Uh oh…
It looks like there are a few storm clouds on the horizon for my favorite couple. If I’m not mistaken, Mr. McBain seems to have developed something of an attitude toward Ms. Williamson and their relationship in the last day or so. There he stood at the pool table in Rodi’s, cue in one hand and a drink – a hard drink and not his usual beer – in the other. Looks like what we have between John and Evangeline is a failure to communicate – plain and simple.
When Evangeline told John that she’s afraid of marriage and how more than half of them break up and denigrate into squabbles over bank accounts and child custody and real property and lives torn apart, she didn’t realize that what John was hearing was that their relationship didn’t have a future. Of course you and I know that our favorite attorney is speaking as someone who watched her parents’ marriage ripped apart by the destruction of her father’s career, as well as an attorney who has represented her share of formerly happily in love marriage partners in their quests to obliterate the former objects of their love and devotion. We know that what she’s really saying is that she’s too afraid to take a chance on marriage with the man she loves because she doesn’t want any of that to happen to her or the man she loves, in this case, one John McBain.
Of course, unlike Evangeline, John comes from the perspective of someone whose parents loved each other dearly until the day his father was ripped from his family’s lives. He saw first hand that some marriages do last until one of the partners dies. And he’s also coming to it as a man who made that commitment to a woman, only to have her torn from him before it could happen. And so as his feelings for Evangeline deepen, he knows that sooner or later, he’ll want that commitment with her – the one with the strings and rings and everything else that comes with it. But she’s told him that it’s not in the cards.
Of course, everything would be on track for John and Evangeline if they would only tell each other what’s really on their minds. If only they could. But they’ve both been so closed off and controlled for so long that they’re not quite sure how.
It’s funny but intentionally or not (probably unintentionally, if I’m any judge…), the writers have continued a thread that really began after John and Evangeline spent that night in Mary Barnes’ basement. Remember how they both said that they weren’t sorry about what had happened between them? Sounds to me like something a little more than just physical had happened in that basement that night. Remember how they talked about it in Carlota’s diner afterward and Evangeline told John that she had someone in her life and she really didn’t want to hurt him? What’s the point of an admission like that if it was only a one-time thing? Remember how later Evangeline told John that RJ had asked if she was having an affair with him? John’s response wasn’t “And you said no, right?” It was “What did you tell him?” Remember in John’s room at the Angel Square Hotel - how Evangeline said to him that what they had wasn’t a relationship. John’s response amounted to “Whatever you say.” How very noncommittal of him. Remember when Evangeline unexpectedly came back from San Francisco and ran smack into John with Natalie in his room? Remember that she told John she’d missed him while she was gone? Remember his reaction – that he missed her, too? But he said it as if he was surprised that she missed him and said so, which gave him permission to own up that he felt the same way, as if he didn’t know whether or not he should or was expected to. Remember John telling his brother Michael how Evangeline was staying with him after she was attacked in the train station? Remember that Michael asked how that was going and John saying something like: “Aside from the circumstances…I think I could get used to it.” Remember John admitting to Evangeline that he was disappointed when she said she was ready to go home because he liked having her stay with him? Remember John telling Michael how much he likes being around Evangeline and how he misses her when she’s not there? Remember Evangeline asking if their relationship without rings and things was enough for him and he didn’t respond? And now there’s this – John drinking and brooding over Evangeline’s stance on marriage and rings. And when he threw the word “love” out there, the brick wall went up when Evangeline suggested that words like that be banned from their vocabulary. Did you see the look on his face just before he said, “Done.”? He was not a happy camper. In all of this, I see a John McBain who’s just itching for a real commitment with the woman he loves – namely one Evangeline Williamson. But he’s been saying just the opposite from the very beginning or if not actually saying the opposite, he hasn’t corrected her when she assumed that he was.
And no, it’s not Evangeline’s fault that they’re in this sad place right now. She’s trying as hard as she can to stay in control of her heart and her emotions where McBain is concerned. She feels herself falling deeper and deeper. Nora got it right when she said that Evangeline has fallen so hard for John that she can’t even get up. But Evangeline doesn’t know where she stands in his life and she doesn’t want to put herself fully out there until she does and, if I’m any judge, she might have trouble doing it even then. Who can blame her for that?
“The course of true love…” and all that business. And things will surely get worse for our Super Couple before they get better, I’ll bet. And then they’ll get bad again and so on and so on. And we’ll watch and we’ll be sad and we’ll ache right alongside both of them.
But when the payoff comes – when John and Evangeline find their way through it all and meet on the other side, it will be wonderful!
Who knows? We may just get some good soap opera yet.
Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Renee Elise Goldsberry and Michael Easton?