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COWBOY'S CORRAL  

Clint's View
Part 2

The Break Up

by Tansmom, aka Valerie, 10.04.06

Clint Buchanan and Dorian Lord have formed an unlikely romance that reinforces the adage: the heart wants what it wants.  On paper they make no sense whatsoever.  They have fought and feuded and fussed for years.  But through it all the underlying attraction of past lovers was always in the subtext of the actors who have portrayed them throughout their relationship. Right, Clint Buchanan as portrayed by Clint Ritchie with Dorian (Robin Strasser).

Clint has always had a begrudging respect for Dorian Lord, a chuckle and a raised eyebrow at her antics.  The attraction was always played with a look and a smile; and after all the water that flows under the bridge, they’ve finally decided to “give it a whirl”.  

In the Fall, 2005, Clint returned to Llanview to check on family business and stayed to help his beloved daughter, Jessica.  Despite what some fans have vehemently stated because it's what they desperately want, Clint did not come to town for ex-wife, Viki Davidson.  Ahem. The character was not brought on the canvas to service the queen.  He stayed in Llanview because of his daughter.  It just so happens he has spent a lot of time with her mother, who is the cause of his daughter’s illness (long story--bottomline is negligence). Nonetheless, during his latest stay in Llanview, Clint soon learned that he was finally over Viki.  In Clint’s words, they share “no connection whatsoever.”  I can keep going with what he said: “It's over. I mean, it's still over”.  It was liberating.  Upon realizing it after a mistaken, dispassionate kiss with Viki, he went straight to Dorian -- the woman with whom he had been slowly falling in love, despite an earlier resistence with caution.  Dorian responded in kind after she yet again told the man who stood her up at the altar that their relationship was over. With the exes expunged, Clint and Dorian began a feisty, passionate affair.  Then came a bump in the road: Dorian verbally attacked Kevin at Buchanan Enterprises just as Kevin had decided it was time to turn his life around and give up drinking.  A fiercely protective Clint blew up and told the fiery Dorian to leave his office. Adding salt to the wound, the cowboy told the diva their relationship was a “mistake.”

Later, Dorian went to him to apologize and got jealous after she saw him and Viki in a friendly embrace. Before long, Clint and Dorian faced their feelings and took their relationship to the next level-- the second floor of Dorian’s house where her bedroom is located!  Afterwards Clint sought her out to support her in a crisis, call her when he needed to talk and just be with her. 

But Dorian, reverting to type, was apparently scheming behind his back. She wanted her daughter Adriana to break up with her boyfriend Rex and concocted a hair brained scheme to have her stalked to accomplish this task. (That's the story the writers are currently pitching!) This stalking nonsense began long before Dorian and Clint gave in to their feelings yet it would cost them dearly.

As her scheme began to implode, Dorian panicked.  In Dorian's mind, she would never allow her daughter to come to harm from a stalker turned kidnapped turned blackmailer and somehow she had to keep the truth from Clint.  Alas, while she succeeded in rescuing Adriana from her “stalker for hire”, the ugly truth came out and a hurt Clint ended their relationship.

Why?  Well first and foremost Dorian’s actions realized Clint’s greatest fear: betrayal.  We talk a lot about Dorian’s fear of abandonment.  For Clint it’s betrayal.  Dorian has her abandonment issue.  Clint has his betrayal issue.  It’s a long running theme for this character.

Let's take a peek back. When Asa justified his treatment of Olympia to Clint, he said it was because she had “betrayed” their family by having an affair with Yancy Ralston.  Asa rationalized to his son that Olympia was his wife and Clint’s mother and she decided to foresake them.  It was a heartache visited upon Clint as a husband and father many years later in his marriage to Viki.

Also in Clint's early life, Asa sent a pregnant Maria away, denying Clint the ability to raise his son, Cordero. A livid Clint left home and refused to speak to his father for some 20 years.  Clint came to Llanview at newspaper editor Joe Riley's behest and soon after Asa located him and brought Bo to Llanview with a plan to reunite his family.  Eventually with Bo’s help and after accepting Asa’s heartfelt pleas for forgiveness, a stubborn Clint relented and made amends with his father.   “There has to be forgiveness between a father and a son. Somewhere there has to be forgiveness….”  Asa literally begged and Clint admitted he wanted his family. 

