I've watched soaps for as long as I can remember. And once in a while, on one of my shows, there would always come a couple that really grabbed my attention. And when I say that, I don't just mean I simply liked them or thought of them as a good pairing...I mean that I think about them literally every second of the day...and even in my dreams! LOL

I remember when Rafe first came to Port Charles and met Alison. One of their first scenes that really hinted to me that there would be something more was that drive home from the monastery (after he saved her life). Alison was going on about how in love she and Jamal were, and Rafe just gave her this smile and said Jamal was a lucky guy. That right there...I KNEW they were going somewhere with this! lol

But at first, I will admit, I was somewhat cautious of a Rafe and Alison pairing. For one thing, I liked Alison and Jamal. They had a good thing going and I've seen their relationship from the very beginning. Alison and Jamal...apart? At that time, I couldn't imagine it! It was going to take some pretty clever writing to pull that one off!

And then, there's always my habit of falling for couples that only me and like, two other people enjoy. Such was the case of Nikolas and Sarah (GH). God, I LOVED them! I couldn't understand, and I still don't understand why they never really caught on. But this commentary is not about past favorites. My point is...as soon as I realized that Rafe had a crush on Alison, I started kinda liking them together. But in my mind, I truly thought I was the only one who felt that way. With the popularity of Jamal and Alison, I really didn't think anyone would go for a breakup. And in my experience, it's no fun loving a couple when you're the only one who likes them. That's why I was cautious to root for Rafe and Alison to hook up. I didn't want to be the only crazy fan who liked them together LOL. (Of course, I was wrong. They would be insanely popular, but little did I know then! LOL)

Sometime around Tempted I think, I wasn't completely sure if Rafe was staying or not. I mean, he was an angel and he did have to go back to heaven...but it was obvious that Rafe was liking Alison more and more. Was there a story in store for them? I didn't know, so I decided to make a little deal with myself considering that I couldn't choose b/w Jamali and Rali. If Rafe went back to heaven, Alison and Jamal would still be together, and I was fine with that. However, if for some reason, Rafe was coming back...then I had made the decision to pull for Rali! Either way...I was going to be happy. But as weeks went on...I started to pull more and more for a romance between Alison and an angel.

And then, I remember the exact moment when it happened, the moment that my fondness for them turned into an obsession. It was that day Alison asked Rafe what he wanted, and with his adorably cute stuttering, he shyly replied that he wanted to kiss her. And then, they kissed!! I said to myself, "Well, I'm not recording over THIS episode!" And so the obsession began.

When it comes to Rafe and Alison, I don't think there will ever be a couple that I will love more than them. I seem to say this about every new "favorite couple" of mine, but with Rali, I truly believe nothing will ever compare to them. I'm not really sure what it is about Rafe and Alison that makes them so different or what it is about them that makes me love them so much. Maybe it's that they've had to overcome such seemingly impossible obstacles to be together. Maybe it was the whole idea of having a soulmate. And maybe even the idea of simply falling for someone who fell out the sky. It was all of these things I think. I do know that one thing that I loved about the beginning of their relationship was that it was like watching some movie. You know the kind...guy loves girl, girl is in love with someone else, but in the end, the guy gets the girl. I love stories like that. They make you want to root for the underdog and in this case, Rafe!

It's hard to believe that we've had Rafe and Alison for almost 2 years. Two years is a long time but the time flew for me. It seems like just yesterday that they were making snow angels. It's been a wonderful love story. But of course, with this being a soap opera, not everything was so pleasant. I'm sure we all remember the nightmare that was "Rivvie". I feel like I was so naive. I never ever thought they would go as far as to pair them up for even a second. Later, I would find out that PC would stoop to more lows in the Rali story. How silly of me to think that the worse thing that could happen was that Rafe wouldn't remember Alison. Noooo, of course, they had to make Livvie manipulate everything and have Rafe turn into a pod and believe her.

And speaking of s/l that didn't fly too well with me, what the hell was that brother/sister crap?! Honestly, we all know that Alison would NEVER believe that Rafe was her brother. Heaven is certainly the last place that would say, "Well, we know incest is a sin but hey, you two kids look cute together so it's ok!" Come on, Rafe would not have been sent back if that were the case. But let's not blame Alison, b/c clearly this is the fault of the writers. It was a slap in the face to all of us Rali fans for ruining that Christmas wedding.

Which brings us to the biggest betrayal ever to us...letting Alison and Caleb have sex! And UNDER THE HEART in the BARN! That was completely unnecessary! The barn would have been perfect for a wedding, but it's forever tainted now. And can you believe that 20 minute sex scene?! (I refuse to call it a "love scene", b/c technically, there was none) All they seem to give Rali are pillow talk scenes and a couple of kisses here and there. I didn't think it could get worse...and that's when they tortured us with daily flashbacks of it. I think Cali had to be far worse than Rivvie b/c it happened in Rali's very special place and Alison could never bring herself to be honest with Rafe about what happened. On the other hand, I'm glad Cali didn't last as long as Rivvie. God, that was a summer of torture!

