Unfortunately, the covenant of soap-operadom is that yearning, longing, and cross purposes rule the day, and are the long build-up to the occasional reward of real connection between the two lovers. So, hoping for a quick resolution is outside the design of the dynamic ... better instead to just enjoy the nuance of the continued character development. It will pay off, I'm sure. My only concern at this point is that I really do hope they do not introduce the old hack device of an unwanted pregnancy .... it's all wrong for this story, and will shift it from one of it's strengths, into a place of stale old hackneyed soap-opera devices. This story, and these characters deserve a more intelligent and creative frame.

The strength that I believe really sets this apart is that so much of what is causing the turmoil is so real in the sense that all of us can understand the terror of hoping and loving, and being unsure, and reaching out only to be hurt. Granted, few of us live in organized crime families and marry mob princes to be saved from certain death, but all of us have danced that delicate dance of wanting and hoping, of connecting, and separating, of trying and failing ... of wanting, hoping, but being too uncertain of our own worth to fully trust and believe. And then the trauma of taking that risk and having the tenderest part of ourselves suffer real injury and damage.

This is a passage that all of us go through, it's impossible to love one another and not be essentially, profoundly vulnerable at the same time. It's a tightrope between the deepest connection, and self protection, and it runs us all to ground at some point. It is the stuff of adult relationships. This isn't Romeo and Juliet anymore, this is growing up and becoming a scarred but substantive adult ... for both of them, for all of us.

Our self-doubt so often makes us our own worst enemy, and we are getting to see that play out between these two, much to everyone's frustration. Fans cry out, "If they would just trust one another!" But at the same time it's so apparent why they can't, and how their fears and doubts have gotten them where they are. It's fear of rejection and hope of acceptance that fuels most game-playing between people, trying to stay safe. Emily Dickenson described hope as the thing that wounds, and it is. It takes strength and courage to hope and trust, because the risk of disappointment cuts so deep.

It's a compelling story to watch these two grapple with trying to balance all of that, and it strikes a strong chord, because like it or not, in order to love, it's what we all do.

Rose