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 Last
member of the DuVall-Bassett clan to settle down in Santa Barbara, Steve
is certainly the most monstrous of it. Guided by a profound feeling of
inferiority to the opposite sex, Steve, in spite of his post of
assistant district attorney, turns to be no more and no less that a real
monster. Contrary to the other nasty characters of the show, nothing in
his past can manage to justify his behavior excesses. Because of each of
his actions (motivated by an insatiable thirst of vengeance to women),
we can suppose that his parents are dead or divorced very early and
that, afterward, the young Steve was raised only by Theda. Steve will
then grow embittered to be the only man of this family consisted only of
women.
To
realize this, it only needs to look at his behavior within this family.
Proud to have arrived at the post of assistant district attorney, he
struts about in the middle of his relatives, then trying to take the
control of the clan. It is moreover for this that he lets Theda drink,
that he lets Mary find refuge in religion. Only Christie represents
something in his eyes. And since the day he realized it, he sexually
abused her (Christie was then 15 year-old). In fact, Steve falls back on
the youngest having suffered a setback with Mary.
In
every of his conversations with women, Steve tries to show himself
superior to them : Maggie Gillis, during Ted Capwell's arrest, will
undergo his remarks (as well as Santana Andrade while meeting him). But
it is at first in the management of the file of charge against Sophia
Armonti Capwell he is in charge of, that he shows his
aggressiveness against women, symbolized here by Sophia. He urges her to
take a new lawyer after the departure of Jack Stanfield Lee; he harasses
her so that she pleads culprit; he goes as far as inventing a surprising
theory : if Sophia pleads culprit, she will not incur any prison
sentence !
He
is all the more eager of vengeance against the Capwells as Christie gains
her independence, with the help of the young Ted Capwell. At first she
finds a job, then a support. And worse than everything at Steve's eyes,
she eventually falls in love with the heir of the family. While he finds
Christie at the beach bar, in an excess of violence and fury, Steve rapes her and
abandons her unconscious behind a jukebox. Steve then finds a new weapon
of vengeance against the Capwell family and against Ted, because Christie, at first, declares that Ted is the author of the rape. Pushed
on this way by Steve’s threat, Christie is compelled to go until the
trial. It is the moment of glory awaited for long by the new district
attorney : he takes Christie back under his authority, he destroys the
reputation of his rival and becomes an important man at the eyes of the
city inhabitants.
The
end will be quite other. Steve realizes it when Christie acquits Ted.
From then on, Steve's imaginary world collapses. And during his last
confrontation with Christie where he physically threatens her again, Steve is shot down in situation of
self-defence. He could not accept the affront : to lose everything in
cause not of a woman, but a girl ! Monstrous character towards his
relatives, towards the Capwells, Steve Bassett could not find another
end.
Portrait
written for this site by Lilian
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