OLTL: How would you fix Todd Manning

[DRW50]

This is why I wasn't all that happy when I learned Tea was on the way back. No one enables abuse like Tea does. It is a badge of honor for her.

As for Blair, I think they just have nothing for her to do, so they stick her here.

[Vee]

I have a couple ideas but they probably start with bringing back Roger Howarth. I think TSJ is very talented and I think he could do it if he wanted to, but lately I think he's too wedded to subverting and playing against the story in favor of his interpretation of Todd as a completely soulless sociopath to play another genuinely heartfelt story for the character. Like those air quotes - on the page, that scene could've been a simple bit with Todd saying, "I'm sorry for what I did to you," but I seriously doubt the writers intended for Trevor's spin in which he broke out the quotes, rolled his eyes and laughed in Marty's face. Is his interpretation of Todd valid? Sure, given what Todd has done. But it's helping to wreck a long-standing character which the writing has already savaged, and since then I think the writers have kind of given up on writing anything in-depth for Todd because they know TSJ will play against it.

Anyway, regardless of who plays the role, here are some thoughts. As will come to no surprise to anyone who knows me, I would bring back Rebecca Lewis. I would pay Reiko Aylesworth whatever she wanted to come back and reprise the character for a few weeks of taping, or even a few days, let her block-tape with a couple actors like James Franco did and spread it out over several months. Say that Rebecca has been recovered by the authorities after being presumed dead in the explosion at the KAD house. Nobody has any answers as to how she went psycho and helped Powell kill people, what happened to her in the intervening years since she left Llanview; Kyle has a past with her, but he didn't know she was crazy. So what happened? Todd decides to find out and it becomes sort of a Dead Man Walking type of story - Rebecca is behind bars, probably for life, and is terminally ill. She is hostile and unwilling to open up to anyone about what happened to the nice girl everyone once knew. She sees no point in talking to Todd because as she tells him, they both proved to be far less than they each thought the other was; just look at what he did to Marty when she had amnesia. After all their old arguments about faith and hope, she tells him he was right all along, there is no faith and no hope for any kind of salvation for either of them.

Todd is strangely chilled by Rebecca's words and can't get her out of his mind. He pulls away from Tea, who continues to offer him intimacy without recrimination, and digs deeper into Rebecca's case, hoping to effect an appeal of her sentence. From Kyle, he discovers that Rebecca had a family, all of whom were brutally killed under mysterious circumstances; Todd discerns that this must be where Rebecca lost her own strong faith in humanity, but he doesn't know where it went from there. He's determined to find out what happened to her, to 'save her soul,' as she once saved his, and perhaps in doing so, salvage his own - but as Rebecca reminds him, figuring her out won't change anything he's done. It would be a psychological mystery and sort of a crooked romance, and Rebecca would die of her illness, but Todd would manage to break through to her before the end and restore her faith. The only problem after that is figuring out how to continue to try and rebuild himself, and I think he would probably start by giving away all his wealth and take some time away from Llanview, maybe a few months.

It's a start but I question if the audience would go for it. It would be a lot of talky scenes in the jail.

[dragonflies]

I do wonder if RC doesn't see the character the same way. I mean he writes him as a romantic hero type character instead of the anti-hero that he's supposed to be.

[DRW50]

I think those ideas sound great. Hopefully, since Reiko was on 24, Luza will help lobby ABC to get them to offer her what she wants.

[DeeeDee]

:wub:

[marceline]

Okay here's mine:

Todd Manning is currently suffering from undetected neurosyphilis. Spencer Truman had syphilis and gave it to Blair back when they were boning like greased weasels. Then Blair slept with Todd that one time at the penthouse which resulted not only in Brendan the Rooftop Redemption Spawn (or whatever the kid's name was) but in Blair infecting Todd. When Blair when through her whole miscarriage/heart infection she was given antibiotics which treated HER virus but Todd did not. Ever since then the syphilis has been eating at his brain, resulting in progressive personality changes, low impulse control, dementia and hypersexuality. Give him a double course of broad spectrum antibiotics and antivirals, an MRI and lumbar puncture then hand him over to Phil Jamison for long term therapy.

Total reset.

[bellcurve]

+1

[MoTheGreat]

Tea & Blair haven't done this character any justice. I believe that's the problem. He was human like with Eva.

[Vee]

Wow, that's even more misogynistic than the show. Kudos!

Incidentally, "Brendan" was the baby Blair and Patrick lost in the '90s.

He was unrecognizable with Van. Just in a different way. He was "not Todd" then because he was a garden variety cheesy romantic lead who just wanted to snuggle. He's "not Todd" now because he re-raped Marty and now is basically Quagmire on Family Guy, no remorse, just sex. I wouldn't have cared who he was with in either instance - the character written for, then and now, is not Todd.

[DRW50]

I didn't even know Blair had had another miscarriage. That's awful. Was that Spencer's baby?

[Vee]

No, Todd's. She lost it when Spencer and Todd knocked her off a roof during a fistfight. It was ridiculous and gratuitous. It's not like she needed another baby.

[MoTheGreat]

To you. I felt he finally realize he's a father & had to grow up some what without loosing his edge. That thing that he got with Blair waiting for her to finish cheating on him get old real fast. I'm glad RH sisn't want that for his character.

[Vee]

There was no edge to be found with Evangeline.

I imagine it must've, since she never cheated on him. Any time Blair got with somebody else, they were already done.

I don't particularly care anymore - I'm over the couple. But it's another thing entirely to talk about misogyny when being perfectly willing to blame it all on the woman, just like Brian Frons. I wouldn't blame Tea for Todd, either, or Evangeline. The people I blame are Todd, and the writers.

[marceline]

Then it should fit in quite well with Ron's writing. Except there's no rape and we know how much Ron loves his rape.

Brendan, Mookie, whatever. It's Blair. Her uterus has seen more inhabitants than the Las Vegas Marriott. They might as well have called him Plot Point Spawn #3.

[Vee]

It does manage to neatly blame Todd's problems on the women who "made him do it." I can't imagine where I've heard that rationalization before in life. Maybe Court TV. You learned a great deal from Dena.

The funny thing is you think I give a [!@#$%^&*] about having this argument with you. You think I don't know Blair's womb is as crowded as a Chuck 'E Cheese on spring break? It just doesn't have anything to do with anything, much less the thread. In the end, you don't care about what Todd did; you care about who he's with and which woman can take the heat for the [!@#$%^&*] he does to people. That's the difference between us.