Yes, today was the day that “Elizabeth’s first love” returned on GH, and I’ll get to that, but let me talk about OLTL’s Kyle’s first love, Fish, first! 

I’m a sucker for two characters really digging deep into the core of their relationship. And, as we all know, I’m a sucker for Kyle and Fish in general. They could sit around reading a milk carton and I’d be entranced. Luckily, OLTL gave us a little bit more than that to work with! As Fish pleaded with Kyle today not to marry Nick, both Scott Evans and Brett Claywell delivered their signature heartfelt, organic performances. Evans imbues Fish with such vulnerability — my heart broke for him when he wept alone in the hallway — and Claywell’s hoarse voice and thickening drawl so effectively conveyed Kyle desperately trying to push Fish away rather than let himself be hurt again. “You’re not ready for me!” Kyle cried, urging Fish to go out and try gay bars and dating. “Then wait for me!” Fish begged, but it was clear that Kyle can’t. He’s already waited too long for Fish to walk beside him hand in hand. 

My favorite soap relationships are ones that feel like we, the viewer, are intruding upon real people. Whether it’s friendship or romance, I like that authenticity. Kyle and Fish bring that in spades, and watching them hurt and hurt each other makes me ache in turn! 

Speaking of people hurting each other, nice to know that Jonathan Jackson‘s return doesn’t make Lucky any less of a dupe! As much as the old school LL2 (that’s Lucky and Liz, for the uninitiated) fan in me was all aflutter seeing Jackson and Rebecca Herbst together again after all this time, my pitter-pattering heart quickly skipped several beats when all Elizabeth could do was have hot flashes er, fantasies about Nikolas. I mean, I’ve loved Lucky and Elizabeth this whole time, no matter who was in the role. I’ve wanted them to reunite through Jackson, Jacob Young, and definitely Greg Vaughan. So what’s the point of bringing back the original recipe Lucky if he’s still second fiddle to somebody else in Liz’s life? First Jason, then Ric, then Jason again, and now the Dark Prince? Okay, okay, so rationally I know that they couldn’t exactly switch the entire story in one episode and change it to a pro-Lucky tale…but, on the other hand, if you can swap out the actor so cavalierly, why not the tone, too? As long as we’re swallowing that Lucky suddenly got shorter and needs to shave his scruff, I will gladly believe that Elizabeth doesn’t want Nikolas at all and their sexcapades have been a bad dream!

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com