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Fiona did something bad on Time of longing. In fact, Fiona did do a few things. She lied to Xander about being a recovering alcoholic and attending meetings. She kept getting drunk with Brady, who was also a recovering alcoholic. She drove him home drunk and hit Sarah with a car, paralyzing her. And now she’s framed Brady for the hit-and-run and left him to wallow in his grief and guilt.
It’s a tough entrance for a character we’ve been dying to get to know after years of mystery surrounding Xander’s mother. In fact, it feels like it’s way too tough.
Serena Scott Thomas spoke to Soap Opera Digest about the whole thing and admitted, “Coming up with a plan to make it look like Brady was driving is diabolical… profoundly evil. It’s really underhanded to the point of evil.”
And we can’t really argue against that. If Fiona were to be the villain, that would be one thing. Evil parents are a tried and tested trademark of soap operas.
But she is clearly a complicated person who did something bad and panicked. Scott Thomas further told SOD that she does guilty about what she is doing. Brady is “a really nice guy and she found the relationship very enjoyable and fun, but now she has to use him and put him in danger to save her own skin and her relationship with her son.”
We should be ambivalent about her and keep our fingers crossed that she comes out of this okay. The problem is that we don’t know her well enough to trust her when in doubt. We have no connection with her.
And as Scott Thomas himself says, what she has done and is doing is so much more than just bad that she is just acting… devilish. How do you come back from that?
Time of longing had the chance to introduce Xander’s mother, show her having a difficult relationship with her son and win us over time. She could have been a liar who would say anything to repair her relationship with her son. She could have been shady and underhanded. But paralyzing her daughter-in-law and blaming her lover?
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It feels like a missed opportunity and a mistake by a character. And this isn’t new. Remember Jada’s sister Talia? We finally got to know the family of Salem’s (now) top cop, only for her to poison half the town and try to destroy Chanel and Paulina. Then the show tried to make us feel sorry for her as a victim of an abusive relationship. But nobody bought Time of longing‘ Attempts to rehabilitate her and Talia was quickly sent away.
In the end, Talia just caused some people to have drug-induced hallucinations (which led to Nicole and Eric conceiving baby Jude). Fiona has only been on our screens for a few episodes and has done much, much worse.
To be honest, Xander was a real villain when he first appeared and he was redeemed, so maybe his mother can pull the same trick. We really hope it works because Scott Thomas does a phenomenal job with Fiona. But most of the time, such a cruel introduction of characters just turns viewers off forever.
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What do you think? Are you disappointed with Fiona’s introduction? Do you think she can make it right?
Check out our photo gallery of Sarah and Xander’s relationship to see everything they’ve been through so far.
