Subject: The Positive Aspects of the Crumbling of the Russell Family
 
 

Though there are parts of this that anger me, on the whole, I find the fracturing of the Russells to be a very good thing.

When I made my list of the things that I liked about Passions, one of them was the cultural diversity of the show. Passions deserves kudos for having a Black family on the show, and I appreciate it even more that the Black characters are flawed. There is a tendency in the entertainment industry to either make African-Americans thugs, whores, low-life vermin, or the other extreme, 'perfect characters', who are the salt-of-the-earth with no flaws, and have the complexity of cardboard.

I am happy to say that the Russells are as dysfunctional as any other family in Harmony. Their ethnicity cuts them no slack either way.

So, why did the Russell family begin to crack?

Because the Liars Chadney were caught doing the Wild Thing by Simone.

I am not a supporter of Chadney. I think Chad is lower than pondscum, and Whitney is a selfish, self-centered brat who thinks things should 'go her way'. I blame both Chad and Whitney for what happened, but for different reasons.

Before anyone emails me and tells me that Simone is a delusional idiot, I already know that.

Sure, she SHOULD have known better when it came to Chad. But, I'll ask WHY should she have known better. I thought it was sad as she defended 'her' relationship with Chad, telling him that she KNEW he cared for her by all the little signals that he's done towards her over the years. Of course, we in the audience knew that each and every one of those things were expressed towards Whitney, but Simone didn't know that. Up until she saw Chadney in the hospital after Whitney almost died in the elevator, she had no reason to think otherwise. After all, Chad was never MAN ENOUGH to tell Simone THE TRUTH about any of this.

He had time upon time to tell Simone the truth BEFORE he entered into that ridiculous pact with Whitney. He had NO excuse. I don't wanna hear about 'but Kay told him Simone had an eating disorder'. Yeah, whatever. He didn't even have enough caring for Simone to try and get her HELP, if he really believed it. He didn't have to tell her parents, though it would have been what A MAN  would have done. He could have told Whitney, but maybe he already knew that Whitney didn't give a rat's ass about Simone or her feelings.

All those supposed tears that Whitney shed over fretting about Simone didn't keep her from humping Chad everytime she turned around. She humped Chad and then went and smiled in Simone's face. Sorry, nobody will convince me that Simone was remotely on Whitney's radar. IMO, the real thing she was afraid of was disappointing TC. She was afraid to confront TC with her feelings about Chad. Simone was just an excuse, because a real sister wouldn't LIE to her sister for YEARS.

Remember, SIMONE is the ONLY one who was honest about her feelings from the word GO. She NEVER hid how she felt about Chad. She NEVER did. She was the only one who was open and honest in all of this, and ONLY began to 'deceive' when she found them in a liplock in the hospital.

How many times did Simone ask Whitney if she had any feelings for Chad? How many times did Whitney stand there and LIE to Simone's face? When she wasn't lying to Simone, she was wholesale dismissing Simone's feelings outright. She NEVER respected them in the least. They  were never a major concern to her. NEVER.

And, Chad?

He's a lowlife because Simone was his one true friend from the moment he came to Harmony. When everyone kept him at a distance, Simone didn't. When he needed someone to back him up, Simone did it. When everyone in town believed Kay's lie about Tiffany, Simone didn't. She stood up to anyone, including her parents, on more than one occasion to defend Chad.

And, what did Simone get in return?

Lies and disrespect.

Chad told Ethan of the things that Simone did for him; how she'd come over and help clean his place, or bring him food. I saw no guilt on Chad's part; he was a lowlife liar who disrespected one of the few people that showed him true friendship in his life.

Did Chad owe Simone a romantic relationship just because she had the feelings for him?

Of course not.

But, did Simone help Chad enough and care for him enough over the years to deserve some kind of RESPECT?

The kind of respect that would have included Simone being told um.....THE TRUTH?

I'd have to answer HELL YES!

