Loyalty to Liz

[McTrooper]

Reading through early Episodes with Robservations I noticed that Liz commands fierce loyalty and inspired at least two people to fall in love with her even though it’s not love Liz returns.

What inspired such loyalty?

The character does come across as intelligent and strong, but could there be more to it?

Any fan theories, opinions, or show details that explain this better?

[dom]

She was generous and fair with her cannery employees.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Yes, Dom, I agree with you that Mrs. Stoddard was likely very generous and fair with her employees, thus the great loyalty on the part of the Collins Cannery employees.

Apparently, Elizabeth inherited her generosity and thoughtfulness from her paternal grandfather, Edward. Thankfully, Elizabeth did not inherit any traits from her grandaunt, Judith Collins-Trask, a miserly and frustrated woman, who even made the parsimonious Sarah Collins seem like the late philanthropist Joan Kroc by comparison.

As much as Mrs. Stoddard was respected and even beloved by her employees, I wonder how the Bill Malloys, the Ezra Aherns, the Joe Haskells and the rest thought of her younger brother and new company COO, Roger Collins? I mean, the haughty and apparently Ivy League-educated Roger hardly came off as a “regular guy,” who knew how (or even cared) to relate to the blue collar employees working underneath him.

While most of the Collins Cannery employees probably wore L.L. Bean jeans and flannel shirts to work, Roger probably only bought his fine-tailored suits from the Brooks Brothers store in either Portland or Boston. (No off of the rack suits from Brewster’s Department Store for a man with such “discriminating” tastes as Roger Collins!)

And, no doubt, the practical, down-to-earth residents of Collinsport likely thought that the forty-something Roger Collins looked absolutely ridiculous, tooling around town in a Mustang with racing stripes. Heck, Collins Cannery fishing fleet manager Bill Malloy was still driving around in his 1958 Chevrolet Impala, which was losing its original paint job, due to the cold and corrosive Maine sea air.

Yes, Roger probably longed for the weekend, when he could drive to Bar Harbor and hobnob with the really “important” people and escape the plebeians of Collinsport, Maine. 

[McTrooper]

Rodger and Liz are polar opposites.
Interesting insight; I wouldn’t have thought of that.

I think the loyalty of the employees is pretty well explained between those two posts. 

Liz also inspired love too.

Ned Calder proposed to Liz
Bill Malloy had a crush on her (or something)

Matthew may have been attracted, but it wasn’t made clear.
I also thought he shared her secret, but it’s not clear either.

[dom]

I don't believe Matthew knows Liz's secret. I believe he was hired (taken from the cannery) after the incident and the firing of the staff. Of course I could be wrong, I usually am.

[McTrooper]

I think you’re right dom.
Matthew didn’t know Liz’s secret, but before the end of the Jason storyline I had always assumed he was the one to help Liz with the body.

[dom]

A natural assumption, I agree.

I would only attribute her inspiring love to some men liking attractive, fit, powerful women (to put it very simply). And maybe playing hard to get, lol. I wonder, if Liz didn't have her big secret, would she have had a dalliance at least with Ned. I don't remember having the feeling that Liz was interested in Ned, and definitely not Bill. Then there's their working for her and that's almost never a good thing, mixing business with pleasure. Roger teased her about about calling Ned, insinuating that she may have called him for reasons other than business. She scoffed. Perhaps too loudly?

[Bob_the_Bartender]

There really weren’t many eligible bachelors/widowers for Elizabeth to date. There were Judge Crathorne (a widower?) and Ezra Braithwaite (way too old). There was also the Eagle Hill Cemetery Caretaker (far too spaced-out and probably without both oars in the water). Of course, there might be an attraction between Elizabeth and the learned Professor T. Elliot Stokes. Although, nowhere near in Elizabeth’s tax bracket, the estimable Professor Stokes was certainly Elizabeth’s intellectual equal.

So, if Elliot did not mind being a kept man, sort of like William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard,” I think Elizabeth  and Professor Stokes would be very compatible together. 

