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Monday, January 9, 2012

OLTL: The Prisoners' Escape

The penultimate week of One Life to Live focused on a prison escape. After leaving Statesville due to a temporary blackout they had engineered, the former Llanview residents visited with the objects of their affections or rather their obsessions.

Mitch (Roscoe Born) went to Llanfair to find his daughter Jessica (Bree Williamson). Instead he found Natalie (Melissa Archer) and Clint (Jerry verDorn). Mitch went after Clint knocking him out with a gun and kidnapped Natalie bringing her to a church. John (Michael Easton) showed up and found out the awful news, and Viki (Erika Slezak) came down to find out what was going on with her family. Mitch wanted to trade Natalie for Jessica, and eventually they all agreed to let Jessica go to Mitch. John and Jessica reached the church wanting to try and reason with Mitch. Obviously this wouldn’t work meanwhile Ford (David A. Gregory) came to Llanfair. Ford was horrified and finding out where Jessica was he ran to help. When he got to the church, he fought with Mitch and Mitch’s gun discharged. A chandelier fell on Ford, and the stand off between John and Mitch continued as they both had weapons. The girls tried to help Ford, and eventually John was able to call an ambulance. Mitch had enough of his “daughter”, especially after she spat at him and defied him. After Ford and Jessica were gone, Mitch still was holding a gun on Natalie. He dared John to shoot him, and John did. Once Mitch went down on the ground from a bullet, Natalie and John showed their feelings for one another and passionately kissed.

Mitch being a cult leader had a former disciple named Allison (Barbara Garrick) who also went to Llanfair. While the standoff with Mitch was happening, she had one of her own. Allison held a gun on Viki and Clint. Thinking they were going to be killed, Clint and Viki held hands and shared “I love you”. Allison had another idea and shot a vase instead. She was there to share the news that Jessica was never Mitch’s daughter, but always Clint’s after all. Viki and Clint were skeptical at first, but eventually Viki believed it. This would not be the first time there was tampering at Llanview hospital. Instead of being able to rejoice at that information, they had to deal with Allison. More than once Clint tried to reach a phone, but could not call for help. On her way out, Allison shot Viki. Then she quoted the Elvis Costello song Allison (her aim is true) and left the living room dancing. Clint tried to call for help, but he went into cardiac arrest. The week at Llanfair ended with Viki and Clint lying next to one another near death.

At La Boulaie, Starr (Kristen Alderson) was dealing with the return of her first love Cole (Van Hughes). He had escaped to see their daughter Hope. While in prison, he also got the wonderful news that his mother was getting better emotionally after she found out his father was actually alive. Cole planned to find out how to join his parents who were living life on the run. James (Nic Robuck) found out about the escapees and rushed back to check up on Starr. She lied to James and the police about him being on the property. Little Sam (Patrick Gibbons Jr.) even helped Starr and Cole, by being in on the lie too. Then Hannah (Meghann Fahey) came to the house looking for Cole too. She was obsessed with him and took Sam hostage. Todd (Roger Howarth) came in as she was holding his nephew. He tried to convince her to stop, but to no avail. To keep Starr safe, when Hannah aimed her gun, Cole stood in the way. He would have even left with her to keep his family out of harm. He was shot and brought to the hospital in extremely critical condition. Blair (Kassie DePaiva) missed most of the action, but was there to go to the hospital, and comfort her daughter. James saw his brother being brought in and went to his side. Starr sang her “One Life to Live” song, and that played as a montage throughout all the scenes the last act.

Nora (Hillary Bailey Smith) and Bo (Robert S. Woods) also had to deal with two escaped prisoners from Statesville. Nora’s former love Dr. Troy McIver (Ty Treadway) came to her home with Bo and kidnapped her. He took her to a cabin that he had planned to use years earlier to live with her and Matthew. Lindsay (Cat Hickland) escaped to help Bo find Nora. She had run into Troy in the prison library and knew he was up to something. At first, Bo was skeptical of why Lindsay was there, but eventually came to trust her. They raced up to the cabin together, so Troy wasn’t able to inject Nora with a drug that would erase years of her memory. There was an earlier story where Lindsay did that to Nora. Lindsay lied to Nora and Troy telling them that Bo was dead. Bo took advantage of that, and rushed Troy from behind. A gunshot was heard, but they were able to disarm Troy. With Nora and Bo’s blessing, Lindsay took one of the cars and went down the mountain. Nora and Lindsay made peace with one another after all this time. It was ambiguous whether or not Lindsay went to the police for help. After Lindsay left, Nora discovered that Bo had been shot. She freaked out especially after realizing the only hope Bo had to live was if she untied Troy to save him.

One Life to Live was action packed and insane last week. I was surprised by the raw power and passion it had. Though it was violent, the main undercurrent was love. The principle characters that were not escapees were motivated by their feelings for their family and love interests. It wasn’t about staying alive, but keeping the ones they love safe.

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