I’m sure that many of you out there are feeling pretty betrayed right now, aren’t you? Watching a John McBain who seems like a complete stranger and not at all the man we’ve spent the past nearly two years watching on One Life to Live. His current actions seem so completely out of character – as if he’s a new character and the one we’ve watched for so long has vanished into thin air.

I feel you. So many times this past week I found myself watching a OLTL that looked and felt totally unrelated to the one I came back from my former daily OLTL-induced afternoon nap to view – the one that pulled me back with Michael Easton and Renee Elise Goldsberry as John and Evangeline - The Love Story.

Now they’ll have us believe that all through his ups and downs with Natalie and her dubious and often vile and reprehensible character, he just can’t do without her - that this man who fought so hard not to feel before learning to feel again with Evangeline Williamson can beg not to lose that nearly year-long relationship one minute and then leap headlong into this one without so much as a backward glance or moment of reflection the next? Now we’re seeing a John McBain who, while formerly too moral to actually become intimate or begin a relationship with a woman knowing that her husband is alive and well and knowing that she herself does not know it, is only too willing to throw that morality to the wind just to be with her? Yeah. Right.

Can you say ‘testing-1-2-3’? We’re being tested, folks – severely and harshly tested. In force-feeding us this non-triangle with John, Evangeline, and Natalie, OLTL has taken the calculated risk of alienating us with the complete turns our favorite characters are taking. In their best damn-the-torpedoes, full-speed-ahead, they’re carving out chunks of the characters that so many of us came back to OLTL to watch, just to service this triangle. Maybe they’re counting on so outraging John and Evangeline supporters that they’ll turn against John for Evangeline, leaving the door wide open for the new and amoral John McBain and his girlfriend, the always amoral Natalie Buchanan (can’t call her Natalie Vega anymore – especially since she can’t seem to remember that Cristian was ever in her life or ever meant enough to her that she’d remember him as her life flashed before her while in that pit).

You do remember the love story that actually made sense, don’t you – the one that was true to the characters of John and Evangeline, the one that didn’t require John McBain to become a completely different man to make it work? You’re really longing for that love story right now, aren’t you? Well, let’s not forget that many actually asked for John and Evangeline to split because John wasn’t treating her right and she was weak for taking it. Many actually asked for – demanded - Evangeline be spun away from John. Well, don’t look now, folks. They got their wish. Be careful what you wish for, huh? You bet 'cause this is the result.

So the damage has been done. Everyone in Llanview talks about John and Evangeline as if they’ve been apart forever instead for just a couple of months in real time and even less in Llanview time after a relationship that grew slowly and steadily for a solid year in both real and Llanview time. The only way to undo this one is for Dena Higley to have Evangeline having dreamed it all, waking up in a cold sweat as John emerges from the shower.

But that still doesn’t mean we have to sit back and take it. If you have something to say to Ms. Higley, Mr. Valentini, and Mr. Frons about this, now is the time to say it – however you have to say it. Some of you never watched OLTL before John and Evangeline came together. Some of you (like me) stopped watching years ago and only came back because of John and Evangeline. Some of you came to OLTL with Michael Easton, waiting patiently for his character to be paired with another character who would bring him to life. Some of you have been with OLTL for years now but found yourself reeled in by the maturity, the intelligence, the vibrancy, the sparkle and promise brought to the show by John and Evangeline. Well, if you want back what they seem to be trying to take from you, remember one thing as you endure what’s currently on your TV screen – it’s the writing. Repeat it to yourself over and over – ‘it’s the writing’, ‘it’s the writing’, ‘it’s the writing’. Try repeating this one to yourself immediately afterward. ‘They’re testing us’, ‘they’re testing us’, ‘they’re testing us’.

All John and Evangeline fans are being tested right now.

And if you just suck your teeth, turn away, and turn off your television sets in disgust, you’ll do two things. First, you’ll let the powers that be jerk another much loved storyline away from you without so much as a word of protest. Secondly, you’ll send a message that the hard work and tender loving care that Michael and Renee put into the story of John and Evangeline isn’t appreciated because you’re willing to just lie down and accept what’s being done to it by the current revisionist and inconsistent writing.

