Hit / Miss

Telling Secrets on Passions

Something truly shocking is going on in Harmony: The notoriously slow-moving Passions is finally exposing its long-held secrets, much to the horror of the show’s characters—and delight of viewers.

The impending reveal of the Crane family crimes has thrown the whole canvas into a delicious tizzy, but Julian’s response is by far the most fascinating, complex and exciting to watch.

With Eve, Julian is like an old-fashioned knight: noble, calm, self-sacrificing. He insists on painting himself in the worst possible light (as a rapist) just so she can preserve her marriage to TC. Julian accepts that he will go to prison and wants only to protect the woman he loves.

With Rebecca, Julian is the scoundrel viewers love to hate. He toys with her mercilessly, taunting her with the fact that she will soon be a “social pariah.” He even suggested that he might actually rape her before forcing her to wear a tacky blue showgirl dress to the Founder’s Day Dance. Fabulously sinister!

But all Passions secrets are not created equal.

The revelation of what is in TC’s shed whimpered like a deflating tire. For years, characters have entered that shed and gasped in horror, unable to accept what they were seeing. Now viewers are supposed to believe that a dented old car elicited that reaction?

That fact that TC has been obsessively holding onto the car that destroyed his knee for two decades could have been an interesting nugget of information. But hyping that secret for so long (since the show debuted in 1999!) made viewers expect a huge payoff – and frankly, the old jalopy didn’t cut it.

“Shocking” secrets cut both ways on Passions: Julian’s crimes stop traffic, but TC’s obsession is a car wreck. –CC