Desperate Hours!
Last week, everything came to a head with Patty, Jack and Victor. "Both men have betrayed her and brought her to this point of despair and desperation," says Scott Hamner. "Jack broke Patty's heart to the degree that she never really recovered, and derailed the track of her life so that she never blossomed. Victor has now taken advantage of her failed aspirations, which has led to even greater sadness and disappointment. When Patty turns the gun on Victor and Jack, Jack is forced to stop performing CPR on Colleen. Even though she is breathing on her own at this point, she is still in grave danger and needs medical attention immediately."
Patty's insanity reaches a boiling point this week and it looks like Jack is about to be her next victim until Victor makes a move. "He suddenly draws her attention away from Jack and she shoots Victor," explains Eric Braeden. "He's hit in the stomach and the chest. Victor, in a sense by interfering, took the shots that were meant for Jack. So that's going to be worth something."
Horrified, Jack calls 911. "If Colleen didn't need help, who knows if Jack would've called anyone," chuckles Braeden. J.T. and Paul show up moments later and urgently try to help Jack with Colleen and Victor. "It's pandemonium," groans Braeden.
The paramedics arrive and all the victims are rushed to the hospital. The Abbott and Newman clams are notified and nervously wait at the hospital for their loved ones to be wheeled in. Meanwhile, Paul realizes that Patty is an extreme threat. "Paul knows that the best thing for her is to be taken into custody," says Hamner.
The ambulance rolls in with Colleen and Victor and they're brought past their distraught family members. Later, a doctor tells everyone that Colleen is no longer breathing on her own and that the outlook for Victor doesn't look very promising, either. For now, Jack decides against telling Ashley the news. "Ashley is already reeling from all of this," notes Eileen Davidson. "She knows that Victor brought Patty to Genoa City. She's furious that Victor has lied to her and she is all set to leave him."
While Victor lays unconscious, Nick and Victoria visit his hospital room and apologize for attacking him about Patty. That's when Victor's finally opens his eyes. Nick and Victor are ecstatic until they're told that there are bullet fragments in Victor's heart and he needs life-or-death surgery as soon as possible. "But first, Victor tells Victoria that he wants Nikki to know he still loves her," says Braeden.
Nick and Victoria realize they need to find their mother as soon as possible. When Paul shows up, Victoria tells him to find Nikki and bring her to Victor -- stat. Surprisingly, Paul agrees, even though Nikki ditched him the night before their wedding and ran off into the rainstorm. Later, Paul gets a text message from someone who says they saw Nikki the night she mysteriously vanished.
Billy gets ahold of Ashley and tells her that Victor saved Jack's life by taking two bullets that were meant for him. "With her thinking that he's going to die, this changes everything," points out Davidson. "It makes her rethink her relationship with him. Even though she's angry, she still loves him and is married to him. She has to be there with her husband at the hospital."
After Ashley arrives at the hospital (with Adam by her side), Jack reveals to J.T., Abby, Nick and Victoria that Colleen is brain dead. Everyone is heartbroken, but Jack becomes angry when a doctor says that Victor is going to be fine. Furious, Jack is physically held back as he screams that Victor should be the one dead -- not Colleen.
Ashley finally goes to visit Victor, but she doesn't get the chance to tell him she still loves him because a groggy Victor whispers Nikki's name! Awkward much? Says Braeden, "It's a most inappropriate moment."
Ashley leaves the room. "She is upset, but at this point, I don't think it's too surprising to her," says Davidson. "She has already lost faith in him, so it's not as shocking to her as it would've been, say, 15 years ago. I mean, my personal opinion and the way I've tried to play it is that this relationship was always dubious this time around. She's not 25 years old with stars in her eyes. She knows who this man is now and what she's gotten herself into."
Victor is affected when he's given the news of Colleen's condition. "The consequences of bringing Patty to town have escalated way beyond anything Victor imagined would happen," explains Hamner. "Victor is horrified by the degree of the tragedy that has resulted. Deep down, he knows he can't place the blame on Jack."
