This is a beautiful love story alright. No doubt about it. We get to watch two characters – two guarded, cautious, reserved characters we’ve come to know – open like flowers just beginning to bloom. The progress was slow and steady, with both of them quietly becoming a bit less guarded, a bit less cautious, and bit less reserved – actually reveling in all they awakened in each other.

Of course a soap is not without angst – that pain of two people in love coming to a painful fork in their road, torn apart, miserable, and hopeless. In fact, it’s a required stop on the way to true Super Coupledom.

And make no mistake about it. That is exactly where John McBain and Evangeline Williamson MUST be headed – no ifs, ands, or buts!

But what else is so great is having the privilege of watching two formidable actors do what they do to bring this story to us. Over the past month, Renee Elise Goldsberry has been incredible. Throughout her performances, Evangeline’s pain has been palpable for each of us, touching us and making us cry right along with her. She so loves John McBain. But the pain of loving him that much and not being able to break through to what’s inside of him hurt so much that she forced herself to walk away. Over this past year, Renee has shown us the strong, defiant, professional dynamo who dared to leap into what never really was a casual relationship with John, to allow her feelings to grow enough for her to keep moving closer, to take a chance that loving this man was an experience that she was destined for – a love that would endure – only to find herself defeated by the wall he put up around his heart. Renee has taken Evangeline from adventurous to deeply in love to supportive to insecure to heartbroken, all with a quiet strength and an inner resolve. That’s quite a range, isn’t it? There’s still more to learn about Evangeline – more to learn about her own demons, her own issues. But even with the missing pieces, she feels like a living, breathing, flesh and blood character. And that’s due to the vibrancy and the sparkle that Renee brings to her portrayal.

And we cannot forget Michael Easton here. His hurt and broken John McBain is heartbreaking to watch. The beautiful Evangeline is his lifeline – his chance (maybe his last chance) to be whole again after so much pain and loss through the years. He has always taken care of the people around him and so the question that begs to be asked is who takes care of him? For almost a year, the answer to that question was Evangeline Williamson. And he thrived, slowly reaching out – trying so hard to find his way out of the box he constructed around himself. Something inside told him that loving this woman was the key and so he held on, embracing their growing connection and working with her to fix each disconnect along the way. Suddenly he wasn’t so dark anymore. Like Nora said, there was a light in his eyes. For maybe the first time in his life, someone had his back. Someone was there to support him. But no matter how much he loved her, he just couldn’t go all the way – no matter how hard he tried. And, eventually, it cost him this amazing woman. Now how does an actor convey all of this with the few words that Michael speaks as John McBain? No, I don’t know, either. I’m just amazed by it. Did you see the tenderness in his eyes when John comforted Evangeline over the loss of her aunt? Did you see the pain in his eyes when Evangeline walked away from John? Did you hear the panic in his voice when John told his brother that he understood how much he’d hurt Evangeline but just didn’t know what to do about it? Did you see the way John practically imploded when he realized that Evangeline had been kidnapped – that she might possibly die? Michael gives us a character so complicated, so conflicted, so nuanced and in so much pain that he can’t even give voice to it. But it’s all there for us to see. So often less looks easy and is overlooked while more makes a splash and gets all the attention. We’ve all heard the expression ‘less is more’, right? Well, nowhere is that more evident than in Michael’s portrayal of John McBain, where less is not only more. It’s often brilliant.

Words on a page are just that. But the magic is in the performance – the delivery of those words, how those words come to life. And with Michael and Renee, we get to watch that magic on our screens day in and day out. And their screen partnership is something to behold. When Renee gave us those heart-wrenching moments during the break-up, she was able to move us so much not only because of her own obvious talent but also because of what Michael gave her as John. When John was torn in half watching Evangeline walk away, it was not only his skill but what Renee gave him as Evangeline that had the tears falling from our eyes, too. When you play tennis, you can hit the ball but you’ve got to hit it to someone who can hit it back with equal power so that you can grow – so that you can do your best. PARTNERSHIP aka TEAMWORK – that’s what it’s all about. And Renee and Michael have grown together and in their characters to become one amazing partnership!

PARTNERSHIP.

That’s what makes the John & Evangeline love story so special – two wonderful characters portrayed by two wonderful actors.

All of which is why I and viewers like me can say – without reservation – that we are…