Those of you who watch sports, particularly football, are well acquainted with the phenomenon that often occurs when a backup is pulled off the bench to step in for a flagging starter. Even if said starter is a demonstrably better player in many if not most respects, the backup typically tends to bring a spark that can revive a moribund team.
This spark is often short-lived — NFL history is full of players who came off the bench, lit it up, and subsequently signed top-dollar contracts, only to revert to form after being offered a full-time starting job — but there's still something about finding someone with fresh legs and handing them the ball during times of trouble. Even if it's just a temporary change, it can make a huge difference in the outcome of a season.
I thought about this a lot while watching General Hospital last week.
Like many of you, I'm conflicted about the show continuing while writers and actors are striking — I believe strongly in unions, and I don't think the studios have a single leg to stand on when it comes to refusing their demands here. But also like many of you, I noticed a big lift in the writing last week. It's unfortunate that it took fi-core writers stepping in to make this happen, but if we're talking strictly about the onscreen product — and that's what I try to do here — then what's happening right now represents a net benefit for the show and its viewers.
All of which is to say that, as I said might happen in my last column, the temporary writers (whoever they are) haven't been shy at all about shaking up storylines and making sudden changes. Soap writing is a creatively exhausting gig, and I have no idea whether the folks responsible for these moves have any kind of long-term plan, but for the moment, there's a lot of motion — and most of it feels like it's headed in a promising direction. I hope the writers and actors get everything they're asking for; in the meantime, however, I'm very curious to see where the fi-core squad intends to take the citizens of Port Charles.
As GH writer Shannon Peace told followers before these episodes aired, the fi-core writers stepped in after last Monday's episode, and the difference between the pre- and post-strike scripts was as stark as it was immediate. Monday's episode included a lot of chaff with a bit of wheat sprinkled in — we got to see Terry and Yuri's first scene together in like a year, and also were treated to the sight of Liz telling Dex to get the hell out of her hospital, but there was also much more of the usual treading water, and also the blasphemy of someone slapping Ava without having their hands chopped off and crammed into their nethers.
So let's ignore Monday; the fi-core writers mostly did. Here's a look at what went down on GH last week, starting with Tuesday's episode.
Ava Comes Clean
This was a week of big confessions, starting with Ava coming right out and telling Sonny that Mason has been blackmailing her into digging up dirt on him, using her supposed murder of Nikolas as leverage. There are things to quibble with here — I resent Sonny swooping in like some kind of superhero, and I'm offended by the idea of Ava being cowed into submission by anyone, let alone a fake, slap-happy nanny named Betty — but this story has so many dusty dangling threads that it's hard not to be largely gratified by these developments.
In a nutshell, here's how it went down: Betty showed up at Wyndemere to "interview" for the job of replacing Pilar as Avery's nanny, which she and Ava both understood to be a formality given that Mason's crew had already selected Betty for the gig. Ava's sole purpose here was to convince Sonny to hire Betty — a mission she was given more incentive to accomplish when Ava called her mom and discovered Delia was headed away for a weekend in Pautauk with a guy who's "the dangerous type."
After being slapped by Betty for refusing to play ball unless Delia was left alone, Ava sang Betty's praises to Sonny — who of course knew something was up and pressed Ava for details as soon as Betty left. Under ordinary circumstances, this would have been a nothing conversation, with Ava fumbling for excuses and Sonny just being annoyed, but the new writers said the hell with it and had Ava tell Sonny everything: Mason's blackmail, her clubbing Nikolas over the head and why, how Austin got involved. All of it.
Austin, meanwhile, was called into his office by Mason, who was waiting there with Gordon, the guy who shook Austin down for extra money the week before. During the entire exchange, it was patently obvious that Mason was going to have Gordon killed — which is exactly what happened after Gordon left GH, his body conveniently left in an alley adjoining the hospital where Dex couldn't help but find it after he was escorted out by Liz in the middle of his clumsy attempt to tail Austin. On Sonny's orders, Dex called the police; naturally, Dante was one of the responding officers, joined by the suddenly busy-again Detective Bennet (otherwise known as the guy who arrested Heather for being the Hook all those eons ago).
