I'll Wait For You.Until you're ready.

The John of it all was not the way to go with Serena. I actually like that Robert wants to believe her but her story was blatant bullshit. So there's clearly more there. She's definitely hiding something. All the nonsense about that not being the John she knew is stupid. I like the actress very much and I want to like the character and for the most part I do, but my doubts are growing and I don't like that. Aaron not being given any room in the writing to actually talk about John is also maddening. Serena is being allowed to show more emotion over it all and that's unacceptable. Normally it would feel like all of this is leading to very much understandable crashouts for both Robert and Aaron but this version of the show makes that highly unlikely, so I have no idea what to actually make of any of this. It's so frustrating because it doesn't need to be. The bones are there.

There's no gotcha on the Victoria stuff. It was a clear case of self defense. If anything Joe would be in trouble for suppressing evidence, so making Serena a cop doesn't really make sense. There's nothing to investigate or uncover. She is genuinely obsessed with John but I don't know that I buy the police thing.

I enjoyed Mack's manic decent as the episode went along. I'm glad he's actually being allowed his own point of view and feelings. He has every right to be hurt, furious, embarrassed, and unforgiving for now. The actual 'fight' was ridiculous but sadly they usually are. On the whole though everything else about their plot today felt accurate.

Moira is still insufferable. Kev better not ever let himself into Robron's house again and Billy and Gabby still make zero sense.

He would have returned as long as Danny wanted to return. Chas not being there would have no impact on Danny's decision. They don't exactly share a ton of scenes these days anyway. There's no story in Noah leaving. If he dies the Dingles will maybe get one episode of reaction and that's it. If he leaves for school or a job there will be one line of explanation and nothing more. Unless they get crazy and actually give him a goodbye scene. But even then that's all it would be. A single goodbye scene. There's no story in any of that. Axing Sam, Chas, Marlon or Cain gives you story choices. Sam is definitely expendable. Chas and Marlon are mostly expendable and Cain offers the better story possibilities. All better story options than Noah and Vinny.

Dumb theory time:

His adoptive parents were also called “Barton”. What a coincidence!

His adoptive parents changed their names to “Barton” to bond with him.