Surely, they didn't...
Come again?!

Here's an outline of all the facts Kronish and Co. screwed up during their seasons. Believe me, it ain't pretty. Starting with "Coronation", you will not believe what they did.

"Coronation":

Sam's convenient amnesia about Jack's disguise.
At the end of "Root Of All Evil" (how appropriate) Sam has Jack at gun point and she sees his disguise, the mask he's wearing. So why doesn't the team at the beginning of "Coronation" just arrange every guard to a lineup so she can identify Jack? He couldn't have thrown his disguise away because he wouldn't have had any security passes, other than for the guard he was impersonating.
Jack's B&E of Sam's house
In the episode "Ring Of Fire" after Jack has driven Sam, Chloe and Angel away from Angel's farm Bailey turns an old fire station into their new home. It has bullet proof glass and steel doors, not to mention that in every room of the house there is a camera. In addition to these safety precautions anyone who enters their house has to have an imprint of his palm taken in order to be granted access. I seriously doubt Sam would have agreed to giving Jack a clarification.
Sam's hometown and religion
In "Unholy Alliance", Sam mentions reading her horoscope even though she's Catholic. Lo and behold, in "Coronation" she's a Baptist! Then, her hometown. From "I'll Be Watching You", we know that her hometown is Silver Spring, Maryland. But, in Kronish's series she comes from Park Springs.
288 candles?
I guess we can add the lack of knowledge for basic division to the producers' shortcomings. 288 divided by twelve makes it twentyfour years, the duration Lucas claims he has looked after Sam. From what I gather Sam is in her late thirties, 37 - 39. Ahem... twentyfour years ago Sam would have been in the age of thirteen to fifteen. I venture to say she'd sure as hell remember a guy putting his arms around her and telling her that he and Jesus would take care of her from now on.

Sum Of Her Parts:

12th anniversary?
In the first season episode "Doppelganger" the VCTF looks into the crimes of a serial killer who was captured by Sam and Bailey six years ago. Sam visits the killer, named Arthur DeRhodes in prison. During that conversation DeRhodes mentions that the last time he saw Sam was during the time Sam and Tom were about to walk down the aisle. So the year they were married was 1990 or 1991. But, voilá, in this third season episode Sam tells Bailey that in 1999 she and Tom would have been married twelve years. Further proof that TPTB flunked their math.

Monster Within:

Michael Westmore
Alrighty, in "Coronation" TPTB establish that Sam's first crush was Tom, and that they'd been together ever since. How about this Michael Westmore, who they claimed had dated Sam for a month, while they were in Quantico. Now, Sam would have been extremely young to have been able to date Michael and go to Quantico at the same time. Things you could pick up by watching the previous seasons!

Perfect Helen:

George's hometown
In the first two seasons, George's hometown was Boston, revealed in an interview with Peter Frechette. (You can locate this XPosé interview at The Unofficial Peter Frechette Archive.) But, in this "Perfect Helen" episode they claim that George comes from Longview, Minnesota.

Heads, You Lose:

Grace's family's hometown
So, Grace's family is all of a sudden supposed to come from Miami, Florida. Too bad we have contradicting information from "Ambition In The Blood". In this second season opener Grace says that her family is thrilled at the prospect of then NOTW hunting people in New York City.

Three Carat Crisis:

Chloe's age
In the beginning of the first season Sam mentions to Coop that her daughter is seven years old. So that would make Chloe born in 1989. Then, in the second season the episode "Ties That Bind" informs us that Chloe is eight by that time. And come the third season and low and behold, in the episode "Three Carat Crisis" Sam says to one of the kidnappers that she bought earrings as Chloe's present for her eleventh birthday. Hm... three years in a year. Am I missing something here?

