As the World Turns: July 11, 2008

This past week, As The World Turns seemed to cram a summer's worth of high drama into two episodes. On Thursday's show, Emily and Casey's romance was revealed with disastrous results, and Paul Ryan was arrested for the murder of Sophie Duran.

That would have been plenty of drama for As The World Turns, but on Friday the show upped the ante by turning up the heat and tension on Carly and Holden's secret romance, and creating complications with Janet, Brad, Katie and Jack.

As The World Turns: Carly, Holden, Lily and Neal

After blowing the lid off the secret Emily and Casey May-December romance, it was a bit surprising to see that As The World Turns is about to expose Carly and Holden's secret love affair also. Looking at the As The World Turns previews for next week, we see Holden inform Carly that he wants to end his marriage to be with her, and then he tells Lily he's been having an affair (these As The World Turns teaser clips were shown at the end of Friday's episode.)

That comes as a bit of a shocker to me, that As The World Turns would reveal both secret romances at about the same time (I thought they might draw out the tension with Carly and Holden's affair for a bit longer.)

On Friday's episode of As The World Turns, it seems that Holden can no longer pretend that he wants to be with Lily, when he's really longing to be with Carly. In my opinion, the way that Holden has treated Lily is not honorable. He obviously has strong feelings for Carly, but the way he has treated Lily makes him unlikeable.

He is very much leading Lily on, sleeping with her and romancing her in a half-hearted way when his body and soul is really with Carly. Watching those As The World Turns scenes, where he seduces Lily in order to forget about Carly, seems like emotional cruelty towards poor Lily, even though she doesn't yet know she's been betrayed.

I would have had a lot more respect for Holden if he had just ended things with Lily the moment he realized he had such strong feelings for Carly. I feel that would have been more honorable. I actually like Carly and Holden together, and I think they have more chemistry on As The World Turns than either Carly/Jack or Holden/Lily; however, I don't like the callous way that Lily has been treated on the show lately.

As for Carly, if she wanted to "do the right thing," and help her best friend Lily preserve her marriage to Holden, then it seems to me she's given mixed signals to Holden. I believe she definitely hoped something would happen that night on As The World Turns when she slept with Holden, and she encouraged Holden to stay the night with her alone in the cabin.

Did she accept the dinner date at Holden and Lily's just to make Holden jealous? Is she dating the charming Brit Neal Stokes just to get under Holden's skin? Will she go to Paris with Neal just to make Holden burn with jealousy? I believe the answer to those questions is definitely yes.

But if you watch As The World Turns regularly, you know, that's Carly. I actually find Carly to be a more sympathetic character right now than Holden. Carly has been deeply hurt by Jack, and she's looking for love, first with Holden, then perhaps with new guy Neal. Both the Snyder men have shown recently that they are capable of really hurting the women in their lives. Jack and Holden are the "good guys" on As The World Turns, sanctimonious men with solid moral values who always do the right thing, but Carly and soon Lily, feel the pain of dealing with both of them.

As The World Turns: Janet, Brad, Katie and Jack

The other shocking development today on As The World Turns was Jack asking Janet to move in with him. Janet, Brad, Katie and Jack are shaping up to be another As The World Turns hot summer storyline.

Poor Katie sure has had her share of romantic disappointments lately on As The World Turns. She seemed to have no reaction when her ex-husband Jack was revealed to be having casual sex with Janet (the mother of Brad's child.) I was surprised she had no pangs that Jack was moving on with Janet. Brad on the other hand was blind with rage about the Jack/Janet hookup, so much so that he refused to pay for Janet's room anymore and demanded she leave town immediately.

I predict that Brad's jealousy over Janet and Jack could break up his marriage to Katie; meanwhile, Jack could find himself falling for Janet despite his protestation he just wants a casual affair with her. Is Brad just experiencing sibling rivalry with Jack, or does he have real romantic feelings for Janet? All these complications could mean that Katie finds herself alone while brothers Jack and Brad vie for Janet.

On As The World Turns, I'd like to see Jack and Katie get back together, and Carly and Neal fall in love and have a sexy, whirlwind romance. Brad and Janet always had chemistry in my opinion, so maybe they deserve a shot at love, and a chance to be a family with daughter Liberty.

I'd like to see Lily give Holden the boot on As The World Turns and have a torrid affair with a much younger hunk (like Emily did!) As for Holden, he's becoming so boring, unethical and self righteous, maybe he deserves to be alone for a while (just one woman's opinion.)

Next week on As The World Turns looks to be even more explosive than this week; tune into to see if Holden will reveal all to Lily and what will be her reaction to his secret affair?