Take a look at OLTL, Home of Geometric Shapes of Every Description. Blair and Todd? Add Margaret and you’ve got a triangle. Don’t want to add Margaret because she’s a nut job? Well then, just add Spencer and you’ve got a triangle. Add Spencer and Margaret and you’ve got a quadrangle (gee, where have I heard that one before). Duke and Adriana? Add Rex and you’ve got a triangle. Of course don’t forget Jen and Riley. When you added Rex to that one, you got a triangle. Michael McBain and Marcie? Add Hugh Hughes and you’ve got a triangle. Had you added Natalie to Michael and Marcie just a few weeks ago, you would have had an even sicker triangle. Wait! Add Natalie to Michael, Marcie, and Hugh and voila! Quadrangle! Jessica and Antonio? Add Tess and you’ve got something of a triangle. If you’re reluctant to add Jessica and Tess because they’re really one and the same in body, then just add Nash and you’ve got a triangle. Kelly and Kevin? Well, a short time ago, you could have added Spencer and you would have had a triangle. David and Dorian? Add Spencer (for a dull character, he gets around, doesn’t he?) and you’ve got another kind of triangle. Before the revelation about Daniel Colson (!) you could have (a) added Bo and Nora, or (b) you could have bypassed Daniel and added Paige to Bo and Nora and had another kind of triangle, or (c) you could have added Daniel, Nora, Bo, and Paige and you'd have had a quadrangle. Now that Daniel has been shipped off to prison, you’ve got Bo and Paige. Just add Nora and, you’ve got it – a triangle. You’d think that they would’ve taken a break from geometry with John and Evangeline by now, after the dopey year they've spent shoving Natalie down our throats at every turn but you would have been wrong. Last weekend at the OLTL events in New York City, the whole John, Evangeline, and Natalie story was referred to as “The Triangle”. Add Cristian from prison and you’ve got a quadrangle. Ah, but remove Evangeline and you're back to a triangle again. Got the picture? Does it make you happy? Does it intrigue you? Does it even interest you? Does it sound original? I didn’t think so. Just makes you mad, doesn't it?

If we just sit back and take what they’ve done to John and Evangeline, then it will be a done deal. John McBain will go back to being what he was before Evangeline walked into his life and “saved” him. He’ll go back to being Natalie’s on-again, off-again love interest which, for me, was a waste of this character the first time around. Besides how can a thinking and discerning adult audience accept John with Natalie after witnessing for over a year the incredible power of John with Evangeline? That’s like going from Dom Perignon champagne to Yoo Hoo, like going from prime rib to bologna, like going from a eighteen-room mansion to a cardboard box.

And it’s just not good enough – not for me.

So I’m going to communicate, communicate, communicate. I’ll be sending snail mail letters and emails, postcards, and flyers to everyone associated with these unwise content decisions and calling comment lines to vent my frustration. Like so many of you, I’ve been burned by falling for a soap storyline before. The difference this time is that I don’t intend to go down without making my feelings known and known clearly by those who can change things. Writing is a pretty amazing thing. Dena Higley & Company have written OLTL into this mess. They can just as easily make up their minds to write it out of the mess they’ve created. All they need is a little inspiration (and a whole lot of protest).

I still love Michael Easton and Renee Elise Goldsberry and, as always, am amazed by their talents and skill as performers. They’ve been knocking it out of the park, even though much of what the writing has had them doing for the past couple of weeks just doesn’t ring true for me. As a Michael Easton supporter, I hate what’s being done to the integrity of his character. As a Renee Elise Goldsberry supporter, I hate what’s being done to the integrity of her character. And as a John and Evangeline fan, I absolutely deplore what’s being done to the integrity of their story and their history as a couple.

But I refuse to buy into the hype.

I want the absolute best storyline for all concerned and I sincerely believe that the love story of John McBain and Evangeline Williamson is it. Now the powers that be may still be attempting to tell that story. Only time will tell. But if that’s true, I don’t want either character reworked to the point of being unrecognizable in order for their story to be told the way it’s being told currently.

And if they’ve unwisely decided not to tell that story – decided to suddenly go in a very different direction, then it’s even more important for me to speak up. I know what I watched for the past year or so. I know the story I fell in love with. I know the characters I grew to care for and wanted to know more about. I know that what I saw before my eyes happening on OLTL actually happened on OLTL (got the videotapes and the DVDs to prove it).

And I don’t intend to settle for less. Just because it’s been written doesn’t mean that I have to just meekly accept it. Far from it!

And when it’s all been said and done, if I do have to go down and accept this drivel, I WILL NOT go down quietly!