Danger: The missing element 1 . 12 . 00
...it's those opposing families that can't just easily go away; it's those very real scenarios of those families who are in debt to the Santoses like the Silva family... It's not that easy to walk away. The business is too large. There are too many connections. If it were easy to make the mob go away, then Danny and Michelle's last name, "Santos," wouldn't cause such a fury in the courtroom.
Even dear ol' Len the Ice Cream guy was ballsy enough to go against Danny "I know your family" Santos, the supposed mob prince of SF. I've found this humorous at times, but also downright unrealistic and silly. Even Michelle, who acted scared around Danny at first (and by this, I mean VERY VERY early on, before they were married), stood up to Carmen upon their first meeting. But even then, the presence of Dietz (miss him!) and their other goons at least played into the "idea" that the Santos family could have you offed if you pushed them. But it's all gone now, you're so right. I, by no means, have any first-hand knowledge of how the mafia world works, so bear with me. Go back in time with me - Manny return from SC to find Selena at the bottom of their cellar stairs (yes, skip over all the Drew scenes...). In the Bauer kitchen after their night apart, she sees Ben's offer as their way of getting out. He tells her "it's not that easy" and she explicitly says "put one foot in front of the other..." and I remember thinking at the time that Michelle was simply naive in thinking that Danny could possibly do that. Of course, I was writing their own motivations in my head where the writers didn't bother to do so... but I digress. I defended Danny that night in chat by saying that Michelle doesn't know that Danny's decision to leave really isn't easy because of the ramifications that would fall upon the both of them if he tried to. People don't just "leave" the mob. It's just not done by putting "one foot in front of the other", that's for sure. So, I bonded with Danny for a day or two. :) However, fuh fuh (um, that's FF to non-chatters) to Rick's line to Manny when they moved into the Bauer's.. "it was that easy?" and Danny replied "It wasn't easy..." and I couldn't help but think - yes it was Danny! You said goodbye and you left. That is easy. And it was NOT even 1/100th how good they could've made it at the time. I kept waiting for Danny to tell her that it's just not easy to "leave" the family.. that if he did, it would be like having a bulls eye on the back of his head (and hers). Not only that, but at the very least, I would've loved to have seen it play out where he had to meet with the rest of the families, because there are far-reaching consequences when someone like Danny "leaves" the business. Like you said, it's "too big" and the fact that they seemed to drop it completely to give us the Theresa crap, was disappointing. But oh how I wish they'd gone with that.. and they still can, actually. A threat here, a threat there when this Ben stuff finishes up... throws him back in, and no matter how much he WANTS to leave, for his own safety (and Michelle's) he just CAN'T. Michelle, struggling to want to go back to school (ok, even THAT'S getting kindof old), maybe she gets hurt.. which forces Danny's hand.. and we haven't seen Danny get the kind of PO'd he CAN get if Michelle is literally hurt. Ohhh.. you can't see me, but I'm rubbing my hands together maniacally. Good stuff there, potentially. Thanks for bringing this up.. great points all over your post. :) Candy
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