Thanksgiving 2007

Zach Spaulding, Harley Cooper, Jude Bauer

So we’ve got good news and bad news about this Thanksgiving. The good news is that we have quite a bit of it. They aren’t full episodes, but they are pretty decent chunks out of both the day of and the day before. They focus on the Coopers, Gush, and Natalia and Gus — which as the show was written then this was probably most of the show. Also on the positive side we get a decent look at Jude Bauer and Zach Spaulding which we normally don’t. Sadly Jude is the only Bauer we will see at Thanksgiving this year — which again is typical of the show during this time. Also, Buzz gives a fairly nice Thanksgiving dinner speech continuing that tradition.

On the negative side this is 2007. While the cast and acting remained top notch, the writing was the worst ever for Guiding Light…until 2008 which then took the honor. Not that there wasn’t some good stuff particularly in some of the pairing up  of some of the couples, but look at this mess. Gus and Harley are divorcing not only not because they want to, but because HARLEY told Gus he needed to go marry Natalia to make things up to Rafe because you certainly can’t father a boy if you aren’t married to his mother – face palm. Then they don’t know where anyone is going for Thanksgiving the day before so no one knows how many places to serve (when it takes 4-5 days to defrost a turkey) -face palm. Nobody gives anybody any warning about whether they are accepting an invitation or not and just why does Gus go to Harley’s BEFORE eating with Natalia when he specifically said twice he was going there AFTER. It’s just a mess start to finish. It kind of makes you glad that Manny was out of these writer’s clutches. And just what was Rafe’s problem with the manager at Towers. He didn’t ask Natalia to do one thing that was normally expected of a waitress and of course she was busy not many people wanted to work and more – apparently clueless – people wanted to eat out – just like in real life. I never did figure out the Alan-Rafe-Natalia dynamic. I don’t think Alan is actually thinking of romancing Natalia – although it isn’t really clear and not unheard of for Alan to go after one of the mothers of his grandchildren – I THINK he’s trying to get them in position so Rafe can be his latest golden haired (irony intended) heir.

November 20, 2007

Gus asked Rafe and Natalia to have Thanksgiving with him at Towers. Alan had also asked Rafe and Natalia to come to the Spaulding Mansion. Harley asks Gus to attend Thanksgiving at her house. Gus and Harley are divorcing, but mostly to give Gus a chance to build a family with Natalia for Rafe. It was Harley’s idea, but Gus is going along with it.

Apparently things still haven’t been settled about Thanksgiving even though the turkeys should have been thawing for days now. After he gets an invite from Harley, Gus informs Rafe and Natalia that after their Thanksgiving dinner at Towers he’s heading over to Harley’s to see the boys. Rafe takes offense at this feeling his mother is getting the short change again – which she is, but she’s the one trying to have a romantic relationship with Gus when he clearly has no real interest in anything other than making things up to Rafe – so if she wants him she’s got to expect crap like this. Natalia gets a call in to work triple time for work so they’ll eat at supper time instead of at noon. Alan finds out via a message he’s supposed to pass on to Gus that Natalia and Rafe aren’t eating with him after all. Natalia didn’t even bother to tell Alan they weren’t coming after letting him think they probably were the day before, so again she kind of deserved this. It was hard to get a handle on Alan and Rafe’s relationship, but I think for the most part it was genuine affection on Alan’s part. The box in the drawer in the Spaulding study is the engagement ring Gus bought for Natalia even though she hasn’t accepted it yet.

November 21, 2007

A very rude man gives Natalia a tough time at Towers. Also, apparently the incredibly uniformed man doesn’t recognize Alan Spaulding who comes to Natalia’s rescue. Gus shows up at Harley’s and the boys are glad to see him. Jude is the only Bauer we’ll see celebrate this year. The one with the crew cut is Jude Bauer who as Rafe said, along with Zach Spaulding HAVE fathers who want to be involved (so Phillip’s missing right now, Rick would gladly pick up the slack). However, Harley is one of those mothers who likes to pretend the father of her children no longer exist when she gets involved with a new man. The Coopers are having a nice Thanksgiving family meal when Rafe shows up drunk and disruptive.

On the implication that she will say yes, Gus proposes again to Natalia and gets both her and Rafe’s agreement. Daisy calls Rafe and he comes to meet her. Rafe and Daisy get back together. The fuss between them is that Daisy got pregnant after they had sex and chose to have an abortion without even discussing it with Rafe. He didn’t take it well and both their parents were very upset. Coop had invited Ashlee Wolfe out to the Cooper’s Thanksgiving because they are dating. Doris – Ashlee’s mother – is still working on getting elected mayor.  We miss how, but somehow the dining room table and apparently the kids table was smashed. Harley heads out to a bar where she runs into Cyrus who she had been buried alive with and has felt connected to ever since they were rescued.  It ends with a lovely montage of the couples around town.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.