A lot of the action in this episode seemed designed to make the viewer start putting pieces together. Or perhaps my mind was just wandering in the boring parts.
I can forgive the seemingly "boring" characters mentioned above, mostly because the show has so much to do in setting up stories, etc. that they have not gotten around to fleshing out certain characters. Keep in mind that some of these future plot developments are what will give us viewers better insight into what they're all about. So if Jeff is just holding Fallon's purse for a while, it might be because the writers are biding their time, waiting to reveal some juicy tidbit about what he's up to. Claudia seemed kind of boring until this episode, when they gave us more than a few seconds of her that was more than histrionics. Other characters might get similar sub-plots.
I do agree with the general feeling that Fallon's "wandering", though. She's coming close to getting on my nerves. And though he has his
charms, Sam's unapologetic enthusiasm about wasting Blake's money in new and ever-expanding ways is even more annoying. I've always hated houseguests who make themselves
too much at home.
I mentioned earlier about "putting pieces together" and I ended up developing several theories about where things might be going. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking Stansfield is behind Matthew's death, and in this episode I also wondered if he was responsible for switching Claudia's medicine. Even further, I wonder if her entire borderline behavior is due to the false meds, that once Cristal and Sam get her the correct medicine, she will start behaving more lucidly. Perhaps Stansfield slipped her the false meds because she saw something she should not have, and rather than kill her he doped her up to keep her from recalling what she saw. Once she starts acting normally, though, she will end up a target. Steven will solve the Matthew murder case around that time, leaving him on Stansfield's list, as well.
Of course, a part of me wonders if Claudia's not as nutty as she wants people to believe. My first exposure to this actress, Brianna Brown, was when she played
Fatal-Attraction-type psycho Lisa Niles on
General Hospital, where she started out all sweet before melting down, pulling all sorts of stunts to break up the marriage of her obsession, Patrick Drake. At one point she even waved around a syringe full of HIV-tainted blood and threatened people. Patrick's brother had to clock her over the head with a giant wrench. At any rate, I will always look at this actress suspiciously! The odd closing scene of Claudia and Blake only fed my suspicions, since I find it hard to believe that huge mansion only has one soaker tub to use.