Has any recently returned character on soaps been shoehorned into more stories off the bat than Dusty Donovan?

The brilliant Emily and Casey pairing clearly was sacrificed at the altar of an Emily/Dusty redux.

Paul and Meg are once again threatened by Dusty, this time mainly as a result of Paul's insane jealousy, not to mention Dusty always managing to stick his nose in their business.

Lily and Holden were supposedly on the road to reconciliation for the 149th time until Dusty popped back up.

Now Dusty has purchased controlling shares of Worldwide from Lucinda in a logic defying character twist for her (as a result of a couple of words from Brian that she live her own life, which has no real relationship to Lucinda as a businesswoman) that rings completely false. READ MORE

Today's episode of As the World Turns was a sterling example of what a good, rock solid soap can be from top to bottom when the stories told are driven by character and relationships, regardless of the plot mechanics involved. READ MORE

In today's episode:

Luke & Noah: They're back on screen and together. Yay! They get to kiss and smooch and make ugly happy faces! Yay! They still have less screen time than 4 year old day player Ethan. Boo! (Not much to say since they didn't have much to do.).

Carly/Jack/Janet: Jack asks Carly if they can try again. For the 8,271st time. Yay! Carly kicks him to the curb! Yay! Carly tells Janet to come take care of him because Janet is good for Jack! Yay?

Lily/Holden/Carly: Just when I thought this triangle was being abandoned, it looks as if it's going to be reconfigured to include Dusty now that Mike has decided to kick rocks. READ MORE

Check out this preview clip of Friday's episode of As the World Turns where Will Dailey performs during the benefit to save the Snyder Farm.

I've been really busy the last few days and have had to play catch up with As the World Turns, but now that the DVR has practically melted down I'm still enjoying what I'm seeing overall...

THE STAR WARS SAGA CONTINUES:

Darth Vader/Darth Sidous (James Stenbeck) continued to woo weak-willed, emotionally confused and immature Anakin Skywalker (Paul Ryan) to the dark side by twisting psychological daggers in Anakin's/Paul's back. As I've said before, this isn't a new development, but rather a direct nod to ATWT's history of James' attempts to turn Paul to "the dark side." READ MORE