John and Evangeline Connected Souls

The wonderful Renee Elise Goldsberry is no longer part of the OLTL cast and with her goes Evangeline Williamson. And so in tribute to the many months of thoughtful performances given to us by Renee and her stellar screen partner Michael Easton, I thought I’d take a stroll through the all-to-brief timeline of my Super Couple – Evangeline Williamson and John McBain.

Who knew the incredible impact of this unexpected pairing of the dark and brooding Lieutenant John McBain and the upbeat and ambitious defense attorney Evangeline Williamson? But from the moment we saw them together, we knew that we were watching something special – something that only comes along once in a great while – daytime’s next Super Couple!

From that first surprise kiss at the Palace restaurant, through all the ups and downs that followed, Evangeline turned out to be just what the troubled John needed to bring his soul back to life. These two together were the genuine article - the REAL DEAL! Their physical passion was explosive but that was only one small part of the phenomenon taking shape.

“Since we’re sleeping together, do you think we should go out on an actual date?” Evangeline asked one night in her typically straightforward fashion - right before bombarding John with schedules and announcements for non-bedroom activities they might enjoy together on that date. The movie ‘Casablanca’ was what he picked the next day. It made sense to Evangeline that John would like Bogie, she said, since Bogie “didn’t talk much, either.”

“People can say a lot without talking,” he reasoned.

“So,” he asked, “is it ‘a date’?”

“Oh yeah,” she answered. “It’s a date.”

A trip to San Francisco, a game of "emotional strip poker", and an unexpected return by Evangeline resulted in a small tear in the budding relationship.

But it wasn't anything our couple couldn't handle. A relationship with no strings attached wasn't working for Evangeline anymore. She said she wanted 'strings'. So what did John do?

He gave her 'strings'.

Remember our couple on the docks after the football game – their talk about the difference in their skin colors? John said that he didn’t think differently about her and Evangeline said she loved that about him. Unfortunately, though, sometimes it felt to her that that very difference was all people saw when they looked at her. John told her that she was special – that he’d never met anyone like her before.

They ended their date by spending the night together back at John’s place.

“Is it just me or did things get way better when we attached some strings?” she asked.
“It’s not just you,” he said.

Not that there weren’t a few rough spots along the way. It proved to be something of a balancing act, managing their personal relationship and their respective careers – he as a police detective and she as a defense attorney. Sometimes they found themselves on opposite sides – John having arrested someone for a crime and Evangeline called in to defend that person. Sometimes their careers got in the way. But whenever things between them got off track, they always talked it through.

It’s funny how all your problems go away if you just work at it…

“Even if I get torn apart again, you’re worth it,” John told her.

And so they worked at it, getting past their career disagreements – recognizing that what was personal between them had to be completely separate from what was professional. And with each bump in their road, there would be discussion, they would come to understand each other, and they would make everything right again – just by working at it. Evangeline slipped a couple of times, using information she inadvertently got in the course of her personal relationship with John to help her client. But after she and John talked it all out, even situations like that became a thing of the past.

New Year’s Eve was no big deal to John that year. But Evangeline was so he called to invite her out for the night. She told John not to worry, that she would attach no significance to the fact that they would be together as the new year began. John surprised her, saying maybe he wanted her to. He was proud to be with her on this night., he explained. Evangeline smiled, saying that he did have a romantic side after all. He said he didn’t. But if a little bit of romance came through, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, would it?

Another rift between them happened after the new year, Evangeline thinking that John was keeping something personal from her, only to find out that it was about a case he was working - one that involved his brother. And so there at the Palace restaurant, she sat alone on her birthday, being wished a happy one on the one hand and having the fact that John wasn’t there with her thrown in her face on the other by her embittered ex, R.J. Gannon.

Suddenly John appeared, apologizing for being late so that R.J. could hear it. When R.J. left them alone, Evangeline thanked him for putting on a show to get rid of R.J. and John told her that he wasn’t putting on a show. He produced a box and said ‘Happy Birthday’.

They apologized to each other for their misunderstanding. John said he missed her. She said she missed him, too.

When she opened the box, she saw a string of pearls. John told her that they had originally been a gift to his mother from his late father. He said that his mother wanted the pearls to make someone else as happy as they had made her. Evangeline balked, saying she could not except them because that would imply a deeper commitment between she and John. If that wasn’t what he wanted, it was okay, she said. They could keep things just as they were.

”Shut up and turn around,” he said, before fastening the string of pearls around her neck.

