It’s Only My Opinion For The Soap Week Ending April 25

CBS; © XJJohnson/jpistudios.com; ABC

Y&R’s Phyllis (Michelle Stafford), DAYS’s Xander (Paul Telfer) and GH’s Ric (Rick Hearst) helped stir up drama on soaps this week.

You know what’s fun on soaps? When characters poke the bear.

Y&R’s Jack baiting his long-time nemesis Victor never gets old.

Jack: “I ran into Victor earlier.”

Diane: “Deliberately?”

Jack: “I couldn’t resist telling him how great things are going for the Abbott family, knowing it would irritate him. He was with Michael Baldwin, his fixer. I have a feeling things are going to escalate.”

Good! The romance between Jack’s son, Kyle, and Victor’s granddaughter, Claire, is getting more serious, so naturally Victor is trying to ruin it. He knows that will anger his family — and push Nikki closer to Jack — but he can’t help himself. Poke!

Nikki: “When are you going to stop trying to control everybody? It’s not up to you who Claire falls in love with.”

Victor: “I always turn out to be right.”

Ian Ward (who Victor thinks is dead) would like a word…

Audra egging on her ex-lover Kyle also seems like a bad idea. He’s firmly ensconced back at Jabot while she’s been unemployed for months, so warning him that she’s getting back in the game just gave him a heads-up.

Kyle: “What do you think Audra’s up to?”

Claire: “I’m not sure, but she definitely wanted you to be aware of it.”

Kyle: “Probably just a job. She will crash and burn.”

Like Kyle did at Glissade?

No one pokes the bear like Phyllis. She’s also out of work — and completely dependent on Billy to hire her at Abbott Communications — yet she acted like a royal B to his girlfriend, Sally.

Phyllis: “Look at you sitting there saying nothing, at least not to my face. You hate that I’m working so closely with your boyfriend. You see me as a threat. I know you’re whispering in his ear behind my back, trying to sabotage this opportunity for me and my son.”

Billy: “You are this close to crossing the line.”

Actually, she crossed it. Stirring the pot may have felt good at the time, but taunting Billy’s girlfriend will come back to bite her.

Sally: “Phyllis is a loose cannon. Cut her loose now.”

People stir the pot on B&B all the time. Brooke dons lingerie in the office hoping Ridge will see her (she got a confrontation with Taylor instead) and Daphne is a walking Playboy article from 1972. She overheard Carter telling Brooke how much he cares for Hope and vowed, “You will be mine!” That’s not how love works, sweetie.

Daphne (walking in on Carter): “I was hoping to find you stark naked again.”

There’s a poke joke in there but I’m not going to make it…

Women going after men who don’t want them is a troubling theme on B&B, but Hope, Brooke, and Daphne are pretenders to Luna’s throne. She disguised herself to break into Will’s office and throw herself at him (another one donning lingerie in the workplace…) after being told numerous times he’s devoted to Electra.

Will: “The only way I look at you is dangerous.”

Luna: “That can be fun.”

“Fun” is relative with a convicted murderer. Not surprisingly, Luna’s newfound grandmother, Sheila, is helping her stalk Will while also appealing to Finn to forgive Luna for trying to kill his wife. Slight problem: Sheila also tried to kill Steffy, so Finn is not open to a family picnic with his criminal biomom and daughter. Sheila knows this, but is another one who can’t help herself. Poke!

Finn: “You need to leave now. Luna killed two innocent men. She kidnapped my wife and put her in a cage.”

Sheila: “I’m not excusing that. But I’ve seen Luna. She hates what she’s done. If she’d had a good loving father like you…”

A rough childhood is not a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, despite Luna’s inexplicable pardon. Finn certainly doesn’t think so, but there she goes again.

Sheila: “Luna is our blood!”

Finn: “Blood or no blood, she’s no daughter of mine.”

Blood plays a big role in Leslie’s revenge plot on BTG to get Ted to pay for not supporting her when she got pregnant with their now-grown daughter, Eva. She’s planning to out their long-ago affair at Ted and Nicole’s anniversary party, which Eva is growing increasingly uncomfortable with.

Eva: “Don’t set yourself up to be disappointed.”

Leslie: “How? Once Ted’s friends and the Duprees hear your story, how you’re back to get what’s been denied you your entire entire life…”

Eva: “… they’re going to think it’s all about the money.”

Money and revenge. Leslie’s plan is to get “past the gates” (get it?) and blow the party sky high. Ted is worried; Nicole is oblivious.

Nicole: “Everyone is coming to celebrate our happy and long marriage!”

Poke!

Over on DAYS, Xander got in Kristen’s face about Titan taking over DiMera and Kristen pulled a gun. She accused him of having “poked the sleeping bear,” which illustrates the soapy drama that can ensue despite this being a dumb move for a character to make. Xander has a long history of this, most recently telling J.J. he wants to kill Philip for backstabbing him re: Victor’s will.

Xander: “I’d like this man arrested for fraud.”

J.J.: “Lying isn’t a crime. Sounds like a civil matter to me.”

Xander: “Stick around. I’m seriously considering killing my brother.”

Sarah (nervous): “My husband has a very dry sense of humor. Just a little brotherly bickering.”

Poke!

GH bad guy Jenz Sidwell is poking people all over town. He paid off Sasha (which upset Jason), caused his ex-wife, Natalia, to lose her job at Deception, and insisted Alexis hire his son, Marco. That’s a problem because Sidwell is a suspect in the bombing of Sonny’s penthouse and Sonny is Miller & Davis’s number one client. The ladies also didn’t like Marco hiding his association to his father by using a different last name, but Marco turned that around by pointing out that Alexis “Cassadine” Davis doesn’t use the name of her problematic birth family, either.

Alexis: “Jenz Sidwell is not just your father, he’s also your client. Diane and I prefer not to hire individuals whose clients want to kill our clients. It’s not good for business.”

Fair point. Alexis had a tough week as her ex-husband, Ric, riled her up, telling her she looked awful and urging her to talk to him about Kristina.

Ric: “I’ve been starting to remember things about the accident.”

Alexis: “Like what?”

Ric: “That your lunatic daughter tried to kill Ava but almost killed me and Elizabeth instead.”

Alexis put two and two together and figured out he’s blackmailing her with Ava. And of course, Ric couldn’t resist pointing out what a train wreck Kristina is, another in a series of “My daughter is better than the one you have with my hated brother Sonny” taunts that keeps their rivalry percolating.

Ava breezed in flaunting those ill-gotten gains from Alexis, sporting a fur coat and ordering a Maserati. Ric was like, tone it down. She climbed right on top of him in the hospital to respond.

Ava: “Money is my aphrodisiac.”

Ric: “Blackmail is mine.”

A match made in heaven!

But the winner, as always, is Tracy, who is always looking for a pool of gasoline to light on fire.

Ezra (re: the Q crypt): “I was hoping we could put that property dispute behind us.”

Tracy: “When you tried to bulldoze my deceased relatives?”

Ezra: “If you ever need a friend in city hall…”

Tracy: “I wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire. I take that back. Sit down.”

Turns out, Tracy likes his efforts to put Sonny out of business — she even gave him a check to help vanquish the local mobster. The mayor spied their transaction and was not pleased.

Laura (to Ezra): “Making amends to your constituents whose families you tried to have disinterred?”

Poke!

Hey. It’s only my opinion.