Editor's Choice by SOD on November 2002

This was not a week that we were looking forward to, it being Josh Duhamel's last in the role (Leo) that made him one of Pine Valley's Most Valuable Players. But AMC made it impossible for us to look away, creating a tense, taut and truly engrossing climax to the twisted triangle of a man (Leo), his wife (Greenlee) and his criminally insane mother (Vanessa).

Leo and Greenlee were just a flight away from a life in Paris, half a world apart from his psycho mama and his two brothers grim. But then, using Greenlee as bait, pistolpacking Vanessa lured Leo to the overlook at Miller's Falls. Her sinister plan: Bump off her favorite son's inconvenient wife, then spirit him away to a criminally funded life of leisure.

Of course, in her delusion, Vanessa failed to take into account that Leo would risk anything, including his own life, to spare the woman he loved --and that was Greenlee, not her. When Leo arrived at the falls to find Vanessa holding his bride at gun-point, it was clear that this was one family reunion that wouldn't end happily.

First, Leo tried to reason with Vanessa. When that failed, he tried to barter with her; Greenlee's life in exchange for the diamonds that she'd purchased with her Proteus millions. No dice there, either; and so, one by one, Leo dropped the stones into the raging waters below. "Leo, for the love of God, don't make me shoot you!" screamed Vanessa (the chilling Marj Dasay, also ending her AMC run). A petrified Greenlee lunged for the gun; Vanessa fought back, sending Greenlee plummeting onto a slab of rock 15 feet below.

Leo stood mesmerized by the sight of his wife's seemingly lifeless body. "She's not moving," he said helplessly. Then, he became enraged, shouting that same phrase---"She's not moving!"-- at Vanessa. Finally, he gave in to his grief. "I'm sorry," he whispered, face crumpling and tears flowing. "Baby, I'm so sorry." With nothing left to lose, Leo began a steady approach toward his mother, daring her to shoot him, grabbing her roughly by the throat.

And then Greenlee regained consciousness and begin crying out for Leo. Vanessa begin firing in her direction; Leo threw himself at his mother, trying to block her aim. The railing collapsed, and mother and son plunged into the deep. Vanessa never resurfaced. Leo did, briefly, fighting valiantly not to let the rapids consume him. And then the water overtook him, sweeping him under and away.

Before this tragic, final glimpse of Leo, we got one last, tender scene between him and his beloved , as Greenlee fantasized that it was he, not Trey, who pulled her to safety. Duahmel and Rebecca Budig (Greenlee)-- who, with her Performer Of The Week-- worthy turn throughout the showdown, again demonstrated that she is an actress of surprising force and flexibility-- were a soap producer's dream: A couple so compelling, so appealing, that not even the most ill-advised twists in the plot could compromise their rooting value. Their poignant fantasy encounter, as Dream Leo reminded Greens that their love is "forever, now and always," only underscored how deeply Duhamel's exit will be felt.

And so Leo and Greenlee's love affair ended catastrophically at Miller's Falls, not blissfully in Paris. But undergirded by typically top-notch performances from all three principals and atypically bravura set design-- for all the talk of ABC Daytime's focus on cost-cutting, the sprawling, multilevel set constructed especially for these scenes certainly didn't look like it was done on the cheap-- AMC managed to script an end to Leo's life on precisely the scale he, and his portrayer, deserved: undeniably grand.