Meanwhile, Paul follows a lead on Nikki and eventually finds himself at an exclusive spa in the Rockies. He knocks on the door of a room and is shocked when Nikki answers! Nikki is stunned to see him there. "It's rather awkward considering the situation," points out Melody Thomas Scott. "He tells her that Victor was shot. The urgency of Paul's message overrides the personal awkwardness over the marriage. The message overcame the messenger."
Paul explains what has happened with Mary Jane Benson and he also informs Nikki that she's really his sister Patty. It doesn't take long before Nikki connects the dots and begins to realize that Victor is somehow involves.
When Paul tells Nikki that everyone has been worried about her, Nikki says that she sent numerous letters to the Newman ranch for Victor and the kids telling them where she is. Paul informs her that no one got the letters. Nikki is curious as to where the letters went -- or who intercepted them. (Adam?)
Back at the hospital, Ashley goes back to Victor's room so she can accept the reality of her doomed marriage. "She says she realizes that the relationship isn't going to work because it's uneven; he can't love her the way she loves him - or the way she wants him to love her," Davidson explains. "She feels that she deserves more than that and is now ready for it to be over."
As Ashley explains why she's ready to call it quits, Victor suddenly goes into cardiac arrest. The doctors rush in just as Adam, Nick and Victoria join Ashley. At that moment, Nick receives a call from Nikki who asks how Victor is doing. "It doesn't sound good," says Scott. "She just drops the phone and immediately starts emptying the drawers and putting everything in her suitcase, and we all know where she's going." Worried, Nikki informs Paul that she has to get to the hospital before it's too late! "She loves him. It's as simple as that," says Scott.
Scott On Contract Dispute!
News traveled quick when Melody Thomas Scott and Y&R couldn't come to an agreement for a new contract. Here, Melody gives us her side of the story!
"I was very surprised," says Scott of the frenzy that erupted around her renewing her deal. "I don't know why most of the time, these things to under the rader and it's no big deal, and other times, it's 'Kaboom!' It doesn't come from me. I'm tight-lipped. I don't tell anybody anything. I'm not a Tweeter. I never talk about negotiations. I never have. It's just one of those weird things where somebody will speculate about something, and people just grab onto it and it takes on a life of its own. I couldn't tell you why."
Melody is no stranger to controversial negotiations. In 2001, she made headlines when she nearly quit and cleaned out her dressing room. "To that, I continue to say, if one has one's own belongings in a place they may never see again, how is one to retrieve them" she chuckles. "I did clean out my dressing room in 2001. It was not any kind of tactical maneuver. It was simply, 'Well... I guess I'm going. Now I've got to take my ****.' But that whole thing grew into moving vans and everything else, which was not true."
Scott reveals that she cleaned her dressing room out this time around too. "Actually I had," she says. "Not completely, but I was shocked that it didn't show up in reports. The people at work knew, but nobody said anything. It was never really mentioned."
Without revealing the terms of the new deal, Scott agrees that pay cuts, tighter budgets and shorter hours are now a fact of life in daytime. "Obviously, this is a very real situation, not just in daytime, but in every industry in the world right now," she nods. "That is the reality. They did cut our budget. We do work shorter hours, so I don't know why anyone would be in denial about it."
Now that Melody is back at work, she enthuses: "The intensity of the writing has not dissipated. It's still going gangbusters. Every day, every script I pick up, I get very excited which, for a continuous thing, hasn't happened in a long time. They're on a roll. I'm very happy. And I'm glad Eric (Braeden) is happy."
and thinking about you all day long with a smile. Feel better and happier soon!
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. I'm still trying to watch ATWT, mainly because Jonathan (Tom Pelphrey) from GL is joining, and because I think it will be the next canceled. But maybe this will clear up enough time in my afternoons to get off my butt and walk when I get home from work! And maybe, a new writing team will come in and make it worth watching again.
you are an inspiration. it takes great courage to keep going when those who are supposed to know everything tell us we won't make it. i admire your determination and deeply appreciate the inside info you give us.
DH & I walk every day. We do 5+ miles. Of course we have worked up to this BUT I had some minor foot surgery on August 31st and have just received the green light from my foot MD to get back to walking....so baby steps until I am fully healed. We love it as a form of exercise. 
