Well, all the participants made it to the hospital, the dirty deed has been determined, and now we await the unraveling!

As I mentioned last week, sooner or later Chris Hughes would realize that his mother didn’t give him that poisoned watch, and start to put two and two together, and this week he managed to do it. Then, making like Sherlock Holmes, he found out that Allison had received a bracelet from daddy, Emily some perfume from a client, and Meg was sporting that necklace Barbara had supposedly gotten from Will and Gwen. It was an easy jump to determine that the gifts had all come from someone sinister, who was intent on destroying some Stewarts and Ryans. The Hughes family got involved when Casey nuzzled his new bride and inhaled that same perfume.

So why are fans loving this story? It’s easy; the show is giving us some vets to enjoy.  Kim and Bob have been by Chris’s side during this ordeal, while Susan has been anxiously hovering over her two daughters. Margo has been nearby for Casey, and Barbara showed up on Friday to support Paul and Meg. (Didn’t you just love it when Paul said of Decker, “Let's kill him,” and Barbara replied, “Later.”) Although Emma Snyder doesn’t know Meg’s dire straights yet, when she does, she will be by Meg’s side too, I think. We have clamored for more time for the veteran actors, and this storyline has delivered, pulling three main families together in this tragedy. We even got to see Courtney Simon as Doctor Michaels. Simon, a veteran actor, is currently on the writing staff for ATWT, and is married to Peter Simon, who played Ed Bauer on GL for many years. 

Even better, John James returned as Dr. Rick Decker, the tanned, handsome villain behind all this. Sauve, smooth, and as diabolically debonair as he ever was, Decker is the brains behind the poisoning. He took his revenge against his ex-wife Susan and the woman who returned him to prison, Barbara. After bringing on so many well-known actors and then dumping them, I have to thank TPTB for not killing Decker off, and allowing James to return, even if for a short while. He is a natural for soaps, playing Decker over the top as a psychopathic murderer who’s a whole lot of fun! It’s too bad he can’t turn into a Stenbeckian villain, and return on a regular basis to torment Oakdale.

Then, why are fans hating this story? First of all, it is not all that well-written. There are plot holes, such as why it took Chris so long to realize that his mother didn’t give him the watch. He mentioned that he’d written her a thank you note, but apparently he wasn’t specific enough, and didn’t say, “Thanks, Mom, for the really cool watch.”  Second, Allison continued to wear that bracelet when she was admitted to the hospital. Patients are usually discouraged from wearing jewelry while in a hospital; it interferes with their treatment and could possibly be stolen or lost. When I was in the hospital recently, I even left my wedding ring at home. Third, viewers just want Sofie gone. I apologize to those who are Sofie supporters, but the people who contact me are sick of her and want her to be absolutely off their TVs. Her ‘haunting’ of Meg is also odd, in that she insists that Paul is the reason for her demise, when it was Cole, paired with her own obsession. Finally, fans don’t like this story because it will be over and forgotten soon, probably in a week or so. Fans are tired of the writers thinking a quick fix will shore up the ratings, keep long time viewers happy, and reel in new viewers.  ATWT has done this in past summers; remember the summer camp slasher? Ratings did go up during that storyline, but that gain faded away soon after the blood had been swept up and the killer captured. 

So yes, this is a fun story, with lots of the actors we love involved, and unhappily, it was poorly written and will end too soon.

In last week’s column I stated my opinion that we would never see Luke and Noah in bed. Mike wrote to me, saying, “I sure hope you're wrong that we'll never, ever see Luke and Noah in bed together!  If we see them simply implying that they've just spent the night together, I think there will be many, many outraged Nuke fans, possibly worse than the "mistletoe-gate" and Valentine's Day fiascoes. TPTB need to realize that such blatant double standards may well lose them some viewers as well as some respect.  They need to finish what they started. Period.  The world survived Vienna and Henry head to toe panting under the sheets, Emily and Casey jumping each other on every horizontal surface, not to mention Liberty handing Parker a condom! Surely it will survive Luke and Noah, the most romantic, loving couple on the show, sharing a moment of intimacy. If it can't, it's a pretty sad society we live in.” 

Mike, I agree with you completely, and my sensibilities certainly wouldn’t be offended to see these two young men consummate their love, but I just don’t think ATWT has the courage to do it. Even though Luke and Noah have legions of fans, the show is just too afraid of the clout of those who oppose this story. I mean, let’s face it. Parker and Liberty barely knew each other, and had only kissed a few times, and they were allowed to get busy. Casey and Emily were doing it on her desk only a couple weeks after they met. Luke and Noah have been a couple for over a year, and they have yet to get any action. And the thing that surprises me the most is that the people who complain that they don’t want to see Luke and Noah get any are surprisingly silent about Parker and Liberty or Casey and Emily. Aren’t they just as aghast about teen sex and pre-marital sex as they are about gay sex?  Shouldn’t they be just as vocal in complaining about all three couples? Personally, seeing Casey and Emily roll around like rutting llamas turns my stomach. Of course, TPTB could surprise me and get their prescription for courage filled and let Luke and Noah do what Parker and Liberty have done and will undoubtedly do over and over in the future. But I’m not holding my breath.