Fools Rush In

Two Nuke days in a row, what a treat! I'm employing some sarcasm there, obviously, but at the same time it is nice to see Van & Jake getting more than one episode a week.

I should clarify, after my last few bitter posts, that I don't really hate As the World Turns. I just hate the way it's being written at the moment. Hopefully that doesn't make me sound too much like those 'hate the sin, not the sinner' homophobic hypocrites. In this case, I think you really can separate the two.

All right, so today started out with Luke making it clear to Lily that he, like Holden, thinks Damian is behind Noah's kidnapping. Lily still didn't think so, and the two decide to go join Holden at the police station, which is where they thought he'd gone.

Instead, Holden was right where we'd left him, in Damian's hotel room. That sounds much more interesting that it actually was, of course! Holden accused Damian of kidnapping Noah and Damian offered to take a lie detector test to prove that he was innocent. Holden agreed to this proposition, though he also snarled that Damian probably knew a way of fooling the machine. I know Holden has very good reasons for believing the worst about Damian (especially since Damian once kidnapped Luke himself) but now it just seems like the show is trying to build up Damian as a good guy by making Holden look like a complete ass.

Everyone more or less met up at the police station, where they presented Margo with the news of the kidnapping, the ransom note (which is on hotel stationary from the Lakeview, where Damian is staying) and with the prime suspect himself. As soon as Luke saw Damian walk in, he told him that he'd give him the money, he just wants Noah back. Damian protested his innocence for the 10,000th time.

Margo, meanwhile, took the Snyders aside to warn Luke not to pay the ransom yet and to demand 'proof of life' first.

Meanwhile, the couple formerly known as the Z Twins were still making out in front of poor Noah. Zoe finally took off to go see how Luke was dealing with receiving the ransom note and Zac took pity on Noah by giving him some water and revealing that the foundation money is rightfully his and Zoe's, that it was stolen from them.

Back at the station, the fingerprint analysis on the ransom note was already back: Damian's prints were on the note. Holden was smug, Lily was disbelieving, and Luke just seemed sad as he told Damian that he wished he could believe him when he continued to protest his innocence.

Luke, still being trailed by his police protection, ran into Zoe in Old Town and told her all about the ransom note. Zoe pretended to be shocked and sympathetic, but was far from pleased when Luke revealed that the cops had advised him not to pay the ransom.

Luke returned home to have a flashback to his and Noah's first time together (awww!) while Zoe rushed back to the warehouse (which, it turns out, is actually a storage unit) to send Luke a text from Noah's phone telling Luke right where Noah was and to come quickly and without cops.

Once again, the writers have an otherwise intelligent character act like a complete idiot. Luke, knowing full well that he'd already received one fake text from someone using Noah's phone, didn't question the veracity of the latest text for a second. He just charged off, leaving his clueless police protection behind and telling no one where he was going.

Meanwhile, back in the interrogation room, Damian was filling Margo in on the many different branches of the Grimaldi family with their feuds dating back hundreds of years. He was also feeling guilty, realizing that if he'd never given Luke this money, no one from the family would have targeted him. After all, Damian pointed out, Lily is a wealthy woman but they're not asking for money from her. They're specifically asking for the Grimaldi money from the foundation.

Luke, still acting like a fool, rushed into the storage unit and found Noah. He began untying him, telling him that he'd received his text. Noah warned that it was a trap, that he'd never sent it, but of course at that very moment Zac & a gun toting Zoe popped out and welcomed Luke to their little party.

Luke continued trying to untie Noah while he took in this latest revelation. He told the 'twins' that they could talk about the money, come to an agreement, and then he tried to knock the gun from Zoe's hand. Unfortunately, she ended up knocking him out instead, and Zac quickly tied him up on the other side of Noah's pole, so that the guys were back to back.

Luke, more dazed than unconscious, quickly came out of his stupor and put two and two together: the twins had left the ring in Lily's office: they were Grimaldis. Zac cleared up something that I was pretty sure of yesterday, but that I'm still very glad to have stated explicitly at last: he & Zoe aren't really related. Zoe, though, is indeed a Grimaldi.

Zoe informed Luke that the money Damian gave him belongs to her branch of the family, not with someone like him who won't even acknowledge that he is a Grimaldi.

Holden & Lily took a break from arguing about Damian's guilt to realize that the couldn't find Luke anywhere and he wasn't answering his phone. Then, oddly enough, Lily discovered another ransom note, telling them that their son had been kidnapped as well. This is odd because neither Zac nor Zoe had left Luke's side since tying him up. So, either this is yet another plot hole (very likely), or someone else is working with them.

Back at the storage unit, Luke & Noah were left alone at last. Noah apologized for dragging Luke into this, but Luke told his boyfriend that there's nowhere else he'd rather be that with Noah. Noah pointed out that this all means that Damian is innocent and Luke agreed that he owed his biodad an apology. The two then managed to touch hands in a way that was really very sweet.

Van & Jake manage to make Noah & Luke very believable as two people in love through small moments exactly like that, and that's precisely why I have to keep tuning in despite all my disappointment with the writing.