I'm the only one here who has interacted with the character before. Eric was playing a part; I just played myself. Obviously the real Stephen was there underneath, but it's the closest any of us have come to what we're dealing with now.

And I'm the only one this Stephen knows. The only one he started out with a measure of trust for. And, like an idiot, I stomped all over that.

And the character's writers think he's in danger, and they would know, wouldn't they?

Wheels began to turn in Stephen's head: the questions this Jon had asked, the way he had phrased things, the way he had treated Stephen before he realized that it wasn't the Stephen he knew. I was panicking, I made what were from his point of view ridiculous demands, wanting to go home in the middle of the work day, and he just went with it...

"You're playing the role of straight man too, aren't you?" he asked.

Jon looked at him sharply. "I'm not a comedian."

"I don't mean the comedy term.”