Reunions:

Walter Anderson telling Jack all about Sam:
What the TPTB seem to have forgotten is the alienated relationship of Sam and her father. In "Breaking Point" Sam tells Bailey how she grew up with Angel and how Angel and her mother are Sam's family. To make matters even better, the estranged relationship between Sam and her father Walter was a theme TPTB themselves explored in several episodes during the third season, for crying out loud!!! So how could Walter possibly tell Jack about Sam when it is very obvious that he was never there for her during her childhood?? The lazy asses just needed a quick exit for the series' main character. Sadly it made them look like the idiots they are.
Walter Anderson wanting to introduce Jack to Sam
In this masterpiece of writing and directing, Sam's father reveals to the VCTF that he thought about introducing Jack to Sam; he's her father. He wants her to happy. This does it. If the meeting between Walter and Jack took place eight years ago, it was in 1991 and TOM WAS ALIVE AT THE TIME for the love of God!!! Would Sam's father really not know she was at least engaged, if not already married to Tom then?? And even so, a relationship between Sam and Tom was already there in the beginning of the eighties. There's only one word I'd use about TPTB's this stroke of genius: repulsive. :(
Chloe's age
So, Chloe's supposed to be eleven or maybe twelve in this episode. Then how come in this episode they say that she was three when her dad died? Tom died in 1993. According to the way I know math, her age should be nine, following the logic of this episode.
Sam not giving Chloe a chance to love Tom
In one of Chloe's therapy sessions, they imply that Sam never talked much about Tom to Chloe, thus depriving her of an opportunity to love him. Not only is this way against Sam's character, but Kronish and Co. are also contradicting their own episodes! Chloe was in four third season episodes, and surprise surprise, in three of them Sam talks to Chloe about Tom! I'm not even gonna drag any of the first two season episodes into this, because it's obvious that TPTB never bothered to watch them in the first place.
Location of Tom's grave
When Jack takes Chloe to Tom's grave in the episode "Reunion II" it seemed like they did not leave Atlanta, didn't it? Somebody forgot to tell TPTB that Sam, Tom and Chloe lived near Richmond, Virginia at the time of Tom's death. A fact that is known by anyone who's seen the second season episode "Ties That Bind".

And believe me, it just keeps on getting better...

So, after all this bullshit (see below) about Sam being such a tragic character and how Jack's threat supposedly prevented those poor producers and writers from exploring the other characters, what did they do in the fourth season after Sam's departure? Did they succeed in making the show lighter? Let me see. Grace got pregnant again and was abandoned by Morgan, who'd suddenly transformed into this chauvinistic male pig. She ends up being the single parent of two boys. John's character development rides high with him acting like a horny guy for the most of the fourth season. Then, he gets a steady girlfriend and he's happy for a while. But, it's bye bye happiness as she dies as a result of a store robbery. George is in a car accident and develops a drug abuse problem. Bailey gets this floozy buzzing around him, and the fact that he just realised he is in love with Sam is never mentioned again. Jesus!

A range of quotes which reveal the extent of TPTB's ignorance and incompetence.

Stephen Kronish:

"[Jack getting caught] will lift the blanket of victimization off of Sam."
"We hope to play a few more moments of humor."
The show's visual style and Walker's wardrobe will be lightened up as well. "She won't always wear clothes that make her look like she's going to a funeral."

"As the series plodded along, it became difficult if not impossible for Sam, a single mother, to escape the blanket of personal tragedy that was imposed upon her, according to Mr. Kronish."

"We hope to have the opportunity to explore a little more of the personal lives of Rachel's character and our other people. In some respect the presence of Jack and that constant threat made that very difficult to do."
"But I think also, when you're getting into the fourth year and hopefully fifth and sixth year of the show, you are looking for ways to inject newness into it."
"I think that because Rachel has not been victimized to the extent that Sam was --"
"This is God's honest truth. I haven't really looked at the mail yet, because we've been trying to get our stories straight."

Clifton Campbell:

"We assume, because that's what we've always assumed about Jack, that once captured, he would have somebody outside as his surrogate. We saw an episode where that actually was true - at least the VCTF considered it to be true."

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