Quote:For someone who enjoyed S1 and S2 Adalind, I can see the frustration with her story in the last two seasons. Unfortunately, I have no such problems. I see it as positive character development and as someone who never had problems with her relationship with Nick, I'm cool with how the show ended. If Adalind was to end up with either one of the three men (Sean, Meisner and Nick), I'm glad it was Nick. Sean would have been a step backwards and Meisner didn't seem like someone who would give up his mercenary type of life. Nick was the only one in sync with Adalind because they genuinely wanted the same things in life. The only hurdle was their past and the show didn't wholly disregard it and conveniently used it to put stumbling blocks in a relationship that clicked sooner than expected.For me, it goes beyond the stark contrast of Adalind’s S1-S2 and S5-S6 personalities. Adalind was noticeably different after Diana was born in S3, so the transition was taking place long before the conception of Nick/Adalind was revealed to viewers. So it’s not that Adalind became focused on her children that struck me as strange or out of place, because Diana initiated a profound and positive affect on her overall evolution.
Whether intentional or another fluke G & K realized afterwards, Adalind was written as predisposed to a relationship and becoming a part of Nick’s circle at the beginning of the second S5 episode. And from there, Nick and his son became the center of her world. But I think that may have had more to do with Nick being the center/focus of the show than a statement about Adalind. Because it was much the same with Juliette, her woes were often more about their emotional impact on Nick than Juliette. And while that’s the format for a central character surrounded by supporting characters, it can be difficult to distinguish what’s actually about a supporting character and what’s about that supporting character’s impact on the central character. Sorry, I know that was a mouth full of words.
I don’t think we should infuse what we know as viewers with what a character knows. I will always think Nick and the gang was wrong to take Diana from Adalind regardless of their reason for doing so. But. I understand that Nick didn’t have a clue about Adalind’s experience with Diana earlier in S3, and only saw her as the same vicious thorn in his side, which helped confirm that his mother was a better option than Adalind.
But the same latitude should be given to Adalind’s lack of knowledge concerning Meisner taking Diana and not telling her. The only thing Adalind knew for sure was that Meisner was the first person to help her without wanting something in return. That and her expected determination to rescue Diana from the Royals should have been sufficient to prompt her reaching out to him. Besides, she trusted and loved Nick despite him taking Diana, so learning Meisner also took Diana shouldn’t have automatically lowered her level of trust. But just as Nick had no way of knowing that Adalind would have been agreeable and proactive in keeping Diana safe, Adalind didn’t have any reason to assume Nick and his friends were helping her for any reason other than it was his son in need of protection. Because from where Adalind was standing, when she showed up needing protection for the child that wasn’t Nick’s, they couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
That said, I know G & K wrote a very concise story about Nick defeating BC and saving Adalind and the children. And while Adalind proactively working to get Diana back wouldn’t have necessarily derailed their Nick saves the day story, it would have added complications that G & K probably didn’t want to deal with just for the sake of continuing a supporting character’s evolution.
edited to add:
Another theory I still mull over occassionaly is based on my original take on Adalind. While many saw her as vicious and vindictive, I sized her up as ‘a little girl lost, emotionally damaged and with daddy issues, who was constantly searching for someone/something. And based on how G & K took her through various stages, perhaps Adalind coming full circle was that she finally found in Nick what she’d been searching for - the knight in shining amour that would save her.
"If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well." Rainer Maria Rilke