Lydia: I don't think Carolyn had a thing for Jason though, but just thought he was an entertaining guest, and she enjoyed thinking of some past romance, or something, that her mother might have had with him.
Yes, it's an odd feeling, a bit like betrayal, to go through Burke vs. Roger for months, trying to buy that something earth-shattering is unfolding, only to have it shelved for weeks in favor of a new storyline, with it then hastily tied up in a sloppy bow. The actors commit to it. There are good scenes in this resolution: Maggie and Sam, Roger with Liz. I'm glad Sproat/Marmorstein were doing this stretch, rather than that Frances Swann, if that was his name, whose writing made him seem like a pale wishy washy Art Wallace substitute, didn't it?
Of course, Roger couldn't get shishkebobbed, because they wanted Louis Edmonds to stay-- more than they wanted Mitch Ryan to stay, I'll guess. Credit to DS's makers for valuing the character actor over the Dirk Squarejaw character, as excellent and rascally a Dirk Squarejaw as Mitch was.... When they took the fire out of Burke's belly, by downplaying and softening his vendetta, having him make exceptions to it, having him put it on the shelf to deal with Laura... they eroded the character and made him into a redundant goof. You end up sort of wondering why he's still hanging around, not good for the young firebrand character, or young turk, or whatever you call his type of character! (I'm mangling old cliches from before I was born, but I love anachronisms and recklessly hate checking my definitions tonight!)
I didn't accept Burke's big-hearted about-face either, of course. I'd like to know who could... no disrespect meant toward anyone who did buy Burke's shrugging off of his holy vendetta. I just can't imagine it. Burke is now part of the Collins conspiracy of silence concerning the stupid, tragic, pointless hit-and-run death of poor Mister.... uh, wait, I'll get it... (name sounds like that of the Vicki-like Sam portrait subject, and that of the Collins servant on the receipt Vicki found in the Malloy seaweed room David locked Vicki up in). If asked in town about how his vendetta's going, what's Burke going to say? Oh that... I just lost interest! No, the Collinses didn't pay me off! Wait, I didn't even get paid off?! What happened to my business sense?!
You CAN make sense out of it, if you want. Who'd want to throw Sam in jail after the story about his wife's illness and death? Burke also almost-sort-of-witnessed (via occasional reports from Vicki and Mrs. J-- kudoes to Sarah J for getting paid for what Vicki was giving away free) the troubles of the Collinses caused by Laura, especially ECS, and how they were suffering because of his former girlfriend, who had duped all of them (creating a we're-all-in-this-together feeling?). There was no evident "evolution" in Burke's thinking though. He kept switching his vendetta back on and then off again, like a light switch, through all these events... rather than seeming gradually to learn things about the people involved, that made him give up on his revenge.
I'm in a strange place from a mold reaction with no end in sight, plus a neurological rewaction to a pain killer, so that's why I'm babbling so much tonight. A coherent sort of babble, I hope... I'm doing my best.
