Poor little Charlotte must be terribly confused, dear readers. Valentin is Papa, Griffin is Daddy, and Nathan was...Pops? Hey you? Father? I don't recall. Too many daddies in too few weeks!
All we know for certain is that Charlotte's DNA matches Valentin, but we do not know if he is the dad or the uncle of said child. I'm still banking on uncle. I think Charlotte is Lulu and Stavros' embryo. I think Claudette was the surrogate. I think Valentin has been raising her, but I do not think that he is her daddy. But before that comes out, I suspect that Nina will be willing to forgive Valentin his evil deeds to play mom to Charlotte and that her heart will break when the truth comes out, and she will be without a child again. But, since Valentin is a Cassadine, he might have some secret treatment in Helena's cryogenic lab that can make her fertile again. You just never know.
Speaking of Helena, I saw a glimpse of red satin at the other end of the phone Julian was on, and I thought -- "Is Helena alive and blackmailing Julian?" Did anyone else think that, or am I crazy? Someone named Oscar Jessup is apparently pulling Julian's strings, but I don't know who that is. I thought for sure the person on the other end of the phone was a female, but Oscar doesn't sound like a girl's name. But, if I'm right, which lady villain could it be? It can't be Heather because there was no orange jumpsuit, it can't be Ava because she didn't know anything about what was going on with Alexis. Dr. Obrecht has been behaving herself lately, and I can't think of any other villains that would be draped in red satin.
So, maybe Mr. Jessup wears a cape or a Santa suit or something. Villains can wear whatever they want! Remember the Balkan? He wore a monocle. Only a villain could pull that off. But if I'm right and Helena is pulling the strings, it would make total sense that she would want to ruin Alexis' life and break up her marriage. Besides, I miss Constance Towers and just want to see her glamorous, elegant face on my TV.
Maybe this is how the writers are going to write themselves out of the corner? They foolishly broke up supercouple "Julexis" and had no reasonable way back, since Julian tried to kill Alexis. So, if someone dire was pulling his strings and there was a reason he was behaving so terribly, maybe we could accept reconciliation.
It can't come fast enough. Alexis' drinking has already worn out its welcome with me. She almost hooked up with Elizabeth's rapist! Ew! That's how you know when you have officially had too much to drink. Or, if the cheap motel manager knocks on your door to tell you your shower has been running for hours because you passed out.
Jax and Alexis met for a drink, and Jax foolishly confided his darkest secret to his dear, trusted friend Alexis. But like most times when you trust someone with a secret, Alexis was threatening him with that secret by the next morning. Why? Because Jax wanted to let her kids know she had been drinking, and rather than be found out, she bullied Jax into backing down by threatening to tell his family that he bought Joss a kidney. This is why I hardly trust anyone.
Liz learned the same lesson this week. She confided in Franco about her brutal rape as a teenager. She expressed her fear about Tom being out on the street. I have to admit, dear readers, I was shocked, too! It's been so many years since that storyline, and I think that was a strike of writing genius to bring up the parole of a long-ago crime in Port Charles! If only Lucky would show up to visit right now, it would be perfect.
Liz poured out her heart and Franco took her confession and made a beeline to Tom's house for a little light strangling and death threats. Is his brain tumor growing back? He seemed like the old Franco. At least he isn't spray-painting tags on things and doing the creepy chalk outlines in the hospital break room.
My husband, who pretends he doesn't watch GH, actually did not watch GH when Liz was raped. In addition, he missed the part of the show this week where Franco was strangling Tom. He only saw the part when Liz was chastising him. He thought Liz was being too harsh with Franco and that she was treating him like a child. He was mad that Franco said, "I'm sorry," instead of telling her off for the way she was speaking to him. I tried to explain what Franco had done and why Liz was so upset, but my husband would not cede his point. He brought Tom back into her life. He interacted with the person who violated her. He stirred the pot on her darkest moment and brought that chaos bubbling back into her life. But Jeff stands firm that Liz should not have spoken to Franco this way. It's this damned election year -- you can't convince anyone of anything anymore!
After said incident, in what you can only imagine would be Liz's worst nightmare, she came face to face with her rapist, who was casually sitting outside of Kelly's. It made my skin crawl. I still remember Elizabeth's rape, and it was horrifying. I can't stand to look at that creep. I have issues with separating actors from their roles. After I saw The Color Purple, I couldn't bear to watch Danny Glover in his next three movies.
Maybe Tom is rehabilitated. Maybe he would never do that sort of thing again. Even so, if I were Liz, I'd be calling Jordan for a restraining order right now. There is no way Liz will ever be okay with running into Tom at Kelly's. I confess to you, I wasn't entirely disgusted by Franco terrorizing him even though I know how hypocritical that is. There is no way Liz would feel safe in a room with him. She will probably need to go to counseling with Andre for the internal wounds this has reopened.
What's troubling to me personally is that our country just made it clear that over half of the citizens are okay with men who violate women. There are people who would elect Tom to office. I'm not trying to stir the political pot, but as a woman, I am truly disheartened that so few people cared about that issue in this election. It was casually brushed aside.
