| "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" #9 (cont.) “No,” she whines. “I am not going to let you get inside my head again and twist me inside out. You did enough damage. You tried to turn me into one of you. And then you almost convinced me that it would make me happy. The day I married you was the worst day of my life. That’s when everything started to fall apart.” “We were married?” he replies, feigning bewilderment at her tale of twisting, turning, personality-bending manipulation and matrimony. “Oh, stop it!” she snaps. “Of course we were married. You wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed to it. That’s the reason I was forced to do the only thing I could so you would leave me alone.” “You divorced me?” he comments with a deadpan expression. |
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| “Caleb, I drove a stake straight through your heart,” she exclaims in a shrill voice, frustrated by his comedic responses to her anguished confession. “I don’t understand how you are standing in front of me right here, right now.”
“Wow,” he sighs. “I stand up on that stage and to think you have the pick of any girl out there, what it would be like to be that desirable.” His words, apparently meant to be sarcastic, are tangled yet seem to express the paradox of being so “desirable” that a woman would fantasize about marrying and then killing him. He, as a rock star, is desired and adored by countless women. He can have almost any woman he wants, yet with his desirability, he becomes an object of erotic obsession. Although he has his “pick” of women, they in a sense have their “pick” of him; they are his prey, and he is theirs. They crave him, fantasize about him, and some, losing touch with reality, may stalk him, living out their fantasies of possessing him. His sexual allure gives him power yet also vulnerability. Inciting his fans’ hunger for him, he risks becoming, in a sense, devoured by them, torn apart by the maenads he arouses with his Dionysian enticements. “Don’t you dare mock me!” Livvie snarls, infuriated by his smug attitude towards her tragic tale, the insinuation that she is some delusional groupie. “I’m not mocking you,” he says in a more sympathetic tone and closes the hood of the car. “Actually, in a strange way it’s kind of romantic, isn’t it?” “Caleb, you were a nightmare,” she complains, her anger tinged with sadness as she recalls their tumultuous past. “I suppose I should be insulted by all this, but it’s not me you’re talking about,” he lies. “I’m not this Caleb that you and all your friends think I am.” “It’s you. I know your eyes. I wouldn’t forget them if I lived to be a thousand,” she murmurs, her voice and expression becoming tender, inadvertently opening herself up to him, revealing the love she cannot keep smothered inside. |
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| Snappies of "Naked Eyes" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |
| He, however, remains closed to her, keeping his persona intact by denying his deepest urgings. “Obviously I look like him, but sorry,” he says bluntly, as if putting their quarrel to rest. But when she reiterates that she doesn’t believe him, he attempts to explain his resemblance by saying that he, like everyone else, must have a doppelganger, an identical twin. “I saw yours tonight at that concert, and that was pretty amazing,” he remarks, using Livvie’s fears about Tess to give his argument more emotional impact.
“No, she is not my twin,” Livvie insists, horrified at any suggestion that she and her eerie double might somehow be related. |