Hah. I'm nearing the end of my third-and-a-half reading of Clarissa. Crichton would have got it all sorted out in a few pages (shoot the Harlowes and throw the two main characters into their respective confidant's arms?).

It's odd when you watch a few shows back to back where the usual solution to someone being a nuisance is to knock them unconscious. You get alarmingly used to it.