Dear readers, this was the week. We waited for the building pressure of these soapalicious storylines to finally explode, and this week, the volcanoes erupted! When I watched my little buddy @MaxUpdatesGH bouncing around in excitement to give his update because so many juicy things happened, I was right there with him!
Where do we even begin? How about a few highlights...Willow has leukemia, and everyone knows. Carly lied to Drew about Willow's mom, and Drew knows. (He did not suffer her foolishness gladly.) Nina is Willow's mother, and Nina knows. The shockwaves will soon be felt all over Port Charles. Spencer is off probation and moved in with his Uncle Sonny. Chase and Brooklyn got the old familiar vibes back while babysitting Wiley. (Side note, Nu Wiley is so cute!) Britt is gone, and Terry feels pressured to do the chief of staff job alone. Sasha and Cody made friends over biscotti and shared their heartaches. I think that's a promising union. Victor realized Esme was held captive in the North Tower and disposed of the evidence to protect Nik. But naturally, since he's Victor, he held onto it for future blackmail leverage.
I was breathless all week. Weeks like these make all the slow-paced weeks in between worthwhile.
I want to dive into each of these fantastic stories, but first, a PSA from your Soap Diva Auntie Tammy: Dearest Readers, you may not know this, but it's okay to change your mind. You can think a particular thing or feel a certain way and then later get new information or understanding and say, "I was wrong. I'm switching my opinion." If all of America could do that and not dig in on their positions regardless of facts, we'd be better.
So, while I have been very critical of the notion of a friendship with Ava and Nina in the past, this week, I watched Maura West and Cynthia Watros in scenes together. I thought, "I must admit, I love them together." Their friendship has won me over.
Could I ever be friends with a woman who tried to steal my baby? Unlikely. But I can't deny that Nina and Ava have grown on me. Despite their origin story, I am putting that aside and celebrating that a strong female friendship is being portrayed on GH. They wish the best for each other. They give one another support and sound advice. Watching them together makes me incredibly thankful for my bestie, who has stuck by me for 40 years. And I'm a handful. (But so is she.)
Meanwhile, Nina's nemesis Carly is about to have zero friends. Her secrets and lies have caught up with her at the worst possible time -- Willow's on her deathbed. Carly confessed that Nina was Willow's mother, and Nina didn't believe her at first. And why should she? Carly has been her enemy long enough for anything Carly tells Nina to be suspect. But then Nina had a montage of all her interactions with Willow playing in her mind. She finally accepted the truth and rushed to help her daughter.
I predict everyone is going to be very peeved with Carly. Think about it. If Carly had told Nina months ago that she was Willow's mom, the two of them would probably have worked through all their issues by now. When Willow got her diagnosis, she would not have waited months to tell anyone; she would have gone to her mother with the news, and Nina would have gotten tested as a donor. She could have potentially avoided chemo completely and gotten a bone marrow transplant before her disease progressed to stage 4.
Now, I have to wonder, will Nina be a bone marrow match? And if she is, will Willow accept her bone marrow? As much as Willow hates Nina and as stubborn as Willow can be, she might reject it out of spite and die rather than accept help from Nina. Not really, but that would be a very soapy twist.
I predict that the tables are about to turn. Sonny and Nina will be inside the "Millow" circle, and Carly will be on the outside. Drew will be unable to trust her, and maybe he will spend the spare time he's not following Carly around to visit Scout.
Dearest readers, it was highly satisfying watching Drew call Carly on her crap this week. Drew did not let Carly talk her way out of it. Drew recognized that Carly had the perfect opportunity to get even with Nina for not telling her that Sonny was alive and took it. Carly denied it, but Drew refused to let her off the hook. Carly is rarely held accountable by anyone for her antics, and I was audibly cheering Drew on.
Cameron Mathison killed those scenes this week. He's just so damned likable. I root for him in every scene. Laura Wright was also brilliant as the realization that all her lies might cost her daughter-in-law her life washed over her face in horror. Despite all her explanations and excuses, Drew refused Carly's every attempt to explain away her behavior.
I hope this trajectory continues for Drew, and he morphs back into the Drew he used to be before Carly got her claws into him. Even if they eventually get back together, I want Drew to be a pushback on Carly, like Jason used to be. And no, I don't want Drew to turn into Jason, I want Jason to come back and be Jason. But I want someone in Carly's orbit who can speak the truth to her.
