As SURRENDER reaches its “explosive” (as the ABC promo touts) finale next Tuesday, news coverage having messed up its usual perfect Friday timing just a tiny bit, I realized I watched most of this arc pretty much with bored anticipation. Didn’t start out that way though.

Transfixed and stunned by the one hour opening teasing us with promises of breathtaking pacing and breathless excitement, 12¾ dragged out weeks later I have to ask the same question I seem to ask at the end of all the arcs, but which feels that much more appropriate with this one, is the journey really ending? Will conclusions and resolutions to the stories and relationships developed in the last 3 months offer any satisfying explanations or wrap ups?  True to form, probably not. 

And for this arc, for me, that’s a good thing.

SURRENDER was not, shall we say, PORT CHARLES most exciting effort. It seemed to blow itself out after that first incredible hour. The last two days of this arc are going to have be explosive indeed to create any real momentum going into the next. Certainly there are many plot twists I’d like to see gone, and some are, never to return; Rafe and Alison as brother and sister. Casey’s return as Ricky’s guardian angel Tess. But, and it’s a but a lot of you won’t like, too much has happened to not continue and carry over the storylines into the next arc.

SURRENDER seems to have served its greatest purpose as a transition. It unmistakably took the set up of good vs. evil from NAKED EYES, fleshed it out and will push it into DESIRE and towards its natural end, one way or another, once and for all. At least that’s how I see it.

I know many, many viewers have had it up to there with vampires, are tired of the same six characters day in and day out, are sick of the lack of balance in everything SURRENDER has taken on. Many would like nothing more than to have PORT CHARLES figuratively go back to the drawing board and start over. If you can believe any of the rumors and gossip, we may be heading in that direction anyways. But for now, for this point in time, SURRENDER’s set ups need to be explained. Its character and plot developments, such that they are, need to move forward, need to continue the journeys they started if we are ever to get out of this mess. My guess is it is going to get a lot darker before we see the light.

This week, chafing against unnerving, subtle changes in his slayer universe, Rafe senses that balance of good vs. evil shifting unmistakably in evil’s favor. With Livvie’s triumphant return any pull to the good Caleb may have felt has been replaced, in no uncertain terms with his true nature.  Kevin has crossed deeper into the dark reaches of his soul by blackmailing Lucy, emotionally and physically, into returning to him for the good of Christina. Using a child, your own child, in that manner is about as dark and evil as it gets.  Joshua’s hungry quest for power and revenge emerged full force weighting those scales even heavier towards evil’s side. 

On the good side of the scale, Ian’s stubbornness at giving in to doing what is necessary to save his own life in some ways personifies the definition of moral goodness and martyrdom. Rafe’s determination to rid Port Charles of its dark vampire forces, even if it is tinged with his own agenda for revenge, is the classic good to Caleb’s evil. The fact that he can’t do it alone but must engage his cousin, her lover and his friend, and his soul mate makes for a more rounded battle I suppose, but on PORT CHARLES sometimes things aren’t as they seem, no matter how obvious, and I’m betting (with a little help from spoilers and teasers) that the unexpected will have a way of intruding on their best laid plans. Forcing all the vampires to take a nice hot bath, as Joshua so deliciously put it, may not achieve the outcome the characters all anticipate. 

SURRENDER got points in my book this week for juxtaposing our 3 main couples in a slice of classic soap drama, and a great example of why they can be so successful when they want to be at blending the supernatural with humanity - making love appropriate to the action and state of the story line. Ian and Lucy, Rafe and Alison and Caleb and Livvie may have all come together for different reasons but all were driven by the same desperate need to connect, to take comfort, to validate their love in the face of turmoil, uncertainty and insecurity in their world.

Too bad that sledgehammer that PORT CHARLES is equally successful at using made its presence known yet again by bathing the “good” couple in white light, the “evil” couple in red. I do believe by now the entire viewing audience gets it, Rafe and Alison – the good, Caleb and Livvie – the bad, and Ian and Lucy – somewhere in between, infidelity and all keeping them just on the outer reaches of the good column.

We have two episodes left, one hour, to see how this all plays out, to see if SURRENDER can go out in the blaze of glory it came in on. It’s time for Rafe and Caleb to deal with each other once and for all. It’s time for Rafe and Livvie to deal with each other once and for all. It’s time for Lucy and Kevin to face the mess they’ve created. It’s time for PORT CHARLES to deal with gracefully reducing its dependency on vampires and its obsession with battling evil. It’s time to get back to battling the game of life for a change, getting PORT CHARLES back in balance, and I don’t just mean between good and evil. 

With all that is going on in our world, I want all the life, love, humor and romance that was once a huge part of PORT CHARLES’ world now more than ever. I don’t necessarily want to give up what makes this show so unique, I’ll happily continue to take madness and originality over safety and predictability any day it’s just that right now I’d prefer…

A little life with your morning evil please, hold the sugar. 

…until we muse again Port Charles Fans