Nuke Day: Bah, Humbug!

There was no Kish this Christmas, but there was a bit of Nuke. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a heartwarming holiday for the guys.

This year's Christmas episode was the last of its kind on As the World Turns, since the show will be going off the air next September. It focused entirely on the Snyder family, with a voice over narration from veteran cast member Don Hastings, who plays Dr. Bob Hughes.

The Snyder kids were pretty miserable this year, with the three younger kids upset over their parents' 184th divorce from each other and their mother's remarriage to Damian. Luke, meanwhile, was depressed and missing Noah, who was still off learning how to live his life as a blind man at the clinic Luke found for him.

Luke's grandmothers, Lucinda and Emma, teamed up to make the holidays brighter for the kids and to try and reunite Holden and Lily. It turned out that part of that plan included Lucinda sending her jet to pick up Noah so that Luke could spend the holiday with him.

Noah seemed thrilled to be with the Snyders again, with one notable exception: as soon as Luke tried to embrace his boyfriend, Noah took a step back and the smile with which he'd greeted the rest of the clan faded instantly from his face.

Noah later warned Luke not to read too much into the visit: he'd just really missed the idea of Christmas with the Snyders. Luke reminded Noah of how much he loves him and of all they'd overcome before this but Noah said that they'd at least known all of the other obstacles would be overcome eventually, whereas his blindness probably isn't going away.

Still, the two managed to have a nice moment in spite of Noah's attitude, at least until Luke presented Noah with his gift. Luke had put together a box of things that highlighted Noah's other senses: a bag of coffee from Java to represent smell, cookies for taste, a pair of wool socks that Luke wears to bed at night to represent touch, and a mix CD (with their picture on the cover) to represent sound.

Noah, instead of appreciating what Luke was trying to demonstrate to him (i.e. all that he still has going for him), snapped at him, reminding Luke that there are supposed to be five senses and then declaring that he can't live his life like this.

I'm sorry, I'm sure it sucks to suddenly have to deal with being blind, but I'm kind of hating Noah right now. I think it's mostly the writing but also partly the way Jake Silbermann is playing it. I'm just not getting much sense of Noah's pain or despair, but rather just a sense of Noah acting like a jackass towards Luke. Everything he's doing seems to be on the surface, whereas when Luke was paralysed and pushing Noah away, Van Hansis did a really great job of letting the audience see and feel how much Luke was hurting and still wanting to be with the man he loved.

If the show wasn't ending in less than a year, I'd want to see Luke meet someone else, explore another relationship even if Noah turns out to be the man he eventually ends up with. I don't think there's enough time to really do that now, though, so I hope they don't drag Noah's attitude out too much longer.