But readers, I'm torn. Do you think all of this makes me Team Nina? Nope. That scene where Nina found out about Willow's cancer? I thought she was going over to support Michael and Willow. Instead, Nina used her knowledge as a weapon to berate Michael and try to worm her way back into Wiley's life. I despised the way she handled that situation. Not even an "I'm so sad to hear about Willow's cancer. How can I help you two?"
Instead, she launched into a tirade about Willow being selfish and Wiley potentially ending up with no mom. Nina ripped into Michael. Ugh. Just when Nina scores a couple of points with me, she does something to remind me why I don't like her. And that's the challenging part of the Nina and Carly rivalry. It's hard to root for either one because they are both genuinely awful.
Readers, as you know, because I am a very vocally opinionated girl, I have been critical of Michael ever since the storyline started when he was dead set on destroying Sonny. However, Chad Duell's portrayal of a brokenhearted husband changed my mind again this week. I saw glimpses of the Michael I used to love, the tenderhearted, steadfast guy who values family above everything. Chad has done some incredibly tender work in the past, and the writers are finally allowing him to be nice Michael instead of mean Michael. Seeing Michael struggle as he watches Willow battle cancer is moving. His despair has me heading back to Team Michael. That is, of course, if he cancels his war on Sonny.
When Sonny sat by Willow's bedside and cried real tears of pain for his daughter-in-law and gave her the "You're a fighter" pep talk, oh, I wanted to hug him. Something about Mo crying puts me over the edge every time. And no, we are not friends, and I don't get to call him Mo, but in my pretend world, we are pals, and Mr. Benard lets me call him by his nickname. He did beautiful work at Willow's bedside. I hope this is the door opening to Sonny reuniting with his family.
When Sonny called Joss to his office, she assumed he was calling her to judge her life choices. But instead, he called her to see how he could support Willow and Michael. When it was clear that Joss didn't know about Willow's leukemia, I kept yelling, "Hug her!" at the TV. I want the rift between Sonny and Joss to end, too.
Why? Because Joss needs a father figure in her life, and since there is no way that ABC will ever hire Ingo back, I think a recast of Jax is in order. Maybe one of the Hemsworth brothers is free. ABC and Disney are partners, so if Thor wants to come and be Jax in his downtime, I'd be all in for that. I mean, Chris Hemsworth is 39. He could conceivably have a college-aged daughter. Maybe Hugh Jackman instead. He's 54. Or any other hot Australian actor of your choice. He'd be there if a serial killer was after Jax's daughter. Over the years, Jax has been a caring dad and whisked Joss off to Australia when the situation warranted it.
Spencer needs a parent, too, but his mom is dead, and his dad slept with his girlfriend and impregnated her. So, Spencer has Grandmother Laura, Uncle Victor, Uncle Sonny, and Uncle Cyrus. What a motley crew. When Sonny spat the words, "You keep my family out of your mouth, or it will be the last time you ever say anything," at Victor, I laughed and laughed.
Spencer is finally off probation and free to roam around as he pleases. Uncle Sonny offered him a place to stay to get out of his father's orbit. Sonny's exact words were, "Spencer has a choice whether or not to stay in this pit."
On the upside, Sonny's place should be virtually empty, so it will be the perfect place for Spencer and Trina to practice faking being in love. Except they aren't pretending.
My favorite facial expression this week was when Nikolas confessed to Alexis that he was the father of Esme's baby. Her shocked expression made me howl, and I rewound it five times to see it again.
I can't quite figure out what will happen next. Here is what we know. 1) Marcus Coloma was let go from GH. 2) Fans are clamoring for Tyler Christopher to return, me included. But the truth is, are we sure there will even be a Nikolas?
If Heather/the Hook finds out Nikolas imprisoned her daughter and impregnated her, she will kill him. Or perhaps Uncle Victor will use his stash of evidence to blackmail Nikolas off Spoon Island and back to Greece.
We don't know what Nikolas' fate is or what the writers have planned. As for me, I want Nikolas to be alive for a very long time, and I want to see his original portrayer return triumphant and return him to the soulful, tortured prince we remember from days of old.
A lot of loony things happened this week. First off, yes, the chatter is absolutely accurate. No hospital would let a civilian go in and box up a dead doctor's office without ensuring confidential medical files didn't end up in the box. That Nina and Liesl accidentally ended up with Willow's medical files is absurd, but this is a soap. It was a plot device to move the story along; I am okay with it because I wanted it to get rolling. I will suspend my disbelief in soaps forever if it moves the story forward.
