28 minutes ago, GL95 said:

I’m in July 1992 when A-M is drinking himself into oblivion after he learns Nick is Alexandra’s son, and watching a lot of early 90s eps in close succession, I feel like they were setting the table for an A-M addiction story at some point.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but alcoholism runs in the Bauer family. Bill Bauer, Hope's grandfather, and Ed, her uncle, were both alcoholics.

The fact that they established this through 3 generations would have made an addiction story entirely plausible (AND it would have been a reason to reintroduce Hope).

In fact, I believe when AM first came back as a teen, he got into some trouble with drugs and they were worried about him, but I think he was selling, not taking the drugs. Again, that would have been a good moment to bring Hope back into the story.

Lots of missed opportunities.

1 minute ago, DeeVee said:

I don't know if you're aware of this, but alcoholism runs in the Bauer family. Bill Bauer, Hope's grandfather, and Ed, her uncle, were both alcoholics.

The fact that they established this through 3 generations would have made an addiction story entirely plausible (AND it would have been a reason to reintroduce Hope).

In fact, I believe when AM first came back as a teen, he got into some trouble with drugs and they were worried about him, but I think he was selling, not taking the drugs. Again, that would have been a good moment to bring Hope back into the story.

Lots of missed opportunities.

Yeah, I knew Ed and Hope were both alcoholics. That’s why it struck me when they had Ed say something to him about dealing with emotions through drinking. It felt pretty pointed to have Ed say it in a situation where AM didn’t actually get drunk.

In this scene they really have him acting like an alcoholic. Roger comes to try to lay the groundwork to have him join the Thorpe empire (Roger thinks Blake still wants AM and AM/Blake as a power couple in the family kingdom fits Roger’s dream image really well) and AM has had a whole lot to drink but talks about handling it well and does have his wits about him more than he should. He lashes out at Eleni when he gets home in a way that feels like they’re planting seeds-some of it is pretty clearly that being raised to be a Spaulding left him with zero ability to be vulnerable or deal with emotions, but AM not getting hit with a combination of the Spaulding/Bauer curse really is a waste. An AM addiction plot could’ve brought in a lot of different characters. I can just see the rock bottom being lashing out at a very vulnerable Michelle post Maureen’s death, and Ed not having the bandwidth to help AM calls Hope. The Spaulding side trying to actually show love/help that’s not about business or internal power struggles and AM’s parade of exes who eventually all have a soft spot for him.

The first iteration with Lucy ends with him getting wasted and saying cruel things to her (and he’s blackout drunk with her on a different occasion). Right after is when he goes back to wanting Eleni ( I believe getting very drunk when that starts), and the entire Eleni arc is more like an addiction arc than a love story on his end. There also would be an interesting backdrop for an addiction story at that time with Billy shooting Roger in a drunken rage.

It really feels like it was heading that way when they pivoted-best reason I can think of is they saw a Nick/AM face off as a Hail Mary to make Nick catch on. Them making them foils who basically switch places was so uninteresting with no real investment in Nick and recasts of Alan/Alex and Mindy.

Edited 44 minutes ago44 min by GL95

Thanks @DRW50 !