Luke Day: I Don't Need No Education

Noah wasn't on today's As the World Turns, but Luke was and he made a big decision about his future. The show started with Luke receiving a phone call from his mother, asking that he come home right away: Lucinda was bringing over the Dean of Oakdale University to discuss Luke becoming a student again.

Luke, who was at the Foundation office, said he'd be there, though he was clearly not feeling very enthusiastic about it. He told Damian about the meeting and said that he felt like he'd be taking the place of someone who really wanted to go to college, whereas Luke himself thought of it as more of a chore.

Damian told his son that he shouldn't go back to school just because everyone else wanted him to. Luke wondered what he could do instead, since the Foundation doesn't take up much of his time. Damian brought up the idea of Luke coming to work in the family business, Grimaldi Shipping. Luke told Damian that he'd never really been interested in business, but Damian pointed out how well he'd done with the foundation and then talked about Luke learning the business from the ground up, and about all the world traveling that would be involved. He even said that Noah could go along, too.

Damian mentioned that he'd always dreamed of one day turning the business over to Luke and to Luke's own sons. Luke pointed out that if he did have sons, they wouldn't be from a traditional marriage and Damian said that all he wanted was for Luke to be happy in his personal life and in whatever he chose to do professionally. I'm glad Luke pointed that out about not having a 'traditional' marriage, but I wish he'd also told Damian that his future children may well be daughters who could run a shipping business just as well as anyone else.

Luke agreed to think about all of this and headed to Lily & Holden's to meet with the Dean. As soon as he got there, though, he announced that he didn't want to go back to school, that he'd had a job offer from Grimaldi Shipping that he thought he should take.

After the Dean left, Holden immediately blamed Damian for talking Luke into this idea. Lucinda ripped into Luke for embarrassing them all with the Dean and then noted that he'd be turning himself into a 'sleazy Grimaldi knock off' and warned that Damian's business ventures weren't exactly known for their legality.

Luke told his family that he'd only agreed to go back to school because he didn't want to disappoint them. Holden still felt it was all Damian's fault and wanted to go tell him to stay away from Luke, but Lily stopped him, saying that she'd go herself. Needless to say, their meeting didn't go smoothly. Damian said he was just giving Luke another option and Lily pointed out that Damian's crazy family was involved in the business, too, and hadn't exactly been kind to Luke in the past, noting Zoe as the most recent example.

Lucinda & Holden were left with Luke and both told him that they'd never had the chance to go to college themselves and had to fight for everything they had because of it. Luke told them he wasn't ruling out college altogether, but he wasn't going back right now. He told his father that this wasn't intended to be a rejection of him in favor of Damian.

Before they could argue any further, Lily returned with Damian and announced that she thought Luke had to make his own decision in the matter and that if anyone had been trying to manipulate Luke, it had been the three of them, inviting the Dean over. Huh? Where did that come from? It feels, as it so often does with this show, that a scene or two is missing.

Anyway, Lucinda saw Damian out and warned him that she knows what kind of games he plays. She'll be watching him, and she's been known to play a game or two herself.

Luke followed Damian out and told him that he'd made his decision and wasn't going to change his mind. Damian was thrilled and told Luke not to worry about his parents or Grandmother. They'd see how good this was for him and it would all work out.

Lucinda is one of my favorite characters on this show, and I always love seeing her in confrontational mode. I especially loved her scenes with Luke today, since it's not often she and her Grandson cross swords. Van Hansis and Elizabeth Hubbard play off each other very well and both gave great performances.

If this story sets up more scenes between those two, I'll be very happy. It'll be interesting, too, to see what Noah has to say about all of this.