Thanks @Khan ! There's something very unique about the show. The power of forgiveness and letting go among the Davidson clan is something that I find very appealing. It is something that has been present since at least late 1981 when Lori Davidson quickly accepts that her best friend Becky Hewitt was having an affair with Lori's fiance, Russ Weaver. Granted, Lori also had been introduced to her true love, Dr. Ben Martin, but there is something quite beautiful about watching joyful, jubliant Lori planning her wedding while Becky is more emotionally unfulfilled by her relationship with Russ. Becky's punishment is just dealing with the reality of being with a sexually frustrated man who only was with her because of the moral compass of the woman he really loved.
This power of forgiveness also plays out in other relationships. Terry's attempts to keep the peace with Nancy even when Nancy is going havoc in her home after Nancy's initial arrival in Kingsley. Terry's forgiveness of Dennis Fraser, the man who killed her mother and husband, at the very emotional climax of the story where Fraser nearly takes his own life. Miriam finding God because of the Davidson clan seeing through the past and knowing that Miriam needs love, not judgement, during the end stages of her pill addiction. All of these are incredibly powerful sequences.
The opposite end, the failure to forgive one's self, provides a lot of torment. Becky seems to be miserable after her actions involving the affair with Russ, the pregnancy, and the marriage under less than perfect circumstances. Peter Davidson gives himself grief for weeks for not picking Lori on the night of her attack because he was being seduced by older woman Vicki Lang. Now, there is the fall out of Russ killing a man and having to deal with the emotional residue left behind by the acting of taking a life. I really would be curious how a Jason Vinley approach could have played out on mob centric General Hospital in the early 2000s. Vinley's underworld is richly developed full of complex motivations and complicated relationships that focuses on the betrayal and the value system over the glorification of violence and failure to comply with the laws of the land.
The murder of Blue Noble by Russ is quite honestly one of the strongest pieces of soap opera I think I've ever seen for sheer amount of emotional complexity in the final scene with Russ fulling embracing mob life as Blue, in his final breaths, finds peace in the embrace of Jesus. I'm not a super religious person, but having spent so much of the last 25 years watching characters be deconstructed and never restored, seeing the low level criminal given such a tragic backstory that doesn't forgive him, but rather helps the audience understand how Blue became the person he did is fascinating. I don't remember if I've really addressed this, but there does seem to be a bit of backpedaling with Blue with Sgt. Bruebaker suggesting Blue might not be the Cinderella Rapist and the emphasis on the fact that Blue never actually violated Lori Martin. I almost wonder if this was to help soften the character for the audience.
With that said, I'm not sure how long the mob story could be appealing in this universe, but I'll be curious to see how it plays out.
On a separate note, how great is it that we have been able to double the length of this thread in a year's time. I think the last post of 2024 is on page 8.
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dc11786 ·
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