I don't think Esme is faking her amnesia. If I get proven wrong, feel free to call me a chump. But when Spencer walked in and there was zero reaction from her, I was sold. She didn't seem to recognize any of the photos they showed her. Esme was told if she had an alibi of where she had been, she could be eliminated as a suspect of being the Hook. Nothing moved her.
Even Trina, who was the victim of many of Esme's crimes, feels sympathetic toward her. She told Portia that she thinks that amnesia may have changed Esme. It's interesting to me how angry the online comments are that Trina may forgive Esme. People are enraged over the idea of forgiveness. I don't think they understand how powerful forgiveness is.
I love a redemption story more than almost anything. I love a tale of someone terrible, broken, or lost until a life event happens and causes them to change direction -- both in real life and represented in drama.
I hope Esme's amnesia does make her a good girl and that she's horrified to learn her parents are both serial killers. I hope Uncle Cyrus really did find Jesus in prison. I want him to stay rough enough around the edges to beat the crap out of Spencer's enemies but nice enough to earn a place in Laura and Martin's lives. We forgave Franco for being a serial killer when his actions were explained away by a brain tumor. We forgave con woman Sam who used to marry rich men and swindle them out of their fortunes. Certainly, we can forgive Esme if she wakes up a new woman, right?
Poor heartbroken Cam. The precious William Lipton had me teary-eyed this week. He is a soulful young man, and his performances are so believable. The GH casting team who cast Cam, Joss, Spencer, Trina, and Esme should cast every show. They chose such marvelous young actors in all these roles. I have said it before, but I must repeat it. Cameron is heartbroken after being dumped by Joss on New Year's Eve. Esme has amnesia and doesn't remember any of her evil deeds. Cameron was compassionate, even when Esme was evil, and tried to be her friend. I can envision these two lost souls connecting and forming a bond.
I know eventually, Esme will regain her memory. Still, I hope it's not until November sweeps, so we have a good long year of the new and improved Esme and sweetheart Cam falling in love. I don't think he's ready to be a dad, but let's see who gets custody of baby Ace. I hope they really name that baby Ace. Make it so.
Portia is understandably wary of Esme's amnesia and has good reason to be concerned about Trina. Readers, don't hate me, but I told Portia to just shut up when she judges Nikolas for his lies. She has lied to her daughter for Trina's entire life about who her dad is, so Portia can't claim the moral high ground here. My daddy, the pastor, used to say that we judge ourselves by our intentions. But we judge other people by their actions. Portia judges Nikolas by his actions but does not realize that her actions would be just as objectionable to an outside viewer.
Regarding the Portia/Curtis/Jordan triangle, I'm Team Jordan. I want Jordan to blow up Portia's lies, get Curtis back, and leave her alone to think about what she's done. And it's about time for this to happen. Jordan has been back in town for months with no love interest and no movement forward on their storyline. Aunt Stella, come and meddle!
Side note, I was watching Ginny & Georgia on Netflix, and when I got to episode six, I kept looking at one of the actresses and saying, "I know that woman from someplace." It took me a minute, but then I realized it was the beautiful Vinessa Antoine (the original Jordan Ashford).
Dante, Jordan, and Robert ambushed Joss at the police station, and the cops now know that Josslyn was the person at the docks the Hook was trying to kill when Britt died saving her. Will they ever fit Dex into that puzzle? Is Heather roaming around at Spring Ridge with a gunshot wound, and none of her doctors have noticed? How closely are they guarding those people? But I digress. Joss lawyered up with Diane "Killer" Miller, as Robert christened her, and Joss gave her statement without ever mentioning Dex's name.
I'm going to take a vote on the hottest moment on GH this week. And since I am the only vote, the winning scene is (drum roll, please) Chase doing yoga. Holy cannoli. Far be it from me to agree with Gambling Gladys on anything, but she called it with that "hot yoga" crack. Readers, I am worried about Sasha. It appears as if Gladys has gambled and lost most of Sasha's money, even going so far as to use the diamond earrings Sasha gave her as payment for the debt she owes Ms. Wu.
I predict that Sonny will have to bail Gladys out like he used to bail out Mike's gambling debt, and then he will send Gladys packing. Sasha will be skint (a word I learned on Gilmore Girls -- thanks Rory) and need a roommate to make ends meet. I think her pal Chase may ask her to move in with him. I initially thought GH was heading to a Chase/Sasha pairing. Still, I might have gotten it wrong after seeing Chase and Brooklyn on Friday, and Sasha and Cody with the biscotti.
