Danny spoke of his life spinning out of control ever since he met Michelle, and it was part of the reason that he wanted to end things with her, so he could regain some semblance of control. I got the sense then that what he really meant to say was that he wanted his easy life back, the life that didn't include having to make all of these decisions one after the other and have all of these feelings toward someone who could barely stand him (or so he thinks). He wanted the life of the dutiful mob son.

In many ways I think Danny is searching for as much familiarity as Michelle is in trying to recapture a life she's long since left behind (but doesn't realize it yet). Michelle believes that she can't "live like this anymore," that Danny has sent her spinning out of control, doing things she would never do. But the reality is, she's just as guilty of the same thing in Danny's life. Danny probably had his future mapped out, he'd take over the family business, remain a bachelor, one day find a woman whom he might not really be madly in love with per se, but someone who could give him children. What would always come first was his family. And then Michelle happened. And the life he was brought up to aspire to, and remain loyal to was no longer feasible. His bubble was burst, just as much as Michelle's bubble.

But what I find most interesting is how quickly his life really spins out of control without Michelle in it, because the changes in Danny aren't changes that he can just erase and pretend never happened. The feelings he has, won't just go away with one signature on annulment papers. The life he was settling into and getting used to, and looking forward to in the future will no longer be his own, and he will really know what it's like to spin out of control, only this time he'll be doing it on his own. Which is why I think Michelle coming back to him at some point here, will show him that it's not Michelle that spins him out of control, but the family that's molded him and projected their desires onto him.

It's ultimately not Danny who makes Michelle's life spin out of control either, it's the realization that the safe world she had is not the world she wants no matter how insane the world she was thrown into truly is. So Danny may think he's spinning out of control, but I don't think he's completely lost his footing and what grounds him, without Michelle he will, for the first time. Ironic.

Tracee