Keeping It In The Family: Snyder Style

Ever since the late Douglas Marland introduced the Snyder family on AS THE WORLD TURNS in the mid-1980s, they have been an incestuous bunch.

Lily is married to her mother's brother, Holden. Lily's grandma is Holden's mom. Meg married her cousin, Josh, the guy who raped her sister, Iva. We also had the sharing of lovers between Holden and Caleb - Lily, Angel, Julie. Heck, even Caleb kissed Carly who had an affair with Holden this year. You get the picture.

What made all these tangled relationships tolerable and even beloved (to some) was the fact that none of the lovers were related by blood. If I found out my cousin was adopted, I wouldn't instantly want to jump into bed together, but hey, these are the Snyders of Luther's Corners, Illinois. And the Walsh family isn't much better. Lucinda slept with her daughter, Sierra's, lover, Craig Montgomery.

Now it's 2008 and we have the Goutman/Passanante version of Marland's incestuous family. On today's episode, Lucinda, still hopped up on pain killers following a mastectomy, married Brian Wheatley, the man she hired to run Luke's foundation. Luke (Van Hansis) is her grandson by the way, making Brian Luke's new step-grandfather.

Following the wedding, Brian (Laurence Lau) left to drive to Lucinda's to gather some of her things and bring to the hospital. On the way home, he ran into a drunken Luke on the side of the road. He drove Luke home to the Snyder farm and sent him upstairs to take a shower. Luke came back downstairs after the shower, shirtless, and sat in a chair at the kitchen table. He was completely out of it and Brian tried to comfort him. At first Brian hugged him, then kissed his forehead, then his cheek, then his lips! Yes, that's right, Luke's step-grandpa kissed him. On the lips.

The Snyder family tradition continues, like it or not.

What will the American Family Association (AFA) have to say about this? Perhaps sweet kisses from the young lovers will not look so bad now? The fallout from this story should be very interesting. Is Brian going to turn psycho and follow the recent ATWT trend of taking the easy way out with every other story? Stay tuned.

Continue reading to watch the clips from today's episode...