All of Port Charles, it seems is on a quest to chase the elusive butterfly of love. And it does seem uncatchable at times, does it not? We see it there before us, colorful and beautiful and magical and just as we get right up to it, it flutters away out of our grasp and we wait for it to land again and the cycle continues. The people who belong together rarely are, there is so much longing in the world, and in this one small Soap Town there is a load of longing.
This week, some scenes had a palpable sense of electricity, a charge ready to light up a dark space - some were so tender they broke our hearts with the depth of emotion. When Ric went in to visit Liz after her miscarriage, you saw on his face his compassion for her, the memories of his own lost child, the life the two of them had shared and the history was all written on his face, such a wonderful and tender scene.
May I admit right now, I am having a hard time writing this? If there is adult A.D.D., I must have a scorching case of it - I write things other than this column and am currently amusing myself writing revues of local restaurants. The lure of this is free Starbucks cards, so being the coffee hound that I am, and being inches away from 50 bucks in free Starbucks, I have been sitting here writing entertaining tales about greasy local burger joints and daydreaming about free Iced Café Americano's. Okay, back to business.
May I also admit, NuCarly has been doing such a good job playing Carly's breakdown, I almost like her now, but hey, a day late and a dollar short as they say. He work has been stellar - she has played a broad range of emotions- fear, anger, childlike innocence, utter confusion, and hallucinations and done them all believably. I have said all along, her acting skills were never in question - it was just trying to make myself see her as Carly. Imagine if one day Mr. Rogers had called in sick, and someone had said "Hey! Let's get Robert De Niro! He's a great actor!" and while that's true, we could all agree De Niro was a great actor, and also all agree we'd have a hard time seeing him as Mr. Rogers.
Jennifer Bransford will find work again. She is a good solid actress. My hope is that Carly 4.0 strikes a chord with the viewers. Recasts work sometimes, but other times it's just too jarring for the audience to be as smitten with someone as we were with old Carly and have to try to accept someone new. I read an article that Maurice Benard really fought tooth and nail for Ms. Bransford to try to save her job. Seeing as how they film ahead, he probably saw these great mental breakdown scenes before we did and knew we'd have to take a second look. I think the mistake was to bring her in like they did, in the middle of a huge storyline and to cheat us out of our "Happy Ending" with Tamara's Carly finding Michael alive after the kidnapping. The first taste we had of her bugged us, because we had spent months waiting for Carly to find Michael, and - the wrong Carly found him. Anyway, it's all over and done and no reason to blather on about it anymore.
I don't like Courtney and Nikolas together. I don't like Jax and Emily together. Flip back, please. I want to see Nikolas and Emily overcome all their trials and find their way back together. I want Jax to find out that Courtney is carrying his baby and to watch the two of them prepare to be parents and solve their problems. I want to see someone actually work at a relationship. People are not expendable. Marriages aren't disposable. True love works things out.
I mean if Sam can work things out with Jason and he can't even remember her, than ANYONE can work things out. Man, imagine if your husband or wife lost their memory and they didn't remember all the crap you had done to them or the fights of the past and you just got a clean slate. There'd be a lot less divorce maybe. Of course, you'd also miss out on all the happy memories, like driving two hours up windy scary mountain roads in Colorado to Buffalo Bill's grave to see "Real Buffalo" and finding a real but DEAD stuffed mangy buffalo and laughing for an hour, or things that are funny now that weren't at the time like getting separated on the Eiffel Tower and having a big screaming match about it in the middle of Paris and then being able to say "Hey! We had a fight up there!" every time you see the Eiffel Tower in a movie. Who would want to forget stuff like that?
But Sam loves Jason and even though he doesn't remember their life together, they are falling in love all over again. If only the mob people and the infuriatingly meddling Reese would leave them alone. Why does Reese have to her big snout in everybody's business anyway? She has to be in the middle of Ric's marriage, and Sonny's dealings with Carly, and Jason and Sam's choices, and seems to have no business of her own to mind. Go back to the FBI Reese; at least there you had a purpose in life, finding kidnapped children.
Wasn't it great to see Faith if only through the filter of Carly's insanity? I sure miss her. We are in need of a good yummy villainess. Helena, dear, it's time to come home. Rumor says she will be back soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
I kept my eyes peeled on Sonny and Jason too - it was almost like a break up fight. Sonny broke my heart - that gut crushing feeling when you realize someone you depended on now cannot be depended on anymore, realizing you are truly all alone in the world and no one has your back - and for those of you who missed this dialogue:
Sonny: They say you never miss a good thing until it's gone. But it wasn't like that with me. I knew I always hit the jackpot with you. You were more than a friend, closer than a brother. Perfect fit, personally and professionally. I always knew that I could depend on you, trust you above others, and now my life is falling apart. And you go AWOL? Carly is spinning out of control. I got this animal Ruiz who's determined to kill me, and he's relentless, and he's not going to stop coming after me until one of us is gone, and I'm too distracted to pay attention. I got no one to stop them!
Jason: There's you. Why can't -- I don't understand why can't that be enough?
Sonny: Because it never is. I don't know why. It just never is."
Sonny can't live this life without Jason, he can't do it on his own and he knows it. His heart and his life are falling apart, and he has no one to turn to. Great scenes this week, but very, very sad. Trust is a hard thing to come by. It starts small. People make some small promise "I'll meet you at the movies at 2 PM." If they don't show up at 2 PM, then you're a little hesitant to trust it when they make a bigger vow - "Lend me your car and I'll have it back by 2 PM Wednesday." - Well if they can't be trusted to keep a small promise, how can you trust them with a bigger one? Jason and Sonny had something because they both kept the promises they made to another, big and small.
It's about time for Luke and Tracy to come back; we are in desperate need of comic relief. Between Liz's miscarriage and Carly's breakdown and Dillon getting hauled off in handcuffs and Michael being afraid of his Mommy telling him psycho Faith is still alive - well, the only real laugh of the week was Carly falling down the stairs again. How many times is it? This woman should be barred from any building with staircases.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Rosie be pregnant with a littler of puppies? Will Jason's new boss be afraid to fire him for calling off sick on his first day of work once he realizes he hired an amnesiac hit man? Will Brook Lynn gain enough fame from her nude photos that her CD will finally take off? Will Lucky slip Liz some fertility drugs in her morning omelet to make sure she gets pregnant with his baby this time around? Will Reese be featured in the Port Charles Tribune's "Would you be caught dead in that outfit?" page?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
PRINTABLE VERSION View a printer friendly version of this article
