Raise your hand if you watched the Vice Presidential debate last night. Talk about SOAPY. I’m not going to foray into politics because this isn’t the platform for that, but that’s so going to be the watercooler talk of the office today (finally bumping the topic of B&B!). That is, unless I can change the subject to SMALLVILLE. As much as it weirds me out that SMALLVILLE has jumped around, seriously altered Superman back story, and has suddenly decided to make Clark a reporter at the Daily Planet without finishing college, if you give me a good Green Arrow episode, I am willing to overlook the heebie-jeebies. Last night was certainly that. I love when they delve into Oliver’s past, and I’m really intrigued by his connection to Tess “Mercy” Mercer. Justin Hartley (ex-Fox, PASSIONS) also spent a good portion of the episode running around shirtless. Looks like the missus (Lindsay Hartley, ex-Theresa, PASSIONS) made sure her hubby hit the gym this summer!

And how fantastic has ATWT been this week? While, like many, I’m bummed that the James Stenbeck aspect of the story wrapped up so quickly. Dusty’s return has me on tenterhooks, waiting for the scenes spoiled in yesterday’s preview, where Dusty arrives at Metro (remember when he used to run it?) and Lily faints. Can I hope Holden knocks him out? I mean, I love Dusty, but Holden and everybody else in town has a right to slug him when he shows up all Not Dead. Repeatedly. That, my friends, is what good soap is made of. Those gasp “Oh, no, he DIDN’T!” moments. And the fact that Dusty shaves off the Grizzly Adams beard before returning to Oakdale certainly helps, too!

I also have to give massive kudos to this week’s Carly and Jack scenes, where, after the longest time, the shoe was on the other foot and we saw Jack reaching out, pleading for a reunion, while Carly was the one wary of going down that road again. When Carly said loving Jack was like breathing… okay, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t flail around a little with glee. Even if they never get it together in the romance department, these two are a great team. In fact, I just had a chat with Michael Park yesterday, on the very subject of Carly and Jack and I will admit I totally raved about the scenes to him. (I know you’re all thinking, “For the love of Pete, Mala, put your Carjack pom-poms away.” If it helps at all, I actually like Janet/Jack, too.)

And on a slightly less gleeful note, I know there a lot of people raving in the other way (the kind that gets paired with “ranting and…”) because Luke and Noah’s anticipated reunion only took about 3 minutes of the Oct. 1 episode. I’m sorry, Guys. I feel your pain. On the bright side, that’s NOT the only time we’ll see them this fall. And they were cute and they kissed! But why didn’t Noah bring ME a souvenir from his trip? Where’s the love, Dude?

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com