You know the song and the adage, “Save the Best for Last”, well, that is exactly what Sal Stowers (Lani Price Grant) did, when she had viewers of Days of our Lives in tears during her final scenes on Friday’s episode of the long-running NBC soap opera.

Stowers, who along with her co-star, Lamon Archey (Eli), opted not to renew their contracts with the series, which then facilitated their exits. Thus, viewers were in for one last emotional ride during their departures.

Now, while Lani admitted she killed TR, and quickly got a plea deal, she was then ready to be transferred to an out-of-state prison facility to serve out her time.  While all of this happened in short order, for the back-half of Friday’s episode you needed to have the hankies ready. That’s because of Stowers heartfelt goodbyes with her co-stars, which also played out for her on-screen alter ego, Lani.

In story, Abe (James Reynolds) joins Paulina (Jackée Harry) and Lani in the Salem PD interrogation room. With tears welling up in his eyes, Abe hands Lani some documents to sign.  After she realizes what they are, Lani says, “You want to adopt me?” Abe says, ‘yes’, and lets her know that she’s his daughter in every way that counts.

After Lani and Abe share a tender moment together, Lani turns to Paulina and gives her the greatest gift – acknowledging Paulina as her mother.

Photo: JPI

Later with Chanel (Raven Bowens), Theo (Cameron Johnson), and now Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes) and Eli present, Rafe shows up to tell Elani that the transfer is done, and Lani can go to the facility in D.C.  That prompts Rafe to share emotional hugs with his two best cops.  It is then that Eli tells Lani he is moving to D.C. to be close to her.

Before Lani heads off, Paulina asks her to say it one more time.  Lani simply, once again, calls her “Mom”.  Elani’s twins, Carver and Jules are there as well, and Lani tells her children she is going on a little trip, but she will never, ever stop thinking of them.

Photo: JPI

The final moment of the episode has Lani and Eli giving one last look to their family collectively, before they exit the police station.

Throughout all of the goodbyes, there was never a false note delivered by Sal Stowers.  She always brought the strength, elegance, and determination of Lani Price to her performances, and this time, she did it with heartbreaking moments we will remembers for some time to come.  For all of these reasons, Michael Fairman TV names Sal Stowers work, The Power Performance of the Week.

What did you think of  Lani and Eli’s goodbyes to their loved ones? Sal’s performance? Let us know in the comment section below.

Finally, after many preemptions, General Hospital’s 15,000the episode aired on Wednesday. In it and front and center in the standalone episode was GH icon, Genie Francis (Laura).

In story, after a scathing op-ed is run in The Invader from a group of citizens called “The Friend of Port Charles”, they take aim at Mayor Laura Collins and want a recall to replace her. When trying to figure out who was behind the story, Laura’s friends and the citizens of the town, band together to keep her from being ousted and to figure out who would attack her in the press like this.

That sets up a few sentimental flashback clips featuring the three current longest-running members of the cast, Genie, Kin Shriner (Scott) and Jackie Zeman (Bobbie).  Viewers get a glimpse of Scotty and Laura’s wedding, and then Bobbie’s contentious and duplicitous side when she fought for the love of Scotty against a teenaged Laura.

As Laura tries to determine who is behind the op-ed, Curtis (Donnell Turner) gets a lead from Ms. Wu (Lydia Look) that Laura’s half-brother, Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober) is behind it.  Laura then heads to Pentonville to confront Cyrus.  She asks if he’s the brains behind “The Friends of Port Charles”.

Cyrus insists he is only an advisor. He goes on to say that this is a group of people who are disillusioned by the way she is running the town.  Cyrus gets angry and vengeful, and emotional, when saying the police department is corrupt and how ELQ and Cassadine Industries gets tax breaks at the expense of less fortunate people, etc.  Laura can’t figure out if these people in the ‘friends’ group have such high moral value why would they hire a criminal, like him, as an advisor?

Renault goes on to say that it’s up to God and preaches she needs to be less self-righteous.  Laura throws back to Cyrus that where was God in that scathing op-ed, that he did filled with such hate?  Laura then forgives him and walks out, which stuns Cyrus.

Photo: ABC

Later, Scotty in front of Laura, Bobbie, Anna (Finola Hughes), Felicia (Kristina Wagner) and Lucy (Lynn Herring), proposes to Liesl (Kathleen Gati), but she turns down his marriage proposal.  Liesl feels they have a good thing going , so why mess it up with a marriage at this point. The two kiss.

In addition, Laura meets up with Maxie (Kirsten Storms), who are visiting an institutionalized Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst).  Maxie brings her some cosmetics from Deception because of the bad lighting in the facility.

The softball game was the throughline of the episode, and at the end, we saw the payoff, when all the characters converged on Charlie’s giving their support to Laura, who says she is ready to write her rebuttal.

Then in a voice-over from Laura, she speaks to the essence of Port Charles and its residents which included: that they have a strong community that she is proud to be a part of it and she speaks to her legacy over generations.  Kevin (Jon Lindstrom) proposes a toast to Laura, as she notes that if she loses the recall then so be it, adding that if the person who replaces her is a Port Charles lifer, like she is, then the town will continue to prosper.

So, what did you think of the 15,000 episode milestone episode? Did you enjoy the performance of Genie Francis? Did you like the way much of the cast was utilized, or did you feel otherwise? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Gotta love two creepy mothers toiling over their near-dead son as they try to bring him back to life! That’s the scenario on The Bold and the Beautiful and the words, “Oh, mother!” were taken to a new heights on Friday’s cliffhanger of the CBS daytime drama series.

In story, now that Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) has stumbled upon the truth at Li’s (Naomi Matsuda) place – that Li has been keeping a very much alive Finn (Tanner Novlan) all to herself and caring for his health – bio-mom, nasty nurse Sheila, is not too happy about Li’s secret, although overjoyed that her son is alive and that she did not actually kill him after she fired a bullet meant for Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood).

Photo: JPI

Now, with Sheila escaped from prison, and Finn starting to regain consciousness, in Sheila’s mind there should only be one mother tending to him, and she wants to be the first person he sees when he wakes up and that’s her.   So, as only Sheila does, she knocks Li out and unconscious on the floor.  Sheila then tells Finn, “Mama’s right here, baby.”

Suddenly, Finn seems to slip back into a coma and is no longer able to open his eyes.  A panicked Sheila shouts to Li, “Get up. He needs your help.” After waking up from the hit to the hit, Li seems to find common ground with Sheila.  She goes so far as to say to Sheila, “If not for you. I never would have had him, and for that, I have to be grateful.”

Sheila apologizes for having hitting her (Is she really sorry? Please!) and admits she thought Li would turn her back into the police. Li says, “We’re both Finn’s mothers!”  Next, the two hug it out, of sorts, although Li looks petrified.

Li tells Sheila that since Sheila is a nurse, she needs supplies and needs her help to keep Finn alive.  Li promises Sheila that she won’t call the police, admitting that she also has so much to lose including: her medical career, her son, etc, because she faked Finn’s death certificate, smuggled him out of the hospital, and more!

Now, Finn starts to move.  Li says to her son, “Both of your mothers are here!”  Then, Finn starts to open his eyes.  We fade to black.

With all the bashing (literally), contentiousness, and high stakes; that both mothers would have to go to the slammer for a longtime, will they reunite and work together to keep the secret that Finn is alive and get him back to a full recovery … or will they turn on each other?  Will Sheila knock out Li again and have her locked up, so she can be Finn’s only mom in her twisted mind? Share your theories via the comment section, but first, check out two clips from Friday’s B&B featuring the on-going great work of Kimberlin Brown and Naomi Matsuda in this storyline.