The July 22nd episode (and from what I've gathered, the 29th episode too) was certainly one of the best edited and balanced Manny shows I've seen in a while, there was something for everyone, without the sense that everything was given short shrift. The storytelling had a beginning, a middle, an end (satisfactory for once, well, as satisfactory as you can get for the day), you weren't left to wonder whether a scene was missing. Manny was allowed to come full circle with their "problem of the day," while doing the same with their past throughout the episode and the blocking of their scenes reflected that - Manny kissing as they enter the room, rotating the room throughout, kissing as they leave the room. Ok, I seem to have strayed from the point you were making :-), just trying to say it was a well-balanced five-course meal, not once did I get the feeling I was being thrown crumbs and bones.

Now if Manny actually pulls out the Scrabble board or plays gin on that bed I'm gonna fall over in a dead faint.

How about Michelle studying and Danny going over his papers? Or better yet, doing taxes together? :-)

I really feared that the tactile couple that we all fell in love with would go away once they got past the early marital bliss. Seems to me the touching is even more frequent, more passionate, and more, shall we say, risque.

They can't get enough of each other, and nor can we! There's also more and more F-U-N in their lovey-dovey scenes, (actually, come to think of it, there's ALWAYS a playful scene with them these days). I LOVE how all this touching, and kissing, and lovemaking has become fun for them. Both of them are such serious characters to the outside world, many would probably not recognize them, these two people who totally enjoy being with each other.

I almost fell off my chair when Michelle pointedly told Danny earlier in the week that she trusted him, and he told her yesterday that she was the only person he could trust. [...] it was like manna from heaven wherein the last early days relationship obstacle was dealt with and pushed away. Now on to the next 542 obstacles ....

I have a slightly different perspective, I think their obstacles will always be in the form of testing this trust. It's actually been one "trust test" after another from the very beginning. Can she trust him enough to confess to killing Mick? Place her life in his hands? Come clean about her betrayal? Can he trust her enough to reveal the dirty family secrets? Share his dreams and desires with her? Come clean about his betrayal? And on, and on, and on .... They've weathered their first marital test, but that doesn't mean their next one will get any easier, as there were some crucial issues that were left unresolved, unanswered throughout the first one.

My last point in my original post: Loved how Danny made up for leaving her upset the first time, saying goodbye properly outside the room... swooned over the passionate kiss, it's the stuff romance is made of.

I meant to say that there was a wildly romantic element about that last kiss, like out of a historical novel, you know, when the hero and heroine share a farewell kiss as he goes off to war. I'd have rolled my eyes had any other couple played that scene, but with Danny and Michelle, it seemed perfect, especially physically: the tall dark hero, the fair heroine (in the flowery "dress"), with her arms thrown around his neck and standing on her barefeet to kiss him .... swoon :-)

I'm sure Michelle didn't feel that way in that moment, but there's a lot about Manny that does fit with those romantic fantasies of hers, the wicked queen mother, the palace intrigues, etc.

kristi k.