In the case of this particular sub-plot, the show played SO fair that many many viewers figured out one possible way for the character to have survived his seeming inevitable doom within hours of the scene where he seemed to perish. They gave you the visual clues. They offered you hope. They refused to pay off that hope by either fulfilling it or dashing it. And then they let you stew for weeks.

If your response is that they let you worry about poor so-and-so for weeks on end and that it all turned out to have been for nothing, then congratulations: you’ve just experienced one of the effects of being hooked on a story.

Whether you think the show is a piece of crap or a total masterpiece, getting you to worry, sometimes pointlessly, is within its job description. Getting you to mourn a character prematurely is within its job description. Lying to you, and getting you to like it, is within its job description.

You’ve been played like a violin.

Congratulations.

That’s the desired result.

For instance: the fat-cat Congressman who says, “We’ll protect the environment, without going to extremes.”

You ask him, “Okay. So how have you done so?”

“What?”

“You say that you’re interested in protecting the environment, as long as it’s not going to extremes. What actions have you taken in Congress to protect the environment?”

“Well, I voted for {name of bill}.”

“In fact, you were the key voice watering down that bill, which now effectively increases drilling rights on public lands. Before that you fought that bill with every fiber of your being, finally signed it as a political compromise only when you were given vast pork as a concession, and have since fought like a dog to repeal it. So, if there are actions short of what you call extremism that you would take in favor of the environment, without fighting them tooth and nail, name some. What specific actions have you initiated, yourself, to protect the environment? Name one. Just one.”

“Jobs–”

“Not the question I’m asking. Name one.”

{Crickets}.

Donald Trump: “I’ve always been a great friend to the Blacks.”

You ask him: “How?”

“What?”

“What have you done, aside from hire a few, to help the Blacks?”

“I created jobs!”

“Jobs were race-neutral. They also benefited you. They were not actions specifically taken by you, to help Black people. One can argue that you’re a job creator, but the specific claim coming from that that you’re a great friend of the Blacks, period, appears to have have no actual meat to it. Have you endowed scholarships? Given to black charities? Done anything, in fact, but question the citizenship of the only Black President?”

{Crickets.}

How’s this one? “I live according to the precepts of Jesus Christ.”

“Which ones?”

“I fight gay marriage!”

“He never had a thing to say about that. What else?”

“I give to the church!”

“The church post-dated him. What specific words said by Jesus Christ do you follow?”

“I’m for families!”

“Jesus was against wealth. He was for feeding the hungry. He was for forgiveness. How have you lived according to those precepts, aside from giving your church the occasional box of canned food you’re not using?”

{Endless circles}.

“Such as?” is a valuable question. We need to remember it.