Dear Readers, perhaps you are new to GH, and perhaps you have been around to watch the shenanigans of Port Charles for a decade or four like me. Many sweeps ago, I believe eleven years ago, in 2007, the Metro Court was the scene of a hostage crisis where the villainous Jerry Jacks held half the town hostage in the hotel lobby. People were shot. People were killed. It was a horrific event.
You would think that between then and now, the Metro Court would have beefed up its security. You'd think that, in the age where any one of us can get a video camera security system from the local Home Depot or our cable TV provider, the Metro Court would have cameras everywhere and locks that can't be opened by Mr. Jingeling's ring of keys. (P.S. If you know who Mr. Jingeling is, please message me.)
No key cards? No swipe locks? No security cameras? A corridor to the owner's office where no guards are posted and no one else works? Hmmm. Curious. Nelle was able to waltz right into Carly's office; place her creepy, bloody replica of Morgan's death scarf; pull an alarm; break back into Carly's office to steal the scarf back; and get out of the hotel undetected.
I am not quite sure I can suspend my disbelief that much. My neighborhood Facebook group is basically just my entire neighborhood sharing their doorbell camera footage, saying, "Does anyone know whose hoodlum children these are?"
But for the sake of soap fun, I'll play along, because Chloe Lanier is doing a magnificent job playing a scheming soap villain. She drives me mad, but that is her job. Some soap villains are one-dimensional. Helena was just evil. Heather is just crazy. But the thing about Nelle that makes me unable to write her off is that Chloe plays her with layers. There are moments when she moves me, when I sympathize with her, when I see good and light in her.
Nelle's crazy has roots and reasons. Her overwhelming urge isn't to hurt people; it's to be loved and accepted. She only wants to hurt Carly because she thinks Carly is standing in her way of love and happiness. It's not a good reason to be evil, and her actions aren't in any way excusable, but I find myself sometimes feeling sad for Nelle. She is so desperate to be loved by someone that she is willing to take extreme measures to secure that love for herself. She makes me want to throw things at my TV and hug her in equal measure. I am glad she has Monica in her life, because what Nelle needs is an older, wiser mentor in her life that has been crazy over a man before, who can tell her, "This will not end well."
As soon as Michael made plans to go on a date with Francesca, I told my husband, "Nelle will walk in and see their date and set out to sabotage it." I'm totally unbearable to watch GH with because I pause and predict things like five times an episode. I love it when I'm right, and I love it even more when I'm wrong and they surprise me by not doing the obvious.
What is Nelle's ultimate plan against Carly? To make her think she's losing her mind? To drive her out of her mind for real? To make her think Morgan is alive and send her on a wild goose chase? I can't quite figure out where she is headed, but I know it's not sane, and I know it's not good.
The part that's bothering me even more is that Ava is encouraging her. I know Ava wants Avery back, but she has to see that Nelle is headed for disaster. Ava was worrying about losing Griffin over a scar on her cheek, but she will really lose him over his disgust when he realizes she helped Nelle plot against Carly.
When that happens, I predict he will turn to Kiki, who is in need of a good man after her run-in with the ultra-creepy Dr. Bensch. Readers, I called this storyline months ago; read back through my past columns and see the evidence. From the day Dr. Bensch randomly told Kiki she'd make a good doctor and started "helping" her, I could tell that he was grooming her to be his plaything. Like many other women in America, I have a #MeToo story, so my radar was up, and I saw it coming immediately. When you're Kiki's age, attention from an older man you admire is a heady thing, but at my age, I see it and just think, "Oh, hell no! Get the eff away from my granddaughter, creeper."
What will Kiki do? Will she tell the hospital administration? Will anyone believe her? Will he threaten to ruin her career unless she complies? Will Ava find out and have him whacked? Or will she feel she has to give in to become a doctor? I hope not. Perhaps Griffin will end up being her rescuer.
Maxie needs rescuing, too, and Peter August really wants to be her hero. But how will she feel about him once the truth comes out that he is Nathan's brother Henrik? Anna is looking for Henrik, and he is right under her nose. When they finally connect, will it be a happy mother/son reunion, or will she arrest him and toss him in the clink for his part in Jason's imprisonment in Russia? I want very much to like him. So, I'm hoping he has some really wonderful, excusable reason for keeping Jason pumped full of drugs in a mental hospital for five years. Oh, wait, there is no conceivable good reason for that behavior. Sorry, dude, you're going to have to answer for your sins.
I had hoped Anna was going to finally come clean with Finn this week, but right in the middle of her awkward confession of love, Alexis burst in and spoiled the moment.
Alexis is running from her own truth and lied to Julian when he admitted he was jealous of her friendship with Finn. Alexis told Julian she and Finn were an item. She had to say something because she still loves Julian, and although she has decided he's bad for her, she can't stay away from him.
Because Anna never completed her declaration of love to Finn, he has given up and allowed Alexis to continue the lie that the two of them are involved. This could go one of several directions -- they could actually fall in love while pretending to be a couple, or Alexis will cave in and confess to Julian she still loves him when he hooks up with Kim, or Anna will get brave and tell Finn how she feels, but only after a one-night stand with Robert (who will be back in Port Charles shortly...). Or Kim will dump "Charlie" and go back to Drew when he and Sam split. So many options. Keep your popcorn handy; this is going to get dramatic.
