The saga involving Jeffrey Donaldson's political future has taken many twists and turns, but the suggestion that he could still rejoin the Ulster Unionist Party is arguably the most bizarre to date.
South Belfast MP and Ulster Unionist president the Rev Martin Smyth, one of the few remaining Donaldson sympathisers within the party, floated the idea yesterday and insisted that there could still be 'a way back for Jeffrey'.
However, the level of bitterness which has surrounded Mr Donaldson's recent activities, culminating in his departure last week, makes this a particularly remote prospect.
It was striking that Mr Smyth ruled out the possibility of handing in his own resignation, although he felt he could yet be expelled.
The third of the dissident Ulster Unionist MPs, David Burnside, has said bluntly that he would not be joining the DUP and claimed that Mr Donaldson had made a tactical mistake in walking out last week.
It is widely expected that Mr Donaldson will indeed transfer to Ian Paisley's party together with his Assembly colleagues Arlene Foster and Norah Beare.
This would open the possibility that, in the event of the restoration of devolution, the DUP would gain a fourth ministerial post which would presumably go to Mr Donaldson.
If that happened, the Lagan Valley MP would then have to become better acquainted with the realities of life in the DUP.
Mr Donaldson was able to survive as an Ulster Unionist MP for almost six years, despite his public criticisms of David Trimble.
Those who fall out of favour with Mr Paisley – including such once prominent figures as Alan Kane, Jim Allister, George Graham, the Rev Ivan Foster and the Rev William Beattie – tend to part company with the DUP much more rapidly.
Mr Donaldson has made his name as an individual prepared to openly question party policy, a quality which has not previously been appreciated in the DUP.
It remains to be seen whether the DUP will greet any new recruit with a more flexible approach to the issue of party discipline.
