Catching Up

It has been five months since I last took pen in hand (metaphorically speaking, of course) to update this blog. When I started Seth in the City, I intended it to be a daily blog if possible, but certainly I intended to update at least three or four times a week.

Life gets in the way, but it also comes down to forgetfulness on my part. I'm just not in the habit of blogging on a regular basis and unless I get myself into the habit, this blog will probably just wither away, if it hasn't already. Use it or lose it, right?

Its been a busy five months for me, but when I think of all the things I could have found the time to blog about, I could kick myself.

But, no point in crying over spilt milk, right? So I'm going to treat this as a new start for Seth in the City. I don't mean to imply that Ill be blogging each and every day, but I do want to try and blog at least a few times a week.

I can't promise I'll be interesting, but I will do my best to get something up.

Lets start where we left off, shall we? That would be with Luke on As the World Turns.

I'm sorry to say that things have gone downhill very fast with that groundbreaking storyline. Around Labor Day, things finally came to a head between Luke & his best friend (and secret crush) Kevin.

Things between the two of them had been bad ever since Luke skipped out on the double date that Kevin had set up for them, and Luke finally decided it was time to tell Kevin the truth about himself. He followed Kevin up to a lake where a group of teens had gathered for an end of the summer trip and managed to get Kevin to agree to hear what he had to say.

It was another of those powerful scenes that As the World Turns was doing so very well with the Luke storyline at that point. Alone in a cabin, Luke finally confessed to Kevin that the reason he'd been acting so weird lately was that he'd been hiding a secret and he wasn't sure what to do about it. Kevin melted instantly and told Luke that he himself was no altar boy and Luke could tell him anything.

Relieved, Luke finally said the words he'd been so afraid to say to his best friend: I'm Gay.

Kevin's reaction wasn't exactly what Luke had hoped for. He fled the cabin without saying another word, but Luke followed him and confronted him.

Luke: I trust you with, like, the biggest deal of my life, and you turn around and say nothing?

Kevin: What do you want from me?

Luke: Nothing. I'm just so sick of pretending to be someone that I'm not. And you're my friend, so I wanted you to know who I really am.

Kevin: Yeah, well, now I know.

Luke: And we're okay?

Kevin: You know, I always knew there was something wrong with you. And now I know why. You're a freak.

From there, it got worse as Luke on-again-off-again-on again cousin Jade (yes, now she really IS his cousin; don't ask) emerged and rushed to her own defense of Luke, revealing another secret in the process:

Jade (to Kevin): I can't believe he ever tried to be straightforward and honest with a jerk like you.

Kevin: I don't think you can use the word straight.

Jade: Oh, can I use the word pig? Because what I don't understand, is how a pig like you thinks he has the right to judge anybody.

Luke: Jade, please, this really isn't helping --

Jade: Luke is kind and smart and strong, and he's more of a man than you could ever dream of being.

Kevin: He just said he's not a man.

Jade (to Kevin): Did you really just say that?

Luke: Look, Jade, Jade, just go away. Please, go away.

Jade (to Luke): How? How could you ever love someone like that?

Kevin: What did you just say?

Luke: Jade --

Jade (to Kevin): He defends you, do you know that? You act like a pig and he tells me I don't know what you're like!

Kevin: I'm not like that!

Luke: Jade, just shut your mouth and listen to me. You told me that I need to come out here and handle this myself. So please let me.

Jade: You can't let him talk to you like that.

Luke: And you can't fight my battles for me.

Jade: He's not worth it.

Luke: You can't decide that either. Jade, look, I'm so glad you're in my corner. But you have got to go. Please, you have to.

Jade: You don't deserve to be his friend. (Jade exits)

Kevin: Don't worry, I'm not! Look, don't come near me, don't even come close --

Luke: Kevin, Kevin, we need to talk about this.

Kevin: You expect me to stay here alone with you? After what she just said --

Luke: I think you should just --

Kevin: I think you're out of your mind.

Luke: Kevin, we need to talk --

Kevin: Look, if I stay here longer, I'm gonna beat the crap out of you.

Kevin's reaction to the news that Luke was gay and had feelings for him was about what viewers were expecting, given what we'd seen of the character. Van Hansis as Luke, though, truly made the scenes into something heartbreaking and powerful. He conveyed Luke's hurt and, more importantly, his sense of inner strength during these scenes, making them even more poignant. Luke's refusal to back down and let Kevin just walk away after hearing that he was gay was a big step forward for the character.

After telling Luke he'd beat the crap out of him if he stayed any longer, Kevin rushed off to rejoin his girlfriend and other friends and proceeded to get drunk (fueling a lot of fan speculation that Kevin was trying to drown out feelings of his own that Luke's confession had brought forward) and then out Luke to everyone and drop the F-bomb while he was at it. Catching sight of Luke across the lake, Kevin raised his beer can in a toast:

Kevin: Look who it is, our friend Luke. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to give a toast to a great guy -- a liar -- and a faggot!

Thanks to ATWT's writing and Van Hansis's portrayal of the character, the audience at this point had come to identify with Luke so strongly and to root for him so much that it made the F word carry more power than it may otherwise have for some. I think for many people who don't know anyone who is gay, seeing a stranger treated that way has less of an impact than seeing someone they do know and care about treated that way. And that's what Luke had become, in the best soap character sense: someone you know and care about. I'd like to think that a lot of eyes may have been opened among viewers regarding the use of hateful words.

What came next was just as important, especially following the storyline with his biological father, in which Luke seemed to be slotted into the 'damsel in distress' role. As the World Turns made Luke a hero when he saved the life of the person who had just outed him to half the student body and called him the F-word to boot.

