| "Naked Eyes" : Analysis of the "Naked Eyes" Arc of ABC-TV's Port Charles (c) Alison Armstrong |
| An analysis of the "Naked Eyes" episodes of the show Port Charles, formerly of ABC-TV. This site will focus on the scenes featuring the vampire character Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay (portrayed by actor Michael Easton). The character of Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay 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. |
| "Naked Eyes" #1 (cont.) As the first episode featuring Caleb’s return begins, we see Livvie once again miserable and alone. She has lost her baby, her hope for a family, and Jack’s love. Friendless, loveless, and desolate, she will soon encounter a banished portion of herself and a lover she could not destroy. Having discovered Livvie in the woods after she miscarried her baby, Jack persuades her to let him take her to the hospital by pretending that he still cares for her. However, once she is recovering in her hospital bed, he rebuffs her clinging, guilt-tripping attempts to get back together with him. Filled with anger and desperation over Jack's rejection, Livvie seeks a scapegoat she can blame and punish for her misfortunes. But intermingled with her fury is a cold dread, a feeling of approaching death. Soon after she first experiences the chill, she encounters her double, the innocent, waifish Tess, and realizes that Tess is the reason for her sense of foreboding. Livvie and Tess come face to face, polar opposites magnetically drawn towards each other, and when Tess’s fingers are on the verge of touching Livvie’s, each twin recoils as if stricken by a bolt of lightning. Appearing so soon after Livvie’s miscarriage, Tess is perceived as an agent of retribution. Livvie is terrified of this eerie mirror-image being, who, clutching a rag doll, and staring at Livvie with the wild, uncanny, child-like eyes of a changeling, sends chills through Livvie’s empty womb. Onto Tess, Livvie heaps her fear, sorrow, hatred, and jealousy. Tess is her nemesis, yet Tess is also the scapegoat Livvie has been unconsciously seeking, the mysterious, misbegotten look-alike she holds responsible for all her woes. The doppelganger theme, represented by Tess and Livvie, also pervades the story of Stephen Clay/Caleb. Assuming the persona of rock star Stephen Clay allows Caleb to have the lifestyle many people dream they could experience—with all the money, fame, sexual partners, and hedonistic pleasures one could imagine. Rock stars have become our secular gods, mimicking some of the behaviors associated with pagan deities such as Dionysus. The rock stars of our fantasies lead a life of excess, abandon, and unbridled sensuality, and even when they die, they live on through music and myth. They are immortals, vampires, in a sense, subsisting off our energy, adulation, desire, and dreams. Yet, like vampires, they do not only take and use; they also give, feeding off our passion and intensifying it, transforming it. In the process they can create something that seems to express our deepest, most inarticulate emotions and needs. Although great artists, writers, and musicians of all genres express the hungers and horrors within our soul, rock musicians often evoke these feelings more viscerally and induce more frenzied, primal responses in their audience. Thus, it is fitting that renowned author Anne Rice had her charismatic vampire protagonist Lestat assume the role of a rock star when he decided to flaunt his presence to the world. Although Port Charles has been criticized for supposedly copying Anne Rice’s plot device by having the vampire Caleb/Stephen Clay become a rock star, the series is merely emphasizing the strong parallels between rock stars and vampires that Rice, like some of the rest of us, have also observed. Port Charles, in choosing this guise for the vampire Caleb/Stephen Clay, reaffirms and further illuminates the connection between the seductive, flamboyant, intoxicating life of the rock star and the alluring, decadent, addicting existence of the vampire. |
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| Caleb adds mystery to his “Stephen Clay” persona by cloaking his alternate identity, as well as his real one, in a veil of secrecy. His mask is within another mask, the mask of invisibility. No one except his band members, his manager, and perhaps a few other close associates have allegedly seen the reclusive musician known as Stephen Clay. He is widely known for his darkly entrancing music, but he is virtually unknown as an individual. He has the best of both worlds—the fame and riches of a star, as well as the privacy of an ordinary person. However, it seems that he craves something more and thus finds himself hesitantly stirring towards the limelight. All he needs is a fellow muse, someone who can help him express what lies buried within and give him the impetus to show himself to his audience. He finds his muse in the young songwriter Marissa. Marissa, like Tess and, to some extent, Stephen Clay, is a double. She has a twin sister, Casey, who died, became an angel, and after performing her assigned tasks back on earth, returned to heaven. The song Marissa writes which moves the soul of Stephen Clay is about her twin sister. When Stephen hears a demo of her song, he arranges a meeting between Marissa and his manager, Joshua, who subsequently convinces her to write lyrics for Stephen Clay and his band. Having Marissa be the muse and catalyst for Stephen Clay’s first live performances, however, is, in my opinion, one of the very few weaknesses of this arc. Marissa is a rather dull, sketchily defined character, lacks a strong connection to most of the central characters, and is eventually written out of the show, replaced by her flashier angel counterpart, Casey. She is not important or interesting enough to have a significant part in the unfolding of Stephen Clay’s artistic career. Nevertheless, in the story, as portrayed on Port Charles, she plays a pivotal role in Stephen Clay’s emergence as a performer. |
| Snappies of "Naked Eyes" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |