| "Surrender" : Analysis of the "Surrender" Arc of ABC-TV's Port Charles
(c) Alison Armstrong |
| An analysis of the "Surrender" 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. |
| "Surrender" #1 (cont.) Walking in on their erotic embrace, Lucy looks upon Caleb and Elizabeth with moral indignation and huffily announces that the wedding has been cancelled. “Well, I would hate to waste a perfectly good minister,” Caleb quips. “What are you going to do, Caleb? Are you going to have him for your evening snack?” Lucy bristles. |
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| Snappies of "Surrender" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |
| Calmly, Caleb informs the horrified Lucy that he and Elizabeth are going to make their “commitment to one another official.”
“We’re in love,” Elizabeth explains, a bewitched, predatory look in her eyes. “Stephen’s asked me to marry him.” |
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| “Oh, Elizabeth, you can’t do that!” Lucy exclaims, her voice choked with revulsion and disbelief. “You can’t take your own daughter’s place on her wedding day. Elizabeth, think about what you’re doing. For God’s sake, you’ve gone too far. You cannot become the monster he is. Don’t do it!” Turning to the minister, she pleads, “Listen to me. You can’t marry these creatures! It would be blasphemy.”
“Ignore her, Padre,” Caleb softly commands. “They are vampires!” Lucy shrieks, no longer able to control her hysteria. “I know it is very hard to believe, but they are vampires, and I should know. You cannot do this!” “You don’t have a problem marrying vampires, do you?” Caleb asks, addressing the minister, their eyes locking. |
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| Lucy’s hysterical, prejudicial rants against vampires are similar in tone to the Moral Majority’s diatribes against homosexuals. Although Lucy is not depicted as being prejudiced towards gays or people of other ethnic groups, she is violently hostile towards vampires. Her anti-vampire attitudes, in part, are understandable, for Caleb has tried to kill her and others in Port Charles; however, since his return in “Naked Eyes,” Caleb has forsaken his murderous ways and is trying to nonviolently coexist amongst mortals. He, his band of vampires, and Elizabeth are living in most respects as humans; therefore, Lucy’s comments about vampires being monsters are unjustified. Consumed by hatred towards vampires and believing it her duty as a Slayer to eliminate them, she refuses to see that vampires, like everyone else, should have rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as long as they are not harming others. Lucy’s horror at the idea of vampires being married in church (or even entering a church), likewise, stems from her prejudicial belief that vampires are evil, demonic beings whose unholy presence offends God, a holdover from ancient folklore and traditional vampire movies in which vampires flee in terror from Christian symbols. Caleb, however, defies these stereotypical constraints and, thanks to his Father Michael alter-ego, is at home in a church as he is anywhere else. The Father Michael aspect, though suppressed and repudiated by Caleb, is still a banished fragment of Caleb’s psyche, an exile secretly hungering for unattainable spiritual nourishment. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together before God and man,” the minister, under Caleb’s spell, intones as he begins the traditional wedding ceremony for a very untraditional bride and groom. |