Taking on a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) storyline on the soaps can be extraordinarily challenging for the performer who is tasked with making a clear distinction and delineation between the various alters of their character.

However, the other trick to playing this kind of story, is often having the various alters trying to hide the fact from those they know and love of what is truly going on with them, so as not to tip them off, as to what is happening to them as they battle for control of a person’s psyche.

The gold standard is One Life to Live icon Erika Slezak’s (ex-Viki) Emmy-winning and gut-wrenching and riveting DID storyline where we met Tori, Niki (although we met her earlier in the life of the show), Tommy, Princess, Jean and even her father, Victor.

Photo: JPI

Now in 2024, The Young and the Restless’ Eileen Davidson is playing out a new DID storyline for the first time as Ashley Abbott. We knew decades ago that Ashley had a breakdown and has suffered psychological issues, but this has taken it to a new level. And, let’s be real, if you are going to give someone currently on a soap a DID story, who better than Davidson, who is used to playing multiple characters at one time as she did on Days of our Lives. Although on DAYS, each of the characters were their own distinct person, while now on Y&R, Ashley’s alters are fighting for control of her being,

Last week, on the Thursday, April 12th episode of the CBS soap opera, Davidson truly got to shine, as in front of the Abbott family and through what was supposed to be an intervention (they hadn’t figure out what the hell was happening to her), Ashley was flipping from alter to alter. We know there is Ms. Abbott, and Ash thus far, but there is said to be one more alter a-coming.

Photo: JPI

In the key scenes, Davidson’s internal struggle was played pretty masterfully in a scene where she literally is in a tug of war with her alters and flings herself on the couch, while Jack (Peter Bergman), Diane (Susan Walters), Billy (Jason Thompson) and Traci (Beth Maitland) look on. Of course, there are the soap trope scenes of alters in handcuffs while the other is on the loose. And leave it to Billy to figure out Ashley is suffering from DID from his past experience.

Photo: JPI

While this all seemed to spring from Ashley’s messy relationship with Tucker (Trevor St. John) and a throw back to an old car accident where she lost her unborn baby, is there some other underlying issue in Ashley’s past that was even more traumatizing that will be revealed as another trigger for this massive personality split? We shall see.

Photo: JPI

In the meantime, Michael Fairman TV names Eileen Davidson’s work the Power Performance of the Week, and rest assured, come 2025, Davidson will find herself going for the third Daytime Emmy win as Lead Actress for this storyline.

So, let us know, what did you think of Eileen’s performance? Are you enjoying Ashley’s DID storyline? What do you think will happen to her next? Comment below.

The Bold and the Beautiful revealed at the end of the Friday April 13th episode what many viewers had guessed, that it wasn’t Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) who died when Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) stabbed her, but it had to her doppelgänger, Sugar, or at least it seems that way.

Deacon (Sean Kanan) has been beside himself since seeing what was supposed to be Sheila’s body being cremated, but revealing the body had ten toes and not nine, and we all know Sheila had cut off her toe, so she only had nine.

While explaining his thoughts that she is alive to Finn (Tanner Novlan) and then trying later to explain to Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), Deacon is more convinced that something is wrong here. Meanwhile, Finn went to talk to Steffy about Deacon’s theory, which stuns her, as she believed she killed Sheila in self-defense.

Courtesy/CBS

At Il Giardino, Deacon looks at his phone then slams it down. He flashes back to the body going into the crematorium oven saying to himself, “Maybe I’m not going crazy. Maybe that wasn’t you. And if that wasn’t you, maybe you’re out there. Maybe you need my help.”

Deacon gets on Sheila’s laptop and tries to find something that might help him figure out where Sheila has gone. He looks at her text message communications and sees a section from an unknown number. He opens the messages, and Deacon reads that they’re from someone named “Sugar.”  That person said she was going to find Sheila. In the messages, Sheila made it clear she wanted no part of her. But it could be that Sheila met up with Sugar, or was forced too?

Courtesy/CBS

In a quick history lesson about the character of Sugar: she was originally played by Robin Mattson on B&B, and was a former prison warden who helped Sheila escape and then joined her in kidnapping Ridge Forrester to hold him for ransom. A twisted plot ensued, where flames engulfed the foundry they were at and Ridge was presumed dead. Meanwhile, Sheila and Sugar disappeared with Massimo and Sheila’s baby, Diana.

Photo: JPI

Fast forward to 2006, Sheila returned to Genoa City to go after Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman) again and was arrested for attacking Scott Grainger (Peter Barton). In a shocker, when Lauren went to visit Sheila in the slammer, she learned that the woman behind bars was actually Sugar, who had been given plastic surgery and now looks exactly like Sheila.

Now the questions become, did Sheila know that Sugar was going to attack Steffy? Did they have a plan and it went awry, or was Sheila hoping she could get rid of both Sugar and Steffy, by having her daughter-in-law sent to prison for her “murder”? Or, is Sheila out there somewhere in trouble?

Share your theories via the comment section below, and if you knew all along that it would be revealed that Sugar is the person who actually died and not Sheila. But first, check out next week on B&B where Deacon gets a visit from Lauren.

Is Deacon losing his mind? Next week on @BandB_CBS pic.twitter.com/JxVKxY039d

— Sean Kanan (@seankanan) April 13, 2024

On the Tuesday, April 9th episode of General Hospital, Drew (Cameron Mathison) and Nina’s (Cynthia Watros) explosive relationship just turned up the heat another notch.

In story, Nina who was responsible (although she doesn’t see it that way) for Drew being sent to prison for insider trading when she tipped off the SEC, let out her feelings to him about how to get back in the good graces of her daughter, Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) and Michael (Chad Duell). In doing so, she asks him for his help with it.

For months, the two have had nothing short of contentious moments, where Drew has not let Nina off the hook for what he did to him, or to his ex Carly (Laura Wright). Fast-forward and when alone in the Crimson office, Nina brings up wanting to stick it to Carly again.

Photo: ABC

As they banter back and forth, Drew can’t figure out why he should help Nina at all with any of her manipulations. Suddenly, as he tried to exit, his shirt rips and exposes his bare chest and abs, and Nina get quite an eyeful. From there, things become physical and before you know it, Drew and Nina are making out and having their version of hate-sex.

Courtesy/ABC

Cameron Mathison spoke to Soap Opera Digest on the shocking turn events, sharing, “I didn’t see it coming at all. I really didn’t. I think the audience did. Cynthia did some appearances and I guess the audience was ‘You and Drew, there’s some sexy chemistry there.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what? Really?’ I didn’t even get it. So I love it that it was very unexpected. The writers saw it, too. And, I love that it’s not a typical way for two people to be … physical. I was gonna say intimate, but there’s not a lot of intimacy there. And then as soon as it’s over, it’s back to arguing and giving each other crap again. It was really cute and really well done.”

As the fallout for their office room romp will air on the Wednesday April 10th episode, just how will the two deal with the fact that they had this fiery passionate moment in the weeks and months ahead? Will this be Nina’s new plot to get at Carly to be seen with her ex? Will Drew and Nina never speak of this again? (Well, this is a soap opera, after all, that’s pretty doubtful), or is this part of a major reset for some of the characters on the canvas now that Patrick Mulcahey and Elizabeth Korte are co-head writing the show?

Courtesy/ABC

Speaking on the aftermath of the tryst, Mathison added, “The two of them are both like, all right, let’s forget about that and move on. It’s like a weird kind of aggression attraction. There’s obviously attraction there, but I don’t think either of them expected it, and I think they’re both totally shocked and surprised by it. I think Drew gets a kick out of it whereas Nina is a little embarrassed by it.”

Now let us know, did you see this coming? Did you think Drew and Nina would have sex? What do you think of the story turn? Comment below.