Editors Choice -- SOD 10/12/04
Hello Again, Guiding Light
This was a moment six years in the making. When a dark-haired Dinah slipped out of Springfield after killing her beloved Hart, leaving a grieving Cassie to re-assemble her shattered life, we knew the fugitive would one day return. There was too much history there, too many unexplored questions to leave this plot dangling. Fortunately, the creative minds of GL recognized this treasure trove and did what we have wanted them to do all along - let the past drive the shows future.
After weeks of lurking and making surprise visits to the farm where Hart was killed (and Cassie and Edmund now live), Dinah and Cassie finally came face-to-face, Cassie, caught in the barn fire, pleaded for help and, in that delicious soap twist, it was Dinah who came to the rescue. (Ironically, Dinah didn't even start the fire.) Shock and disbelief would have to wait since RJ - Cassie's son by Hart - was trapped. Dinah refused to free Cassie from the fallen beam, but did risk her life to save RJ. 'He looks so much like Hart," Dinah said, almost transfixed by the little boy, the quickly became offended when Cassie implied that saving a child was an uncharacteristic move for her. Obviously conflicted, Dinah left Cassie in the burning building, but informed Edmund of her whereabouts. Cassie was saved & and Dinah was arrested for Hart's murder.
At the police station, Dinah taunted Jeffrey and Edmund with the secrets she harbored, then squared off with Cassie. Although new to the role, Gina Tognoni has a firm handle on Dinah's complexities and contradictions, letting herself become saturated with Dinah's loneliness and grief. "The only reason why I took on your life was because mine was lost to me. After Hart died, I had nothing." Dinah admitted after Cassie deduced that her nemesis had been her impersonator, Princess Cassie. Laura Wright shone with her new sparring partner, conveying both Cassie's razor-sharp anger and the budding fear that she would have to relive that horrible era. "You're the same person," Cassie hissed. "You wouldn't know how to change."
And that sentiment is the core of this story. Is Dinah capable of redemption? If Dinah can't change, then what does that say about Cassie and Edmund, and Ross and Blake, all of whom had to overcome sordid pasts? Has Dinah already suffered for her crimes or has the punishment yet to be doled out?
The answer to these questions are leading characters into collision courses. Obviously, Cassie, Edmund and Jeffrey have much to lose, but so do others, like Ross and Blake. Ross, wracked with guilt over his relationship with his daughter, Dinah, desperately wants a clean slate. His wife, Blake, wants justice for her brother's murder. This story has potential to showcase Ross and Blake in ways we havent seen in years.
These overlapping, emotionally charged connections are what make this story so stellar. Dinah's fate, both actual and philosophical, will deeply impact a dozen or so characters: Dinah - and Hart's - roots run deep. We're happy to say that mining the past makes GL a great place to be today.
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