Mon., May 10, 1999 – At the Lighthouse: Carmen walks in and tells Danny he needs to be back in the hospital. As Carmen and Michelle argue about what is right for Danny, he begins to get his memory back and confronts his mother about ordering Michelle’s death. Though Carmen denies it, Danny reveals that he heard her ordering Dietz to “take care of” Michelle. Danny: “She is my WIFE….You are NOT a mother. I never want to see your face again.” Michelle: “His life is with me…Carmen, you’ve done everything humanly possible to come between us and we’re together now because nothing has worked.” Furious, Carmen gets her revenge by leaking Danny’s secret that he slept with Drew. After Carmen leaves, Michelle tells Danny that she can’t forgive him for lying to her. She says that he broke her heart, after the mere thought of him had kept her from being able to sleep with Jesse (who she once loved) that he could so easily sleep with Drew. Michelle: “You told me on the park bench that I could have been anyone….You told me I could have been any woman and then you proved that.” Danny: “I know what my life is without you and it stinks! I hate it.” Danny: “Isn’t that what makes a strong marriage, the ability to forgive? Don’t throw this away…. I know what we have is good and strong and it’s real and it’s worth fighting for. Don’t give up on this Michelle, come on, don’t give up.” Michelle: “Something stopped me because I was looking at Jesse and I was seeing you.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1VK7mddk4&feature=PlayList&p=F6D180793863A590&index=58
Tues., May 11, 1999 – At the lighthouse, Michelle is still stunned by the revelation that Danny slept with Drew. She feels that her relationship with Danny is over. Danny tries to explain to Michelle how confused and hurt he felt that night and he begs her to give their relationship another chance. He tells her everything she wished he had the last time they were together there. Danny: “I want you back. I want to give our marriage another chance….Michelle, there isn’t a single day that goes by when I don’t think about you, where I don’t miss you, where I don’t want you. I know, I know I should have said all this before, but I thought you didn’t want me, so I kept all these feelings to myself, because…. I didn’t want to be hurt….I tried really hard to get rid of my feelings for you because I thought our marriage was over. I drank a lot. I did a lot of things to get you out of my system, that’s why I slept with Drew, but it didn’t work. It didn’t work. My feelings for you only got stronger. I couldn’t get rid of those feelings…..And I know you feel the same way. Tell me you do.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE30CuMEu8U&feature=PlayList&p=F6D180793863A590&index=59
My Comments:
If you haven’t done it yet, please take a minute and at least read over the post at the link below about Maureen’s death. It’s crucial for understanding Michelle’s reaction to this reveal. After Michelle had betrayed him to the Feds, Danny doesn’t really understand her strong and violent reaction to finding out about him and Drew. He knew it would upset her, but I don’t think he had any idea it would practically destroy her like this. The answer to why is simple; it’s Ed, Maureen, and Lillian. Michelle had lived her whole life, as she has earlier told Drew, with guys that loved her “just a little bit more” that was not accidental. It was a defense mechanism. She never wanted to find herself in the situation that destroyed her mother and for the first time she took the risk, the first time that she admitted to herself she loved Danny as much as he loved her, that she wasn’t in control, BAM! she’s put in exactly that situation. Her husband slept with her friend who needed comforting. It doesn’t matter how the details are different. What Michelle is seeing is Ed-Maureen-Lillian, what Michelle is hearing is her mother’s cries as she left the house for the very last time. Danny has unwittingly almost destroyed her, the very thing he would give his life not to do, but he doesn’t understand that yet and she doesn’t explain it to him in any of these scenes so he is left lost and adrift for understanding it and truly believes given the situation, his belief that she cared nothing for him, and her betrayal with the FBI made it OK, besides it was just sex which didn’t mean much to Danny in comparison with actually making love which he only did with Michelle. To Danny it was just sex, to Michelle it was absolute destruction. He doesn’t understand her reaction at all and “in all fairness” how could he?
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/goodbye-maureens-death
Carmen is making a last ditch effort to get Michelle out of Danny’s life by frontal assault. After this she will be more subtle. She finally comes to an understanding right here what a strong opponent she is facing and her hate for Michelle and her need to control Danny, totally overwhelm any love or true concern she might have for him. Danny gets his memory back when Carmen uses a similar phrase and triggers his memory.
Michelle is in full protective gear. She doesn’t even gloat to Carmen that she was right about Danny. Instead she’s carefully monitoring and supporting him and making sure he is all right. All though to be fair to Carmen, Michelle couldn’t have said anything else to so push her buttons to make her want to tell her. It was setting up the pitch on a T-ball stand. Michelle looks at Danny, like to say, can you believe this, and then does a double take as she can see in a glance, easily read it in him and it’s true.
I think Danny is wrong Carmen does love Danny, it’s just in a warped, sick way and she’s so totally self-absorbed and selfish that most of the time it doesn’t matter. Carmen’s worst fear comes true when once again “Miguel” chose the other woman over her. Michelle’s worst fear also comes true when she both finds herself in her mother’s place, but that she has not only has been betrayed by her husband, but by both her best friends, Drew who did it and didn’t tell and Jesse who didn’t tell.
For all her own hurt, when Danny shows a reaction based on his continued injuries from the accident and stress, she drops it all to care for him, but still can’t forgive him yet.
In fairness to Michelle, and to the writers who ran back to the mob well way too many times for story, but did allow for character growth, the next time Danny feels he’s lost her forever, he does the same thing, but this time Michelle knows him better and understands why. He is not her father and as long as he knows he has her he would never cheat, but faced with the utter destruction of losing her forever he grabs the first girl he finds to try to feel some small connection to somebody else. By the third time it happens, I don’t think it would have if he wasn’t really, really sure she couldn’t come back this time (as if – just because she couldn’t remember who she was) and that he needed desperately to hold on to some sort of normalcy for Robbie’s sake.
Tags: Carmen Santos, Danny Santos, Drew Jacobs, GL, Guiding Light, Jesse Blue, Lighthouse, Maureen Reardon Bauer, Michelle Bauer Santos, Sam Dietz
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