels about him, she'll probably keep her mouth shut. Chase tries to appeal to the custody judge on Willow's behalf, insisting that she's a good mother and doesn't deserve to lose custody. The judge tells him that a parent who has shown growth and effort is likely to get a good outcome, so Willow has a chance at getting visitation. As soon as Chase is gone, the judge calls someone to warn that he's getting more involved than he should. Later, Danny and Rocco find her body in the harbor. Stella asks Jordan to talk Curtis down from any revenge he might want to take on Drew. Curtis knows what Jordan's going to say before she says it, and he doesn't want to hear it, since Drew has taken things too far.
That was, admittedly, not a great look for Britt. Hopefully she's going to get the burner phone to call Jason.
Drew's definitely going to end up dead. It's just a matter of when.
Kai's redemption arc starts...now.
Setting a reminder for Halloween to see if Portia's pregnant by then.
Danny and Rocco deserve a lot of credit for not punching Drew when he said that Danny and Scout are "only" half-siblings, and Rocco and Scout aren't siblings at all.
Interesting that Elizabeth went to Carly. Me, I would have gone to Michael.