Finn and Liz had a very awkward conversation this week, but not much more uncomfortable than the ones they used to have when they were a couple. If I were Finn, I'd look for Liz's sister and Violet's mother, Hayden. Or I would go and save my pal Alexis from Gregory.
Readers, I apologize if they are your favorite couple. Still, all the Alexis and Gregory scenes are a snooze to me. I adore Nancy Lee Grahn; she has chemistry with nearly everyone she's ever been in a scene with. She brings her internal spark into every scene she plays. But Gregory isn't a worthy match for her. I'd rather see her with anyone. Bring back Ric. I loved them together. Or give her the recast Jax. Or put her in 50 scenes with Finn. Or have Diane tell her she needs to become a lawyer again and let her focus on getting her legal credentials back instead of being in any relationship. Just save her from Gregory. He can stay as Violet's grandpa and Chase and Finn's dad, but other than that, let the Hook take him.
It's good that Liz doesn't have to worry about coddling Finn right now, as she has enough trouble of her own. Liz is caring for Esme, wondering every minute whether Esme will recall that Elizabeth was one of her captors. When Liz told Cam she was shocked Esme was back in town, I yelled, "Liar!" at my TV. But I love Liz, despite her recent bad decisions, and here is what I want for her. I like Tyler Christopher for her. I really do. Becky and Tyler played against each other for so many years. There are so many flashback scenes to use. There is a rich history between Liz and Nikolas, and this is the perfect time to resurrect it.
Nikolas and Liz can bond over their shared mistakes and walk down memory lane of everything they have been through together. Their relationship didn't work the first time because, well, the guilt over Lucky. But, hey, Lucky hasn't been seen in years. But maybe this year.
Why? GH is turning 60! We already know our beloved Jane Elliot (a.k.a. Tracy Q) is coming this year. My fondest hope is that she and Luke are coming to save Port Charles from the mysterious "Ice Princess" evil plan Victor is cooking up, with Mayor Laura's help. I also hope we get many legacy actors and characters back on -- I already mentioned Tyler, but let's also bring back Luke and Laura's other kids, Lulu and Lucky! Jonathan Jackson and Tony Geary together -- a tearful reunion between Luke and his Cowboy would be the best scene ever.
How about a coffee date with Monica and Leslie reminiscing over their cat fights over Rick. How about some flashback scenes with Alan, Lila, and Edward? (Both Edwards, please. I adored them both.)
I hope GH goes all in for this anniversary and gives me a wink from the past every single week all year. Give me some, Brenda. Give me an undead Jimmy Lee Holt checking in on Austin. Give me a visit from Robin, Patrick, and Emma. Give me a villain palooza episode with a montage of scenes from all the best baddies -- Helena, Faison, Alcazar, Manny Ruiz, Anthony Zachara, Faith Roscoe, Frank Smith, Stavros Cassadine, Jerry Jacks, Lisa Niles, Olivia Jerome, etc. Make it a primetime special. Make me pay for it on Hulu. I don't care. I just want it.
Will Robert ever ask "Killer Miller" on a date? Will Nina be more careful with the bar glasses she leaves lying around so no one can do unauthorized DNA tests on her? Will I try biscotti dipped in wine after Veganuary is over? (Yes.) Will Cody and Brooklyn become partners in crime? Will Laura still tell Liz she's like a daughter to her once she discovers Liz helped Nikolas hold Esme hostage? Will anyone but Cam ever be working at Kelly's? Will T.J. get an apology from Nina once she finds out he supports Willow with her cancer diagnosis? Will anyone but me ever admit how cute Nina and Wiley are together?
Will I buy another Kleenex box to get through next week? (Yes) Will Uncle Sonny offer Spencer a job in the mob, since he is short-staffed, and Spencer already has a felony record and a stint in Pentonville? Will anyone at Spring Ridge notice nutty Heather and "locked-in" Ryan hanging out together? (Seriously, what institution would have one serial killer babysit another serial killer?!?) Will Heather slip out and visit her daughter Esme in GH, dressed as a nurse? Will Liesl wake up with a heart full of revenge and give me the Liesl and Heather smackdown I am craving? Will Finn stop moping over Elizabeth and take Violet to the zoo or something? Will Laura ever have to run for reelection, or is she mayor for life?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
Tamilu
What are your thoughts on General Hospital? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- and there are many ways you can share your thoughts.
