Daniel and Harriet Collins

I don't know if anyone has said anything about this, but I'd be interested to know more about the Daniel Collins "backstory" to 1840.  I'm wondering who Harriet was (besides being his wife) and why Daniel murdered her.

Despite his being a murderer, Daniel is one of the characters we sympathise most with in this storyline.  This complexity of character and the ambivalent feelings the viewer has toward him -- we sympathize, but at the same time have reservations knowing that he's a murderer -- is a sign of good character development -- by both writer and actor.  I always prefer shades of gray to black and white interpretations.

Ok, this may be a long shot: but IMO...

I think that Daniel had somehow found out that Herriet was a witch. {Now being a "Charmed" fan as well as a DS fan} I have seen that some witches can do "good" rather than evil. So I think that after he had killed her, he had found that he had killed a good witch, but by doing that he had made her evil.

"Just a thought."
 

my question. .was Harriet one of Julia Hoffman's earlier incarnations?  I mean Daniel was gettin' ready to strangel Julia or was Dannyboy just hallucinatin'. . the dress and hair couldn't have reminded her of Harriet . .??

my question. .was Harriet one of Julia Hoffman's earlier incarnations?  I mean Daniel was gettin' ready to strangel Julia or was Dannyboy just hallucinatin'. . the dress and hair couldn't have reminded HIS of Harriet . .??

Now that's an interesting idea ... guess we'd never know unless Barnabas and Julia went back to sometime in the 1810s or '20s ...

Harriet Collins a previous incarnation of the good doctor?  How very interesting...