So now Sonny is trying to lull Betty into a sense of false security by secretly having her tailed while she nannies Avery, and the PCPD knows a guy from Pautauk turned up dead outside the hospital. What does all this mean? Basically, we're probably looking at a brief prelude leading into the long-awaited arrival of whoever's been pulling Mason and Austin's strings. This will in turn lead into yet another goddamn Sonny-driven story, but anything is better than the slow wheel-spinning that Austin and Mason have been doing since their connection was revealed. I only hope that this new fearsome villain is actually worth watching. Hey, maybe they'll bring Faith Rosco back from the dead so Elizabeth can finally learn she's the one who pushed her down a flight of stairs and caused her to miscarriage all those years ago.
Cody Tells All
Ava wasn't the only one who spilled a jar full of beans last week. After keeping quiet about Gladys' involvement with Selina for far too long, Cody unburdened himself to Dante, telling him he suspects that Gladys is stealing from Sasha in order to cover her gambling debts — and that she manipulated the events leading up to Sasha being committed to Ferncliff.
This in no way excuses or even improves the heinous Sasha side of the story, or comes close to erasing the show's long-running mistreatment of the character, but it's at least a refreshing change. Instead of half the town peering on quizzically as a smart, successful woman appears to abruptly lose her mind, we've got cowboy Cody determined to figure out what Gladys is up to, with Dante and Sam riding shotgun on the quest to stop her. One hopes that Maxie, who found herself stonewalled by Gladys when she tried visiting Sasha at Ferncliff, will become part of that circle before too long.
Speaking of Maxie, if I had to guess, I'd say she'll be buying Dante and Lulu's old place soon. In one of the more surprising developments of the week, Dante and Charlotte paid a visit to her long-comatose mom, and on their way out of the clinic, they discussed how sad it is that the house has stood empty all this time. Given how heavily the show has been hinting at a new home for Maxie and her kids, this only makes sense; it'd allow GH to end the absurd charade of pretending all those people could comfortably fit in Maxie's little apartment while saving a few bucks by repurposing an old set.
The other alternative is that the writers are laying track for a looming Lulu return, which is probably inevitable at some point but feels fairly unnecessary right now. Dante and Sam are a solid couple, and soap gold in the sense that they don't need to have wedges thrown between them in order to generate interest. He's a cop and she's a PI; they can mix it up in each other's stories indefinitely, and they're a lot of fun to watch while they do it. Lulu was a character at loose ends for years before she was written off — if and when they bring her back, it has to be for a better reason than simply reviving the old trope of an ex suddenly returning to the canvas just in time to ruin a wedding or whatever.
Anyway, whatever any of these folks have to do in order to get Sasha sprung from Ferncliff, here's hoping they manage to pull it off quickly — or at the very least, here's hoping that Sofia Mattsson's maternity leave starts very soon, so we aren't punished by any further scenes of Sasha screaming as she's drugged against her will in between bouts of being lied to by her doctor and former mother-in-law. On the other side of all this, the show has GOT to find something for Sasha that doesn't involve endless horrific suffering. It's beyond parody at this point.
Curtis Lashes Out
We all knew this was coming, right? From the moment Curtis was accidentally shot in the back, even the least intellectually gifted General Hospital viewer could have predicted that he'd wake up without feeling in his legs, and also that he'd react by trying to shut his loved ones out of his life. That all came to fruition last week when he unloaded on Portia, telling her he doesn't want her pity and kicking her out of his hospital room before telling Liz he doesn't want any visitors, especially Portia and Trina.
As predictable as this is, it's also believable enough in its fashion. Two things can be true, and while it's wearisome to watch Curtis and Portia's long dance of recrimination, it's also obvious that many if not most people might behave similarly in Curtis' situation. It also set up a series of scenes that used Finn and Liz as Steve and Audrey proxies in the least offensive way possible, so props to the writers for that — I didn't think it could be done.
In essence, what we saw in this corner of the canvas last week was Curtis lashing out and Portia being hurt, followed by Liz trying to help Portia make her peace with the situation and Finn actually giving Curtis some good advice. If you tend to fast-forward your way through Finn or Finn/Liz scenes, I'd recommend breaking that habit for these ones — there was no emphasis on their wholly unsuccessful coupling, only a couple of talented professionals using their wisdom and experience to help others. It's the way Finn in particular should really be used; I'll never believe Michael Easton as a willing or interested romantic lead, but the stuff he said at Curtis' bedside left me imagining a future for Finn as an elder statesman at the hospital, and I didn't mind what I saw at all. If Terry must have a co-chief of staff, she could do worse — now let's see the show devote some actual time and attention to the almost entirely offscreen love affair between her and Yuri.
