It's pretty lonely at the top here. Hoping that we will hear from more of you on these clips.
After what I watched last night on Cat's channel, I am so ... reflective I guess. Todd's life actually came full circle before he left. He left penniless with litte family and no friends. Yet another RIP Todd Manning.....like this one. This is one of my FAVE RIP TODD MANNING MOMENTS THOUGH.
Thanks to Juju, who is the ambassador of bringing Todd's full story to the public who has not seen it.
Well, it starts off with a legal professional lying to the DA. MmmHmm. I did always enjoy the banter between these two.
Wow, I'd forgotten that Todd got the gun back. And when he does....he DOES NOT SHOOT BO. Has the opportunity, but doesn't. Somehow makes me think of him standing in front of Mitch Laurence and does not shoot either. And in between along the way, he had his chances, and DOES NOT SHOOT, even Powell. There's hope for our boy yet. But when he comes back, depending on HOW he has suffered, at the hands of who and WHAT he has been through, we won't know what he is capable of. Unless they go the comic route again, and as much as I loved it, I am hoping for a return to the dark.
Back to the scene. "Bo bo." Roger! So unique in how he carries things off. HE is who made the character his own by doing little things like these to give us a real person who was entirely made up.
"Stay here and think about how nice I am" and he's off.
The scene at the pier has to be one of my faves in his early days. Wait, don't I say that often? Anyway it is. Rebecca screams PERFECTLY during this whole thing. Todd's expressions are haunting throughout. Bo IS NOT ABLE TO ACCEPT what happens to Todd and comes to Rebecca's aid and dives (yep) into a freezing river. I think that's a bit overkill, but ok. The way Rebecca screams Todd's name.....it's burned into in my ears! A good little actress! Look at her when he goes into the water, she's a total mess. She really DID love him.
I just LOVE these scenes a LOT. When she finally breaks down, it's so pitiful; she has nothing else.
Did Todd want to die? Yes. That's my guess. This was what he felt was best and he does it by diving to his "death" in his mind. "No, you're wrong....No! He can't be!" She carries on into the next clip, which I have decided to also comment on today!
"He can't be dead! Oh God, no matter what he's done, Oh God please help him." So pitiful. She cuts right through you! She really did love Todd after all! I LOVE how Rebecca responds to this. So heartfelt. When she flashbacks to the moment he is shot, you have more time to see the connection their eyes made, and why he pushes himself off becomes a bit more clear. At least for me, he knew it was the only way to end what was going on with he and Rebecca without going back to prison. Sort of letting her and himself free. She stares into the river willing him to be alive.
Meanwhile, Marty is willing him to be dead and wishing for the word. So are the others. Poor Rebecca, when they say they found his body, she is the only person in the room who cares at all that he's dead. She has to turn away to show her grief. I feel SO BADLY for her here, she's totally alone. Everyone else wants to give cheers, she is totally isolated and alone. It's very well done. The conversation between she and Marty will be picked up next time!
FAIL: Bo going into the water, not realistic at all. Actually, Todd going in isn't either, unless he just wanted to die, which is my guess. Marty is kinda mean to Rebecca, but she's grieving too, I guess.
Sound off!
Yes, a big thanks to Juju. You are truly our ambassador of quan. What you have put together is no less than amazing.
ReplyDeleteThis is really the point where my Marty love took a beating. On the one hand, of course she hates him. Of course she's wishing for an end to the nightmare that is Todd Manning in her life. I get that. I always got that. I certainly didn't expect her to be wishing him well. But gosh, it was hard seeing Rebecca be the only one suffering because he was dead. If she hadn't been standing there, I think they all would have cheered.
Reiko was amazing in these scenes. She just put every ounce of herself into her sorrow and fear. (To this day, anytime I see her in anything else, I can't help but think of her as little Rebecca Lewis.) I always felt that Rebecca had two sides--the very naive, idealistic side who trusted in God and wanted to be sweet and pure and save the world, and the orphaned little streetfighter/survivor who knew that sometimes you just had to do whatever was necessary to survive and ask for forgiveness later. I really think that she thought it was the angelic side of her nature that drew her to Todd, that she could lead him into the light. And maybe that was partially true. But what she didn't like to acknowledge is that it was also her own dark side that was attracted to him, and that attraction didn't have anything to do with salvation. Later we seemed to see some of that dynamic played out, but I think it was just starting to become evident here.
I wish we'd seen a little more of Rebecca the streetfighter here. I really wanted her to punch Powell, Mr. GrabbyGrabby hands. I hate it when men restrain women "for their own good" and won't let them go even when they are yelling "let me go." Even if it's reasonable it just makes me see red. If I say let me go, I mean let me go, Powell. Punk.
Truthfully, instead of falling for Powell--if you want to call it that--I really wish Rebecca had turned a corner and they had refashioned her into a harder, edgier person. It would have been an interesting turn, I think. Marty was the bad girl turned good because of the rape. Rebecca could have been the good girl turned bad because of the rapist.
Poor Hank. Still such a tool. "I'm the one who put Todd Manning away." Uh, not so much, Hank. Actually, I believe it was Marty who put Todd away. You just happened to be nearby. Honestly, loved the whole Bo/Nora/Hank dynamic, but did Hank ever win any prosecution ever? What the heck was a DA doing running around with the police anyway? This must have been before Law & Order when we learned that it's the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
We're coming to my favorite time for early Todd. Todd on the run and the garden shed. What's coming is where I think we truly get to see who Todd is, because it's just him. No filter through some other character's perception of him and no reason for him to hide who he is because he doesn't know we're watching.
daisy - I LOVE AND LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COMMENTS!!! WOW. You said A LOT. This bears repeating: "Marty was the bad girl turned good because of the rape. Rebecca could have been the good girl turned bad because of the rapist." Nothing more perfect than that comment. It would have been AWESOME. TOTALLY AWESOME to see.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what we get is Punk turned into Hunk. GAG. I did not EVER LIKE POWELL until he cracked. Then I did like him a bit. I actually enjoyed when Marty talked him down, I thought Sean M was great then....some of his very best work.
By the way, if you Click under the chatbox, on Spotlight in the site cloud, I did a special spotlight on Sean M. You'd be interested to know where he's been throughout Todd's tenure on OLTL.
I think Bo went in because he was an altruistic character...even though he was furious with Todd for what he did to Nora, he couldn't just stand by and let him die without at least making some effort to save him.
ReplyDeleteObviously, there is that metaphorical (somewhat cliched today) "Baptism" element when Todd falls into the water. Now he has been "cleansed," and he's ready to undergo other situations based on Biblical elements.
Still, a very interesting scene...with Rebecca being restrained by Powell in the background...the struggle for the gun...and Rebecca's horrified scream...perhaps thinking at first Todd had shot Bo, which was her primary concern...that Dark-Todd would rear his head and kill someone else.
I'm not entirely sure how to interpret Todd throwing himself into the water...but you did a great job of analyzing it. It makes sense...but ultimately, as we all know, he survived...largely because of his desire to get back to Rebecca fueling him to keep fighting. Interesting to note...Todd later says he was shot in the leg during this incident...but watching this scene, you really can't tell exactly where he's been hit. I would've guessed somewhere in the gut. I wonder if they ever removed the bullet from THIS incident when he was undergoing surgery after being shot down from a cliff post-Marty/CJ/Jessica rescue. Otherwise, I guess Todd's been walking around with a bullet in his leg for umpteen years. LOL.
Hey that bullet thing is SO TRUE and I never thought of it that way! My goodness, unless the bullet passed through somewhere! LOL!. That's something that can help tell him apart from the impostor!
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