Goodbye to As The World Turns: The Story of Luke & Noah (Part Four)

This week after 55 years on-air the CBS soap As The World Turns ends and to mark the occasion we’ve commissioned a special feature, written by fan Andy Eldridge, looking at the soaps most popular storyline of recent years; he romance between Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer.

 

 

 

This week after 55 years on-air the CBS soap As The World Turns ends and to mark the occasion we’ve commissioned a special feature, written by fan Andy Eldridge, looking at the soaps most popular storyline of recent years; he romance between Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer. This is the second part of Andy’s look at the story of Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann), dubbed ‘Nuke’ by fans, you can read the first part by clicking here >>

 

Luke’s life started a dangerous downward spiral. He lost the election via his cheating, he got kicked out of school and worst of all, he lost Noah. Just as he had done to ease the pain when he was in the closet, Luke started drinking despite the health issues it presented for his kidneys. At this same time, Brian Wheatley had just married Lucinda shortly after her cancer had returned. Driving home from his wedding — which took place in Lucinda’s own hospital room — Brian picked up a drunken Luke walking alongside the road. After taking Luke home to the farm, Luke painstakingly complained about what a mess his life had become. In Brian’s attempts to comfort Luke, he planted a kiss on him which understandably freaked Luke out. Brian tried to shrug the kiss off by later telling Luke that he grew up in a very affectionate family. But Luke’s suspicions that Brian was in denial about being gay grew over time and they were confirmed when Brian tried to come on to Luke again. Luke kept this secret from everyone except Noah. Even Noah was not sure what Luke should do. Christmas was now approaching and Noah dropped by with gifts for the Snyders one afternoon. He talked with Luke and the boys had a heartfelt conversation about how much they missed each other. The boys went for a walk to Old Town where they reunited in on one of the most romantic scenes they ever had.

Once again, the Christmas season proved to be a happy time for Luke and Noah. They had already made plans to attend a New Year’s Eve party at Metro. And despite Luke’s old insecurities over seeing Maddie and Noah together while she was home for the holidays, the boys still made plans to attend the party with her and Casey. The boys also made long overdue plans to finally sleep together after the party. Once the big night came, drama got in the way of the boys’ romance once again. Maddie’s plans to reunite with Casey fell short and after she was turned down, Noah left the party and took her over to Al’s Diner to console her. Luke, meanwhile, having noticed Noah was gone, naturally came to the worst case scenario and assumed Noah and Maddie left for more romantic purposes. After drowning his sorrows in alcohol once again, he came across Brian in Old Town. In his drunken state, Luke kissed Brian just as Noah was returning to Metro. Thinking Brian had come on to Luke once again, Noah punched him out and took Luke home. There, Luke confessed that it was him, not Brian, who initiated the kiss. A furious Noah stormed off just seconds before the clock struck midnight and the boys were broken up yet again. I was growing used to contrived plots when it came to the boys but even I thought this whole scenario on New Year’s Eve was a little too contrived and ridiculous for the sake of drama. In the back of my head, I assumed that the real reason behind Luke kissing his step-grandfather was just a way for the writers to delay him and Noah finally having sex. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would only have to wait just a couple more weeks.

 

Luke’s cousin Jade eventually spilled the beans about Brian to Lucinda and the truth was finally out in the open. Lucinda was justifiably upset but she and Brian eventually came to an understanding and their marriage ended better than many viewers expected. Meanwhile, Alison, Casey and Jade’s attempts to reunite Luke and Noah failed time and time again. But eventually Luke and Noah met up in Old Town where a screaming match led to, well, I’ll let you watch for yourself.

 

That’s right. After what felt like an eternity of waiting (complete with every kind of interruption known to man) Luke and Noah finally had sex. What we saw on screen was, basically nothing. Many of us did not expect to see much. But the before and after was played about as well and as satisfyingly as you could get from two actors. Once again, Van and Jake perfectly portrayed two young men who were clearly in love despite their characters’ anger and never ending drama. While some folks were understandably upset over what wasn’t shown on screen, many of us were just relieved that the act itself had finally happened. With Luke and Noah back together, they entered a new storyline where they played detective. Luke’s friend from school, Reg, died from a drug overdose. Luke became obsessed with finding the person who sold Reg the drugs. The story as a whole was pretty forgettable basically because viewers had only met Reg twice over the span of one year and they felt no real interest in a plot centered around who sold him the drugs that ended up killing him. The only positive was that the story never revolved around any problems between Luke and Noah. They got to work as a team although Noah had trouble getting through to Luke at times to let the police handle the dirty work. Twists and turns led Luke, Noah, Casey and Alison to eventually figure out that the drug dealer was none other than Mark Vero: Kevin Davis’ old campaign manager.

 

Within time, Luke and Noah decided to get an apartment together. However, when they met with a landlord of a building they were interested in, he was quickly turned off by allowing a gay couple to move in and he told the boys the apartment had already been rented. After hearing about this discrimination, Lily came up with the idea to go public with the issue as a project for Luke’s foundation. Being co-owner of WOAK, she was quickly able to set up an interview with Kim Hughes for ‘Oakdale Now.’ After the interview was televised, the landlord returned and offered Luke and Noah the apartment anyway, telling them that he did not want any trouble. Luke and Noah continued using the foundation to spread the word of gay discrimination. This led to a threatening note being left on Luke’s doorstep. The Snyders took precautions to lay low for a while as soon as a rally at Metro was done. Unfortunately for Luke, halfway through the rally, he was run over by a hit-and-run driver. A stranger came across Luke’s unconscious body on the street. He picked him up and rushed Luke to the hospital. It was later discovered that the stranger was Damian Grimaldi: Luke’s biological father.

 

Part Five will follow tomorrow. You can post your thoughts and comments on the story of Noah and Luke, and your memories of As The World Turns below. However, ATV Today has a strict editorial policy and will WILL NOT publish anything of a homophobic nature.