You know what never fails to make me hit the brakes on a storyline? Violence against women. And I’m pretty consistent about hating characters that engage in it and I remain resistant to redemption arcs. We all know this about me by now. I hate OLTL’s Todd and have little patience for GH’s Sonny; I don’t care how cute ATWT’s nuAdam is, I’m not playin’ the game. So why, then, am I totally on the Craig and Rosanna train?! Aaaaaaargh! I love them. I love them so much it might actually be getting in the way of normal brain functions. And I’m really having a tough time reconciling that passion for this couple with the fact that I hate giving characters who hurt women a free pass.

Sure, I could justify it by saying Craig never actually laid a hand on Ro, that he just ran her off the road…but isn’t that the same kind of justification we could use for Sonny? “He didn’t mean to shoot Carly in the head; he was aiming for Alcazar.” And saying that it’s because Jon Lindstrom and Cady McClain have chemistry…well, that’s no better, right? Dozens of soap actors have chemistry out the wazu; that doesn’t mean their characters should be together. But, oh man, I just can’t help myself here.

Because it could probably be argued that Craig and Rosanna do belong together. Aside from the fact that he sort of tried to kill her, and he’s done dozens of heinous things over the years (Meg and the miscarriage drug, anyone?), there is also the fact that Craig and Rosanna are a classic archetype. They’re Petruchio and Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew or Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. It’s all banter and one upmanship and two fiery characters on equal footing. The one thing I can legitimately say for them without sounding like an apologist is that from a literary standpoint, Rosanna is not a victim; she’s his match. Because even Carly, in the Craig/Carly relationship, was suffering from alcoholism and became incredibly dependant on Craig. There was an inequality and enabling factor there that showed us Craig’s compassionate side but kept the pairing from being a partnership. Rosanna is someone who has seen the ugliest side of Craig and reminds him of it…while also acknowledging that there are other sides that have emerged as well. They really do work as self-aware adults who know exactly how much carnage Craig has left in his wake and yet have enough hope left in their cynical hearts to find their way back to each other.

Egads. Listen to me. I’m a goner.

Send help! I need an intervention!

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com