Paul's amnesia

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

Remember Elle saying that everything bad Paul's ever done may be related to his brain tumor? I thought that more than fourteen years (the year he framed Philip for fraud) was a bit long to have a brain tumor without being killed by it, but if it is possible, maybe the furthest back he can remember is to when it first appeared. It might explain why he doesn't recognize Elle. If anyone's seen the Star Trek: TNG episode Future Imperfect, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[emmasi]

I don't know enough about that to really comment, but it sounds like an interesting theory . Then again, it might just be the regular kind of amnesia where he doesn't remember anything about his life...

... I hope he remembers Fox

[alexx]

That'd be interesting if its possible! But then he would still think Helen, Jim...etc are alive!

I do hope that the tumour did have something to do with the reason he had a personality transplant... coz whilst he was always a bit of a player and could be a bit cruel, he was a decent guy and had a strong bond with his very moral gran, who he respected greatly. I think the way he's been the last couple of years has been so out of his original character.

[~Lynd~]

In tonight's OZ ep he did think Jim and Helen were alive until someone at the hospital told him otherwise.He cried and has no idea who Elle is,it was sad.

[emmasi]

He didn't know what happened to his leg either... He was so scared and confused

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

That'd be interesting if its possible! But then he would still think Helen, Jim...etc are alive!

You did watch tonight, didn't you? because he named Jim as his next of kin, and was shocked to learn that he and Helen were dead.

The fact that he doesn't remember divorcing Gail alters my theory slightly, but I suppose he was a bad guy then too a bit: the reason for his breakup with Gail was that he left her father's funeral to go to a business meeting. Up until then he had been mostly a good guy.

So here's my new theory (but remember, I'm no oncologist):

The trauma of his first failed marriage (when Terri shot him) caused the tumor to develop, and it had a number of growth spurts over the years, leading to gradually worse actions:

1: his marital problems with Gail in '89,

2: his affair with Caroline and then framing Philip for fraud,

3: his deal with Affirmacon and seduction of Liljana,

4: his war against the General Store,

5: his affair with Rosie and his breakup with Lyn,

6: and finally, his fight with the Timminses, getting Ned to break-up Dylan and Elle to get her with Oliver, and his general alienation of everyone around him.

In addition, in between each of those spurts, Paul's brain was able to adapt to the tumor, resisting it to some extent. This can be seen in his much more successful marriage to Chrissie, the fact that he turned himself in for the fraud, going to prison for it, his eventual betrayal of Affirmacon and his attempts to settle down with Izzy and then Lyn. I think that after growth spurt #5, his brain gave out, leading to his lowest actions yet.

This theory is so convoluted and specific that even I don't really expect it to be accurate, but it does fit Elle's theory that the tumor has been responsible for everything bad he's ever done (assuming that she means back that far).

In case no one got that Star Trek allusion, in the episode Future Imperfect, the Executive Officer of the Enterprise wakes up in the sickbay sixteen years in the future, and is told that a long dormant disease he caught sixteen years before has finally attacked again and has erased his memory up to the moment he caught it. It later turns out to be a trick, a hologram made by a young alien child abandoned on a planet and looking for company. Presumably you can work out which bit was supposed to be relevant.

[alexx]

GRRRRRRR very pissed off! I missed it!!!! And I'm enjoying this storyline too!

I think you've deffo got something with your theory!