Flights of odysseys and curses

Liz and Sam embarked on a desperate odyssey to rescue their true love Jason from Cassadine Island, but Helena was determined to hold everyone's fate in her hands when she cursed Sam and taunted Liz with the truth. Meanwhile, Valerie remained a thorn in Lulu's side, and Franco tried to protect Kiki from a felony charge, unaware that the real danger was a reckless Morgan. It's time to serve up some delicious soapy goodness in this week's Two Scoops.

Oh, what I would have given to have been on the flight to Greece with Liz and Sam. I would have whipped out my phone and recorded every titillating second of it as Liz and Sam got down and dirty, throwing painfully harsh truths at each other like sharp little darts on a dartboard.

Sam is desperate to get back the Jason she married, while Liz is equally adamant about keeping Jason as he is -- in the dark. In reality, Jason can never be the man either woman wants because he's evolving. Whoever emerges from the fire will very likely be someone that neither woman expects, which is how it should be after everything Jason has been through.

One astute reader made an interesting suggestion that Jason should recover all of his memories as his life as Jason Quartermaine and Jason Morgan, which I thought was a brilliant idea. I hadn't wanted Jason's memories to return mainly because I know from personal experience with my sister that once memories are gone for an extended period of time due to a traumatic head injury, they will never return -- no matter how much you wish otherwise. However, this is a soap opera, and I think it would be really fascinating for Jason to see the whole picture of his life, not just the part that Sam, Carly, and Sonny are hoping for.

The flight attendant was hilarious when she warned the ladies to behave or they would be escorted off the plane by the police upon landing and carted off to a Greek prison. Liz and Sam's claws were certainly out, but so was their sense of humor. I loved when they burst out laughing because the flight attendant admitted that she felt sorry for Jason.

Perhaps when the dust settles and Jason has chosen his path, Liz and Sam can forge a friendship and team up against Carly because, as much as Liz and Sam want Jason, Carly wants him more. Carly will never rest until Jason is once again her go-to guy and he puts her and her loved ones ahead of his own. Want proof? How many times have we seen Carly visit Danny since Jason's "death" or even Jake after Jake was found alive and returned home? I can count the times on one hand, minus a couple of digits.

Sadly the peace between Liz and Sam was short lived because the moment the ladies arrived on Cassadine Island, both were eager to get to their precious Jason. Liz wanted to spirit Jason away, while Sam was equally determined to unlock his memories, but Helena was having none of that.

Even on her deathbed, Helena looked spectacular and wielded her diabolical power with lethal accuracy as she played mind and word games with her guests, including Nikolas, who apparently took a supersonic jet to the island to beat everyone there. As much as I think people want Helena to tell Jason that Liz has known the truth since the Nurses Ball and that there is a cure for his amnesia, I don't think it's going to happen. Sam made sure of that by foolishly antagonizing Helena when Sam invoked the memory of Mikkos' love for Sam's grandmother, Kristin Bergman.

I wasn't surprised when Helena decided to curse Sam and her loved ones with everlasting unhappiness. Sam laughed it off, but those of us who have watched this show since the womb know that Helena's curses are nothing to be trifled with. Not only were Luke and Laura victims of one of Helena's infamous curses, but so was Emily.

Remember how Emily nearly died from an unknown malady following Helena's curse until gallant Prince Nikolas whisked Emily off to the Garden of Aphrodite for love's true kiss? Too bad for Sam a trip to the garden likely won't work this time because Helena appears to be Team Liz, despite cryptically threatening to expose Liz's secrets.

Not for a second do I believe that Helena is actually dying. She will have to burst into flames and dissolve into a pile of dust before my eyes in order for me to accept that she's gone because she's cheated death more times than the Road Runner.

Well, dear readers, another week and another slew of reasons why I question Valerie's intentions and motives. I've received emails asking why I'm so hard on Valerie and accusing me of being blinded by my love for Lulu and Dante.

First, I'm not a huge Dante fan, so there is no blinding going on. I think he's a tool who has a short temper and a tendency to act before he thinks -- kind of like his father. I haven't liked Dante for a long time, so a part of me wants Lulu to move on.

Second, Valerie herself hasn't shown any sign of trying to move on and respect the boundaries of Dante's fragile marriage to Lulu.

Here are the reasons I think Valerie is a home wrecker:

When Valerie got the call telling her that she had been assigned to ride along with Dante, she didn't run to Jordan and beg for Jordan to pull some strings to get Valerie reassigned, since Valerie had already caused Dante and Lulu enough trouble by sleeping with Dante. Instead, Valerie remained quiet as a little church mouse.

Next, Valerie didn't call Dante to warn him and perhaps give him the option to call in sick or request a reassignment. Nathan didn't need to solve the case of Carly's accident that night if there was a tip that a runaway drug dealer had returned to town and might make an appearance.

Additionally, Valerie showed up for the stakeout with a big grin and two cups of coffee. She cheerfully slid into the front seat and merrily chatted away about the case. There wasn't a hint of shame for putting Dante in an awkward position or embarrassment that he knew she was still in love with him.

There's also the matter that beyond Valerie's complete lack of remorse, she didn't appear to care how incredibly inappropriate it was for a cadet to be on a stakeout with a married man whom she'd had an affair with.

Finally, Valerie decided to send Dante a cutesy little email seconds after he walked away from her.

I'm with Maxie -- Valerie hoped for Lulu to see that email and think the worst. If it really had been an attempt to thank Dante, Valerie would have done it in person or made the email more professional sounding for the very reason that it could be misconstrued. As Dante pointed out, it was a work email, which means that the police department can and will monitor it.

I have no doubt that Paul had a hand in Valerie being assigned to work with Dante because Paul wanted to do Dillon a solid by driving a bigger wedge between Dante and Lulu.

That said, I was flabbergasted by Dante's reaction when Lulu confronted him about the stakeout and email. I can't believe that Dante expects Lulu to give him a chance to rebuild trust so soon after finding out that he was a lying, cheating scoundrel. To essentially warn Lulu that their marriage wouldn't survive if she didn't get past the anger quickly and give him a chance to patch things up was laughable. This from a man who jumped into bed with the first available warm body he could get his hands on when he erroneously thought his wife had cheated.

Trust is not something you can start rebuilding simply because the transgressor apologized. Lulu needs to forgive before she can even think about trusting him. Finding her husband on a stakeout with the ex-mistress does not foster a desire to forgive.

Dante needs to put real distance between himself and Valerie. He can't be on friendly terms with Valerie and save his marriage. It doesn't work that way. There should never be any hugging, sharing of personal information, or cutesy emails between Dante and Valerie. Any contact between them should be strictly professional and platonic -- and only when absolutely necessary.

Would Dante have sat there and let Nathan fall asleep on his shoulder? No, he would have woken Nathan up or moved him to lean against the window.

Paul is a tough nut to crack. He's bad, but he does demonstrate moments of genuine kindness. At least, it appears that way on the surface. All of Paul's encounters with Dillon have seemed like sincere efforts to forge a relationship with his son, and Paul showed true compassion toward Ava by agreeing to give her time to win custody of her daughter. He even offered her some sage advice on how to prevail in court against Sonny. I can't figure out if he's a good guy posing as a bad guy to catch another bad guy or if he's just a bad guy who has an ulterior motive for everything.

I'm leaning toward the latter because Paul appears to be responsible for T.J.'s abduction, resorts to making veiled threats to Anna about Emma, and recruited Ava to work for him. However, time will tell. Remember when we all thought Jordan was a drug dealer?

So, how about that Morgan? I'm not really sure what flipped his switch this time because he had stabilized for a bit after Sonny was shot, but in the blink of an eye, Morgan morphed back into paranoid mania. This time he's armed with a shotgun and bullets.

It might sound terrible, but a part of me hopes that Morgan trips and shoots Kiki and then himself. I'm not one for violence like that, but I just can't stand Kiki or Morgan. I had really hoped that they would run away together and stay gone, but unfortunately, they just broke into a luxury cabin tucked in an isolated part of the woods near Port Charles, which was conveniently stocked with everything they needed including food, booze, and weapons.

It was sweet of Franco to try to take the fall for Kiki, but Nina was right. Kiki has to face the music and consequences of her actions because nothing is going to change if Kiki continues down the path she's been skipping on since childhood. The fact that Kiki was back to boozing it up and gambling with Morgan at the cabin was proof of that.

It was great to see Shawn. Now let's hope that he sent Hayden to talk to Jordan, so Jordan can have a ballistics test done on the bullet removed from Hayden's brain or send a crime scene unit to find Shawn's bullet that went astray.

Was anyone else giddy with joy like me when Monica invited Jason and Elizabeth to the Quartermaine Thanksgiving dinner? Oh, how I miss those dysfunctional family holiday gatherings. I really hope the writers do it justice.

My new favorite duo: Maxie and Nina. I love the resurrection of Crimson and the idea of Maxie grooming Nina to become the next Anna Wintour of the fashion world. I love that Maxie, Nina, and even Franco not only show an actual desire to have jobs, but also to have real careers.

Carly calls out Sonny for not being realistic about renovating the house to accommodate his wheelchair Carly>: "Are you happy that you can't reach the scotch? I sure as the hell am -- that's going to save us a fortune in broken barware."

Ava goes on an rant about Carly to Paul and gave us this gemAva: "That woman has more and more wedding rings than she's got fingers!"

Nina is upset that Franco spent the night in jailFranco: "Nina, it's okay. I've spent so many nights in lockup, I have a rewards card."

Kiki complains that Nina didn't call to tell Kiki about Franco's arrestNina: "Sorry, I was just working at my new job, thank you very much."Kiki: "How's that going?"Nina: "Swimmingly. How's the drinking going?"

Kiki asks where Scott isKiki: "Where's Franco's father?"Nina: "I don't know. Out of town -- something. It's crazy. I can't find him. It's like shrinks in August, you know? Mm-hmm. They're never around when you need them."

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, and safe Thanksgiving.

Take care and happy viewing,Liz Masters

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