One of my favorite scenes this week was Old Carly (a.k.a. Kim) and New Carly bonding over their kids. Their praise of each other's mothering skills and the honorable children they both managed to raise in spite of their respective hardship was a great female empowerment moment. I really adored it. Tamara Braun and Laura Wright have palpable chemistry, and I hope they allow this friendship to grow. Carly needs a girlfriend to confide in, and I enjoy watching the mutual admiration these two seem to have for one another.
One good sign is that Carly is rooting for Kim and Drew to get together once Jason and Sam are back together. But is she jumping the gun? We don't know who Sam is going to ultimately pick yet.
Sam and Elizabeth reluctantly teamed up to find Franco and Drew. I was so afraid they were going to get wet cement poured on their pretty heads needlessly and mess up their perfect hair. Thankfully, before they went down into the sub basements, Drew and Franco popped up from the harbor after swimming out through wet cement into the sewer...
Kelly Monaco has done fantastic work this week. It's been so long since I've seen her emote like that, I had forgotten how truly gifted she is at those heartbreaking, gut-wrenching scenes. Her confession to Drew about still having feelings for Jason was so sad. Those times when no one is the bad guy, those are the scenes that get me. No one is a jerk in this romantic triangle, it's three good people who, by no fault of their own, were dropped into an impossible situation where someone's heart will inevitably be broken. If I were Sam, I'd probably break up with both of them and chose to live my life as a hermit rather than destroy one of them and break their hearts. It's like Sophie's Choice up in here -- way too hard!
As a viewer, I can't decide, either. Sam was with Jason first, she's with Drew now, she has a kid with each of them, she loves both of them. Sam had no idea the real Jason was still alive and being held prisoner for five years. She didn't know she had married the wrong twin. She didn't betray either of them intentionally; it's just complicated and hard and sad, as love triangles often are. Any choice she makes will destroy one of the men she loves. Any action she takes will wreck someone's life.
She's braver than I am; I'm a total coward. I would just refuse to act. The path of least resistance for me! Eat my feelings! Drown out the call of my heart with red wine! Anything but the thing Sam is doing, which is confronting the truth and wrestling with the confusion and indecision in her soul. Huzzah, Sam.
Franco is being equally brave by confessing his traumatic encounter with Jim Harvey to Elizabeth. I want Liz to tell him she was raped. I want her to say, "I know what PTSD looks like." I want her to be as honest with him as she is demanding that he be with her. Was Franco molested as a child? Was he beaten? Both? We don't know what terrible secret is locked in his psyche or what creeptastic thing Jim Harvey did to him, but I hope we find out soon. It's making me feel uncomfortable to watch it, and I just want it to be over.
I was delighted that Drew was tuned into Franco's frequency and recognized that Jim was tormenting him. I'm grateful that Drew busted down the door to end the abuse. Is this a turning point? Will this trigger Drew's memories and help him find himself? Will this end the feud between Drew and Franco, and will they become friends? I hope so. I love them working together. Billy Miller and Roger Howarth both have an easy charm that is highly watchable, and I could dig some more scenes with them together solving mysteries.
I also like Jordan and Curtis working on mysteries together. GH has a great history of sleuthing duos, like Frisco and Felicia, Luke and Laura, Sam and Spinelli, and now Curtis and Jordan working the same case from opposite ends of the law. They have the flash drive that proves Jim Harvey knew about the natural gas before the drilling began, but he's on the run. Will they find him and bring him to justice? Or will Drew and Franco find him first and dispense their own justice?
One last thing I really must mention...Mike's Alzheimer's storyline -- Max Gail is killing it. Every character involved -- Sonny, Carly, Dante, Michael, and every random character that gets drawn into Mike's world is doing a superb job. I hope he gets all the praise and accolades he deserves for this storyline, although I'm not even sure if a category exists for this kind of role. If there isn't one, they should make one so he can win something. Also, Maurice Benard -- every time the camera is on him in these scenes, his eyes are red. I don't think it's makeup. I think it's making him cry as much as it's making us cry. I love that he puts his whole heart into these scenes. It shows.
The part that made me cry the most was Mike remembering being there for Sonny when Sonny didn't remember Mike being there, and Sonny coming to the realization, "Maybe he was a better Dad than I remembered." So beautiful and true -- take any family and have them tell you their stories, happy or sad, or love or failure, and you'll get many different points of view. We all remember things from our own perspective. The truth is somewhere in the middle of those perspectives.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will the "Shadow Program" be Dr. Bensch taking Kiki into a shadowy location to try to lecherously fondle her? Will Brad remember how much he liked his sleazy lab ways and try to spring Britt from jail to resume their reign of terror? Will Franco and Drew give survival classes on how to swim through wet cement and into the sewer system? Will Sam find out "who she is" by the time she's 50? Will Michael's room at the Metro Court be as easily broken into as Carly's office? Will we all have to apologize to Heather Webber for assuming it was her that had Betsy tied up somewhere? Will Finn take Roxy back to Charlie's and buy her a salad? Will Drew take Michael's abandoned room at the Q mansion? Will Spinelli be able to keep up his fake accent when he poses as Henrik to try to get the contents of Faison's safe?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
Tamilu
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