Like Asa, Clint's then-wife Viki would repeatedly betray him.  It remained the one thing he feared most.  Viki began relationships with other men over and over:  with David, Tom, Roger and Sloan.  Clint would feel her beginning to pull away and he would hang on for dear life.  She would carelessly begin to betray him right away in their marriage by discussing intimate details of their life and sharing with these new men in town.  She would suddenly find her life unfulfilling without the attention and adoration of the latest new man in her life.  Clint would throw fits, stomp, usually punch them out a few times....anything to hold on to

Picture from soapgirl.org     

the wife he loved.  Viki would repent and beg his forgiveness.  Clint would take the blame onto his own shoulders. It was a pattern with Clint. We saw it over and over but it carried a high price for the cowboy.  The betrayals beat him down to the point when after his marriage, he stood around for years unable to move on and find love again.  Finally he did when he left town and when he returned he had a new outlook on life.   

After embarking on his new relationship with Dorian, he found himself facing another case of betrayal.  When Dorian was being berated in Bo’s office in regard to Adriana, he burst in and defended her.  No questions asked.  He didn’t even think twice, stating to a thankful Dorian: “I couldn’t possibly believe that of you.  I’d never be able to look you in the face.”  That statement and Clint’s blunt delivery of it would cost them both.  Dorian grew fearful she could not share the truth of the situation she'd gotten herself into with Clint, without losing him--he would abandon her.  Ironically, they put the wheels in motion to realize their worst fears:  Dorian betrayed Clint by lying to him repeatedly and making him look like a fool in front of his brother and Clint ended their relationship after she confessed her wrongdoings. 

But as usual Clint Buchanan found forgiveness in his heart.  A day after ending his relationship with Dorian, he called in a personal favor from his newly reinstated Police Commissioner brother, Bo.  “Let her go Bo. It’s been enough.  I would consider it a personal favor to me for you to let her go home.”  A somber Clint, at the prodding of his former sister-in-law Nora, pondered the realization that life is short.  He’d lost his best friend but he couldn’t bear to see her suffer. 

Clint and Dorian have just begun to be tested.  Adriana wants to hurt her mother.  She wants her to suffer and what better way than to use Clint? 

Dorian confided in Adriana just exactly what Clint meant to her.  To Dorian's surprise she'd found happiness again and it was because of Clint. With that in mind, Adriana sought out to cause her mother pain by staging a scheme where Dorian would see Clint and Viki together. (Dorian won’t be the only one who suffers. This viewer will suffer from the sheer boredom it will induce!)  But Adriana doesn’t realize that Clint Buchanan is not a man to be toyed with or manipulated.  Rex is Natalie’s brother. She’s Clint’s daughter and Adriana is toying with her parents.  The fallout will not forge a relationship between two Picture from tvmegasite 

long divorced people who share nothing but children; instead, it will put a strain on Natalie and Rex.  Natalie has just lost her boyfriend John and she and Rex have always been close.  Rex is beginning to voice doubts on Adriana’s motivation and behavior.  He’s going to see her insides and lately Adriana Cramer’s insides aren’t nearly as pretty as her outsides.

Dorian is being harmed, manipulated--so is Clint.  When the truth is out, Clint's protective nature will kick in.  Dorian is all alone and her daughter is out to get her.  She’s confessed her sins and is trying to repent.  That coupled with the friendship and intense attraction they share will be a difficult thing for him to ignore.   

Can Clint accept that Dorian’s betrayal was not intentional?  In Dorian’s mind it was a very different issue.  Still, Dorian interfered in her daughter’s love life and betrayed Clint’s trust in the process.  Clint in return abandoned Dorian but within a day could not keep his back turned on his lover. He has again made it clear that he doesn't want her to be a part of his life. But for how long this time?  The weeks ahead will show us the depth of their emotions for each other.  If Dorian stays determined and true to Clint, she’ll win him back.  Is that what she even wants?  If Clint realizes her pain and opens his heart, he’ll forgive her.  David and Viki will serve a purpose.  They’ll show Clint and Dorian just how much they have with each other and they’ll motivate them to make it work.  The passionate nature of their relationship will keep them fighting and feuding and making up as long as they endure.  It will be a very fun thing to watch.   

Slide Show: Break Up/Make Up

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