Questions for Christie

[maggiethecat]

Please give the reasons for your answers:

1. What is the character's best trait?

2. What is the character's worst trait?

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)

4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series?

5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself?

[shmeep]

1. What is the character's best trait?
She stuck it out with Jim and worked to make their marriage better and, whatever there is to say about some of her reactions to things, she was supportive.

2. What is the character's worst trait?
Apart from a couple of those outfits...I'd have to say she was too snippy and quick to pounce on things before Jim had a chance to digest what was going on himself.

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)
What was it that made her stay with Jim after the shooting? Was it pity or did she genuinely love him and want to make the marriage work?

4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series?
I'd like to see Christie put Jim in his place with a snarky comment, laugh, and move on without any smoldering after-effects.

5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself?
She brought out his humanity and his vulnerability. She was the reason he wanted to change and become a better person. Without Christie, it's hard to say if Jim would have even made the effort to reclaim his life.

[housemouse]

1. What is the character's best trait?
She was always there for Jim.

2. What is the character's worst trait? She seems a bit controlling.

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.) What made a fashionist like her fall for a cop like Jim.

4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series? A little bit more about her job/life outside of her marriage.

5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself? She helped make him see that he is worth caring about and deserves a second chance.

[Duchess of Lashes]

1. What is the character's best trait?

Her level of commitment to her husband and to her marriage. Whatever else you can say about the woman, her own sense of tenacity was admirable.

2. What is the character's worst trait?

Her sense of timing or lack thereof, and her seeming inability to understand that life doesn't necessarily happen within the timeframe you have alotted. She seemed to have more than enough capacity to understand and give Jim space on some occasions - on others not so much - it's too bad she didn't find it within herself to use that tactic more often.

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)

I would love to know why she stayed, why she put her needs on hold for that year and granted him the "mulligan, what it was that made him the only one for her, given the obvious hurt in their past.

4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series?

Finish what she started at the beginning of Marlon's Brando! (kidding!) I would have loved to have seen her actually serve something out of all those pots on the stove (kidding again!) Let the fridge run out of beer?


5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself?

I know they say don't answer a question with a question, but I have to. What didn't she help Jim understand about himself? I think he was, by the time all was said and done, a much better person, a much better husband, because of her. She was responsible for his desire to heal their relationship, to learn to communicate and finally "let her in."

[maggiethecat]

longlashes said:

b]3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character?

[/b](This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)

I would love to know why she stayed, why she put her needs on hold for that year and granted him the "mulligan, what it was that made him the only one for her, given the obvious hurt in their past.[/quote]
This is a wonderful answer . . . but it also made me LOL. I mean, longlashes darlin', have you taken a good look at the guy? Heh.

[Duchess of Lashes]

I try not to .......I know what you're saying but I was going for depth rather than substance! The substance speaks for itself!

[maggiethecat]

1. What is the character's best trait?
Again, like Jim, I would say her tenacity. She could have left him but didn't.

2. What is the character's worst trait?
She was only open and honest when it seemed to suit her. And you all know I will go to my grave being pissed off at her for "You don't need me; you need your dog." Mean-spirited, tacky, and ill-timed, a bitchy trifecta.

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)
Other than the obvious ( ), what was it that attracted her to Jim in the first place?

4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series?
Relax.

5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself?
That he didn't have to be a superman every bloody minute of the day, that he was allowed to fail and be confused and not have the answers every once in a while . . . wait, I'm thinking of Dr. Galloway! Hmm. Honestly, I think Christie was off point a lot of the time: suggesting to Jim that he replace the lost elements of his old life was lovely, but all she could come up with was that dratted ballroom dancing; she was right in that they needed to get back to a normal social life, but Clay's dinner party was definitely not the way to go.

But she was soooo unpredictable. Warm and understanding one minute, icy and judgmental the next. Maybe it's a case of her actions speaking more loudly than her words, and in that case . . . well . . . she stayed. And through that action, perhaps, Jim learned that second chances were possible? Oh, we could start a whole thread about this (actually, I think we have?!), but I still see Jim's growth as happening almost in spite of Christie and not because of her.

Oh, dear.

[Katryna]

longlashes said:

3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)

I would love to know why she stayed, why she put her needs on hold for that year and granted him the "mulligan, what it was that made him the only one for her, given the obvious hurt in their past.

I am not sure if this is appropriate to respond to in this thread. So, Admins - if you need to move it, please feel free. Also, I think this question may have been debated in the past, so I hope I am not re-hashing things that have already been written. This is an interesting question. I personally don't feel that her staying necessarily meant that he "was the only one for her".

To me there are two scenarios. The first: Before the shooting, Christie had decided to leave. She had a bag packed that day, whether it was literally or figuratively. Then the call. Jim has been shot, blinded. How can she leave now? The man has been wounded, lost his sight, and now his heartless wife walks out! That is what most people would be thinking and many of them saying about her. She stays because she feels trapped.

The second scenario: Christie's love for Jim has gradually been compromised by his actions. But the last nail has not yet been hammered into that coffin and Christie still has remnants of that love left. She is teetering on that fence that is the decision to go or stay. Then the call. Jim has been wounded and blinded. She still does care for him and stays out of compassion. She does not want to see him go through this ordeal alone, and feels that she can help him through it, inspite of the hurt that he has caused her in the past.

modified to add: I realized that Lori's question does not specifically use the day at the bank as the reference point for Christie's decision to stay. But IMO, it was probably the day that the decision became clear to her.

[shmeep]

kathy said:

I am not sure if this is appropriate to respond to in this thread. So, Admins - if you need to move it, please feel free. Also, I think this question may have been debated in the past, so I hope I am not re-hashing things that have already been written.

Part of the fun of this game is that it sparks conversation so you are being perfectly appropriate. Also, things that have been discussed before are bound to be repeated from time to time. I don't know if this is the case here or not, but if something is triggering you to write it, feel free to do so. Perhaps you or someone else will have a new take because of the way it is being brought up. Don't be shy! (But thank you for being so thoughtful.)

[hoosier]

1. What is the character's best trait?
Not treating Jim as if he were handicapped. Maybe it wasn't that way in the beginning, maybe he told her to quit coddling him, but however it came about, Christie doesn't cut him any slack just because he is blind.


2. What is the character's worst trait?
She seemed to be always on the defensive and ready to jump to conclusions.


3. What do you most wish that you knew about this character? (This would be not something that was revealed in the series.)
How she and Jim met. They seem to be polar opposites and ,as they say, opposites attract, so it would be fun to see what brought them together in the first place.


4. What would you have liked to see this character do just once in the series?Just once, to be able to follow through and get the blond dude into the sack or the tub or the shower...


5. What did this character help Jim understand about himself?She created the 'safe place' where Jim could begin to get on with the rest of his life. In a world that had suddenly and radically changed, he was able to discover , for himself, that he was still essentially the same person and still had something to offer.