| "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" Analysis #4 As if mirroring the chaos within the characters, the storyline in “Surrender” becomes increasingly labyrinthine, many threads, many possible directions, and since Port Charles was cancelled before the possibilities were fully explored, many dead ends. Alison continues to seek a long-lost sibling whose identity is hinted at but never revealed. Ian continues to struggle against his vampire urges, his simian displays of rage as futile as a caged baboon’s. He is imprisoned by his vampirism, Livvie is imprisoned by Tess, Rafe is imprisoned by his obsessions with Caleb and the stalemated battle he and the vampire seem fated to keep waging. Tess, locking Livvie within her, is the maze-keeper, holding the key to the labyrinth. Despite her abundant goodness and purity, Tess wields a rather sinister power, having the ability to see within people’s heart, bring to light the suppressed vulnerabilities, and keep locked away the parts of the self she doesn’t think should surface. Although kind, innocent, and loving, she is in some ways reminiscent of Nurse Ratched, the emasculating, lobotomizing psychiatric nurse in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, for in spite of their marked differences in temperament, both Tess and the controlling head nurse value docility and safety over freedom and expressiveness. Tess, like Nurse Ratched, is a psychic intruder and suppressor, censoring thoughts and feelings she considers dangerous. Ian is an intruder also; he is a trespasser of Caleb’s home. In one of his vampire frenzies, Ian breaks into Caleb’s apartment in search of the water that Lucy has said might relieve his urges. Seeing Elizabeth with one of the bottles of water, he angrily demands that she give it to him. When she hesitates, urging him to promise not to come back for fear that Caleb will kill them both for their “indiscretion,” he issues a murderous warning of his own. “Give me that bottle or I can’t promise what your bloodsucking husband will find tonight,” he growls. Grabbing the bottle and loudly gulping down its contents, he belches, his crude, boorish behavior revealing the hypocrisy of his insults towards Caleb. Both Ian and Caleb are “bloodsuckers,” but at least Caleb shows finesse and refinement when slaking his thirst. “I know that feeling, that hunger that just burns inside you, that tears you to pieces so you can’t feel anything else. I’ve been there,” Elizabeth confides to Ian, but though she shares, to some extent, Ian’s disgust at being a vampire, she still talks lovingly of Stephen’s “gift.” “Stephen” reached out to her, helped her, she gushes, eyes glittering with adoration for her frequently absent husband. Although claiming to want her life back the way it was before she was turned, against her will, into a vampire, she admits that when she’s with Stephen, “nothing else matters.” Anxious to get Ian out of the house before Stephen returns, she gives him some bottles of water and sends him on his way. Unfortunately, however, the supply does little to ease his increasing hunger. Soon, compelled to break into Caleb’s house again in search of something to relieve his urges, Ian ends up sharing another moment of miserable empathy with Elizabeth. Rafe and Alison also invade Caleb’s house. Barging into the apartment when Alison is there visiting her mother, Rafe threatens Elizabeth, grabs Alison, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and carries her back to their home. Though reluctant to have Alison anywhere near Elizabeth or Caleb, Rafe apprehensively agrees to Alison’s surveillance scheme involving Caleb’s apartment. As planned, Alison returns to the apartment while Caleb and Elizabeth are absent and begins planting surveillance cameras so that Rafe, watching on a closed-circuit TV from home, can monitor Caleb, stripping him of his privacy as if he were a prisoner in his own home. Alison hopes that by so doing she will uncover clues linking Caleb to the manipulation of “evidence” suggesting she and Rafe are siblings. In the process she and Rafe also hope to discover secrets they can use to destroy Caleb. Fixated on Tess as a means of attaining Livvie, Caleb is heedless of the home invasions taking place in his absence. Having dressed Tess in Livvie’s bridal gown, he crouches on the floor by the couch, watching her sleep. Trapped within this Sleeping Beauty is the princess he desires, his Olivia. He hopes that by bringing Tess to his Villa and immersing her in its magical fairytale beauty, he can stir Olivia back to consciousness, reawaken her. |
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| Snappies of "Surrender" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |