Fasten Your Seatbelts -- Soap Opera Digest, May 6, 1997

Fasten Your Seatbelts
Soap Opera Digest - May 6, 1997
by Chris Kensler

“Todd really believes that Patrick, behind the wheel of the car, knowing that he has an airbag and his seat belt is fastened, took a roll of the dice and crashed. Todd honest to God thinks Patrick did it on purpose.” —Claire Labine, Head Writer

“He knew the anguish of the marrow.” —T. S. Eliot, Poet

On Claire and Matt Labine’s first show as the new head writers of ONE LIFE TO LIVE, the bishop had a massive heart attack, the Buchanan men had a brouhaha and report Mel Hayes stumbled upon Dorian Lord in a swanky D.C. bar. Just like that, the mother/son writing duo have turned the humdrum OLTL of recent months into a dazzling, dynamic drama, keeping their eyes on the biggest prize – Llanview’s long-percolating fearsome foursome: Todd, Patrick, Marty and Blair.

“The history of those four characters, even before Blair’s [second] pregnancy, was one of real animosity,” notes Matt Labine.

Yep, Todd raped Marty. Todd married Blair, she became pregnant. Todd took a bullet for Patrick and was presumed drowned. Blair had Starr, mourned Todd, then bedded Patrick. Todd returned from the grave and spied the two making love. He kidnapped Starr in retaliation. Patrick took up with true love Marty while Todd and Blair fought a bitter custody battle that ended when Starr became ill and needed a bone marrow donor. Her marrow match? Blair’s unborn child – by Patrick.

“Their feelings for each other set everything in motion to begin with,” explains Claire Labine. “Fate set this tragedy in motion.” Echoes Roger Howarth (Todd): “What makes something really tragic is that nothing can prevent that course of events.” So sad, so true.

Blair and Patrick’s Baby Dies

Again, Claire Labine: “Marty has a moment of blazing honesty that precipitates a chain of events that sends Blair out into the night, sends Patrick after her, and results in the death of the [unborn] baby.”

“I yell at Marty before Blair and I leave,” explains Thorsten Kaye, in character as Patrick. “I say, ‘You haven’t helped me at all in this, but I’ll take care of it,’ meaning, ‘I’m going to go down and make sure Blair gets home and she’s all right.’” Todd overhears Patrick vow to take care of it. “[To Todd} it means something completely different.”

Across town, Kelly, freshly dumped by Joey and wracked with grief, speeds off into the night – and oncoming traffic.

“She’s playing the radio,” sighs Clair Labine. “‘La Vie En Rose’ – her and Joey’s song in Paris.”

Patrick and Blair are singing a different tune. “We get in the car; we’re talking,” says Kassie DePaiva (Blair) in character. “We name the baby Brendan, after an Irish explorer. We sing to the baby [the Irish national anthem]. We’re happy.”

But not safe. “I don’t wear my safety belt because it’s too tight on me due to the pregnancy,” explains DePaiva. Someone should have remindedBlair that 80 percent of all accidents happen within 25 miles of home.

“There’s rain, there’s tears and Kelly just stops paying attention,” says Matt Labine. In the moment it takes Kelly to wipe away her tears, lives are changed forever.

Patrick careens off the road to avoid Kelly’s drifting vehicle. A tree ends all hope for their car’s safe rest. A panicky Kelly flees the scene. Blair lies unconscious and bleeding. Patrick flags down a passing car – it’s Marty. They call 911, but Marty can’t get a pulse from Blair, who’s trapped in the car.

“I read the scripts and I sobbed so hard,” confides DePaiva. “It’s that sad. Everything from naming the baby to Blair not knowing what’s wrong to finding out [Brendan] has already been buried.”

Starr Gets A Surprise Donor

The repercussions reach into every corner of Llanview. First, what about poor Starr? “She will get a donor from some place I think it’s safe to say is highly unexpected,” clues Matt Labine.

Only if you think a borderline psychotic awaiting trial for murder is an unlikely donor. Yes, Alex, out on bail thanks to Todd and Téa, turns out to be Starr’s closest tissue match. Yikes.

Will Todd be there for his injured wife? “Todd responds in his usual selfish fashion,” replies Roger Howarth. “He’s aware of the pain Blair is going through, but that is quickly overwhelmed by his anger at what has happened to himself.”

Blair and Todd aren’t the only two in pain. “It’s also going to take Kelly awhile to sort through all the ramifications of this,” says Matt Labine. “She finds herself in an everwidening mess.

“Patrick and Marty clear out a lot of the weeds between them,” adds the scribe. “they’re blazingly straight with one another about what Marty’s anger contributes to the situation.”

Patrick is able to keep his head throughout the ordeal. “To say that you’re cursed means that you’re blaming someone else for your [problems],” reasons Kaye. “I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done in a car accident when you’re tryingto do the best you can to get out of the other car’s way.”

Todd and Patrick Meet Head-On

“Patrick is the object of Todd’s rage,” states Claire Labine. “He feels that Patrick did this to Blair – and to him – personally.” Adds Matt Labine, “The scariest legacy will be in the escalating war between Patrick and Todd. If things were calmer, Todd might have been more reflective about the accident. But he thinks Patrick is a hypocrite and knows the feeling is mutual.”

Llanview’s most volatile men – the convicted rapist and the moody poet with a terror-laced p-ast – are ready to rumble.

“They’re both very tough,” agrees Claire Labine. “Todd has the edge in duplicity and ruthlessness. Patrick has the edge in humanity; the ability to make informed choices. Indeed, we may find out something bout Patrick that happened in those teenage years that were so troubled.”

Says Kaye of Thornhart’s psyche, “Patrick’s a poet, and I think most poets write because they are in pain. Artists have a certain melancholy that gets played in their work. That’s what we, are people taking in the art, appreciate: somebody being intellectual about an emotion.”

Will Patrick meet Todd’s favorite emotion – rage – head on?

“I hope so,” says Kaye. “If something dramatic like this happens, it’s got to change the future. It has to. “Intelligence drinks; sympathy eats,” he adds. If that’s true, look forward to a half-starved Todd, drunk on revenge.