I like Cassie, despite her Ellie May Clampett voice and that manic "Good Morning, Good Morning" floor show, I still think she is a soft-hearted, naieve woman. I truly felt sorry for her when she was threatened with litigation for wanting to meet the boy she gave birth to. So why is my opinion about this whole thing changing so dramatically?

Unfortunately, I now find myself wishing that Cassie would just pack her bags and be on her way. I wish her well, I really do. By all accounts, she is barely surviving on her own, and she has to do more than obsess over this one issue. She has had the "day that will change the rest of her life", and that is a lot to be thankful for. Now it is time for her to go back into the private sector and get the psychological or spiritual help she will need to stick to the no-pressure commitment she made to Dustin.

I am concerned with the way SO is portraying the entire process of adoption. It isn't a "really long babysitting job", and it isn't reversable. How many women will look at Cassie and find her situation intolerable? For a woman in crisis, this type of drama may cause her to reject a very positive option. Being an adoptive mother is no less sacred than being a biological mother who raises her child. I know Rhonda keeps reminding Cassie that Dustin's mother IS his mother, but I don't know if Cassie has really accepted the immutability of that truth as she nods her head in agreement. I am beginning to believe that this whole saga seriously dishonors Dustin's mother.

Regardless of what Cassie says, I am also beginning to think that her emotional well-being is riding on the development of a Dustin/Cassie relationship. From what we saw and heard on today's episode, Dustin had made tentative plans to come to the SO house to visit Cassie. Apparently, he said that he would call Cassie if he was planning to come to the house. I am concerned that Cassie could not accept the obvious - that no call meant that he wasn't coming. Now I know this may seem minor, but I do think it is significant. Cassie didn't seem to be able to leave it alone - she HAD to call him to hear him give her an answer. Her words were not pressuring, actually they were kind and reassuring. But the fact that Cassie even made the call was a form of pressure. It was based in her fear that Dustin had changed his mind about a future relationship...and she claimed there would be no pressure if that was his decision.

Cassie found out that Dustin has had enough of the TV cameras. She also found out that Dustin's mother is "flipping out". All I can believe is that there is much more to this story than any of us will ever know. What is this woman so concerned about? I don't think Dustin's mother is going to start an internet site to give her side of the story, so I want to give her the same benefit of the doubt that I would give to any mother who thought her teenage son was in harm's way.

I guess I am uncomfortable with Dustin's mother's motives and actions being interpreted through the SO filters. Yes, Dustin is an adult, legally if not emotionally. But will that help his mother to accept the fact that her son and his girlfriend (who was shown on camera) went behind her back and agreed to participate in a nationally broadcast television reunion show with his birth mother. This is a woman who was told, in no uncertain terms, to back off and leave their family alone. Then she shows up with poetry, a psychologist, her life coach, and tear filled proclamations that she has overcome every roadblock that was erected to keep the two of them apart. PS: his parents were the roadblocks. To Dustin's mother, Cassie is a manipulative woman who has squandered her youth in a drunken fog of alcoholism, promiscuity, broken promises, and homelessness. Yeah, I'd be concerned about her too.

Cassie has spent a lot of time discussing Dustin's mother on camera. She's talking to anyone who will listen. Yesterday's attitude that she displayed in front of Dustin, the "your mom was only trying to protect you" sentiment, has turned into today's complaint that "I thought I was signing an open adoption...I lived with these people for two months..." And then Antonia, in all of her debt-ridden glory, offers the counsel that Dustin's mom is so threatened by Cassie that she lied. Then we go back to Cassie in the confessional saying that Dustin's mother has "lied" and that she will have to explain herself to Dustin.

I don't know if Cassie is able to comprehend what she is doing. I'm beginning to wonder if she cares. But I truly believe that in the end, the bond with Dustin's adoptive mother is far deeper and much stronger than any curiosity Dustin may have about Cassie. She would do well to stop discussing her theories and beliefs about Dustin's mother on camera - out of respect for Dustin and out of gratitude for a woman who gave her baby boy a life Cassie couldn't begin to provide.

Cassie, please....just go home. He has a way to contact you. Stand in the belief you espouse - "in the end, love wins out".

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