BLOODLINES: ATWT

On January 31, Faith Snyder and Parker Munson share a bonding moment over having messed up parents. (Frankly, it's a conversation any child in Oakdale could have with any other child, but, next Thursday, it's Faith and Parker's turn). Also featured in the episode are Faith's sister, Natalie, and Parker's sort of brother, JJ.

They may all just be pre-teens now, but any soap fan worth their lather knows that today's cute kids are tomorrow's supercouples (sometimes, thanks to Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, "tomorrow" means literally that).

But, the older the show, the more careful it has to be about avoiding inadvertent incest amidst all the double and triple crossed bloodlines. (By law, Lily is Holden's niece, since her biological mother is Holden's sister and her biological father is his cousin. But since both of Lily's parents were adopted Snyders, it's okay).

While Jack may have claimed he brought JJ to Oakdale because he'd grown to love the boy while married to his mother, I suspect it was more of a fresh blood thing. Of course if, down the road, JJ ends up falling for his "sister" Sage, will that be acceptable because they're not blood related, or icky because they were raised as siblings?

Lucky for JJ, his field of potential dates is wide open (in soap terms, anyway, where having two girls in your age rage who aren't related is considered a windfall). Unless a big, biological secret is revealed at some point in the future, he is not blood related to either Faith or Natalie Snyder (though, as Jack's adopted son, they are legal second cousins).

Parker isn't related to Faith or Natalie, either, except, again, as Jack's son if the adoption his former stepfather proposed at Christmas goes through.

So could we be looking at an all Snyder quadrangle down the road?

Well, there wouldn't be any incest laws broken. Though I strongly urge Parker and JJ to keep their biological parents' names. Because a love story where everyone was named Snyder would just be too weird... (Though under the writing regime of Doug Marland, where everyone, including all of the Snyder boys, were madly in love with Lily, it sort of did already happen.)