You can hear the papers going down. Every story has to have tension, and be able to stand alone. I wanted it to be as spare as possible. People were waiting for a happy ending. He wasn't a pure victim.
People never are.
Willie in part knew what he was getting into. It has to be tension-filled every day. Series tend to be very long. The beauty of the serial thing is you can hit it. People have followed The Days of Our Lives for 30 years.