[Uncle Roger]

Someone with limited social skills like Matthew would have been impressed that a high society woman would have paid any attention to him. And the fact that she had chosen him to be the caretaker/handyman at Collinwood really gave him a status that he probably had never had before. His behavior is more blind devotion that anything else. Elizabeth may or may not have used that to her advantage.

I doubt that she would have have had an affair with him, though Matthew probably longed for it.

As for a romantic interest for Elizabeth, the pickings for a woman of a certain age in Collinsport were pretty slim. Eliot Stokes seems the only logical choice. But Adriana Pena's Collinsport Chronicles offered an unusual solution. In a post 1971 story, Adam returns to Collinsport with the idea of resuming things with Carolyn. But things take an unexpected time when Adam runs off with Elizabeth.  .

 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

That’s an interesting idea Ms. Pena came up with for a possible Adam/Elizabeth Stoddard relationship. I tell you, though, it’s just as well that Barnabas convinced Dr. Eric Lang NOT to cut-off Jeff Clark’s handsome noggin and attach it to the top of Adam’s massive frame. It would have been confusing enough for poor Vicky to meet some new guy, who looked exactly like her apparently a.w.o.l. and somewhat self-absorbed boyfriend, but who also had the massive physique of Chicago Bears linebacker, Dick Butkus. But then to have Mrs. Stoddard becoming involved in this off-the-wall ménage a trois would have been way too much. Oy vey! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

But Adriana Pena's Collinsport Chronicles offered an unusual solution. In a post 1971 story, Adam returns to Collinsport with the idea of resuming things with Carolyn. But things take an unexpected time when Adam runs off with Elizabeth.  .

Oh God!! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Vicky to meet some new guy, who looked exactly like her apparently a.w.o.l. and somewhat self-absorbed boyfriend

Somewhat? They don't get much more self-absorbed than Jeff was with himself! 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Vicky to meet some new guy, who looked exactly like her apparently a.w.o.l. and somewhat self-absorbed boyfriend

Somewhat? They don't get much more self-absorbed than Jeff was with himself! 

But, you have to admit, the guy DID/DOES have a great head of hair (which he was wont to run his fingers through quite enthusiastically).

And, in watching him emote, I swear you were watching either Robert Duvall or David Niven, with that unfailingly understated style of acting. (Think the anti-William Shatner!) 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

But, you have to admit, the guy DID/DOES have a great head of hair (which he was wont to run his fingers through quite enthusiastically).

Please don't remind me! 

And, in watching him emote, I swear you were watching either Robert Duvall or David Niven, with that unfailingly understated style of acting. (Think the anti-William Shatner!) 

Have you been drinking today? 

No, I totally understand that you're being completely facetious as only you can be. And I love it! 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

But, you have to admit, the guy DID/DOES have a great head of hair (which he was wont to run his fingers through quite enthusiastically).

Please don't remind me! 

And, in watching him emote, I swear you were watching either Robert Duvall or David Niven, with that unfailingly understated style of acting. (Think the anti-William Shatner!) 

Have you been drinking today? 

No, I totally understand that you're being completely facetious as only you can be. And I love it! 

Heck, I’m not drinking enough. In fact, I now only get a “buzz” from drinking lots of sugar-free chocolate Swiss Miss, topped off with a dab or two  of sugar-free Cool Whip, and, I probably don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to find sugar-free Cool Whip in the supermarket these days.

I just finished clearing off the snow off of my car down here in the “great” Garden State; we got about five inches here. You’re up in Massachusetts, right? Did you get a lot of snow up there in the great Bay State? As you know, we never got to see Willie Loomis, Matthew Morgan or Harry Johnson, schlepping away on the Collinwood estate, shoveling all of that New England snow up there in Hancock County. I mean, even on “The Sopranos,” we got to see Tony Soprano, running through the snow as the FBI charged after Johnny Sacrimoni on the grounds of Johnny’s opulent and snow-logged Bergen County mansion.