A Rainy Night In Port Charles

 

Greetings fellow soap lovers! I have some thoughts on this past week of our beloved General Hospital.

 

There’s an old saying, or song, or both that says, “only the good die young”. Good men like Detective Nathan West protecting his family and the citizens of Port Charles is gunned down while trying to save his pregnant wife. Dustin Phillips, the ride share driving English teacher who helped guide teenagers through angst and grief dies after an explosion while trying to propose to the woman he loves. Yet men like Julian Jerome and Cyrus Renault live to fight another day. I’d compare it to the hundreds of thousand people who have fallen to Covid-19 and a certain elected public official who’s still whining and complaining about non-existent election fraud, but I don’t want to politicize things, so let’s move on.

 

On a rainy night in Port Charles, Ava Jerome Cassadine made the choice to stand by her husband and against her brother. It had to be a brutal decision. Ava and Julian have been one of my favorite couples on the show. Their loyalty and devotion to one another is really touching even though it was enabling. Ava knew the walls were closing in on Julian and that it would come to a violent conclusion so she thought she would take it upon herself to make it quick and merciful. That might be true. No, it probably is true, but I have a feeling there was another underlying motive. With Julian gone, he can’t tell Sonny that Ava knew for a while that Wiley was Michael’s son or that Julian was the cause of the accident that almost killed Lucas. I want to believe that Sonny would understand that Ava was in a bad position and wouldn’t fault her for trying to protect her brother, but I know better. Sonny’s been looking for a reason to kill Julian and Ava for the better part of a decade. He might not actually kill Ava, but he’d make damn sure she never saw her daughter again and she knew that. I think Ava made the right choice.

 

Of course, with Ava, Jason and Sonny running around, slipping and tripping over each other with their brandished weapons, nobody got to pop Julian and he took advantage of the brief moment of confusion to escape. Quick question. Wasn’t Katherine Bell pushed from that same spot at Wyndemere and killed? How is it that the Jeromes keep surviving? Not only did Julian survive he went straight to Martin Gray, demanding money and his car.  Apparently when he jumped and fell unconscious, he did not wake up with a personality shift. Julian is like a kid on the playground who gets bullied and then turns around and bullies the kid smaller than he is. He runs from Cyrus and Sonny but tries to take out Brad and blackmails Martin. Typical.

 

Speaking of Martin, was anyone else surprised to see how familiar he seemed with Cyrus? They’ve known each other for years, apparently. I’m guessing the picture that Julian found is of the two of them. At first, I thought the picture was of Martin and Laura. When Michael Knight debuted as Martin Gray, a soap opera columnist more well versed in General Hospital than I, informed us all that Laura’s bio dad’s last name was Gray and hoped or theorized that there was a connection. Possibly a long lost brother? And if he and Cyrus have known each other for years, is it possible that he too is related to Laura in some kind of way? Cyrus is a terrorist, but he seemed genuinely concerned about Lulu and her condition. Could it be that he was mortified that he’d inadvertently injured his niece or cousin? I’m anxious to find out.

 

And on that note, so long for now, Lulu Spencer. And goodbye Emme Rylan. I dig her. She’s played the daughter of three daytime icons. I first saw her as Lizzie Spaulding, the daughter of Philip Spaulding. She had a turn as Abby Newman, the daughter of Victor Newman and finally Lulu Spencer, the only daughter of one of soap opera’s most famous couples, Luke and Laura. Removing her from the canvas leaves a big hole for me. Lulu can be annoying and self-righteous but as I've stated before, her presence as a legacy character is necessary. I hope she doesn’t stay gone too long, even if she looks different when she comes back.

 

The scenes where everyone said their goodbyes to Lulu were touching but I had one issue. How come we saw Charlotte get to say goodbye to her mom but not Rocco? He already lost Dustin and he didn’t get to say goodbye to Lulu. And don’t talk to me about Covid because Danny was all up in The Floating Rib and Avery’s been running around displaying the damning necklace around her little neck. They could have found us a Rocco. It’s as bad as Kristina not being present during Mike’s final hours. For shame, GH, for shame.

 

 

I feel the need to get something out in the open. I believe in truth and transparency and I feel it should be established early.

 

I do not like Samantha McCall. I never have. There, I said it.

