I consider any sex outside of a casual or serious sexual relationship to be cheating, UNLESS there has been explicit agreement to sleep with other people.
I definately agree with you there. I know that even if i was in a casual relationship and heard that my partner was sleeping with some one else, it would hurt and I'd consider it cheating. With Danny and Lindsay though, I fail to see how they were ever in a relationship, casual or no, to begin with. There just wasn't enough evidence for me to believe that they had done anything outside that one night of sex, and maybe getting a bite to eat some times together. There was never any declaration after Snow Day that they were even casually dating, so while I did feel sympathy for Lindsay when Rikki and Danny were together, I didn't consider it cheating.
I don't want to believe that Danny assumed it was casual, because I don't think he is that stupid. I am sorry, but Danny telling himself, that he can sleep with other women because his relationship with Linds is only casual is really really stupid. And even if he thought it is just casual, it doesn't really matter, since Linds obviously doesn't.
Again, this goes back to the question of whether or not there was even a relationship to misconstrue. Had Danny even thought he was in any form of relationship with Lindsay, casual or not, I don't think he would have had sex with Rikki. Danny does care deeply about the people he works with and is friends with, and I don't think he'd intentionally hurt anyone, even Lindsay, like that...which is even more evidence for me that he thought they were simply friends who'd had sex once, and not even a casual couple.
It is clear that he and Linds have been spending time together outside of work, and that he is responding.
How is this clear? What evidence was there that they spent time outside of work, besides Snow Day? The only person we know canonly for sure on the team that Danny spends time with outside of work is Flack. I would think if Danny and Lindsay were dating, there would at least be a scene of them out to dinner or on another "pool table date":wtf:...but we don't see any of that.
And where has Danny responded? Lindsay's efforts this season to flirt with him or make a move have left him giving her an awkward smile (condom spray) or telling her to cut it out and get back to work (when he saved Hawkes). I never saw him flirting back with her or doing the same things back to her, which to me would be responding or acknowledging that he knows what she is doing.
Linds wouldn't just consider him his BF out of the blue, and it isn't all her fault for feeling this.
For Lindsay, and alot of people (myself included) would think that having sex with a person means that there is a relationship going on. That's what I originally thought when I saw Snow Day-that they were going to be in a relationship. When season four started and I saw no evidence, that thought went out the window. But I don't blame Lindsay for holding on to her feelings about him. She falls for him in her own way, and assumes he feels the same because he slept with her, but never tries to examine their relationship further than what she already thinks it is. We never see them discussing what went on in Snow Day, we never seen them really talking about anything outside of work that might hint towards a relationship on the show.
It is Danny's nature to care about people he works with, and I think anything done after Snow Day was just following that up. He feels bad about missing her birthday (because she's obviously upset that he did) so he offers to make it up to her. In my eyes, Lindsay fell in love with him after Snow Day, and because he remained being the sweet natured guy he is seen as, she thought his feelings were the same for her. Yeah, Danny should have known that she might have gotten attatched after that night, but I don't think him not knowing specifically that she assumed that they were BF and GF makes him stupid.
I didn't find the shocked look on his face to be a response to Linds calling him his GF, but more of a 'holy crap, what did i do guilty' look, so I do think he realizes he cheated, or at least that he should have dealt with the situation better.
I don't think its him realizing he cheated, but more to the fact that Lindsay is going to consider it cheating, and then him thinking that he should have made it clearer early to her that he didn't consider them together. I didn't see guilt on his face, more surprise. Danny wears his heart on his sleeve, and it is usually easy to tell what he is feeling or going through (thats part of what makes Carmine such a great actor). Danny looked guilty in On the Job, when he realizes that Mac knows he disobeyed. He looks guilty in Crimes and Misdemeanors, when Mac discovers that he's gone on with the case even though he was told not too. Comparing those guilty faces to the one he makes in Right Next Door, I don't see guilt, but more shock.
And him sleeping with Rikki?? Ohhh...that is a BAD idea. I think they have great chemistry, and the scene was HOT, but man, that is just an emotional nightmare, that won't end well. And he doesn't have to sleep with her, to comfort each other...that just makes him more of a man whore. He clearly isn't getting what the consequences of sex is.
I do see how their sleeping together could end badly, but for me it doesn't really ring true. If anything, I see them coming to an understanding with the dynamic they have, and either accepting it or both moving on. I don't consider him a "man-whore" for sleeping with Rikki, either. Yeah, they might have found a different way to comfort each other, but that doesn't mean that their choice was a bad one. Like he says, he just wants to make the hurt go away, and you could take that as him trying to distract himself from the pain he feels by comforting the woman he feels that he cheated out of a future with her young son. If he was going to be considered a man whore, I'd think he'd be sleeping with alot more women other than Rikki...or his are they or arent they relationship with Lindsay would be more defined.
As for the whole 'who is unprofessional'...er...i don't think you could argue that Linds was, but Danny wasn't. She shouldn't have stormed off in from of Hawkes, but he has had his moments, like ditching work to find Rikki and not reporting it. That could have gotten him fired! They have both had their own unprofessional moments.
True, they both have had their unprofessional moments, but Lindsay's seem more self centered (she's mad at Danny, she's remembering her traumatic past,etc), and she's projecting it on people around her. If she feels she needs to be mad at Danny, fine, whatever, but don't throw a notepad at him and blow him off like an immature child in front of your co-workers.
And last, I found her monologue very good. I don't see how it was all about her, because it wasn't. Danny asked if she was upset, and she merely responded with her feelings towards him.
I didn't see how it was her showing her feelings toward him until the last line of how she's fallen in love with him. Before that, all she is doing is going on about he didn't come to her about Ruben and that "clearly he's decided to do it alone". To me, that was her butting into his business more than it was her genuinely being worried about him. If he wants to grieve alone, thats his business, and she should have simply said, "hey, i'm here if you need to talk, I think it would help you if you did talk to someone". Instead, she demands that he talk to her, and assumes that if he hasn't come to her then he hasn't spoken to anyone else. Of course, he has talked to others about it (Flack, Mac, Rikki), but Lindsay assumes that she's the only one he would talk to...and to me that screams self centeredness. If a close friend of mine or even someone i thought i was in a relationship with went through something like that, I wouldn't assume that I was the only person in the world he or she would talk to, and get annoyed when he or she didn't talk to me. I would think Lindsay would be more concerned with the fact that Danny might be bottling it all up inside and be worried that he should be talking to someone....not snapping at him for the way he chooses to grieve.
She had the right to do this...she shouldn't have to take his crap, if she believes he is treating her unfairly, then she should have the right to call him out.
I still don't see how he was treating her unfairly. He forgot her birthday, he skipped lunch with her, he didn't lean on her when Ruben's death happened. What other evidence is there that he's been treating her unfairly?
Overall, i don't think this relationship is a good idea, they clearly can't communicate, and i don't see this ending well...
Did you mean Danny/Rikki or the Danny/Lindsay?