And The Truth Shall Set You Free!

by Tracee

Like many I didn't expect Danny to find out about his mother's machinations until about thirty seconds before he was poised to kill Michelle in whatever way he saw fit to do. But this shouldn't surprise me about GL, because in the short time I've been watching, I've noticed that things seem to happen at breakneck speed, which is both good and bad. But truly this surprised me (even more than the notion that Dietz has female companionship did, can you see "eeeewwww", I knew you could).

I started thinking about it, weighing the options and realizing that Michelle would confess her part in all of this in short order, and I thought this is the *best* thing that could ever happen in order to shift the story focus to Michelle's feelings for Danny. All along we've been getting cryptic hints, confused stares, but nothing to grab and hold onto, because there was nothing absolutely solid there. But now in one fell swoop I believe Michelle's feelings are going to come charging into this story. How can I explain?

On the one hand Danny is over the moon, about the fact that he was so wrong about his wife, that his mother is the evil scourge of the earth (which she is). His conscience is bowing down to Michelle for saving it from being tortured to death by the guilt that having to kill her would have caused him. On the other hand... his conscience is weighing down on Danny, reminding him that he actually went so far, as to believe he just had to kill her, and bottle up any humanity he thought he had (surely this is going to make for an introspective look at himself at some point). And also on the other hand, he's not entirely right about Michelle, she *did* have Drew call the FBI, but she took it back, and that's key. I think the two key elements to this turn of events, are that a) Danny knows, no matter what Michelle did, that his mother can't be trusted, that his mother set him up. Regardless of her own role in it, Michelle didn't force his mother to do these things and I don't think there will ever be anything that can erase that fact. b) Michelle had the same kind of attack of conscience that he had, fighting with herself to not go through with this, and hearing the one piece of information (that he loves her) necessary to put a halt to what she wanted to happen.

The most obvious benefit to all of this is that there will be no secrets hanging over their head, from Michelle's side of this story. Once she gets the truth out in the open, the only thing holding Michelle to Danny is whatever she feels for him (as I do think Danny will offer to put this marriage to rest, partly out of guilt for his own actions and partly out of residual anger and the belief that nothing binds them together anymore). Danny is in a position to offer her an annulment to their marriage, because of Carmen's own actions (ironically she's the one who's set Michelle free from this marriage with nary a threat to her person, because Danny has something to hold over her, now). So really all that's left over is whatever Michelle feels for him, because she now has the cards all stacked in her favor. His actions with Drew, will give her even more leverage. This story has been about her "imprisonment", her being forced to do things against her will, but in one short week, Danny will become the one imprisoned by his own guilt over the incident with Drew and forcing her to marry him in the first place.

 So really what's left between Manny at this point? Nothing but whatever they're feeling, naturally, because that's the only tie that binds (doesn't it say that whatever he offers Michelle "reluctantly" accepts). I think we're finally going to see Michelle be the one whose feelings are paramount to this relationship. Danny is no longer going to be floating out there by himself, putting it all on the line, in return for cold rebuffs. The time away from the marriage, is also going to give Michelle the much needed closure with Jesse, because she'll be free to be with him, however she wants, but when she doesn't want to be, she'll have finally put this thing in it's proper place in the past.

And the beauty of the unfortunate Drew incident is that it really does even out the score, because no matter how Michelle "betrayed" him, I think Danny puts his wedding vows before his sense of loss and this is going to overwhelm him. He's going to be in the position Michelle has been in all along, holding secrets, "betraying" his wife, and the only thing that's going to ease that is for Michelle to find out the truth and forgive him for it, because she really *does* have feelings for him, and she really does want to be there, despite all of this.

And how did this all happen? Because Michelle told the truth, finally, and turned this story on its ear, IMO.

Tracee