Well, Stokes sure bungled things. It's not terribly surprising: he was in a tough spot. But why oh why did he tell Adam that the reason Carolyn didn't love Adam was that she was rich and sophisticated? Adam has read Elizabeth Barrett Browning's love poems; now what he needs to do is to read some of the thousands of poems that have been written about unrequited love, and to understand that these things happen, and you just have to grit your teeth and live through them. Unfortunately, it was necessary to the plot for Adam to learn what his beginnings were, so Stokes bungled things.
Earlier on, Stokes nearly bungled things with Vicky, too. I guess the impression that was being pushed was that Stokes was simply not adept at social interaction, but it didn't work for me. It just wasn't the way we've seen Stokes before.
There has been some discussion here and there of whether Adam raped Carolyn. Looking at her today, I couldn't say for sure, but looking at Adam, I would say definitely not. If he had raped Carolyn, he would have had a whole lot more to think about than just "Why doesn't Carolyn love me?"
What was the crisis in the kitchen that Carolyn and Vicky dealt with? Carolyn said that Mrs. Johnson was ready to quit. Did Carolyn take something for a meal of Adam's that Mrs. Johnson had intended to use for tonight's dinner? Or did the sink back up? Or was the kitchen poltergeist more active than usual? Or what?
