I've been watching the Viki/Burke romance storyline for the first time, and find it kind of disturbing.  First of all, I can't imagine Mitch Ryan's Burke ever saying most of the things that Burke #2 does.  But this revised character is sending up all sorts of red flags for domestic violence in my view.  There is a deep conservatism and smarminess beneath his romantic gestures.   He is possessive, controlling, agressive and creepy.  He tries to tell Viki where she should and shouldn't go, condescends to her about her 'vivid imagination' and wants to decide for her who she should be friends with.  He has a fit when she doesn't do what he recommends.

When he proposes, she says she doesn't know if she should accept not knowing her identity and he tells her, "you'll have an identity, you'll be Mrs. Burke Devlin."  Which is so sexist and creepy that I imagine if Joe had said it to Maggie she would have screamed her head off.  Then he tells her in a passage that is supposed to be sweet that "I'll ask you again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day until you say yes..." which is ultimately harassment, proven by his continued impatience in waiting for her answer.  She asks about his past, and he refuses to tell her anything about it, saying it is none of her buisness and he is only interested in the future.  Right after she accepts his proposal, he demands she never go to the old house again while refusing to tell her why (this is as far as I've gotten.)

Burke #2 really seems like the kind of guy who the day after they're married and she refuses to follow some order of his, will slap her in the face hard enough to land on the floor and then later come back crying, begging for her forgiveness (this is how most marriages on Dark Shadows end up, really).  And Viki likely wouldn't know what to do, because her own past as an orphan has blinded her to this guy and how messed up he really is.   Mitch Ryans Burke painted himself as someone too ambitous to go after an orphaned governess, but Anthony George's seems to see as her easy prey, much more 'managable' then someone like Laura or Carolyn.   Just like Barnabas, he wants to feed off her vulnerabilities and use her, isolate her in a barren old house by the sea and cut her off from her support network.    I wish Frank Garner had stayed around, he would be so much better as a love interest.  But I absolutely hate Anthony George's Burke, I can't wait for him to [spoiler]take his plane ride[/spoiler] (though sadly jeff clarke isn't much better.)