| "Tempted": Allure and Menace in Port Charles' "Tempted,"An Analysis (c) by Alison Armstrong |
| An analysis of the "Tempted" episodes of the show "Port Charles," formerly of ABC-TV. This site will focus on the scenes featuring the vampire character Caleb Morley (portrayed by actor Michael Easton). The character of Caleb Morley and any other characters relating to Port Charles are the property of ABC and their creators. This is a fan-run site and is not an official site, nor is it affiliated in any way with ABC, Port Charles, or the actors portraying any of the Port Charles characters. No copyright infringement is intended. The writings on this site are copyrighted by the author, Alison Armstrong, and may not be reproduced without the author's express permission. |
| "Tempted" Episodes 43-44 (cont.) “Oh, Sweetheart, you know I can never really hold you against your will,” he responds, again emphasizing her complicity in his schemes. “I love you. And when you choose to be with me, it’s going to be just that, your choice. But until then, go and do whatever it is you have to do.” A guilt-trip master, he tries to pass himself off as a martyr, sacrificing his happiness for her sake. It is her decision, her free will, he persuades, and he, as doting lover, will do whatever she wishes. Livvie, however, is not fooled by his claim of self-sacrificing devotion. “You don’t ever give in that easily, Caleb,” she points out. “What are you doing?” “Perhaps you’ll find out a few things, learn a few things about your friends and so-called loved ones,” he suggests. “There’s nothing to learn,” she argues. “I know them. And they DO love me and care about me, the real me.” “Are you sure about that?” he asks. “More sure than I am of anything,” she states firmly. “Ok, then,” Caleb agrees, lying down on the bed of pillows. “Tell them everything. Let’s see what happens.” He then proceeds to plunge Livvie into a nightmare in which everyone she loves and trusts turns against her, leaving her alone to face her worst fears—abandonment and insanity. Caleb’s power to induce nightmares, like Rafe’s power to send dreams, gives him the shamanic ability to shape reality by entering one’s consciousness and creating a visionary landscape so psychologically convincing that its residue alters one’s response to “real-life” situations. Both Caleb and Rafe infiltrate the imagination and thereby modify the dreamer’s behavior. But whereas Rafe’s effects were minimal and short-lasting, Caleb’s effects ultimately change the future of Port Charles, for Livvie, like Scrooge in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, is transformed by nightmare visitations and, as a result, causes ripple effects involving almost everyone she knows. As her nightmare begins, Livvie is at the Lighthouse mulling over her plan to tell everyone that Caleb is back. When she opens the door, preparing to leave, she encounters Lucy, dressed in a vampy, Elvira-like costume. Lucy explains that she’s on her way to a masquerade party and wanted to stop by to see how Livvie was doing. Without wasting any time on small talk, Livvie announces that Caleb is back from the dead and “crazier than ever,” obsessed with plans to destroy all those who conspired against him. When Lucy asks if this is some “horrible dream” Livvie’s having, Livvie insists that she is “positive” that Caleb is back and his evil is causing people to act strangely. Claiming that she must warn everyone, Livvie accompanies Lucy to the masquerade party at the Recovery Room. As Livvie arrives at the party, she sees all of her friends and loved ones in costume, disguises which may reveal aspects of the people she thought she knew so well. The women—Lucy, Eve, Alison, Gabby, and Valerie—are dressed as vamps/seductresses, each expressing a slightly different facet of the femme fatale archetype. Lucy is a manic enchantress, who, like the horror film hostess Elvira, is giddily flirtatious. Eve is a sultry yet embittered spider woman, angry at Ian and the misery she believes he has caused her. She speaks in a hard-edged tone of voice, as if disillusioned with love and life. Alison is a sweetly alluring Medusa with serpentine tendrils of hair; Gabby is a punk goth huntress who seems to mourn her vampire past, and Valerie is a Bride of Frankenstein enigma, vacant, sneaky, and barely known or tolerated by anyone there. |
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| The men show a bit more diversity in their costume choices. Victor appears as a comically ghoulish buffoon, while Jamal takes on the guise of a zombie, perhaps symbolically representing his apparent lack of autonomy, the way he seems to be controlled by outside forces. Whereas bad boy Chris and good-guy pseudo-rebel Jack are both in punkish garb, Chris, seated by Gabby, is more of a cynic and a “goth,” whereas Jack is dressed somewhat as a biker hoodlum. Kevin, standing next to Eve, appears as a Napoleonic soldier, a heroic French lieutenant coming to the rescue of the helpless and distressed. Ian, in contrast, is dressed as a pirate, an abductor of women and other people’s property, assuming the role cast upon him by a suspicious Kevin and a distrustful Eve. Rafe, as a reluctant participant in the masquerade, dons no elaborate costume. Instead, he wears a skull-faced sweater, symbolizing perhaps his status as dead man and wing-clipped angel. He is there to advise Livvie, functioning as a voice of conscience which is overpowered by the paranoia that eventually engulfs her. |
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| Snappies of "Tempted" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |