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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

OLTL: Shane being bullied leads to Death and Destruction

On One Life to Live, Shane being bullied began as a story about awareness of the horrors of being picked on by classmates. It has mutated into a revenge story in which Rex goes after all those who hurt Shane, Gigi and Rex.

Shane Morasco has gone through a lot in his life. He was born to a single teenaged mother Gigi. The man he believed was his father Brody, lost his mind for a time, took him and shot his biological father Rex. Then while Shane had cancer, Rex was involved with Gigi’s sister Stacy. Shane also has asthma and this is what people chose to tease him about calling him Wheezy. Shane never had to doubt his mother’s love and he had the support of her friends. Everything got too much for Shane after the kids stole his clothes, took digital footage of it and put it on the web. Shane went on the roof of his school intending to jump.

When the bullying situation came out, people wanted to lend their aid. Starr was upset at her brother, and thought he deserved punishment. Echo, Bo and even Clint wanted to help Shane. Gigi and Rex took him to therapy and decided to get married. When Todd found out what Jack did, instead of being supportive he was angry. Todd who has done all these awful things even knew what Jack did was wrong.

After all of this, Shane was taken out of Llanview High, but the harassment didn’t end. The web provided his attackers a means to continue to bother him. Of course, as someone who has been online for as long as I have, this felt unrealistic. You can limit who can see your comments on social networks as well as whom you can see. Once Shane was no longer going to Llanview High there was no need for him to read anything his former classmates said about him or anything else.

In person, Shane dropped a barbell on Jack’s foot. Gigi refused to serve Jack at her restaurant job. Blair tried to make things better between the boys, but was unsuccessful. Jack and his buddy Brad started to speak with Shane online as a fake female comic book fan. Quickly Shane knew it was a trap as they didn’t know enough about the genre to discuss it intelligently. That little touch I appreciated as people who are knowledgeable fans can recognize a faux quickly especially when using instant messaging. Gigi found out what Shane was doing and tried to help. Instead of going to their wedding, Gigi went to meet the fictional girl that they had been talking to online. Pretending to be Shane, Gigi became locked in a basement, which had equipment that leaked carbon monoxide. Rex figured out where Gigi was, but got there too late. He rushed her to the hospital, but she was declared brain dead.

Shane blamed himself for his mother’s death and realized that Jack and Brad nearly killed him. Todd bought Jack’s way out of his crime. The computer belonged to Brad, so while Jack had it in his possession he wasn’t the one who set up this situation. What was forgotten was that the place Gigi was found was owned by Todd. I wonder if they would be liable for that. Brad’s father needed the money, so he bought a confession. Jack was let go of charges, which obviously upset Rex and Shane.

At this point, Rex was livid. He lost his fiancĂ© on their wedding day, the person who caused this got away with it, and the father who hates him is designated as being the recipient of Gigi’s heart. Instead of acting with grace, he goes for revenge.

Rex first goes after Clint, the father who refused to claim him as a member of the Buchanan clan. Rex yelled at him and even put a pillow on his face to suffocate him. His biological mother Echo helped him to forge legal documents, so Gigi’s heart couldn’t be donated without his permission. That said Clint loathes Rex. The term gold digger would be one Clint uses to describe him with no qualms. Rex lived up to Clint’s low opinion of him by trading Gigi’s heart for all of Clint’s holdings. Buchanan Enterprises now belongs to Rex, the mansion, Clint’s horses, everything for another chance at life. Considering Clint has family, perhaps someone will give him a job and a place to stay, so he doesn’t have to deal with living in the Minuteman Hotel and dodging Rick the movie producer.

Rex may now have Clint’s riches, but that doesn’t give him back his beloved Gigi. Shane was upset at first over all of it, but is on board with hurting the Mannings. Oddly it feels like the complaints made about Rex’s actions were merely lip service. Rex has the power to get revenge on Todd and has started by creating a company called Origami Cogs (anagram for Gigi Morasco). He is buying the things Todd wants to make his life miserable, and plans to go after Jack’s mother Blair and Todd’s wife Tea. Rex has no corporate business acumen or experience and took over a billion dollar company, if he makes the wrong moves thousands of innocent people may lose their jobs.

Hopefully someday Rex and Shane are able to heal from the loss of Gigi. Making Todd and Jack hurt isn’t going to fix their broken hearts. Eventually I also would like Rex and Shane able to have a relationship with Clint that is not so toxic. A part of Gigi lives on with him, and they are family whether they like it or not. Todd and Jack deserve to be punished and while the justice system gave no justice, they need to deal with the ramifications of Gigi’s death.

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