Contrast is a word that comes to mind – the contrast between the fulfilled and upbeat couple we saw at the beginning and the brokenhearted twosome we saw once the smoke cleared.

Evangeline pops up from around the corner at the LPD, carrying a small brown paper bag in her hand. During her busy day, she stopped to figure that John probably hadn’t eaten breakfast and so she brought it to him at the station. He thanked her for having his back. She told him that she always would because she loved him. He got that look on his face at the word – that guilty look that only Johnny Mac can get – and she smiled. She told him that he could wait until he was ready to say it to her but that she could say it to him whenever she wanted to. Sigh…

But didn’t you just know that the kiss they shared afterward – that brief, sweet, yet intense kiss - would be the last one for awhile?

Just a short time later, crestfallen after overhearing that girl insist to Michael that John told her that he loved her, Evangeline collected herself and then marched back over to John’s office. She closed the door in that girl’s face and, with fire in her eyes, announced to a surprised John that they needed to talk.

Couldn’t you just feel the emotion? Couldn’t you just feel the ache in your heart? Didn’t you just want to shout at your television set, “No! Don’t do it! You can work this out! He loves you already, Evangeline! You know that! You love her already, John! Tell her, for crying out loud! Don’t give up!” I’m telling you. These two ripped my heart out as well. Shoot, I haven’t been this down about a break-up since…Well, you get the idea.

The names have become familiar to us by now, courtesy of repeated viewings of key John and Evangeline episodes of One Life to Live. Danielle Faraldo, Barbara Esensten and James Harmon Brown, Frank Valentini – director, writers, executive producer. When all of these components come together as they did this past week, the results have the potential to inspire absolute awe.

And enough cannot be said about the acting component – about Michael and Renee – the component that makes all the difference, turning potential awe into completely realized brilliance. This one whole – this amazing screen partnership – is comprised of two glorious halves, each more than able to mesmerize on their own. But when they come together on our television screens, the power they wield increases exponentially. They get under our skins. They get inside of us. They make us feel. The command of their craft is evident. So is the trust between them. And isn’t that what the best partnerships are made of? It really doesn’t get any better. Really. Simply breathtaking!

And poor John and Evangeline! They’ve come so far since that first handshake in Angel Square. No matter how they tried to put on the brakes, they fell for each other and fell hard. Now this. What’s to become of them? How will they go on from here? How can they live their lives apart after becoming so connected? How can they possibly go back to the emptiness they felt before they found each other? Sniff, sniff…

Okay now, let’s get something straight, she said. We all love Michael and Renee. But as real as they are – as talented as they are – they are still actors doing a job – no matter how wonderfully they do it (and they certainly are wonderful). John McBain is the product of a few fertile minds at OLTL. So is Evangeline Williamson. The town they live in – Llanview, Pennsylvania – is also fictional, as are the Llanview Police Department, Carlota’s Diner, Rodi’s, the Palace Restaurant, Angel Square, and Apartment 35H. The words they said to each other this past week? Written by a team of writers, most notably in those pivotal episodes by Barbara Esensten, James Harmon Brown, and John Loprieno – two experienced and gifted writers and one who is coming into his own as well. Their scenes were sensitively directed by Danielle Faraldo, a director who has given us many, many wonderful John and Evangeline moments over the past year or so. And the entire package is skillfully managed by Frank Valentini, a man of vision who, when the time came, was savvy enough to (a) let the world know how much he wanted to bring the phenomenal Michael Easton to OLTL a year and a half ago, and (b) recognize and fully appreciate the gem he had in the equally incredible Renee Elise Goldsberry, bringing her to OLTL as well. None of what we watched this week was real. It’s all fiction. I know this. We all know this.

So how come I still can’t stop crying?