 

Admittedly, I wasn’t watching GH at the time the character debuted, but I’ve read things. By the time I tuned back in, we were just finding out she was Alexis’ long lost daughter. Said daughter then turned around and slept with newfound mom’s husband. That would’ve been bad enough but when she found out that Jake was Jason’s son, not only did she terrorize Elizabeth and her small children, but she stood by and watched Jake be kidnapped and never said a mumbling word. I will never forget that. Not to mention the way she threw herself at Lucky just to stick it to Liz. Yeah, I was not a fan.

 

Which leads me to my biggest beef with Sam’s character. The hypocrisy. When Jason and Elizabeth made the decision to keep Jake’s paternity a secret, Sam railed against them, accusing Elizabeth of manipulating Jason and denying him the right to raise his son, using his life of crime an excuse. Well look at you now! Running around acting all skittish and conflicted about your family’s safety. Where was her concern for her children’s safety when she running around, trying to take down Shiloh? Was Danny safe having contact with a kidnapping rapist? I think not. Not only that, after Kristina was safely extracted from the cult, Sam didn’t let it go. She kept going after Shiloh and what did it get her? Locked unconscious in a deep freezer and later kidnapped on The Haunted Star, that’s what. So, her outrage and fear for her safety and that of her children rings a little hollow to me at the moment.  

 

I feel the need to amend my earlier statement. There was a time when I liked Sam. When we thought Jason was dead. Without Jason, Sam became a single mother who helped see her child through cancer. She found love with Silas and later with Patrick Drake. She later found love with Drew when everyone thought he was Jason. Her concern for her family and keeping them safe then was so strong then, an infection gave her delusions strong enough to shoot Sonny and leave him for dead. It never made sense to me that Sam would go back to Jason without addressing the issue of the dangers his lifestyle presented.

 

And that’s always been my problem with Sam. She makes really bad choices when it comes to Jason. Trying to blackmail your parole officer just so you can spend time with your man is an example of that. Sneaking around meeting in safe houses to circumvent your parole is a bad choice. Trashing said safe house when your man says it’s best to stay away from each other so you won’t go back to prison is just plain bratty, but you get my point. Sam’s love for Jason has always been unhealthy. A love so consuming, she sometimes loses rational thought. Maybe without him, she can find a sense of herself again.

 

Britt gets on my nerves sometimes. To suggest that Nelle took advantage of Brad’s grief to get him to switch babies is a bit of a stretch. Sure, that may have been a fine excuse in the beginning, but he kept that secret for over a year without much influence from Nelle. It shouldn’t surprise me she feels that way. I mean, she did steal Lulu and Dante’s embryo, carry it, and pass the baby boy off as her own, and when she got caught, she justified her actions by saying she tried to help them get pregnant. It wasn’t her fault that Lulu’s eggs weren’t viable. No wonder Britt and Brad are friends. I wonder if she’d be going so hard on Brad’s behalf if she knew he used her freedom against her mother to help keep his secret and then begged Julian to kill Liesl to shut her up permanently.

 

It was refreshing to see Ava come clean with Nikolas right away about everything that happened with Julian. It doesn’t bode well for too many other couples in Port Charles. Ava and Nikolas hated each other when they got married and were hellbent on mutual destruction. Yet, they seem to have more honesty and transparency than any other marriage or long- term relationship on the show. If they can get Spencer to forgive Ava and come home, Ava might finally come to terms with Kiki’s death and have the happy family I think she’s always wanted.  

 

Speaking of transparency, Carly is going to get enough of telling Jax things before she does Sonny. Yes, Sonny has had a lot going on lately, but he straight up asked her what she was doing with Avery’s necklace and she gave him the same tired lie she gave Avery. Let that sink in. The vicious mob boss was appeased by the same story as his seven-year-old daughter. I hope Sonny’s not losing his touch. But I digress. The point is, Jax has always been a  huge trigger for Sonny and when things calm down and he has time to think about it, he’s not going to like Jax stepping into the role of confidant. I mean, I know they tolerate each other now but there’s no need to push it.

 

In semi-shocking news, Franco is hearing the voice of Peter August echoing in his head. Apparently, the knock on the head from the explosion and this latest round of brain surgery cranked up the volume on Drew Cain’s memories. Kevin seems to think it’s Franco’s subconscious afraid he’s going to turn back into someone heinous like Cesar Faison. Normally, I agree with Kevin’s diagnoses, but this is a bit of a stretch. If Franco was afraid of turning back into the man he used to be, wouldn’t he hear his own voice? Furthermore, I can’t believe nobody’s brought up the whole memory mapping procedure already. If Jason was too brain damaged for the procedure to work on him, it stands to reason the whole thing would have been dangerous for a person who recovered from a brain tumor. Come on Terry and Kevin! Do better for your boy!

