B&B: BILL KEEPS LIAM FROM CONFESSING
■ Liam’s guilt and anxiety reaches a fever pitch as Thomas and the police believe that someone purposely hit Vinny. Nevertheless, Bill continues to tell his son he must keep his involvement in the accident a secret. “Bill doesn’t know Vinny, so when he realizes the night of the accident that this is the guy who rigged the paternity test, Bill has no empathy or concern for the person that went to great lengths to hurt his son and his family,” reasons Don Diamont of Bill’s motivation. “As far as Bill is concerned, it’s ‘Good. He got what was coming to him.’ Bill has that mentality. Bill has the ability to be very black-and-white in a circumstance like this.”
However, Bill must also stay on his toes when a guilt-ridden Liam almost blurts out his culpability to Hope. “Bill tries to reinforce to Liam what the consequences of this situation could be,” says Diamont. “He does not have any feeling of ‘Poor Vinny.’ The guy is gone. He’s no great loss and he says to Liam: ‘What are you facing as a very good person when this was, in fact, an accident? We are not going to risk your freedom. You are not going to risk your life for this degenerate. No. He got what was coming to him, so be it.’ ”
Diamont adds that when his character cuts off Liam’s confession, “Bill tries to make Liam understand
“Bill is Liam’s ride-or-die here.”
the chance that he’s taking in doing this, and also helps him deal with the compartmentalization of his feelings having done what he has done. He counsels his son. He does understand how Liam is feeling but he’s like, ‘This is how you have to learn how to deal with that in this dog-eat-dog world.’ ”
Bill then suggests a getaway might be in order. “Bill is not happy,” sighs Diamont. “Liam is tormented. Bill cannot say this enough: ‘You are in trouble,’ and he really has to drive that home because Liam in his naiveté with, ‘The truth will set you free’ and all of that, well, the truth can also lock you up. That’s what Bill continually tries to drive home to Liam, and Liam is just agonizing. Bill is Liam’s ride-or-die here. While he’s really not overly concerned at this point, Bill is certainly not happy that Deputy Chief Baker is sniffing around. However, he feels confident that he is taking the steps necessary so that all roads will not lead to Liam. Pun intended.”