Rally? Really?

Today was another Luke & Noah day on As the World Turns (and so is tomorrow! If they're not careful, a casual viewer might discover there are gay characters on this show!) and the guys were the main focus for a change.

The show started out with Luke picking up Noah from work. Noah thought they were heading out to go shopping for the apartment but Luke had other plans. He'd put together an instant Gay Rights Rally for that very afternoon, hoping to capitalize on the momentum from the television appearance.

Meanwhile, Lily was showing the threatening note to Margo Hughes, who advised her to make sure they all kept a low profile until the cops figured out if the note sender was dangerous. Which, since this is Oakdale, would mean never showing their faces in public again.

Holden returned home from a business trip in time to hear Margo's warning about the note and Lily had just finished filling him in when Luke & Noah showed up to tell them about the Rally and ask Lily to speak.

Lily agreed right away, but Holden thought the whole thing was a bad idea. Noah agreed with Luke's father, but told them all that he knew there was no talking Luke out of something when he'd set his mind to it. Luke promised to have someone checking bags at the door to make sure no one smuggled in any weapons and left it up to his parents whether to attend or not.

After the guys left, Lily told Holden that she had to speak at the Rally because she's still making it up to Luke for her behavior when he came out to them, including nearly letting Damian send him to a Scared Straight camp (though, of course, Lily didn't know about that until the last second, and it was finding that out which finally opened her eyes to how she'd been acting. Not that this show really cares too much about what happened yesterday, let alone two years ago).

Over at Metro, the local nightclub, Luke & Noah were raving about how many people had showed up for the rally even though it was thrown together at the last minute. Of course, the show only sprang for seven or eight extras, so unless Oakdale has a total population of like 80 people, no one could really consider this a big turnout.

Luke got up to address the crowd about the discrimination he and his boyfriend faced and how this rally wasn't about them, but about the fact that LGBT people are still facing this kind of discrimination every day and how they're going to fight for their rights and make a difference.

Leaving everything else aside, it is very nice to hear this sort of direct stance on gay rights on a daytime soap opera, considering how conservative the medium still is overall. So kudos to the show for that.

Luke spotted his parents walking in and introduced Lily to the crowd. As soon as she got up to speak, people started shouting out questions about the TV appearance. I guess all nearly ten of them showed up just to see Lily. She is pretty fabulous.

Someone asked about negative reactions and Luke & Lily told them about the coward who left the note at their door. Luke informed the crowd that they weren't going to let that stop them and that he'd been researching how earlier gay movements handled that sort of thing.

I had to laugh when he told everyone he'd left his research in the car and that he'd be right back. Who stops their own rally to run out to the car and get research? What, is he planning on reading it all to the crowd? This is the worst Gay Rights Rally ever!

Holden offered to get the papers for him, but Luke said he'd be fine (uh oh!) and thanked Holden for coming. Luke grabbed the info and was on his way back in when a car came out of nowhere and ran him down at high speed. I have to say, they did a really good job on the actual hit and run. I've seen other people on this show get run down before and it always looks so cheesy. This time it was believable.

The next thing you know, some mysterious person is strolling up to Luke's unconscious form and picking him up in their arms and walking off with him. You know, because moving accident victims is exactly what they tell you to do. It won't hurt them at all, don't bother with waiting for an ambulance, just toss them right over your shoulder and jog to the hospital.

Back inside Metro, Holden mentioned that Luke was taking a long time getting those papers and Noah joked about what a mess Luke's car is. Holden decided to go out and give his son a hand, but of course all he found were scattered papers and a little puddle of blood.

Noah & Lily came outside, too, and Lily started freaking out when she saw blood on Holden's hand. While Holden called the cops to alert them to what had happened, the mysterious stranger was putting Lily's phone number on Luke's chest as he lay in a hospital bed.

Lily got the call that Luke had been dropped off in the E.R. and seemed to be the victim of a hit and run, and the gang all rushed to his bedside. I really liked that Noah was sitting at his side, holding his hand and urging him to wake up and talking about their apartment. It was a nice little moment. If they didn't feel the need to tell a story at warp speed, they could have drawn this out and given us a bit more of that.

Instead, Luke opened his eyes right on cue and wanted to go back to the rally. Margo showed up around that point to tell him that he needed to lay low until they figured things out, but Luke said that would be letting the writers... um, I mean, bad guys... win.

Noah promised to keep the momentum of the movement going and gave Luke a really sweet kiss goodbye when Margo took him and Luke's parents down to the station to answer some questions about the whole thing. I thought they only took suspects in to the station? Then again, this is a show where the cops let countless people wander in and out of the interrogation room at will, so who knows?

Luke was resting with his eyes closed when the Mystery Man came in and took his hand. Luke smiled and said "You just can't get enough of me, can you Noah?" before opening his eyes and seeing his biological father, Damian, standing there.

Which, of course, would have shocked only people who know nothing about soaps. Even if you don't follow casting news, the fact that Damian has been mentioned constantly lately would have alerted you that he was about to return to town.

I'm really looking forward to this. There is so much drama to be mined between Luke & Damian, and Noah & Damian, for that matter. I can't wait for the two of them to meet. Best of all, it should keep Luke & Noah onscreen more often than they typically are.

All right, I'm off to watch Adam Lambert sing on American Idol! It's Motown week and I think Adam is going to be awesome.