I have lost count when it comes to how many people Todd has hurt. He seems tied into the misery of almost everyone on the show. I felt really sorry for all the people who had to break such awful news to their loved ones about what Todd did to Marty, not to mention how horrible it was for the people who had to hear the story.

First John had to stand in the police station in handcuffs and tell Blair the news about Todd that even she couldn’t have imagined. You know Todd has gone way over the line when even Blair can’t believe how far he has gone.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Blair had to hear the news that Todd has been keeping Marty as a prisoner in his house; she then has to hear that Todd was planning to steal Starr’s baby, run away with Marty and raise that baby on their own. John didn’t even know at that point that Blair was already dealing with the belief that Starr’s baby had died. And just as a side note, I really am a sucker for the romantic gesture and all through that scene where John told Blair what happened I was thinking it was too bad he was handcuffed because Blair could use a good hug. Then, Mr. No Words came through and gently raised his cuffed hands over Blair’s head and wrapped them around her to give her a nice, warm hug. I have to give John credit; I’d love to hear more verbal sentiment from John, but that gesture said more than a lot of words could. I loved that moment. It was a quiet moment where John let Blair know that he really cares about her. He and Blair have an as yet undefined relationship and he knows that with Marty back in the picture it makes things sticky.

John is a good guy, plain and simple and he wouldn’t want anyone hurt, especially Blair.

Okay, so then Blair has the horrible task of telling Starr what her dear daddy has done, as if Starr hasn’t had enough hurt to handle. How do you tell a kid that her father wanted to steal her baby and run away to raise it with her boyfriend’s presumed-dead mother? Of course this could only happen on a soap opera. At least Starr has a wonderful support system. I liked that she wanted to be left alone with Cole to grieve with him over their lost baby. These young people need each other. I have to say that in the midst of the insanity of this storyline, some things stood out as really well done. I loved the scene where Langston went to Starr and Starr showed her the locket that Marcie gave her, which would have held a picture of the baby. Langston tells Starr that her grief counselor told her that she might like to have something to remember the baby by, so she brings Starr a lock of the baby’s hair to put in the locket. That was a beautiful scene and once again I have to say that the young people on the show have so pleasantly surprised me this year that I prefer seeing them to a lot of the grown-ups. The writers do well by these young actors.

And what can we say about Cole? This poor kid has been through hell and back in the past year, dealing with his mother’s death, his troubled relationship with Starr, the pregnancy and dealing with living in a new home with people who aren’t his family. Just when he has begun to come to terms with his mother’s death and ironically is talking about burying his child next to his mother, Marty miraculously appears in front of his eyes. That was some moment. It is very upsetting to Cole that Marty can’t remember anything about him except for a couple of things from his childhood, but he’s so happy to have her back and it is great to watch them get reacquainted. One simply line said it all when Cole looked at Nora and said, “I have my mom back.” It is tough for Marty because she feels stifled by Cole trying to get her to remember everything, but at least she now knows whom to trust.

And of course, we have to talk about the poison in Llanview. Oh, for those of you who don’t know me, I am referring to Todd. So, there he lies beaten to a pulp in the hospital. Cole had to hear the news from Nora about what Todd did to his mother and I don’t know how Cole refrained from smothering Todd with that pillow when he stood over him and Todd admitted that he had been with Marty all this time. I give Cole a lot of credit for maintaining his cool (not many people could have done that) because when he realized that Todd has slept with his mother and asked Todd point blank if he did it, Todd just looked up at him and said, “Yeah.” At that point, I was surprised that Cole didn’t break Todd’s arms and legs and then smother him. It just shows how disgusting Todd is because even after being beaten nearly to death and claiming to be so remorseful, he looked Marty’s son right in the eye and seemed to take pleasure out of admitting he slept with his mother. You’d think he could finally keep his stupid mouth shut. NOT!

I’m glad that Marty has found her anger and hopefully she will be so driven to get back at Todd that she will stop blaming herself for what happened. It’s horrible that she has to face the fact that he lied to her and let her form a whole new life with him, only to find out how badly he has used her. I think that taking the morning after pill was a step for Marty to take back control of her life and completely wipe any trace of Todd out of it. Even the possibility that she could be pregnant was too much for her to bear and she did what she needed to do to deal with the situation. Now that the writers have gone so far over the line of decency with the Todd/Marty storyline, I am very glad they didn’t go even further and have Marty carrying Todd’s child. Maybe they got enough negative feedback from all the fans who found it abhorrent that Todd even got close to Marty, let alone got his dirty hands on her again.