I think the reunion of John and Natalie is laziness on the parts of the writers. To me they seemed strapped on what to do with John and Natalie and so they decided to dig into the hamper and revive their dysfunctional relationship to get some quick attention from the lingering fanbase and soap mags. Natalie was better once John stopped being a fixture in her life. She knows that he likes his women helpless and in trouble, and so it becomes too easy for her to become a willing victim to feed his lust for that. John is just a blah, gray character. He used to be okay, but I really think he peaked about 3 years ago. Today he's running on empty.