MOM'S THE WORD!
Over on As The World Turns, Emily is turning to prostitution as a way to bolster both her bottom line and her self-esteem while, in Genoa City via L.A., Emily's biological daughter/legal sister, Alison, is doing the same, only through porn.
For those wondering how these two, cute, blond sisters could have sunk so low, the answer, as any good Freudian shrink could tell you, is simple: Mom's to blame.
In Emily and Alison's case, she really, really is.
Sure, these days, Susan (Marie Masters) may be the poster child for nobility as she flits about the hospital, white lab coat gleaming, curing the sick with compassion and unnamed wonder drugs.
But, if you'd seen Susan thirty years ago, the only thing familiar would have been the lab coat. Thirty years ago, Susan was not only using every dirty, underhanded trick in the book to keep her husband, Dan (John Reilly above -- yup, before he was GH's Sean or PASSIONS' Alistar) away from his true love, Kim (Kathryn Hays -- yup, after she was Gem on that classic episode of Star Trek), she was also a drunk and, more importantly, a very, very bad mother.
Susan fought to take little Emily away from Dan even though he was the better parent, then neglected the girl, allowed her to wander out of the house and get lost, then almost die from pneumonia.
Susan eventually lost custody of Emily, and only got her back when Dan died. The two moved off-screen, but viewers can presume Susan's parenting didn't improve much, since the next time we saw Emily, she was James Stenbeck's underage sex kitten, a position not known for attracting women with a strong sense of self-worth.
As for Alison, sure, Susan went to extreme means to have her, getting Emily to donate her egg so Susan could carry a baby for her younger husband, Larry. But it's not just the birthing a child that matters. In the long run, you've got to raise them, too. Sure, Larry turned out to be a jerk who turned his back on them both. But that's no excuse for Susan continuing to put her career ahead of her child, not to mention allowing for Alison to periodically be kidnapped as a result of the bad company Emily tended to keep.
When Susan finds out what Emily and Alison have been up to, she will probably be self-righteously shocked and appalled.
She really has no right to be.
Great post. I think, for all the times the writers have referred to the history between Kim and Susan, it would be nice to have this brought out that the rivalry between the two women stretch far beyond 1990 and the affair Susan had with Bob. Since both actresses have been in the role so long, there are so many great clips that could be played, depending on how much still exists in the archives.
ReplyDeleteI also hope they bring some of these issues out in the context of Alison and Emliy's storyline. So far, I think Emily's sudden turn to prostitution wasn't given enough justification, as many fans seem to concur, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Emily would do something like this, and perhaps the writers will spend significant time examining how and why Emily and Alison have ended up where they are at through their relationship with Susan...