| "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" #8 (cont.) Although Joshua insists that the police prosecute Rafe for ruining Stephen Clay’s important concert, Ian cynically yet perceptively points out the attention and exposure Rafe’s behavior has given the group. Claiming that the band “got more publicity from this than from that horrible music,” Ian seems to realize that in our media-drenched society, controversy can often help generate sales of recordings or other forms of art. Ironically, by announcing that rock star Stephen Clay is a vampire, Rafe has further enhanced the star’s mystique, making Stephen seem even more alluringly eccentric. Perhaps realizing the stupidity of his tactics, Rafe reluctantly concedes that he might have been mistaken about Stephen’s vampire identity. “We all make mistakes, right?” he admits in a lame, insincere excuse for his behavior. “We are human, aren’t we? Both of us, Mr. Clay?” Instead of answering Rafe’s question, Stephen responds by telling the police to let Rafe go and warning Rafe to keep away. Despite Stephen’s expressed desire to resume the concert and keep it going “until dawn,” the police announce that they will have to shut it down. With a disappointed expression, Stephen watches the policemen leave, but as soon as they are gone, he smirks, seemingly pleased with the outcome of the day’s events. It is as if he had foreseen what Rafe would do and almost everything else that took place. As a result of Rafe’s foolishness, the Stephen Clay Experience has gained even more fame and sales-generating notoriety. Stephen’s “ruined” concert was a success and Stephen’s revelation created even more mystery. As Rafe himself later admits to Lucy, he walked right into Caleb’s trap, doing just what Caleb wanted. After the aborted concert, the Port Charles characters struggle to understand the implications and consequences of Stephen Clay’s presence in their lives. As in “Tainted Love” and “Tempted,” relationships are again being slowly torn apart by a seductive outsider weaving a web of secrets and temptations. Stephen has already begun worming his way between Jack and Tess, and even though Jack manages to snatch Tess from out of Stephen’s clutches at the concert, bringing her home to safety before the performance ends, the image of Stephen’s hand reaching out towards Tess still fills Jack with terror. Once again, Caleb threatens to steal away his beloved. Inside their house, Jack locks all the windows and doors and tells her the music she liked, as well as its performer, Stephen Clay, is “very bad.” When he warns Tess that the man calling himself Stephen “hurt a lot of people” and will harm her too, she replies that Stephen is “nice.” To his horror, she then informs Jack that Stephen had offered her a ride before Jack arrived. Explaining that Stephen is “dangerous” and she “should never go near him again,” Jack tells Tess that he worried he’d never see her again. They proclaim their love, sharing a kiss tinged with foreboding. When they hear a knock on the door, fearing the worst, Jack orders Tess to hide. The visitor turns out to be Ian. Even before Ian gives Jack the test results, they both sense an eerie tie between Tess and the man the world knows as Stephen Clay but they know as Caleb. Stephen/Caleb “seemed to have a very special connection to Tess,” Ian observes, and Jack agrees, telling Ian that Stephen tried to give Tess a ride home a few days earlier. After Ian discloses the DNA results and Jack learns that Tess has no DNA, might not even be human, a connection between Tess and Caleb seems even more frightening. Tess, the innocent, the pure, is also the alien, the uncanny. As she waits inside the house while the two men discuss her DNA results, she hums her tuneless, ghostly version of Stephen’s song, the lonely wail of a feral soul. Stephen also spreads dissension between Alison, her mother, and Rafe. Angry at Rafe for ruining her rock star boyfriend’s concert, Elizabeth refers to Rafe as a “psycho” and sarcastically asks Alison whether werewolves or zombies are next on Rafe’s agenda to uproot and destroy. Although her comments are rather witty, highlighting the apparent absurdity of Rafe’s Slayer mentality, they contain an ironic truth, for neither she nor anyone else in Port Charles suspects that a werewolf will actually appear in town during a subsequent arc (“The Gift”). Alison, in contrast, believes in Rafe and knows that vampires such as Caleb do exist; however, even she seems to somewhat doubt Rafe’s instincts, confiding to Rafe later that Stephen might actually just be a harmless Caleb lookalike. She seems torn between her lover, whom she adores with unwavering intensity, and her mother, whom she struggles to understand. Even though she is not very fond of Elizabeth, she does feel the beginnings of a connection with her, the mother she never knew, and wants to protect her from a dangerous lover. Thus, with a mixture of concern and revulsion, she uncomfortably inquires whether Stephen ever bit her mother during lovemaking. Responding to this question by rolling her eyes in disdain and disbelief, Elizabeth, like a schoolgirl in detention, impatiently waits to get away from the lecturing and have some fun again. Of all the Port Charles residents, Livvie experiences the most anguished, conflicted emotions regarding Caleb’s return. She, his murderer and blood-bound bride, can never shed his poisonous influence, can never again be the person she was before he came into her life. Transformed beyond redemption, she will always carry within her his soul-scorching thirst. Try as she might to run away from him, to flee the concert and leave town, she knows that he will always be waiting for her in the aching hollows of her heart. As in “Tempted,” her desire has given him rebirth. Though she gets in her car and starts driving out of Port Charles, a part of herself still calls to him. He hears the summons she thinks she has suppressed, and on the slithering highways of restless journeys he comes to her. |
 |
| Snappies of "Naked Eyes" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |