Karma Season: Soap Opera Digest Critic Tracks Reckonings Across Daytime

Soap Opera Digest's critic has declared open season on daytime's villains, arguing across five shows — General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, Beyond the Gates and Days of our Lives — that payback plots are finally catching up with characters who have dodged consequences for years. "It's about time," the critic writes.

What is happening on General Hospital?

Brennan's murder is the engine. Carly is covering for Charlotte and Danny, who left the WSB rogue dead in her hotel pool. Ava let Drew frame her "best friend" Nina for the crime — payback for Nina dumping Drew's wheelchair in a lake.

Nobody on screen knows how Brennan actually died. That has not stopped anyone from pointing fingers. Drew, whom the critic calls "smug," ordered champagne to toast Carly and Valentin's arrest despite knowing he and Ava drugged Brennan.

Ava: "There's still time for something to turn up." Drew: "If I'm not concerned, why are you?" Ava: "Because I've allied myself with you."

Ava's guilt pushed her to ask Lucas to put in a good word with his cop roommate Joe. Joe deemed Aunt Ava's behavior a red flag — until he found an even redder one: Carly and Valentin standing over Brennan's corpse. Lucas returned to plead his sister's case.

Lucas: "Carly probably mouthed off to you." Joe: "I didn't arrest Carly because of her issues with authority or bad taste in boyfriends."

Alexis holds more evidence, but her insistence on attorney-client privilege keeps protecting Port Charles's guiltiest parties — Ava, Drew and Willow, per the critic. She will defend her grandson Danny, but only after lecturing him on fleeing dead spies. "Preferably before you flee the scene of a crime," she tells him, after he promises: "The next time I get in trouble, I'll ask for help."

The irony, the critic notes: the cleanest figure in the melodrama is former hitman Jason Morgan — in on the cover-up, but with nothing to do with the crime. Tracy left Jason in charge of the family on her way out of town, pausing to lecture Gio: "In this house we lie and cheat and steal from each other, but when one of us is in trouble we close ranks and help."

Who is closing in on EJ DiMera?

On Days of our Lives, the noose is tightening on EJ DiMera. The critic catalogs his record: "the worst husband, father, partner, boss, friend," with crimes "ranging from rape to poisoning the water supply." He rarely admits guilt, choosing to blame others. Even Belle is rooting for her ex's downfall.

Belle: "How's The Spectator's investigation into EJ going?" Chad: "We've got smoke, we just have to figure out what's burning."

EJ's son Johnny is grabbing his wife and kids and walking away. "Johnny's biggest fear is he's going to turn out like his father," Chanel tells Marlena. "Our parents mold us, but we write the rest of our story." Marlena's reply — "I certainly hope that's true" — came as she prepared to meet the much-discussed man who may or may not be her son with Stefano DiMera. No one was more nervous than EJ.

Dominic: "Dominic Marino. Hello, brother."

"If the law can't take EJ down, maybe this guy will," the critic writes.

Why is Katie going after Brooke now?

On The Bold and the Beautiful, Katie has turned the launch of her fashion company into delayed revenge against Brooke for sleeping with her husband Bill back in 2013. The sisters pushed through it then; Brooke's refusal to accept Katie's success at Logan reopened the wound.

Brooke asked Bill to intervene over Katie "stealing Forrester employees" — meaning she offered them better jobs. Katie detonated, invoking Bill's "disgusting stallion emoji," then invoking Stephanie's old insult: "You're just a slut from the valley. I will never forgive you for this."

She turned on Donna too, for standing with Brooke: "If you're going to stand next to her, then I'm done with you, too." The critic concedes it is odd that Katie waited 13 years, but argues the twist upends Katie/Bill, Ridge/Brooke and the entire Logan family, including Hope. His verdict: "Bring on Thanksgiving!"

Will Billy and Diane ever change?

On The Young and the Restless, Billy admitted to Jack: "I've been an ungrateful ass, and for that I am sorry." The critic is unmoved — Billy will still make his "900th play for Chancellor." Everyone except Sally knows the Abbott scion will never change.

Diane, who begged forgiveness for disappearing for a decade, is now lying to Jack about leaving Nikki's new company alone. She wants to bury Vibrante and asked for Kyle's help. He refused: "I'm with Dad on this one."

Diane: "I haven't tried to sell it yet."

Jack, the critic notes, will always be Team Nikki — "a fighter who speaks her mind and never faked her death." Nikki, meanwhile, is mocking Diane as an "old brontosaurus" for reviving a classic Jabot campaign and casting herself in the ads. Diane had to blackmail Jack into giving her the job in the first place.

Who pays next on Beyond the Gates?

Bill Hamilton is the critic's clearest case of karma arriving hard. Trapped in a battle with pregnant ex Hayley, he regrets blowing up his life with Dani: "I gave up the one woman who loved me, and the family we made together, for a woman who tried to kill me."

Bill now lives alone in the house he bought for Hayley — "The silence is loud," he told Naomi. When Naomi offered to deliver Bill's document terminating all parental rights to Hayley's baby, Hayley realized her plan to milk Bill for money had devolved into single motherhood. Naomi's benediction: "Justice comes in many forms."

The critic's sign-off frames the whole column: "Hey. It's only my opinion." Whether the writers let any of these reckonings stick — daytime's villains have survived worse — is the question the sweeps ratings will answer.