So yeah, the story had some definite low points, but we took the bad with the good. Overall, you have to admit, Rafe and Alison had a beautiful love story. And hey, we did get our wedding! There'd be hell to pay if we didn't at least get that before the show's end! We did get one really beautiful love montage, and that was, of course, the first time they made love in the barn. It will always remain one of my favorites, and I'm not going to let anything that I know happens in that barn later ruin that beautiful episode. And hey! We even got a shower scene! LOL. Of course, I think that scene could have been um, directed a bit better shall we say? Well at least we got it. The only thing we didn't get was a baby, but it was coming! Please, don't even believe for a second that Alison is carrying Caleb's child. We all know in the end that it would have been Rafe's baby anyway. I heard that the next arc was going to involve Alison thinking the baby was Caleb's. And meanwhile, Livvie was going to go sleep with Jack and find out she was pregnant. (And would be thinking it was Jack's baby.) It makes sense she would sleep w/ Jack. I think if my husband waited to admit to me on our wedding night that he had slept w/ another woman and impregnated her, I'd be a bit pissed too and want to leave him. And Jack doesn't do alone very well, and Livvie's a habit that he has never seemed to be able to break. But in the end, Alison was going to find out that it was really Rafe's baby, b/c she had to have been already pregnant judging from the number of pillow talk scenes we've been having recently. And Livvie would have found out it was really Caleb's baby she was carrying. See, here's my theory. Alison was already pregnant with Rafe's child, so there's no way she could get pregnant again with Caleb's baby. And that night Livvie made the wish, she slept with Caleb. So therefore, her wish to have a child with him would have been granted. Well, that's how I believe it would have gone.

It's so sad to know that this is really the end of it all. I keep thinking that on Monday afternoon, PC will be on, but I know it won't. I can't even bring myself to take off the 12:30 recording on my VCR. I'm glad that when PC ended, Rafe and Alison were happy. That's all I ever wanted. I'm glad they didn't end it on a really bad note, like Caleb telling Alison that's she pregnant with his kid. Now THAT would have been BAD! But the show ended for Rali on a happy note...finally married! I loved the way the show was froze on them when it ended. Sorta like time was standing still in that moment. I just ignored or muted the creepy music and Caleb's voiceover. Again, what was the director's problem? They shouldn't have blended the two scenes. I would have preferred the wedding in one shot, no cuts of Caleb and Livvie in the middle of the Rali wedding, b/c it made my tape editing a bitch for me lol. But with that being said, I refuse to let any of the story's "low points" ruin the experience for me. I love Rafe and Alison, and I'll be happy to just ignore the bad stuff and focus on the happy.

I think the cancelling of PC was a big loss to daytime tv. When PC was nominated for an Emmy, I've never felt more proud of it. It was "the little show that could", going against all odds and making it all the way to the best show nomination! I had really hoped and truly thought it would win. The cast and crew worked harder than any of those other shows with their fast-paced taping...they really deserved that award. I was hoping when PC won, it would be like a wake-up call to all of those people that said it wouldn't make it and that the end was near. Winning the Emmy would show them that this little show is bigger than they all think! But PC didn't win. And it was almost as if that's when everything went downhill.

Everyone wants to blame someone, and mostly everyone puts the blame on Brian Frons. I'm in the very little minority on this one, but Brian Frons is not who I blame. Now of course, I do know he was the one who made the final call to cancel the show, and I do think it was a bad decision. But I really think that in the end, he had no choice. And don't say for a minute that Brian Frons didn't support this show. Do you all remember when he first came to ABC? Everyone was so excited about this man. Finally, SOMEONE at ABC who listened to the PC fans! This guy answered emails to some fans. He visited the set of PC and talked about it many times, repeatedly showing his support for it. And soon, we were seeing PC stars on posters at 600 plus Champs stores across the nation. We were seeing promos at movie theaters and magazine ads for Rali! Did anyone notice how the PC stars, not GH, not AMC, not OLTL, but PC people were sitting right next to Brian Frons on "The View" the day of emmy nominations? You tell me that wasn't intentional.

Brian Frons may have put a nail in the coffin of PC, but he wasn't the one to kill it. That was the work of the affiliates. The reason PC was canceled was that it wasn't making money. To make money, you need ratings. Now tell me...how can a show that is shown at 2:35 in the a.m. going to pull in viewers? And it didn't help that this was going on in major cities, like Houston. In the end, BF simply did not have a choice. He didn't want to cancel the show, but it all boils down to money. In hindsight, I think we should have started campaining the second affliates started dropping it from their daytime lineup and maybe we could have got some decent airtimes. Hey, it worked for Brian Presley's mother! She wanted to see her boy in his big vampire s/l but Tulsa's affliate was being stupid until she bugged them to death lol. But it's too late now. We can't go back and change the past, unless of course we get hold of Frank's time machine LOL. Sorry, I couldn't resist the lame joke. I saw that episode on the PC One Last Bite marathon lol.

But anyway, back to Rali, which is what this commentary is all about. They were one of the greatest couples in daytime, and EHP and BG did an incredible job of portraying them. Rafe and Alison certainly made an impression on all of our hearts. We'll all miss seeing them on PC, but they'll live on in fanfic and in our memories.

Thank you Erin, Brian, and all of the PC cast members and crew for making Port Charles the very best show I've ever loved!

  

~Melody

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