After a nearly unbearable montage of Isabel/Jesse love/date scenes, we see them exiting a movie theatre, having apparently viewed "The Best Years of Our Lives," that old WWII movie. The dialogue goes something like this: Isabel: "I can't believe she married him." (Hello? Foreshadowing rears its ugly head.) Jesse: "She loved him." Isabel: "She did. She really, really loved him." (Really.) Jesse: "Even though he was damaged." Isabel: "And wounded. He was so wounded." Jesse: "She didn't care." OK, who WRITES this stuff?? David Simkins, it seems I’m looking at YOU. Dude, take it from me: people do not talk this way. EVER.

Back home, Isabel touches a picture of Jesse, and off she goes, into Dreamwalkland. In Jesse’s dream, he’s asking Isabel to marry him. What’s worse, she’s agreeing. I cannot even begin to describe the extent to which this storyline bothers me. Isabel is supposed to be eighteen, just graduated from high school, WAY too young to be getting married to a 26-year-old, no matter how much of an "old soul" she is. They’ve turned my feisty, clever, bitingly intelligent Isabel into a male-dependent, naïve, silly little twit, and I will never forgive the people responsible for that. NEVER. You hear me?? Sigh.

The next day, Isabel stands in front of a jewelry store looking at diamond rings. And there, suddenly, is the Ghost of Alex Past. Dead Alex says, "I go away for a couple of days, and you're looking at wedding rings," to which Isabel replies, "Alex! Where have you been? I've missed you!" But Dead Alex, no dopey Casper he, says, "If only you loved me this much when I was alive." But wait, last year we were told that she really did love him after we always thought she didn’t. It’s only this year that suddenly it seems she didn’t, after they finally convinced us she did. Are you still following me? Didn’t think so.