yulan

I think her real introduction, or one of rare times when we got to see a "real" Valerie, was when she yelled at Dylan that she was not Brenda.

Previous introductions, with her rolling a joint and calling the gang avocado heads, or when she cheated on Steve with Dylan, definitely caught the attention. They were revelations that now we had a real bad girl on the show - in the main cast. But then later when her vulnerabilities were discovered (although we knew from the start she had at least one major tragedy in her life, that her father committed a suicide - or so everyone thought) we of course learned things were a bit more complex than that.

Now was it a good writing - I am not sure. I think that writing of Valerie was a bit all over the place, not just as the seasons progressed, but in even S5 already. We got to see her as manipulative and calculative, but then oh, here's a bit of tragedy about her, but then we are back to Valerie being a bitch (especially when the other characters call her so, although at that point they are no better than her, but we should somehow think they are). It was pretty inconsistent.