Drunken Kevin and his girlfriend took a boat out onto the lake and the girlfirend ended up accidentally whacking Kevin in the head with an oar and sending him under. Luke, who saw this from the shoreline, dove in and swam Kevin back to shore, where he performed mouth to mouth and saved Kevin's life.

When Kevin woke up in the hospital and realized Luke had performed mouth to mouth on him, Luke naturally expected a bad reaction.

Luke: Look, Kevin -- I don't know what you expected me to do, but I didn't really have a choice, okay? Someone I care about -- like a friend -- I couldn't stand by and watch you drown. No matter how much you hate me for who I am.

Kevin: Thank you.

Luke: What?

Kevin: Thank you. For saving my life. After I did everything to trash yours.

Luke: Yeah, you acted like a jerk. But that doesn't mean you deserved to die.

Kevin: I was worse than a jerk. Saying I knew that there was always something wrong with you. And calling you a -- a faggot. It was wrong.

Luke: Yeah.

Kevin: I'm sorry. I take it back.

Luke: Liv must have done a number on your head.

Kevin: I'm not saying I'm cool with what you laid on me. It's just -- the way I reacted, I crossed the line. I mean, you saved my life after I made fun of you. I mean, who does that? Look, anyway, thank you.

Luke was under no illusions, though, about just where things stood between him and Kevin and about the sort of school year he was facing, being the outed gay kid. When Holden arrived at the hospital, he and his son had a heart to heart.

Luke: Kevin totally freaked when I told him I was gay. He said stuff.

Holden: What stuff?

Luke: You don't want to know. So, yeah, he's all happy now that I saved his life. He apologized for that he said, and thanked me. But as far as us being friends? That's over.
You should have seen Liv's face when I was giving Kevin mouth-to-mouth. She was acting all hysterical and she can't talk tonight. But back at school? She's going to make it very clear to everyone that I'm gay.

Holden: And you don't want that?

Luke: No, I do want that. I'm sick of hiding, but I don't want Kevin and Liv putting their spin on it.

Holden: What spin is that? Maybe you're wrong about what Kevin's feeling. He said that you saved him and maybe you're reading him wrong.

Luke: Dad, he -- he called me a faggot, dad. He said he was going to beat me up.

Holden: But he just said that --

Luke: Yeah, but he was talking to you. My dad. In a hospital in the middle of nowhere, and he's all happy that I just saved his life. But when we get back to school -- and he's hanging out with the other guys, and they start making fun of him because he got kissed by the gay guy --

Holden: It was CPR. You saved his life.

Luke: But I'm not like them.

Holden: Luke --

Luke: And that's all that matters.

Holden: Luke --

Luke: Dad, come on. You know what high school's like. So don't tell me that it's going to be easy. Or they'll get over it. Because you know that's not how it works.

Holden: I do know that, but --

Luke: All this time, I thought I was going to have such a good time being a senior. The best year of my life. Not anymore.

All of which seems to be setting up some important storylines with Luke dealing with his senior year as a potential outcast, right? Remember, this was happening at the beginning of September, right as school was about to start.

With Luke finally being out to everyone and Lily finally coming out of her coma and accepting Luke, apologizing to him for the way she'd reacted to his coming out, that portion of the storyline was over. There was no doubt that ATWT had done the coming out storyline better than anyone else ever had in daytime. It was truly groundbreaking, and now they were clearly setting the stage for more groundbreaking storylines with Luke.

Right? Wrong.

As I said, that was early September. It was also the end of Luke as a front burner character. In the nearly five months since then, Luke has only been on to be a confidant to Jade or to be in the background at family events and the big New Year's Eve Party.

How is that senior year going for Luke? What's it like being an out gay teen in high school in Oakdale? We've got no clue, because Luke's senior year is more than halfway over and it's not been mentioned once. Kevin hasn't been seen or mentioned since those hospital scenes and Luke sightings have become increasingly rare in the last couple of months.

Is Luke going the way of traditional gay soap characters after all? Come out and then vanish? Rumors are flying that he'll finally have a storyline later this winter, but what sort of storyline? Will he get a love interest? One rumor out there says that he'll make over a female character, a la Queer Eye, and then she'll fall for him. Considering that, in coming out to his cousin Lucy last summer, Luke demonstrated that he has no stereotypical gay fashion sense ("Fashion? I like stripes.") lets hope this one is just a ludicrous rumor and not where they're actually going with this amazing character. But more and more, I fear that performing mouth to mouth on Kevin may be as close as Luke ever gets to a kiss on this show, let alone a love interest.

As the World Turns was recently nominated for a Writer's Guild Award, based upon episodes they submitted. What episodes did they choose to submit? Luke coming out to his parents, and Luke coming out to Kevin. They know these are powerful episodes, and yet they've more or less dropped the character rather than delving further into his experiences as a gay high school senior, or having him find love. They're more than willing to use the Luke story to try and get awards, but they're unwilling to show that there's anything more to being gay than just coming out! It's cowardly and unworthy of the story that came before it.

The viewers deserve better than this, and so does Van Hansis, a talented actor reduced to serving punch in the background just because his character is gay on a soap opera. This unwillingness to follow through, to tell important stories with real meaning, is a big part of why soap ratings are in the toilet, and why ATWT's ratings in particular have been dismal lately. They were up nicely the week Luke came out to Kevin, but now they're lower than ever. Coincidence? Hardly. Hopefully these fools will wake up before it's too late, if it's not already.