Expert: Carmen Curtis - 5/19/2008

Question
Hi Carmen! I have two questions for you.

1. How come David never goes into rehab after his drug addiction? I mean, his addiction storyline was the same amount of episodes/time as Kelly's addiction and she went into rehab. Same with Dylan, his was 9 episodes long and he went into rehab. I don't understand why he didn't go but Kelly and Dylan did.

2. Didn't David and Donna break up in the Christmas episode in season 4? I really don't understand the whole 'David cheated on Donna with Ariel' thing cause I really thought all through season 4 that they were broken up. Did they get back together in an episode but it's not mentioned? I'm confused.

Answer
Hi Marissa,
To answer your questions. . .
1. It's not clear why David didn't go to formal rehab after the crystal meth addiction. He met with a psychiatrist to discuss it and told everyone he was going to continue doing so. I think after he hit bottom (with the cops searching his house), he realized that he didn't want to do drugs again and perhaps didn't need a rehab program. I guess Kelly and Dylan's addictions were considered more severe and in need of more intensive treatment. Also, I guess David being in rehab would not have worked for the stories the writers had planned. They wanted Kelly to go to rehab so there could be the whole psycho-stalker storyline, and after Dylan OD'd and nearly died so many times, anything other than rehab would not have made sense. That's a great question though. I guess only the writers could answer it 100%.

2. Yes, David did dump Donna in the Christmas episode so I understand the confusion. However, in the episode after Donna returns from the ski trip, David tries to get back in Donna's good graces. Over the next few episodes they sort of fall back together and even though they have a couple of bumps (like David having a crush on his music teacher) they never officially break up again. So by the time Ariel enters the picture, the relationship is going strong again and David is a cheater.