Anyway, moving on, now that I know that Danny was seemingly the chosen one in this family (which is interesting in and of itself, since he is the second son, but then mob families work differently than normal families, so this isn't all that surprising) I can see different sources of resentment for him. He was basically the pony being bred to be a champion racer. Danny, seemingly didn't have much choice in whether or not he wanted to be heir to the throne, it was just thrust on him. Surely that would build up resentment in any person who didn't necessarily want their life to turn out that way.

However the notion that Danny desperately doesn't want to be like the rest of his family (particularly Mick) still applies, in my opinion. I think Danny's middle child position, has to be taken into account as well. I'm sure Mick wasn't always such a scuzbucket, so his younger brother watching him turn into something horrible, probably left an impression. Does Danny blame the life they led for that happening? Does he not want this life to turn him into another Mick?

And if Danny inherently believes he's no better than anyone else in his family, how does he reconcile wanting to be better, wanting to be different, wanting to set some kind of example for his sister? So I think the basic foundation of Danny is still the same, and it's not a man who truly believes he's better than your average criminal, that's what he wrestles with constantly, that desire to not give into what he believes is his basic makeup. If it were the opposite, and he honestly felt like he was better, smarter, or generally more respectable than Mick, or your average hoodlum, he wouldn't hate himself so much when his life spins out of control, when he doesn't like the man he's becoming.

The fear that he's just as bad as (he believes) Michelle thinks he is, the fear that what drove Mick to become a lowlife, could drive him to the same, the fear that if his sister knows what the family really does, she'll look at him with contempt and disgust. Danny fears what he thinks he has the potential to be, not what he actually is, if that makes any sense.

Which could play into the question I posed about whether Danny thinks what he's doing is wrong? Is this part of Danny's self-defense mechanism, convincing himself it's not really hurting anyone, it's keeping abreast of political environments and providing good protection services for people who really need it. Because if it's not that bad, then he's not that bad, he's not like that. He's different, more upstanding, more respectable, he's not the monster he could become if driven to that point.

What an utterly fascinating portrait this one is.

Tracee