Dallas, I like the new site design! The new title card and color scheme are really eye-popping and look great. I love the font you used for the title and page headers.
Trivia: did you know that
Mistral was used in advertisements for the movie
Risky Business, and was mimicked in the title card for
Drive to reflect the 80's feel? I've always liked it. Anyway, just a little side comment there for what it's worth! On a minor note, the character pop-up links throughout the new episode don't work. They direct to a blank page.
I know I haven't commented in a while. You know how when you miss a few episodes and then feel overwhelmed with catching up? Yeah, that happened. Luckily your 2012 recap helped fill in a lot of the blanks, so I could pick up with episode 200 and be caught up in the process. Congrats on the 200th episode, btw! You should have done a big media blitz celebrating it!! That's quite a milestone. I guess the redesign is good enough of a blitz, though, so it's all good.
I enjoyed the mystery and the suspense you created in this episode surrounding the masquerade party and the mysterious stalker. The big reveal right at the time the new year was being rung is was so daytime and I loved it. Very dramatic events. Donovan and Victoria meeting their father AND mother at that time was brilliant. What a tumultous 2013 they will have, particularly Eva as she's got some explaining to do! Great development!
I appreciated that you spent time reflecting on Sofia's death the previous New Year's Eve. Too many times those milestones go unnoticed. Or better yet, deceased characters often are never mentioned again, but you do a great job of rectifying that. Those were very moving scenes.
Reese freaking out on Craig and Andy was to be expected, I guess. there's a fine line on what's appropriate in this situation, but the character's behavior was believable either way.
How long is Helen going to keep up this charade with Adam? she should have told him the truth from the beginning. It was an accident, after all. then again, her behavior at the time was a little erratic, so he'd probably be pissed! At any rate, I'm excited to see how this unfolds and if Adam learns the truth, and what he'll do when he does!!
Lots of other fun stuff going on but I'll reserve those comments for next time. I'm excited to get back into ODaaT in 2013. Also, I'm sorry again about your Grandfather.