GOOD-BYE ALL MY CHILDREN: MY FIRST AND FAVORITE AMC 'OH, YOU JUST GOT OWNED!' MOMENT: TRAVIS MONTGOMERY PWNS ERICA KANE
By Nicole Walker

Erica Kane has had her share of suitors over the years some of which I’ve loved (Adam Chandler and Dimitri Merrick), some I’ve hated (Ryan Lavery and David Hayward), some that were laughable (Charlie Brent, Jr.? Really Erica?) and others I was indifferent to (Jackson Montgomery always felt like a heel when it came to Erica and a glutton for punishment constantly running back to her for more).

But there was one Kane husband that has a special place in my heart for not only being a good match for Erica as a lover, but also a good match for her as a fighter as he was the only man to truly win against Erica Kane and happily leave her and never look back.

And that man was Travis Montgomery.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved Travis and Erica as a couple and if they had gone the route of making them a true love pairing I would’ve supported them. I mean check these two all wet eyed and gushy at their first wedding…



But unfortunately (or fortunately if you were a Jack/Erica fan) with the arrival of Travis came the arrival of his annoying brother Jackson, who also had his eye on Erica and who Erica had her eye on even while being courted by Travis. When Travis made a biggie of an oopsie that even I admit had Erica rightfully ending their marriage, Jackson was all too happy to ease Erica through that painful time and she was all too happy to allow him. But in true soap fashion Erica and Travis weren’t quite done with each other yet and due to a promise made to their ill daughter, Bianca, the two remarried even though the love between them was gone and they loved and desired other people (Barbara for Travis and Jackson for Erica).

FFWD to months of rising tension where Erica secretly renews relations with Jack after learning of Travis’s betrayal with Barbara which, frankly, yeah, he slept with Barbara but it wasn’t because he still loved her (even though he did) it was about conceiving a child to save the life of his and Barbara’s daughter, Molly. Travis’s actions were that of a desperate father, not that of a cheating husband but to Erica who was looking to get back on the Jackson Montgomery express the details and motivations didn’t matter. She wanted to get hers.

And get hers she did when poor little Bianca happened upon Erica and Jack in a clench and was so upset she tried to burn her uncle in little Ken doll effigy causing a fire that almost burned down the house and sent Erica to the hospital. Refusing to stay the night alone, Erica left her hospital bed to go get some sexual healing from Jack only to be caught by Travis (who Bianca had earlier confessed to starting the fire because she saw Mommy kissing Uncle Jack sparking Travis’s realization that Erica was up to no good) in flagrante delicto and prompting Erica to huff -in outraged indignation as she’s pulling sheets up to cover her nakedness!-perhaps my most favorite line of hers ever: ‘Don’t you know how to knock?’

Can you imagine? ( I wish YouTube had a clip so that you didn’t have to imagine it but they don’t.) You’ve been caught naked in bed with your husband’s brother the same night you nearly died in a fire set by your traumatized daughter because she knows you’ve been banging her uncle behind her daddy’s back and you have the brass ovaries to be indignant and scold your husband’s lack of bedroom decorum?

I gaped at the television screen. Then I ‘ohhhh’d’ at the look of pure disgust on Travis’s face as he backed out of the room, off to start his payback to Erica for the pain and humiliation she’d done him and their daughter.

And boy did he get her back.

Not only did he saddle her with Adam Chandler as a business partner by selling him his shares of Enchantment, but he went for the throat by suing Erica for full custody of Bianca and winning because (Oh, the Irony!) her current slampiece Jackson wouldn’t lie for her on the stand in the custody hearing and blew her chances of retaining custody out of the water.

Of course Erica didn’t take that betrayal lightly and so there was no more nookie for Jackson coming from her.

Unfortunately, for Erica she had no daughter to raise or even visit to fill those many empty hours since Travis was up and moving away from Pine Valley with Barbara and their two kids and taking Bianca with him. As Erica stood utterly devastated- no husband, no daughter, no lover- in the courtroom hallway watching Travis leave completely victorious with his family (Off to what I had hoped to be a happily ever after but of course Erica had to win in the end so they made Travis and Barbara suspect parents to Bianca before killing off the man with a stroke so Erica could dance on his grave) I applauded.

I cheered. I grinned like an idiot because the great Erica Kane had fallen and fallen hard. Maybe the punishment outweighed her crimes, but that’s part and parcel of being a soap heroine; not even the great Erica Kane can escape falling on her bum every so often-and in Erica’s case it’s such a rarity that she’s caught with her skirt bunched in her pantyhose by anyone much less a man. When Erica does get rapped across the knuckles it’s a moment to be savored and enjoyed not just because of her getting the pain that is owed to her (because the woman is no angel and often has her setbacks coming for one plot or another) but also because we know that she’ll rise again. Erica Kane is not a woman you can keep down for long. She’s a tenacious scrappy fighter who will always manage to claw her way back to the top in amazing, engaging, spectacular fashion.

But it’s still nice (especially in those days when Erica was as much a schemer as a heroine) to see her get a big helping of karmic payback-especially when delivered with as complete and utter destruction as Travis Montgomery accomplished.

Coming up tomorrow my favorite AMC ‘O…M…G!’ moment. It even had men ‘who didn’t really watch soaps’ commenting and shaking their heads….

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Nicole Walker is Associate Producer of Another World Today.