Passion for Revenge

Don’t read any further if you don’t want to know the upcoming spoiler for next week that reveals the mastermind behind the Buchanan Enterprises troubles…

Though I haven’t seen it, I believe the source on the Soap Zone board to be reliable. Apparently in Soap Opera Digest (April 15, 2008 issue) Robin Strasser reveals Dorian is trying to bring down Buchanan Enterprises.

Next week, Lindsay tells Dorian about the ammunition she’s given Clint to battle opponents in takeover attempts (Later, Todd publishes what Clint’s done in “The Sun.” ) Meanwhile, Dorian apparently sways corporate raider Calvin Jenkins to her side to take down BE. Jenkins isn’t snowed, though. He realizes Dorian is out for revenge on Clint. But why?

Strasser comments that Dorian hasn’t had any closure on Clint. And well there’s David somewhere out there and then, there is the matter of destroying Charlie and Viki.

Frankly, Dorian sounds scattered. I need some clarity on motive if Head Writer Ron Carlivati’s Dorian is to be an improvement over versions by previous writers, particularly former Head Writer Deana Higley’s “My mother had me stalked” Dorian. Otherwise, it is back to Dorian being “bad” because she was getting soft with show of her humanity. In my opinion, the art of being a soap bitch is giving shades of vulnerability that show why the character engages in the action (which I have no doubt the actress will do with the reveal, though I am disappointed it has not been given much time in build up to this expose in the writing – due in part to the Writers’ Strike). Still, show me with some feeling; don’t tell me with empty dialogue. The Dorian and Clint break up was in November. There has been little to show me much of anything from Dorian or Clint as it relates to their relationship aside from Dorian’s barbs at Nora or Clint together or separate when she sees them.

I said in my column a week or so ago, titled Being a Bitch that making Dorian the one behind this depends on how extreme a villainness Carlivati wanted to make her. But I also suggested that were he to write Dorian as the villainness who ate all of Llanview, “let the motive be clear, strong and let the character have heart.”

While I have raved about Carlivati’s writing of Dorian for the Langston storyline (I don’t like the shape of that relationship with the temporary writers), I am not particularly pleased with how he ended the relationship with Dorian and Clint, though I thought then the mess of a break up was to fuel an outcome of revenge. Yet I kept an open mind that Carlivati would make Dorian more than a lonely bitter woman who had no life but that of seeking revenge on a former lover, who seems to have moved on with his life without giving her much of a thought. (I don’t like cad Clint who turns a swift cold shoulder to a woman he not long ago said that he loved – though I like his transformation with the Buchanan Enterprises storyline. Someone needs to remind Clint that he was in the wrong too for cheating on Dorian with Nora only days after telling Dorian that he loved her.)

I gave Carlivati the benefit of the doubt as it relates to the character of Dorian; well, I still do. To believe otherwise would mean that Dorian is being returned to being written as a caricature. That is not acceptable to me as a viewer and a long time fan. I need to know more of what is fueling her anger other than “hating” Viki and therefore going after Viki and Charlie or being pissed because Clint dropped her when she never bothered to tell him that she loved him in the first place.

All this said, I am going to look toward this as an opportunity to paint a different brush stroke on Dorian and Clint’s interaction; I am also hoping for more of a hint as to what caused them to malfunction as a couple before there was the break up. Yeah, I know in scenes in two or maybe three episodes Dorian wasn’t attentive to Clint, who wanted her to share more of her life with him but I would not characterize that as their relationship in total but rather see it as sudden occurrence to accommodate plot. After following this pairing for two years, I need to have it spelled out for me because the break up left me confused.

Curiously, the threat of a BE takeover is what actually revealed a colorful side of Clint that I have found entertaining. This dark Clint sought revenge to protect BE much the same way that Dorian has struck revenge out of personal hurt. Was Clint’s enjoyment at gobbling up Cobb Industries (as noted by Bo) really all that much more different than Dorian’s striking at Clint and Buchanan Enterprises? In both instances, there is a passion for revenge and a path of destruction.