Things are continuing to move at warp speed on As The World Turns, which somehow makes the fact that this is a poorly written story all the more obvious. I guess the consolation is that it also means it will be over that much sooner.
Today, Luke & Noah ran into Elwood at Al's, the local diner, and Elwood got in Luke's face for a change, wondering what gave him the right to break into his dorm room. Luke countered with the old standby that Elwood killed Reg and that Luke found the evidence he needed to prove it in his room and gave it to the cops.
Why then, Elwood wondered, was Casey in jail instead of him? (FYI, the drugs that Casey planted in Elwood's backpack ended up in Casey's own bag somehow, so Margo had to arrest her own son for like the forty second time)
Luke has been written as impulsive, stubborn, and self destructive at times, but he's usually also written as an intelligent person, which is why I had a problem with Luke informing Elwood that the cops are holding Casey as a ploy to catch the real drug dealers. If that were true, Luke would be giving the game away, so clearly he'd either be stupid for revealing this or stupid for thinking that Elwood would buy it.
At any rate, Luke's parting shot, that the police knew who M was, apparently struck a chord with Elwood. Noah and Luke then proceeded to have the same conversation they've been having for the last few weeks, Noah wanting Luke to drop this and stay safe and Luke needing justice for the loss of his dearest offscreen friend Reg.
I did like that in the midst of this, the boys exchanged "I love yous" more than once, as in "I love you and I don't want you to get hurt", "I love you, too, and I won't", etc. It's still really nice to hear them talking like that.
Anyway, Kevin showed up to ask about Casey's arrest and Luke informed him that Elwood and Matt were the real culprits. Just then, Elwood called Luke's cell and told him that he was right, and that they needed to meet. Elwood wanted to confess but couldn't go to the police and risk going back to prison. Luke assured him that he'd go to the police on his behalf and that they'd probably give him a deal for turning in 'M'.
They arranged to meet on a bridge and Luke called up Alison to tell her the good news. Alison, who has been seeing Matt, told Casey the news and promised Luke that she wouldn't tell anyone else. Which, of course, lead into the scene where Matt called her and she told him everything about the meeting, since she thought Elwood would be able to clear him and Casey both by revealing who 'M' really is.
Noah went along with Luke and as soon as Elwood started walking towards them on the bridge an SUV came out of nowhere and headed straight for Elwood. It missed, but only because Elwood jumped off the bridge to get out of the way.
Luke & Noah got down to the rocks under the bridge where Elwood landed and attempted to revive him, but it was no use. The poor plot point was dead.
Meanwhile, back at the diner, Alison was surprised to see Kevin's campaign manager Mark suddenly reappear. How subtle of the show to abruptly introduce another shady character with an M name just now! Mark, in addition to being a homophobe who put up nasty videos about Luke online over Kevin's objection, also nearly raped Alison when she was spying on the campaign for Luke.
He's apparently just been released from the Psych Ward and wants to make amends with Alison. After Kevin showed up and apologized to Alison for not bothering to see how she was doing after his friends nearly raped her a few months back, Mark made it clear to him that he's interested in Alison, in spite of that whole silly attempted rape thing.
Matt soon arrived out of breath and informed Ali that his car was stolen. Margo, meanwhile, took Luke & Noah to the station as her only witnesses in Elwood's murder and they gave her a description of the SUV and Noah managed to recall the last three numbers on the license plate. The guys broke the bad news to Casey and to Ali after she showed up with Matt to report his car as stolen.
It was then, of course, that Margo returned to announce that the car that killed Elwood is registered to Matt, who of course has vanished from the station. How, they wonder, did Matt even know about the meeting? Ali confessed her part in that and realized that Casey was right all along and Matt is a bad guy.
Which, of course, he's not. There's no mystery here at all, since the otherwise pointless reintroduction of Mark means that he's going to be the killer. No doubt Kevin, who was there when Elwood called Luke, mentioned the meeting to Mark, innocently or otherwise, and probably also mentioned Luke's suspicions of Matt as well, giving him someone to frame.
So, in the end, this whole story will come down to four or five minor characters who hadn't been seen or mentioned in months being brought back to be killed off, suspected of foul play, or found guilty of it, and all of it will have been more or less pointless.
The writing for Luke & Noah has never been all that great, of course, but it was easier to take when the stories were about them as a couple. This is the first story that they're in where it doesn't really revolve around their relationship, the first story that's more like all the rest of the stories on this show, which I generally fast forward through.
The acting talent that is wasted on all this bad writing is what makes this even more of a travesty. There are more than a few actors and actresses in daytime who aren't exactly great thespians, but the cast of As the World Turns actually has enormous talent being squandered.
It's way past time for some flesh blood in the writing department on this show. If the recent rumors that the Executive Producer has been rewriting a lot of the stories himself are true, then it's obviously time for a change there as well.
Honestly, with how bad the show has become in general over these past few years and how low the ratings are dropping, I'm shocked there hasn't been a change already. Soaps don't have the luxury of being badly written for long periods of time when they're all more or less fighting for their lives.
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