Emotions can be tricky, as both Evangeline and John discovered during their relationship. You think you know where you stand one minute. Then your feelings take hold and suddenly you don’t know anything at all anymore.

From

“I can’t keep on doing this without at least knowing how you feel,” she told him in his office one particularly stressful day. “Can’t you see I’m falling in love with you?”

to would-be declarations of love unheard

“…I realized if I was ever going to say those words again to anyone... I'd say them to you. Because I... I think I'm falling…”

Evangeline and John withstood all attacks on their relationship – from outsiders, from family. They stuck together and were “devoted to each other”, as none other than Viki Davidson once observed. It was beautiful to watch their love story as it grew and changed and matured, beautifully portrayed by two of daytime’s best – Renee Elise Goldsberry and Michael Easton

But then Evangeline overheard something about John that sent her running for the hills. She began to believe that he would never love her the way she loved him and so, rather than hang on waiting, she marched into his office one day to end it between them once and for all, breaking both their hearts in the process.

But was it really over between them? You wouldn’t think so if you saw the way they looked at each other – all of the emotion, all of the sadness, all of the regret in their eyes. Through harsh words, a kidnapping, and a fire, their connection continued.

That still powerful connection became apparent one evening after Evangeline and John had an unpleasant encounter at Capricorn. Angry, she left him right where she found him – at the bar, drinking. Sometime later, muttering that he had to find her, John went to Evangeline’s apartment.

“The way I figured it, you know, if I never left the station, then I could protect myself, you know, from what I was feeling. Just…you know, you concentrate on the job, John, and then you…you protect yourself. You concentrate on the next victim, the next case, and then you don't have to…I didn't have to deal with me. Then you come along, and…you come on…you come into my life and I…Man, did I screw up. I thought too much with this and…and not a lot with this. And now I don't know what to do. I look at you and I see all the ways I let you down staring right back at me, and I don't know how to change that.”
“You saved my life, John.”
“No. You saved mine…You saved me.”

John couldn’t carry his burdens alone anymore. But while Evangeline was clearly still in his heart, he couldn’t find the way to let her all the way in – even though their feelings for each other were still so very strong.

Even angry words were fueled with an intensity reserved only for each other.

Where even the briefest touch could mean so much…

So they continued on their separate journeys. But the love and caring and affection between them never faltered.

Even as they brought in the new year together – as the best of friends.
	Or comforted each other when needed…

Or wished each other well on their different paths…

Their closeness never ended.

One day, Layla gave Evangeline some terrible news. John had been killed in a car wreck on the interstate. Evangeline didn’t believe it at first. But as Layla’s truth began to slowly sink in, Evangeline was devastated. That she still loved him was evident, even though their lives were going in separate directions. And so she said a tearful and heartfelt goodbye to the complicated man she loved…

After trying to come to terms with the fact of John’s death, there was some wonderful news. It had all been a horrible mistake. John wasn’t dead after all. He’d been badly burned in the fiery crash. But he was alive!

“I can’t believe it. My…You’re here. I can’t believe it. You’re alive. Even if…uh…”
“Hugh was a good guy.”
“Yeah, but John, hearing about you was the best news I ever heard in my life.”

Evangeline went to see John after he came home from the hospital and the two of them had a lovely visit, their old playfulness and closeness coming to the surface once again…

Months later, John McBain was back on the job at the LPD and ADA Evangeline Willliamson was working to help solve the case of several bias crimes that had been committed in Llanview. In another of those heinous acts, several Llanview citizens were gassed by an unknown assailant. All were overcome by the fumes, although none fatally.

But one of the victims did not recover right away. Evangeline’s heart stopped and, although she began to breathe on her own afterward, she lapsed into a coma. Unable to do anything to help her regain consciousness, the doctors moved her to a long term care facility out of town. On hearing the news about Evangeline, a shaken but determined John vowed to Bo:

“If Evangeline doesn’t make it, I’ll hunt the sonofabitch down and kill him myself.”

And, just like that, this warm, believable, thoughtfully acted adult love story came to a close.

And so now, as our treasured Super Couple takes its rightful place alongside the few special ones that came before, I can look back and I can truly say that I saw the very best. It didn’t last long enough. It wasn’t given its full due. But it was truly the best.

As Evangeline and John, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Michael Easton set the bar way, way high. It will be a very long time before another team soars those heights again – if ever.

No one saw it coming. But it was sheer magic while it lasted!

Faithful, focused, and FORWARD with and for Renee Elise Goldsberry and Michael Easton!

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