The End of the
Stenzian Era: The Best & Worst of …
by Jennifer H
September 10,
2000
With acknowledgement to LizM and all
of those who participated in her poll at the close of last year, I
thought I would offer my appreciation to Danny and Michelle Santos as
played by Joie Lenz and Paul Anthony Stewart by updating the list (and
adding a few more categories.)
Note: I know that we still have a month or so left, but I fear (and I do
hope I'm wrong, but ...) that Thursday may have been the last Manny
scene between PAS and JL, and more importantly, I do not know whether I
will have the heart to do this after Joie is gone.
So, on with the list ...
- Best Wedding: The Laurel Falls Wedding
- Best Wedding Vows: Danny, The Casa Santos Wedding “Who knows why
God puts a particular person into your life. I certainly didn't
expect to meet someone like you and I know you didn't plan on
meeting a guy like me, but by divine providence or fate or just
plain luck, we were thrown together and I knew, I knew that you were
a treasure to be cherished and to be revered.”
- Best Unexpected Kiss: Hands-down winner: The Diner Kiss.
- Most Passionate Kiss: Post-Josh/Reva wedding kiss in Michelle’s
bedroom.
- Most Erotic Kiss: Wedding night kiss.
- Best Use of Tongue: (tie) “Let’s Party” kiss / licking the
lip in the Bauer hallway.
- Most Disappointing Kiss: The lighthouse kiss after Michelle said
she’s tried to forget Danny.
- Kiss of Kisses: Wedding Night Kiss.
- Most Romantic Moment: After Danny has returned from San Cristobel
with Josh, he and Michelle are lying in bed and he tells her that he
never wants to take what they have for granted and then they kiss
really softly and sweet and my heart just goes pitter-pat.
- Most Unexpected Romantic Moment: The Millennium kiss … the way
he held her face, the way he kissed her was one thing, but her
contented and joyous reaction to it was made the moment so stand
out.
- Most Insipid Romantic Moment: I don’t think it was as bad as
some, but I’d still have to go with the touching of the doors at
the lighthouse.
- Best Touchy-Feeley Moment:
- By Danny: Tummy rub.
- By Michelle: Too many to count, but ANYtime she slips her
fingers into his cuffs or collar.
- Best Gratuitous Touchy-Feeley Moment:
- By Danny: The yacht cuppage.
- By Michelle: The bum brush when she returns from failing to
get ice cream.
- Most Intense Manny Moment: Hands-around-the-Neck scene.
- Saddest Manny Moment: Danny telling Michelle that it was a girl.
- Sexiest Manny Moment: The S.C. palace scenes when they contemplate
“love in the afternoon.”
- Giddiest Manny Moment: Running into Casa Santos after the Laurel
Falls wedding, with Danny spinning Michelle, kissing, smiling,
laughing.
- Best Manny Angst Moment: Danny holding onto Michelle unable to let
her go the morning after she catches him beating up Tony.
- Worst Manny Angst Moment: Michelle upset with Danny because Selena
fell in the Santos house.
- Most playful Manny moment: Contemplating sex in the empty Bauer
house.
- Most Hopeful Moment: Danny keeping the keys.
- Cheesiest Moment:
- By Manny: Danny carrying Michelle out of restaurant in SC.
- By Danny: Holding out the ring to be kissed.
- By Michelle: Pounding her chest as she told Dr. Quackford she
loved Danny.
- Most Embarrassing Manny Moment: Tinkerbelle chimes.
- Most Humiliating Manny Scene: Firing squad.
- Best Speech:
- By Danny: "I am a Man" ... "I am -- I'm a man
and when we, when you and I go into our room at night, I know, I
can't just turn myself into some sort of automaton with no
feelings and no desires. I just -- I can't do that. You know,
when you -- you take a shower and you comb your hair, you -- you
rub lotion into your arms, into your shoulders and you slip into
a nightgown and I'm -- I'm sitting in bed, pretending to read or
listen to music or whatever, but that's not what I'm doing. I --
I'm watching you. I'm trying not to, but I am. I do. I am a man
and when you climb into bed with me, beside me, never touching,
never touching, I lie there awake, staring into the dark, aware
of everything that you're doing, of how you breathe, of the
rustle of the sheets and it takes every ounce of my being to not
want to reach out to you. I care about you. I desire you. I want
to reach out to you."
- By Michelle: “I am your life” ..."I came back here to
live with you as husband and wife, that’s what I want. I came
back here because I want to be with you in every way. I want to
wake up with you, I want to make love to you, and crawl into bed
with you, and take bubble baths with you, and watch TV, and
fight over the remote control, and have breakfast in bed, and I
want all that. I want all of it, and I want you. If there were a
thousand guns lined up outside, I would want to face them with
you. Please, please love me enough to know that I am not just
your wife now, I’m your life."
- Best THUD Line:
- By Danny: “I wonder … I wonder if you’re worth risking
my neck for.”
