Perhaps it was because of Dan's exit and JF had to do S3 SL for M/M in a jiffy but still, like what you said, writers are writers for a reason. Yes he was going to write off Matthew by the time the CS aired but I thought the whole Lavinia inheritance and the baby problems just didn't cut it for 7 eps. So the SLs felt rushed and forced to me. By the time the CS aired, I was even apologetic for taking all the M/M scenes for granted because we're never going to get them now.
