13 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

I think the smugness went hand in hand with the delusion.

I get that. I thought she was so off and had a lack of self awareness that she maybe came off smug when she was legit crazy lol. I was waiting for some sort of mental breakdown and it all sort of fizzled out?

28 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I like Kate Mansi a lot. Kristina and the writing was never a right fit for her. I don't think she was smug necessarily, but almost delusional and Mansi can come off cold. Even her styling was very harsh.

The smugness, coldness and writing did her in. Maybe a stronger actress could’ve gotten the audience to feel bad for Kristina but the writers just kept throwing more antics at the wall. Like they expected me to root for Kristina after she almost killed Liz. Lucky is a deadbeat bum who doesn’t bathe but there’s no universe in which he’d protect Kristina over Liz. After that, she helped hold Ric hostage. I can’t see Kristina’s back soon enough.

The writers couldn't decide who Kristina was.

I don't blame Kate Mansi for any of it.

19 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

The smugness, coldness and writing did her in. Maybe a stronger actress could’ve gotten the audience to feel bad for Kristina but the writers just kept throwing more antics at the wall. L

She was still calling that baby Adella as recently as a couple weeks ago which is insane to me. She has never fully owned up to what she did. Molly just got over it. Which I find insane, but that's the FV way often on this show. Just bulldoze through things, then if it really falls apart you either scuttle the character (like Natalia) or back off and hope people forget.

In this case they backburnered Kristina so much for the last year and kept going right up to the line of having Alexis institutionalize her, then pulled back. I think they knew a long time ago the audience wasn't buying it and that JJ was not going to save her after he opted out, so they just kept their heads down, buried the character and waited til people were ready to watch happy scenes with Molly and Kristina onscreen. FV rarely admits failure with a character in story unless he absolutely has to (which he did with Natalia and Austin) but that was close enough.