- By Michelle: “Your place is with your family and my place is
with you. Till death do us part, Danny. Till death do us
part.”
- Most Romantic Line:
- By Danny: (I don’t care if it was in a dream, I absolutely
adored it – and yes, there’s probably another one out there
I’m missing, but this will do.) Michelle says that Dr. Sedwick
said they may not be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat and
Danny says, "it's okay, I'll just listen to your
heartbeat."
- Michelle: “And I'd say, I've been waiting for you..."
(I cheated and went back to change this -- JFish put this one up
and I gotta agree, this one tops any other romantic Michelle
line.)
- Most Comedic Line:
- By Danny: “The back of my head, detective.”
- By Michelle: “I don’t know that the hallway would like
being taken advantage of.”
- Most Angsty Line:
- By Danny: “I love her more than you or anybody else could
possibly, possibly imagine.”
- By Michelle: “Make this make sense for me, Danny.”
- Best Use of “I love you":
- By Danny: In the Lighthouse before the “kidnapping…” the
on-a-rush-of-exhaled-air “I love you.”
- By Michelle: The night before the verdict, it's when Danny is
blaming himself and Michelle says that she doesn't regret him in
her life and ends with just a perfect "I love you."
- Best pet name:
- By Danny: “baby.”
- By Michelle: don’t really have a favorite, but I'll go with
“honey.”
- Favorite Manny Scene: the dream lesson.
- Best Manny Bed Scene: Casa Santos Bedroom, after the secret spot
scenes when Danny tells Michelle that she made Casa Santos a place
he could look forward to coming home to.
- Best Sparring Scene (when married for convenience): Casa Santos
Bedroom entire scene leading to "Learn More Spanish."
- Best Sparring Scene (when married for real): After the police
search the bearer bonds at Casa Santos when Michelle confronts Danny
about keeping secrets from her.
- Best After-Glow Scene: Casa Santos Bedroom, after the secret spot
scenes when Danny tells Michelle that she made Casa Santos a place
he could look forward to coming home to.
- Best follow-through scene: Christmas morning.
- Most Disappointing lack of follow-through scene: Michelle
(especially) and Danny dealing with their grief after the first CL
break-up.
- Best Break-Up: After Danny takes care of Xeno.
- Best Michelle Flashback: Trying desperately to recapture her
feelings for Jesse, she kisses him while a memory of the wedding
night kiss with Danny flashes through her mind.
- Best Danny Flashback: After Bernardo demands he marries TOW, Danny
thinks back to his promise to keep Michelle safe during his LF
wedding vows.
- Best Fantasy: Yeah, yeah, it was shrouded in shadows and waaay too
short, but I still go with Michelle’s jail fantasy – Michelle in
a red peignoir, on a brass bed and Danny, he of the jutting jaw,
kissing the bejesus out of her.
- Best THUD Look:
- By Michelle: Right after she sucks on the shared orange slice.
- by Danny: (same look) In the S.C. restaurant & in the
villa right before Michelle leaves for the ball when he says
“please.”
- Best Look overall:
- By Michelle: when Carmen drops the Drew Bomb.
- By Danny: Right before “I wonder if you’re worth risking
my neck for?”
- Best Expression of Pure Happiness: the morning after they discover
Michelle’s pregnant in the Bauer kitchen.
- Best Use of Tears:
- By Danny: “You can’t change me” at the Lighthouse.
- By Michelle: The night before the verdict, final scene.
- Best Michelle Giggle: S.C. palace, “let’s have sex” scenes.
- Best Danny Sound Effect: The growl before the kiss during the
Birth Control episode.
- Best Danny Dip-Down: After saying he'll keep the keys, he dips
down and kisses her.
- Funniest Action:
- By Danny: The Santos Salute.
- By Michelle: The three-foot stamp in the lighthouse.
- Best Hair Day
- Danny: the divorce episode (in jail)
- Michelle: the episode after the consummation, in pink and
black, aka Nancy Drew and the chocolates.
- Best Gratuitous Use of Body:
- Michelle: in S.C. in the red bikini during “Julia” mode.
- Danny: undressing in the lighthouse.
- Best Appreciation of Cleavage by Danny: fumbling over his inky,
dinky line as his gaze is arrested by her assets during the
“we’re not going to rescue Reva” fight.
- Best Wardrobe:
- Michelle: Red dress when Danny's in L.A. & she throws the
drink in Ben's face.
- Danny: S.C. ball tuxedo.
- Worst Wardrobe:
- Danny: That icky grey, hair shirt.
- Michelle: I gotta go with that sickly mauve dress she wears so
damn much it’s pathetic. Last time she wore it (I think) was
when Carmen was shot.
- Best Small Storyline Arc: Marrying to save Michelle’s life.
- Worst Small Storyline Arc: On the run.
- Most missed opportunity: The whole brilliant, beautiful,
passionate, achingly wonderful love story this could and should
have been.
JenniferH
|