Back to GH. Through Liz's confession, Franco suddenly realized what he did to Sam, the depth to which he hurt her, and he apologized, but she wasn't biting. She may tolerate Franco, but like Liz, she will probably never be able to see Franco in a different light than as the man who tormented her, and she has the right to keep her distance from him. There is a difference between forgiveness and acceptance. You can forgive someone for hurting you and still choose not to be around them to give them a chance to do it again. Forgiveness is an attitude of the heart: "I'm not going to dwell on this anymore, let it eat me alive, actively seek revenge for your actions," etc. But it doesn't mean you are going to give the offender a chance to hurt you again if you believe you are still at risk from them.
Carly, on the other hand, was willing to nibble on the hook that Jax dropped.
Jax baited his hook with comfort, grace and waffles, and Carly was definitely biting. Josslyn is clearly rooting for a reunion of her parents, and frankly, I am, too. I like Carly better with Jax than with anyone. But Brenda and Carly have always ditched Jax for Sonny. Not me. I would never ditch Jax for Sonny. I get that Sonny is all dark and smoldering and damaged and mysterious. I understand why women are attracted to him. He's just the sort of guy I used to think I could fix. Ha!
However, I am solidly on Team Jax. He's not perfect, but he is pretty close. I really hope Ingo Rademacher sticks around for a while. I would love for Jax to stay into next year and to watch Carly and Jax slowly reconnect. I want flashbacks. I want old scenes when Morgan was a kid and the sweet bond that Morgan and Jax shared. I want Carly to remember what her life could have been like, what Morgan's life could have been like if she had stayed with Jax.
I also wish I could figure out what Nelle is up to. It' starting to remind me of the Rosalie storyline, where we knew she had a secret for months, but we didn't find out for eons about Brad and Rosalie being married. We still never really got resolution. I am hoping we get more definitive answers on Nelle, and much more quickly. Is she related to Carly? Or to Jax? Is that how Jax knew her kidney would match Josslyn?
The only one who recognizes that Nelle is up to something and doesn't trust her is good ole' Grandma Bobbie, whose radar has improved with age. She's savvy now, but she made some really bad relationship decisions in the past.
I was pleased to hear Bobbie will be coming back to work at GH. Jackie Zeman is only 63, so she would not be retirement age yet. We seem to be rid of gossipy Amy, Finn is holed up with Hayden, "Doctor Father Griffin" is in court battling for custody of a kid he just met last week, Lucas vanished from the face of the earth, Liz is distracted by Tom's release, and Liesl is worrying about Franco. So, without Bobbie and Monica paying attention to the patients, the hospital would probably be closed again in a week.
Finn has his hands full fighting his own illness and the one Hayden was just exposed to, which is supposedly more powerful than the original strain. Will he be able to find a cure that works, or will Hayden be the second woman he loves to die of this mystery illness?
Maybe he will discover a cure, and both he and Hayden can be whole and healthy and start a genuine relationship for Christmas. Here's hoping.
In other news, I was so sad to hear about the passing of the magnificent Claire Labine. She was my favorite GH writer. Without Claire, there would be no Sonny Corinthos. She wrote him into existence. We have her to thank for Sonny and Brenda's romance, for Robin and Stone's love story that educated us about AIDS, and the biggest tearjerker in all of soap history in my humble opinion - B.J.'s heart transplant.
Claire told stories that mattered, that made us feel genuine emotions, which dug in, that made us unable to look away. She took on tough issues; she educated and enlightened her audience. Oh, where is a writer of her caliber now? A year from now, I won't recall Charlotte's custody trial from today -- or that her character even existed. I won't look back fondly on Finn's mystery disease or care about Ava switching Morgan's pills. I won't find myself on YouTube, looking up old videos of Nelle digging in Carly's purse. But that heart transplant? Decades later, it still makes me cry. Claire Labine wrote lasting stories. Her work is etched on my heart. I hope the daytime world celebrates her legacy in style at the Daytime Emmys this year.
Readers, have the citizens of Port Charles ever been in a church for any reason where things went off perfectly? Nope. And this time was no different. Sonny took Morgan's funeral as the best time to confess that he was the reason Morgan died. If you are going to get married in Port Charles, you should elope to the Elvis wedding chapel in Vegas. You should move your memorial services to some hotel ballroom. But not the Metro Court -- it's not safe, either!
Sonny has now retracted his very public confession and has asked the magnificent Diane to use her magic to get him out. I have no doubt she will succeed. I just love Carolyn Hennesy. She is underused, in my humble opinion. She brings light and fire to every scene she is in. I look forward to her courtroom scenes next week.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Scott be able to seduce the pills away from Lucy? Will Ava tell me the shade of red she uses on her lips? Will Dillon keep "being there" for Kiki until he is just "there"? Will Claudette come back to town and have to face her three fake baby daddies and do some 'splainin'? Will Franco go all CO77X on Tom? Will Alexis sober up enough to host Thanksgiving? Will Michael find out if Nelle is related to him before or after her beds her? Will Valentin give Spencer's old room to Charlotte? Will Spencer come home for the holidays? (Please?) Will Nikolas come back and fight for his castle? (Please?) Will the GH writers be inspired by Claire Labine's legacy and start writing meaningful stories again? (Please?) Will the exceptionally handsome Curtis ever get a real love story with a core character? (Please?) Will the Quartermaines have to eat pizza on Thanksgiving? (Please?)
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
Tamilu
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