Chad and Ben

SarahBeth

SarahBeth

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Ok, it's official, I don't like Ben. They are trying to play him as the good guy who escaped an abusive parent who is running some sort of drug operation. But as time has passed, it sure seems like he is easily set off, easy to react violently and too dumb to fall in a trap of setting him off.

Chad, on the other hand, is a much better operator. In fact I bet he could walk up to Ben and cross his eyes and Ben would go off. I certainly don't at all mind that Chad has an attitude with Ben and Abby. Chad who was basically a good guy was completely played by Abby. And when he lied to Cameron, that's all he did. Abby was stringing them both along, they both knew it and she expected them to just be friends. Chad wanted Cameron out of his life which meant out of Abby's as well. Cameron didn't love Abby enough to fight for her.

And, oh, did Abby just lose it over Chad's lie. Chad didn't lie to her. And EJ facilitated the lie to Chad. But Abby tells Chad how horrible he was and just months after he leaves has an affair with that horrible brother of his.

I certainly don't mind Chad coming back and stirring things up for the tramp and her volatile boyfriend. Then there's the way he said hello to EJ. I can't help but root for him.
 
I think Chad is going to be an interesting addition to Salem, but obviously is going to be a disliked and manipulative character.
While I will agree that, at the time, Abby was unable to make up her mind between the two guys, she HAD decided on Cameron, so Chad decided to up the ante and have that brain tumor. EJ helped him to pretend, and a guilty Abby was at Chad's side supporting him....thus Cameron left town. (did not care for that character so it did not bother me in the least).

Chad did manage to get Abby into his bed with his manipulations, and perhaps he was in love with her, and she cared for him a lot. The FACT remains that HE decided not to return to Salem, and to the gal he supposedly loved. He went to Boston, and never returned. No different than Bo, or Steve Johnson. The women are supposed to wait, twiddling their thumbs, while the males go off on their adventures, find themselves, or whatever else it is they claim or don't claim to be doing. Jack went chasing a story, but did not want to tell his wife, and got in deeper than he ever thought possible.

So, Abby "moving on" was fine. Not fine was the lusty affair with EJ, the one they both realized was wrong, a mistake, and had to end.
Nothing wrong with Ben. Yes, he has a temper, but he is basically a good guy, and knows he has to work to control the temper.
I do agree that it is past, way past time, he & Jordan reveal whatever went on back in Poplar Bluff. Yes, Clyde beat Ben all the time, but there is more. Why should Jordan be so afraid to tell Rafe, a Salem cop, that Clyde did drug dealing back in Missouri. Is she o.k. with him bringing that business to Salem, and perhaps getting a lot of kids hooked? Puzzles.
 
Why would Chad come right back to Salem for Abby? She broke up with him and made it clear that she felt he was trash and she wanted nothing to do with him. She broke his heart. So there wasn't anything to come back to. It's not like Bo or Jack. Both of them left their relationships with their loved ones and chose to go do other things.

Ben doesn't know he needs to work to control his temper or he wouldn't pop off the way he does.
 
I don't like Ben simply because they are turning him into Rafe 3.0 (can't overlook Rafe 2.0 courtesy of the Dimera's) without the character building they gave to original Rafe. Rafe is loyal and protective but we saw the development of that loyalty and protectiveness and understood it. We've seen that Ben is fiercely protective of Jordan and women in general, to the point of being ridiculously violent, and we still have no idea why. His relationship with Abby went from 0 to 60 in the span of a week. One minute he's barely able to manage 3 words in front of her and the next he's cuddling with her at the 4th of July picnic. I can't bring myself to care about characters when the writers don't care enough to give me a reason to care.

I like this version of Chad simply because he dislikes Ben and EJ (and his one liners so far have been awesome - "so he is house broken").
 
I think that they(the writers) are setting up Chad to be another EJ ...deleted spoiler in non-spoiler forum....Poirot
 
Yes...I don't think they were all that happy with the other actor, who seemed to just have the same expression/tone of voice for everything. (Honest, I don't know the reason) but they did recast pretty fast. I think the first actor went the 13 week cycle and that was it.
I do like Ben, I like that he won't tolerate any woman in his sight being abused, which truly has me wondering about life in Poplar Bluff with Clyde. I like that he KNOWS he has a temper he has to keep under control, and can be seen struggling to do so. And I like that he stands up for himself.
As far as Rafe goes, Rafe himself said he would have done exactly the same thing if it had been his sister. So, though I detest violence, I like that Ben is as protective as he is.
It is a shame that Chad enjoyed baiting him as much as he did. And he did so on purpose.
Chad had absolutely no reason to accuse Ben of stealing the money from the Club. He had no idea what should be in the register, no idea of the sales for the day, had no proof, had not even been in the place for over a year. He did not call Sonny, or the cops. Just taunted Ben.
 
Rafe may have said that to Ben, but I have a hard time believing Rafe would've actually tried to beat Nick to a pulp had he cheated on Gabi. He knew Nick was somehow a threat to Gabi when everyone was telling him to walk away, and instead of beating him senseless, he walked away. That dialogue was just the writers using an established character to validate a lesser known character.
 
And that altercation with Rafe is what had Ben realize he has to work on letting his temper get the best of him.

But this is about CHAD and Ben......and their confrontation.
 
And if Ben really understands he needs to keep his temper from getting the best of him he should not have been so easily baited into a fight with Chad. As for Chad he is in the club he partially owns and the bartender drops an envelope full of 100's which is much more than anyone at the club would just carry around and Chad isn't supposed to be suspicious. Baloney. That amount of cash on hand isn't normal. Chad should be suspicious of something nefarious going on at his business. Sonny should have questioned it much more than he did.
 
Ben never met Chad before, and was never told Chad was an owner. And Chad came barging in, purposely baiting Ben because he had seen him with Abby. Ben was not "easily" baited into a fight. He was purposely baited. Chad knew darn well the money did not belong to the Club. (Like the club would suddenly have all their customers paying with 100 dollar bills. And if an employee is skimming, he would not be keeping the money right there til it accumulated. Oh, Chad just wanted to give Ben a hard time. That was apparent in that he did not call the police immediately. He wanted to harass Ben and did so. No different than him doing the same to EJ and to Abby. He returned to town with a chip on his shoulder.
And now, big sis has him playing a part, just like she does, just like EJ does, and Stefano, too.
 
Oh, I agree about the brother & sister being boring. That is because the writers either refuse, or are still dragging out whatever in their background has caused them to be so secretive about themselves for so long. Heck, we don't know much about Clyde, but he sure is more interesting than the two siblings.

My thoughts......whatever the story intended for Jordan was.....they changed it, discarded it, and did not then know what to do with her. When they finally decided to let Rafe have a life, paired her with him, and soon realized that was not working. So they are bumbling around, concentrated on another pair of couples, ignored everyone else, just left them dangling.
Then they realize they have to start getting ducks in a row for "later on" story, but they are concentrating elsewhere.
So.....Jordan, Ben, even Abby, Paige, JJ are all left twisting in the wind.
 
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