 

Does this mean Franco will join the fight to expose Peter for his crimes? At this point, with Peter on so many people’s radar, it’s kind of astounding that no one can find one shred of evidence. The man is really good at covering his tracks. I’m ready for this storyline to come to its conclusion. I didn’t care for Peter when he first arrived on the show. I, like Obrecht still hold him partly responsible for Nathan’s death. I was tricked into thinking that Peter was a good guy who was a victim of his childhood and his father’s manipulations. I was right in the beginning. At this point, I’d accept little Georgie or baby James outing their future step-father if it wrapped things up.

 

Not that I want Peter gone. Wes Ramey, or Future Wyatt from Charmed, as I know him is doing a great job and we need a good villain on the show. Peter is the love child of Alex Merrick and Cesar Faison. He could be new generation of super villain. I’m intrigued by the possibilities. And if the writers were inclined to re-explore Maxie’s treacherous side, I would be open to it. Maxie might find out the truth about everything that Peter did and stay with him anyway. Kind of like when Phoebe stayed with Cole even when she found out he was The Source. Sorry, that was another Charmed reference. The point is, it’s time for the next phase of this story.

 

Another story that could be pursued is Dante and Maxie coming together to deal with the loss of Lulu and Peter’s betrayal. They’ve always been close being married to each other’s best friends. They understand each other’s loss and let’s face it between them they may end up having five kids. They’re gonna need to help each other. A version of Yours, Mine and Ours may be in order.

 

I was excited to see Marcus Taggert back on my screen after so many years until I remembered I didn’t like him, and he keeps reminding me why. He needs to slow his roll. He and Jordan are the ones who helped create this mess with Cyrus when they planted evidence (By the way, Curtis needs to stop excusing what Jordan did). He doesn’t get to come around and criticize Sonny for not cleaning up said mess quickly enough or the way he wants him to. How ungrateful! I cheered Carly when she checked him. I can’t wait until Portia rips him a new one too. He keeps barking about Trina being in danger but he’s the one that put her back in the danger when he couldn’t stay “dead”. It was both cruel and brilliant for Cyrus to tell Trina that her father was still alive. Cruel for all the obvious reasons but brilliant because he knew she wouldn’t rest until she found the truth. That poor girl is going to lead Cyrus right to her dad. I just hope he doesn’t finish the job this time. Not because I like Taggert, mind you. But I do like Trina. I’d like her to have him around until it’s revealed that Curtis is actually her father. I’m not going to talk about that right now but…you know it’s true. I’ll cover that in another post.

 

Kitchen Sink Items

 

I was a little offended they didn’t bring up the fact that Dustin was not only Lulu’s boyfriend but also the high school English teacher of the four teens on the show. Then I saw it in a deleted scene on Instagram and felt a lot better.

 

Maxie is indeed the best best friend. Hiring a skin care specialist to take care of Lulu while she is in a coma is a posh and thoughtful gift. My bestie needs to step up her game.

 

When Laura spoke to Curtis about Cyrus and said, “I mean, what is he doing? Where is this leading?” I screamed, “Yes! My questions exactly!” I’m getting more intrigued by the moment with the bad man, Cyrus Renault.

 

Speaking of Laura, Genie. Freaking. Francis. The rage and anguish she showed in her scenes with Cyrus after deciding to send Lulu to long term care were amazing! I can’t believe she was ever written off the show. Who wouldn’t love to write for an actress who can deliver like that? Who’s that, you say? Jill Farren Phelps? Well yes, I suppose there’s an argument to be made there.

 

Sonny’s wanted to kill Julian for seven years. He’s so focused on finally getting his way, he’s almost completely forgotten that Cyrus ordered Julian to plant the bomb. If it wasn’t for Jason, Sonny would be too distracted trying to kill Julian while Cyrus trafficked boatloads of dope into the city. He needs a raise.

 

Well folks, I think that about wraps it up. If you like what you’ve read, leave a comment. If you think you can change my mind, leave a comment or email me at mailto:thelastsoapfan@gmail.com

 

Hope to be back soon!