Noah's Got a Gun

Today's As the World Turns was another chapter in the ongoing saga of 'Damian is a misunderstood hero', which sometimes can be found under the alternative title 'When did Holden become such an ass?'.

Today's show started with Luke's parents and boyfriend urging him to stay away from Damian until the whole smuggling thing was resolved, even though Luke wanted to know more about Damian's plan to save Lucy from a prison sentence. Noah had more or less changed his tune on Damian, striking a more cautious note and pointing out that the two of them tend to be hit by cars, kidnapped, and shot whenever Damian is around.

Luke pretended to agree with his parents' request that he stay away from Damian, but after he accompanied Noah to Java, he took off to find his biodad.

Damian, meanwhile, had the word put out that he'd be open to using the Grimaldi ships for smuggling and was immediately contacted by a guy wanting a meeting.

While Damian was waiting on the docks, Luke came along and tried to have a conversation with him. The exchange between them reminded me of a puppy running up to lick its owner's hand, only to be kicked away and yelled at. The poor puppy totally doesn't get what's happening, and neither did Luke when Damian told him to get lost in less than friendly terms.

Damian was only trying to get Luke out of harm's way before the bad guy arrived, of course. Luke pretended to leave and then hid so that he could spy on Damian (which involved walking about four steps and then darting behind a building that seemed to be right next to where Damian was standing).

The smuggler, whose name was Fredo, quickly admitted to Damian that he'd been using his ships to smuggle guns anyway, but would now cut Damian in on the profit. Damian pulled a gun but Fredo easily knocked him down with a lead pipe and was about to smash his skull when Luke came running over and jumped him.

After a brief scuffle, Damian and Luke both seemed to be at the knife wielding Fredo's mercy, when Noah suddenly showed up (man, how does he even have a job? He's always cutting out on his shift at Java after like ten minutes of work!) and picked up the gun.

Noah was perfectly calm as he ordered Fredo to drop the knife. Damian yelled for Noah to give him the gun and Fredo clearly didn't think this college kid would have the balls to shoot him. When Fredo raised the knife in Luke's direction, though, Noah shot him without blinking an eye.

I have to say, Jake Silbermann looked really hot in these scenes. As a rule, guys with guns do nothing for me, but Noah came across as incredibly sexy while he was standing there, gun aimed at Fredo.

Luke was amazed that Noah even knew how to shoot a gun and Noah told him that growing up, the Colonel made him do target practice every Saturday. Luke noted that such a skill would have been useful against Zac & Zoe, but Noah reminded Luke that they never got hold of the gun. Besides, Noah's thighs were a much better weapon!

At that point, Margo randomly strolled up, literally out of nowhere, and asked what was going on. Um, okay. Damian turned over the smuggler, whom Noah had shot through the hand, and they all headed back to the police station.

Lucy was cleared after Fredo made a full confession and she even had a scene where she & Luke were in the same room and actually exchanged words! What a novel concept! Of course, it was just so Lucy could tell Luke, in front of Holden & Lily, that Damian had helped her with the medical supply smuggling operation so that he could show Luke he'd really changed.

Holden, of course, went to confront Damian about putting Luke in danger yet again while Margo warned the guys that the next time they get involved with police business she's either going to lock them up or sign them up. Actually, after seeing him with a gun today, maybe Noah should be a cop! Imagine a uniform to go along with that gun wielding pose! Hot.

The guys headed back to Java, where they promised each other that they were done with life threatening situations and bad guys (paging Colonel Mayer... Colonel Winston Mayer...), and then Damian showed up for a heartfelt moment where Luke told him that he can stop trying to prove he's changed, because Luke believes it now and knows he's left the old Damian behind. Luke capped it off with a big hug and Damian looked pretty touched.

So, now that Damian is a recognized saint, I wonder if Luke & Noah will more or less vanish until Colonel Mayer's return next month? Then again, with the way the stories move on this show, they'd totally have time to slip in one more psycho between then & now.