The Abs of Evil?

Today was a Nuke day on As the World Turns and most of their scenes were exactly the sort of thing I was talking about last week when I decided that I like the Z twins. I know a lot of people don't, and I can completely see why. I'm even kind of half way there myself, because of the awful writing, but there's just something fun about them, nonetheless. I think there's a lot of potential there, should someone actually bother to write them as fully realized characters. Compared to the very tired goings on of the rest of the show, though, they still seem like a breath of fresh air to me.

I found myself laughing and really enjoying their scenes today, especially getting to see them bring out the playful side of Luke. We don't get to see that often enough. I do wish, however, that the writers would lay off all the word play with the letter Z. When Zac said today that he & his sister weren't the 'axis of Z-vil", I almost wanted to throw something at the screen! I guess the upside is that the actors are so playfully over the top about it that they do manage to sell it for the most part. It's just annoying, though.

Of course, when they first arrived on scene in today's show, I just wanted them to go away! That was because Luke & Noah were making out on the living room sofa and their arrival brought things to a halt! That was a really nice scene, though, and the kind I want more of for Luke & Noah. The guys were sitting down to watch a movie together, Luke having sweetly picked out something he'd already seen but that he knew Noah wanted to see (the latest Batman film). Before they could even start the film, though, they began to kiss and Luke declared that they might not get around to watching it after all. They're just so great as a couple, I love romantic scenes like this.

The Z Twins arrived proclaiming that they were ready to party (Luke: "It's a weeknight!") and to save the boys from their own boring selves. After some amusing banter (Zac was back to calling Noah by his pet name, Monster) and another apology for the whole Damian as a gay cover boy prank, the twins announced that they were bearing gifts: a bottle of absinthe, of all things, which Zac declared 'the elixir of artists and madmen'.

Luke reminded them that he doesn't drink and Noah passed as well, which left Zac chugging the stuff on his own as Zoe broke out 'Plan Z', a Ouija board on which to contact the spirits to find out who was trying to sabotage the foundation.

I loved how amused Luke was by all of this. When he waved into the air after Zoe introduced him to the spirits, I was cracking up! He wasted no time in rigging the board to spell out 'He Is Gay', and then proclaimed "The spirits don't lie!"

Zoe, having no luck making contact with the other side, asked who they wanted to speak to and the board replied with LG, which the twins (claimed) not to get, but Luke explained that his birth name was Luciano Grimaldi.

Around that time, Zac said that he was going to be sick and ran off to use the bathroom. Zoe asked Luke where the kitchen was, explaining that there's a blended fruit drink she makes for Zac when he overindulges in absinthe. After removing Zoe's errant hand from his knee, Luke pointed her on her way. Once he & Noah were alone, the lights suddenly went out, followed by a scream from Zoe.

Alas, she hadn't been attacked by spirits, but was just startled by the power blowing when she plugged in the blender. Noah headed upstairs to look for the other Z twin after Zoe started panicking and saying he was afraid of the dark. Zac, meanwhile, was up in Luke's room snooping through papers with a mini flashlight, suddenly not looking or acting drunk at all.

When Noah walked in the room, Zac was waiting for him with the perfect distraction from his unexplained presence in Luke's room: his killer abs. Yes, a shirtless Zac tried to seduce Noah right in his own boyfriend's bedroom. Noah was of course having none of it, though I noticed that he couldn't help taking a peek at what Zac was offering! I can't say I blame him, either. I mean, he's taken, not dead!

Back downstairs, Zoe was also coming on to Luke and then claimed that it was all just a joke when he reminded her that he's in no way interested.

Once the power was on and everyone was back downstairs, Zac informed Luke that his boyfriend was incorruptible and then the twins made their exit. Noah was once again not pleased with the way the twins behaved, but Luke continued to believe that they were essentially harmless, even if they were weird. He ended the discussion by referring to Noah in Z Twin style as 'N', which made me laugh.

Okay, I will confess: I think I've officially got a little crush on Zac. Yes, he's still more of a caricature than a character, but there's so much potential there! It's not just because of those amazing abs, either, though they didn't hurt! I just really like the whole playful, flirty vibe he's got going on, and Nicholas Galbraith (the actor portraying Zac) is certainly easy on the eyes.

I'm also officially intrigued by the fact that Zac (and, presumably, Zoe) are up to something, though I really hope they're not in any way responsible for Luke's hit & run or Damian's stabbing. I wish this show was capable of writing characters who were schemers and did the occasional bad or manipulative thing without being completely over the top psychos. The key to getting the audience to like the bad guys in spite of what they do is to make them human and vulnerable in some way, to make us relate to them, but with these writers, everyone immediately goes completely dark side.

I know I'm probably fooling myself, but at the moment I'm hoping that Zac will prove to be the kind of character who may be up to no good, but not in a monstrous way. Since the psycho of the month tends to be gone just as quickly as the name implies, it would suck even more if Zac was off the show that soon.

While all of this was going on at the Snyder place, Lily was at the office, where she discovered a Grimaldi family ring inside the filing cabinet that the back up discs had been stolen from. She rushed to confront Damian, who demonstrated that this particular Grimaldi ring was far too small for his fingers, but who realized that the person out to sabotage the foundation must be another Grimaldi.

Lily reluctantly decided to trust Damian and he drove her home to be sure she got there safely. Luke was far from pleased when his Mom walked in with his biodad and remained disbelieving when they filled him in on their suspicions that there was another Grimaldi lurking in the shadows of Oakdale.

Suddenly, the random scene earlier in the episode between Damian and the rarely seen Lisa made sense. Lisa told Damian that she had some of his cousin Eduardo's things (she's his widow, but he died years ago), including letters and pictures, for him to go through if he wants any of it. Pictures, no doubt, that will turn out to be of this other Grimaldi or Grimaldis.

After Damian left, Noah made an excuse about having to study and followed him back to his hotel, where he told him that he believed him and wanted to help find out who was after Luke. He shared the part of the mysterious user name that he could recall from before Zac 'accidentally' crashed Luke's laptop and Damian speculated that it could be the Italian for Pisces. Gee, the fact that the twins have demonstrated an interest in star signs will have no bearing on this, I'm sure.

Damian thanked Noah for believing in him and told him that while he is a very old fashioned guy, he's still glad that Noah & Luke have found each other. It really made me hope that Damian is being sincere about his change of heart, though that's still up for debate.

After leaving Damian, Noah ran into Zac & Zoe again, sitting on a bench in Old Town drinking their absinthe. He immediately noted that they both wore Pisces star sign necklaces and blurted out what Damian had told him about the user name. The twins pretty much made fun of him for thinking they were the bad guys, but their act, if it was one, didn't seem to convince Noah.

The idea that the twins may actually be members of the infamous Grimaldi family is definitely something I could get behind. I mean, it would make a triangle even more interesting if the third party was not just some guy, but Luke's scheming cousin or whatever he is. Then again, if they're truly up to no good, the whole attraction to Noah might be a front.

Whatever happens, I like that they're not just going to be 'secretly' working for Damian, which would have been such an obvious (and boring) direction to go in.

I'll leave you with a couple of pics from today's shirtless Zac scene, borrowed from Daytime Confidential. No shot of the much mentioned abs, probably because that particular camera shot was agonizingly brief. Still, you get the idea.