There was a time, for about a clear year and a half to two years, where telling Simone THE TRUTH had nothing to do with any promise to Whitney. It was during that time that Whitney was jerking Chad's chain, going hot and cold on him.

I argued then, and I'll argue now, Chad NOT telling Simone during this time was when the Chad character truly began to go down into a precipice. Telling Simone THE TRUTH had absolute, positively NO correlation to whether he'd get together with Whitney. The two events did not match AT ALL. If Whitney never gave him the time of day for the next ten years, it had nothing to do with the fact that he had NO romantic feelings towards Simone at all and NEVER got around to telling her.

So, even though Simone was delusional, and had tried to manipulate Whitney since the kiss at the hospital, I was on Simone's side last week. I loved every bitchslap she gave Whitney. I loved  every name she called Whitney. I only wish she had a baseball bat instead of a tennis racket to tear up Whitney's room.

Should Simone be equally as angry at Chad?

In theory, I've always been of the belief that the man is equally to blame if not moreso, but in this case, I believe Whitney SHOULD bear the brunt of Simone's anger. Chad is just some stranger who came into town a few years ago. Whitney has been her sister since the day she was born. So, as Simone's SISTER, yes, I believe Simone had the right to expect more from Whitney than some bum who blew into town.

I was glad in those meltdown scenes that they had Simone reiterate the background of her character. It helps with character motivation. I remember then Chad first told Simone that he 'loved her' - during the time he was delirious at the Russell House. Lena had a terrific  monologue when she explained WHY being loved by Chad was so important. She told Whitney that she had always felt in Whitney's shadow because Whitney did everything right and perfect. That it was hard being in her shadow, but now, she had found someone to love her. Simone. That for the first time, being Simone was enough and she had this beautiful thing. I thought it was so sad because it showed how vulnerable Simone is, and the lack of self-esteem that forms the core of the character. Whitney was the #1 daughter, and as Simone said herself, " I am  'the other one'." What a label to have for oneself.

I know TC and Eve love Simone, but Whitney is their star, and that has ramifications for Simone. The insights to Simone that we've had here and there also explain her relationship with Kay. She identifies with Kay on some level, which is why they're best friends.

Simone's meltdown in Whitney's room was a lot of fun to watch. Simone let it all hang out, telling TC and Eve about Chad and Whitney.  I thought their reactions to Simone were wrong. They didn't believe her; after all, how could 'perfect' Whitney do something like that. Then, after they finally believed Simone, she had to watch as TC listened to Whitney's sob story and consoled HER! The fury Simone felt was palpable and righteous, IMO. When she told TC and Eve that she was tired of being shunned by the family and that they could ALL go to hell, I cheered her. It was ridiculous. TC blamed Chad, and not Whitney, while Eve pretty much dismissed Simone's anger wholesale, telling Whitney that Simone just built things up in her mind, and oh well. This was the complete and utter FOUL part of last week's revelations. NOBODY stood up for Simone. NOBODY gave validation to the fact that she had been lied to and disrespected completely by Whitney and Chad for well over a year. And, that was wrong.

Whitney was acting like she didn't do anything wrong. ' Simone just doesn't understand.', was her refrain. Oh, I think Simone understood completely, Whitney. You lied to her repeatedly, played her for a fool, and disrespected her wholesale. You went slinking around with Chad, getting out of your clothes at every opportunity, and then would come back and shin and grin in Simone's face. What's confusing about that?

Chad was truely a loathesome punk at the Russell house. It was his arrogance at still staying in the house when TC told him to leave that raised the level of disgust I have with the character. Combine that with this ' I never loved Simone and yeah I lied about it but so what' attitude, and this character has been ground into dust. The character was further disserved by the wretched acting of Charles Divins.

My father never had TC anger management issues, but if a punk stood in HIS house, after he found out that he was SLEEPING with one daughter, while LYING AND DECEIVING the other, and refused to leave after being asked to leave - said young man would have been pistol-whipped with no hesitation. Heck, my father wouldn't have had to do anything because Mama would have gotten the frying pan to the young man first. So, this was one of the few times I WANTED TC's temper in full effect. He should have kicked Chad's ass AND thrown him out of his house.

