Dare we accept Caleb and Alison in the barn? Truth is we don’t have a choice. But using “the barn” for the ultimate act of betrayal stinks. It stinks all the way up to heaven.

The truth is that watching Port Charles’ descent into oblivion is painful. I can only guess that tearing the show down to its bare studs and building it back up again was the direction the powers that be chose to take. They had their backs to the wall anyways, no where left to go with the mess they created except to rebuild. I suppose that by following whatever tired and true soap rules that have been recorded in that big soap book in the sky, they eventually would have found a way to carry a story forward without always having to force such severe romantic struggles and obstacles to create couple conflict.

Sure we’re used to every fan base out there being pissed off at one time or another. Hey I’ve come to expect it and that’s okay, creates that tension and anticipation that keeps you guessing and interested. Always dangling a little tease so you know your favorite couple or storyline will come back to you in some way and satisfy your cravings. Standard soap opera operating procedure. 

But now, it’s as if they decided to sit around and flip us all the finger.

 Tearing couples up, mixing them around, a moment of ardor and infatuation that threatens to ruin their staying power but offers them a way to overcome their human failings – yes, bring it on, take us on that passionate, romantic ride. Throw us up against that wall and let us slide down it slowly.

But don’t insult us by daring to destroying a history that was the very soul of every romantic fantasy this soap opera had gone to such lengths to convince us of. And they succeeded.

I don’t have a problem with Caleb and Alison being thrown together because of Livvie’s unwitting wish. I absolutely love that it backfires on her, that her manipulations once again will come back to haunt her. That every action her vengeful, insecure, misguided little mind can dream of has consequences that in the end hurt her the most. You want to keep Rafe in the dark and create this huge guilt trip for Alison to overcome, fine. You want her betrayal to be with his sworn enemy, the one man, creature, entity (whatever) that can get to him like no other, fine. You want Caleb and Alison to have sex, fine. 

Do it anywhere but in the barn. Caleb and Alison, in the shadow of the carved heart, violates everything that Rafe and Alison were. I’ve said this so many times its gone beyond the broken record stage, but shock for shock’s sake doesn’t work. Even jaded, cynical Rafe and Alison fans by now have to be totally offended at just the suggestion of the deed happening in the barn. And the fans that won’t give up on the couple, that have hung on through everything Rafe and Alison have been forced to endure, have to be beyond offended, they’re sputtering in amazement and disbelief. No matter what camp you fall into on the Rafe and Alison question these days there is no doubt we don’t all hold the memories of the magic they created somewhere in the recesses of our minds and hearts. 

To systematically destroy that magic, that beauty, that innocence culminating in the ultimate infidelity in a place that held such meaning to the characters and the fans, well - it’s sick, its pissy, it’s mean spirited and it’s just downright stupid to desecrate that barn – might as well burn it down.  

Brian Gaskill was right. It should have either ended with Rafe going back up to heaven in the SECRETS finale or with Rafe and Alison riding off into the sunset on that train to parts unknown, happy, free – fantasy intact. 

The burden of sustaining the magic, sustaining the story, through arc after arc of struggle and separation was obviously just too much for the writers to bear. They cracked. If someone has any other explanation for this please enlighten me because I’m at a total loss.

I have to believe that we all deserve better than this. At the end of the day, this final betrayal of this love that had pretty much taken on a life of its own, in the very place it was created and nurtured could only mean a breakup for the couple and a chance for the characters to move on. But it seems to me that by taking something that had come to symbolize the very essence of Rafe and Alison and demolishing it in 30 seconds shut the door forever on any possible reconciliation, on any light at the end of that tunnel.

Which very well could be the point.

Gets them out of soul mate hell alright, but there just had to be another way. I have neither the stomach nor the heart to digest this.

They could have left the barn alone. They should have left the barn alone.

We’ll never know what the thought processes were behind this device, we’ll never see those 40 scripts that had already been written, all we see is what’s in front of us at this moment. From where I sit, I’d like it to fade to black, draw the curtains across the screen and exit the theatre.

It’s as if they wanted the fans to yell uncle. Well, UNCLE.