Performer of the Week (Soap Opera Digest - July 20, 2004) On soaps, there are characters who are remarkably well-delineated through careful and consistent scripting. Then, there are characters whose histories are spotty, whose identities are underdeveloped - characters who seem to confound even those writing them into being. And when those characters nonetheless "click" with viewers, it becomes obvious that tremendous credit is due to the actors assigned to filling in their abundant blanks. Elizabeth Hendrickson's Maggie Stone is precisely such a creation. She was whipped up to keep the likable actress on AMC when her original alter ego, Frankie, was killed off, and for most of the past two years, she has flitted about the canvas without a meaningful purpose. And yet, we never stopped wanting to learn more about her and to see her better defined; we never stopped caring. And we were reminded why we still cared when AMC finally addressed Maggie's true feelings for Bianca by having Maggie discuss them with her. Maggie never intended to reveal to Binks that her interest in her had taken a turn on the Kinsey Scale since they last discussed the matter (early in 2003). But, as Maggie said moments after stunning Bianca with a declaration of love, "It just came out." And then she offered up the big question: "Did I just come out?" In the intimate and revealing conversation that followed, Hendrickson captured, in the unaffected and eminently relatable fashion so typical of her AMC work, Maggie's mixture of certainty (of her love for and attraction to Bianca) and confusion (what does it all mean?). She nailed Maggie's inner tension, Maggie's faith in her bond of friendship with Bianca and her skittishness about possibly jeopardizing it by putting her cards on the table (as when she seemed involuntarily to shy away from meeting Bianca's eyes, unsure of what emotion - or lack of emotion - she would find reflected). Before these scenes aired, Hendrickson told Digest that she feared viewers might no longer care about Maggie's struggle to understand her unfolding sexual identity. Well, Liz, now that they've aired, you can rest assured: Not only do we still care, we care more than ever.