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Digest Salutes Editors Choice
Soap Opera Digest
February 8, 2005
Springfield Redemption
Guiding Light
Redemption may seem like an odd thematic choice for a wedding. Aren't soap ceremonies all about grand romantic gestures - doves and carriage rides - not quiet moments of forgiveness and acceptance? Yet, redemption lays at the core of Edmund and Cassie's romance, so it is fitting that it would resonate throughout the week of their wedding.
At one end of the spectrum, there's Jonathan, the unscrupulous outsider, who met Cassie in her hotel suite, at her request. What the audience knew and what Jonathan quickly deduced was that this was a setup: Cassie wanted it to appear as if Jonathan was taking advantage of her so Reva could see his true colors. But he turned the tables on Cassie, his cousin's mother and the bride to be, by drugging her wine and the next morning, letter her believe that they'd had sex. "Hey, its not my fault," he taunted. "I don't mind being used. It was for a good cause." A demeaning and cruel move on Jonathan's part and a pretty dumb one by Cassie. Yet, buried in the heart of both their ill-conceived plans were aspects of their true selves: Jonathan's "hit first or be hit" philosophy and Cassie's good intentions.
Of course, the road to perdition, not the altar, is paved with them, so a practically catatonic Cassie, after donning her wedding dress, fled to the park. At this point, we saw the other end of the spectrum: Edmund, a former miscreant who believes that Cassie's love transformed him. Nervous, yet surprisingly calm, as if he had always suspected this day would come, Edmund deduced that he was the reason she had disappeared. "Josh and the others are very quick to assume that Dinah or Jonathan had something to do with Cassie's leaving," sighed Edmund, 'but I think they're forgetting the most obvious reason - me."
After the guests departed, Cassie, fresh from a talk with Jeffrey, appeared and Edmund embraced her with open arms. So, with Jeffrey, a dead ringer for Cassie's ex-husband and Edmund's brother (ah, the irony) officiating, the couple exchanged vows replete with forgiveness and absolution. "Thank you for bringing light into an utterly dark world," said Edmund. "I wanted to be the one person who didn't let you down, who made you feel safe," confessed Cassie. As they were pronounced husband and wife, their friends and family, who had been silently watching around the corner, burst into applause. The choices that these characters made succeeded in getting soap fans, including those in this office, to discuss the issues raised. Is Jonathan now irredeemable? Should Edmund be apportioned blame because his evil deeds led to who Jonathan is today? How culpable is Cassie? GL simply crafted a good story and never told us what we should think or who to root for.
And truly, the wedding was the very definition of romance: What could be more romantic and healing that finding someone who sees you and accepts you for who you are? Redemption, forgiveness, light and dark and feeling safe, these are themes that guide so many of our lives - and what a good soap is all about.
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