Sandor, as I watched today's episode, I was thinking to myself, "So what is it about Don Briscoe that grabs so many fans?" Because whatever it is, I don't get it. Nice guy, nothing special. Care to enlighten me?
Based on this episode: no, there's no difference between Tom and Chris. I liked Tom before Angelique bit him, as I mentioned before. He came across as a nice, happy-go-lucky guy. After the bite, Tom is anguished, and his anguish looks just like Chris's anguish to me.
This is also the episode with the wonderful scene in the Blue Whale in which Nicholas, having arranged for Angelique to take ownership of Joe, starts taking ownership of Maggie. And once again - just like a year ago - I'm all for Maggie dumping plain old Joe and going for the exciting though inhuman alternative. I do think, however, that Maggie was hard on Joe. For nearly two years now he's been Mr. Reliable, and now, just one slip and she's furious with him. And Nicholas happily fanned the flames by admiring her "sense of self". Very smooth.
I liked the little black nurse. I think she's the first good nurse I've seen so far on the show. She was no-nonsense, but you could tell she could be nice to a patient. It's a pity Julia never saw her efficient way with sedatives; Julia would have hired her as an assistant immediately.