Am I the only one here who HATED the return of Willie Loomis?
Didn't any one else throw something at the TV?
...
The nature of Willie's relationship to Barnabas Collins ALWAYS makes me want to shriek.....but this was beyond endurance.
That Willie would even for an instant consider staying and helping the man who: enslaved him, beat him, tormented him, threatened him, framed him, belittled him, betrayed him......isn't just stupid. It's sickening.
If they had wanted to, they could have written Willie's return in much different terms. He could have come back older and wiser, angry and vengeful, with something of his original personality, determined to let Barnabas and Julia know he was no longer afraid. He could have demanded admissions of guilt and apologies all round, and only when Barnabas had admitted to both contrition and helplessness, should Willie have thought about remaining to help. In one conversation (this IS a soap opera, after all) they could have changed the nature of the entire relationship in a way that would have resolved past issues and opened up new possibilities for the interactions of all three characters. Instead of being needed merely to babysit the contents of a casket, he could have brought some of the original hoodlum?s talents to the fight against the Leviathans. They could have made REAL use of one of the most talented actors in the studio.
But no. They brought him back the same simpering, pathetic child...still hoping to please his abusive parent....even to the point of destroying the first chance at happiness he's ever had. One can only assume the mail indicated this was the way the fans liked Willie. Or maybe TPTB were just too damned lazy.
Better he had stayed away...
...
I came in late to this discussion, and have heard mention of the Stockholm Syndrome, which is a reasonable explanation as to the why of it. Willie had been tormented for so long that he became used to it, that he developed an affection for his tormentors, and so on. For anyone interested in this topic, there are plenty of websites. Most of them talk intelligently about why this syndrome occurs, how fast, what are the conditions under which it occurs, and so on. Willie has been subjected to all of them. And then some.
Someone suggested that Willie would just shrug it off, in his Willie-way, matter of fact and accepting, but I might add that it doesn't make it any less frustrating to watch him not stand up for himself. Like, at all.
It's hard to watch him this way. I prefer Post-Barn Willie, where he's still getting into it with Barn, going toe to toe with him on issues of the decency of letting people live their own lives, not forcing someone to love you, letting people live, for crying out loud! All of those, Willie is Barn's own personal Jiminy Cricket. Post -Barn you can watch Willie badgering Barn, following him around, reminding him over and over of the need to be gentle, forgiving, open minded, not to destroy foolishly and bring the law down upon the Old House. Etc, etc, etc. (He doesn't use those exact words, of course, but I think the message is there.)
I even prefer Pre-Barn Willie - a street punk with slicked back hair taking no bullshit from no body. I think he had a strong character back then, which allowed him to mostly survive the crap that was handed out to him later.
The pity of it is, the character of Willie disintegrated into nothing more than a step-n-fetch it dogsbody. "Go do this, pick up that, kill this vampire." Totally underutilizing the potential of the character, and the storylines that could have developed, if, like was mentioned, when Willie came back, he demanded and got more respect. They USED him on that show - they didn't utilize him. The writers messed up, and we missed out on what could have been many, many powerful performances.
So that's my two cents worth.
Maine Girl
