I think you are right about Spaige, MegaJ. All this time I've excused it as dealing with Paige's rape just took a toll on their relationship. But I think it's obvious that something else was lurking under the surface and I think it's exactly what you've described. It wasn't until Paige crashed Spin's car that she would start to do something for him to make it up to him. She had always made it the complete opposite. Their relationship has always been rather unbalanced with the taking and giving. But I think this might have been a problem in all of Paige's relationships.
Emma's evolution to GonorrEmma: We're talking about the whole possibility of a PTSD storyline for characters like Jimmy and Sean in the
Degrassi Ramblings thread. I'm not completely sold on Emma being the one to get the plot but I like the insight you have into her. I can see how her black and white outlook on the world would lead her to question everything and hook up in the van. But I also think that Emma was looking to shatter her identity...there were a lot of lines about her having virtue (I think Jay said this and Emma looked disappointed) and then the argument with Manny where she says something to the effect that Emma is better than what she's doing and Emma responds that Manny doesn't know what she's worth. Emma wanted to be someone different (and the play just fueled this desire). This might have had to do with the shooting but I think it was at least 50% Emma having an identity crisis (which has become the consistent storyline for her over the years).
- I think they were planning on having Ellie and Alex hook up too. I remember there was one of Alex's journal entries at d-tv where she wondered if Ellie had a crush on her.
- I've always believed that actor availability is what destroyed Crash so I have never been that heart broken. They were forced to be apart because of it. And it seemed like the writer's were extremely torn about how to have Ashley exit the show because there's a deleted scene for WEG that is a complete contradiction to the speech she gave Craig about wanting to try something new.