Oh, but I never said that there aren't valid reasons to dislike him. Believe me, I'm aware of all of those reasons.




There are similarities, that's true. But why can't former Matthew fans like Charles because simply because both men happen to embody character traits that we ordinarily find attractive anyway? My issue was with how you phrased it: "Viewers might want that kind of dynamic because it's hard to let go". That sounds like you're saying we're all so distraught over Matthew's death that we can't move on, so we're clinging to something similar. I just don't think that's the case at all.

It's like saying that Mary has been (or was, if you think she's over him) keeping Charles around because she's unable to move on past Matthew. Do you think that's true? Because I don't.

I think that Mary finds certain character traits attractive, and Matthew and Charles happen to embody some of those same traits. And I think that many viewers are attracted to Charles not because they find it "hard to let go" of a fictional character, but because that's the kind of TV character they generally gravitate towards.

After all, it's not as if Matthew and M/M broke some kind of mold. They were two witty people who fell in love with each other in spite of their initial bickering and prejudices. Where have we seen that story before? Only everywhere!




But when did Charles say any of that? All he said was that Mary is cleverer than Tony. He never said Mary would never be happy with Tony, or that she wouldn't find other things to value in her marriage with him. He was just talking about that one issue potentially being something that Mary would find hard to deal with.

I mean, when we take into account that Tony and Charles served in the war together, that means that Charles has insight into Tony that Mary might not necessarily have. I assumed that his warning was at least partially based on that knowledge.




Eh. I'm willing to wait and see on this. At one time, Mary was panting with desire for Pamuk over Matthew. And we see how that turned out.

I'm not counting Charles out yet.




She isn't bored by Tony yet, but I'd be very surprised if the Mary/Charles conversation wasn't foreshadowing of some kind that she may be bored soon. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the point was of the conversation -- it certainly didn't stop Mary from going with Tony, which makes me think Charles's warning will somehow come into play later.




Mary's stubborn, though. She had already made up her mind to take Tony for a test drive, so that's what she's going to do, and from what I could tell Charles's speech only made her even more determined to prove him wrong, which IMO says more about the connection between Mary/Charles than it does about Mary/Tony.

Anyway, I don't know that Mary's decision in 502 means that her heart is finished with Charles forever. As we saw with Matthew, sometimes Mary needs to lose something to realize how much she valued it. She hasn't lost Charles yet. If she were to lose him, how would she react? My guess is that she wouldn't take it well, and that's why I'm hoping JF goes there.