Standing rudely in the corner with all her nosiness is Lousy Liz, happy to see Eve's family in such pain. Eve should slap the crap out of Liz once she finds out that Liz KNEW about Chad and Whitney and didn't tell her, thus giving Eve a chance to try and find a way to work out the situation before it exploded in the worst possible way, which it did. I'll say it again: Liz doesn't care about TC or Whitney and Simone. They are all pawns in her revenge against Eve. IF she had truly cared for them, she would have told Eve about the situation.

One of the best ripple effects about last week is how this shaken Eve. Remember, Eve Russell's quest, since the show began, was to maintain her 'perfect' family. It's the reason why she's make a series of bad decisions, beginning with doping Orville (we still don't know if she ran over Orville). She had to keep her past buried, because she couldn't dare risk losing her family. To see it crumbling for reasons that have nothing to do with her past is an irony that is lost to her now. But, we've seen the cracks get wider and wider  for Eve. I've long thought that while Eve wouldn't stand up for herself, she would find the courage to stand up to TC for her children. In fact, we've seen it over the course of the last 9 months where Eve has repeatedly gone against TC's wishes BECAUSE she thought she was doing the best thing for her children.
She's taken that stand again with her forbidding of Whitney to play tennis. I don't think we've ever seen Eve so completely stand up to TC since the beginning of the show. It's never gone on this long; usually, he's been able to emotionally bully her into backing down, but not now. Her foot is put down, and she's doing what she thinks is best for her family.

TC, on the other hand, has been a revelation. I was upset, at first, with TC's attitude towards Whitney, tennis, and Eve. But, I'm glad that there are places to discuss Passions, because while I was leaning towards labeling TC's behavior as little more than a racial stereotype, the truth of the matter is, he's a personality stereotype: the overbearing sports parent. I could get mad at TC, but, once I put it through that filter, I was even happier about the actions of last week. TC was living vicariously through Whitney. All his hopes and dreams for her tennis future, built upon the ashes of his broken dreams and his guilt about disappointing his own father were wrapped up in every tirade TC had last week. Add into that, the poison that Liz has been pouring in his ear everytime he turned around about how Eve has been 'neglecting' her family, and the battleground was set between TC and Eve.

I LOVED their fight on Friday. It was brass knuckles bare. The kind of fight that two people who know one another can have. TC went for the jugular. He's been so used to getting his way where his family is concerned that he didn't know what to do when Eve didn't back down. When she didn't cave to his wishes. The more she stood up for herself, and her family, the worse TC's insults became towards her. Rodney Van Johnson and Tracey Ross were so 'ON' with their performances. Rodney's had a somewhat thankless job with TC, but he was excellent last week. Tracey Ross showed the depth and complexity in Eve with all the issues that faced her family.

I never wanted the Russells to break up because of things that happened before Eve ever knew TC. I didn't think that was fair or just. If they were to break up, I wanted it to be about flaws inherent in the family.  Flaws that Eve, in her quest for the 'perfect life', was willing to gloss over and ignore. But, ignore them anymore she can't. Eve never dealt with her past; she never dealt with the pain of it. She just stuffed it down, locked it off and walled it in and pushed forward. Yet, she can't be free until she deals with the past - which is Liz. Liz is the least of Eve's problems. She has a world of her own emotional hurt that she hasn't dealt with, and inch by inch, it is coming to the surface. Though I'm a strong Evian fan, I'm not against TC and Eve staying together - as long as they're dealing with all their troubles honestly. I don't think the Russells have to be permanently destroyed, but they will have to work through a lot of pain that has just begun to surface.

 Each of the Russells is at a fork in the road; what will be interesting to see is what choices will they make.

The meltdown of the Russells is something that makes me Passion-ate about Passions.