Anyway, as it stands right now, Portia has dried her tears and informed Curtis that she will not be giving up on him, he will be coming home, and she'll be there to support him every step of the way whether he likes it or not. The writers will need to pull a lot of rabbits out of a lot of hats to make anything remotely resembling a surprise in this story, but I don't have any complaints about this week where they're concerned — things moved quickly, and there was even a little room for the temperature to rise in the brewing conflict between Portia and Spencer.
Esme: Evil Again?
This was unfortunately another week of rapidly deflating romance between Spencer and Trina, who continue to find themselves putting their relationship on the back burner in order to accommodate a couple of women making obstacles of themselves — namely Portia, who's committed to keeping her daughter and Spencer apart, and Esme, who has lately been rendered incapable of doing anything besides whining about baby Ace.
It's all rather annoying and a waste of one of the most popular couples the show's had in years, but at least some things were said out loud last week. Portia, who's been working behind the scenes to split up Spencer and Trina, made it very clear to him that she thinks he sucks and she wants him out of Trina's life; Trina, meanwhile, admitted that she's been keeping her distance from Spencer in order to make her mother happy. This was all followed by Spencer and Trina agreeing to keep things low key between them for now… and Esme muttering to Ace while seemingly hatching her own plan to break up the happy couple once and for all.
Of course, I don't know what the new writers have in mind for these characters, but it seems like we're about to find out that Esme was either faking her amnesia (which would be fun to watch) or that she's a vindictive, jealous, spiteful person with or without her memory (which could also be entertaining). Either way, it'll be an improvement over the lackluster "conflicts" that have kept Spencer and Trina largely at arm's length since they got back from Greenland.
This has all been as perplexing as it is annoying. Contriving to keep popular couples apart is what soaps do, and it's frankly inexcusable that GH has fumbled it so badly with Spencer and Trina, especially after giving the spark between them a little bit of oxygen during that Greenland adventure. Out of all the many options they could have chosen when seeking to keep these two star-crossed, they decided to stick Spencer on diaper duty and piss away whatever limited amount of time the show likely has with one of its most dynamic young performers? It's hard to know what they were thinking, but again, there appears to be some rapid motion in a corrective direction here. As many of you have pointed out since this part of the story got started, there was never any reason to redeem Esme — even if you believe it's possible to do such a thing with a character who recorded and distributed revenge porn, her place on the canvas isn't and never will be that of a heroic lead. She's good for wreaking havoc, and that's what they need to let her do — and if that means making her a new Heather or Ryan who pops in for short stints before retreating to the shadows, then so be it.
Adventures in Chechnyan Real Estate
Not much to talk about here yet, but we got a few minutes with Laura and Valentin on Friday. Like a number of you, I'd assumed that most if not all of this storyline would take place offscreen, especially given the involvement of the rarely seen Yuri, and I'm very happy to have been wrong. Strange bedfellows are always fun on a show like this, and they don't come much stranger than Laura and Valentin. In real life, I fully recognize that it would be exceedingly unlikely if not outright offensive to have Laura searching for her son with the aid of the man who once shot her son, but on General Hospital, it's sort of rad. I like these actors, I think they're a lot of fun together, and I trust them to elevate the material even when it isn't quite there (or not even close to being there).
At the moment, as happy as I am to see these two, it's still hard to see where the show's going with their quest. First of all, I might be remembering this all wrong, but… Victor left that house in his will, correct? So why weren't Laura and Valentin surprised/indignant to discover a gun-toting man in there, claiming to be the new owner and saying good riddance to all Cassadines? Also, given that we already know Mason has Nikolas, and there doesn't appear to be any connection between his gang and the Cassadines, what are we even expecting Laura and Valentin to find in Chechnya?
It's a mystery, and kind of a silly one, but I'm not going to sweat that right now. I'm just glad these two are back onscreen. We can figure out the details later.
Kelly's Becomes Carly's
Last but maybe not least, we've got the beginning of Carly's latest reinvention. Apparently at some point after Michael and Willow's wedding, Bobbie jetted off to Amsterdam to help settle Luke's estate or something, which I guess means Kelly's has been running on fumes. Why this would be the case, I have no idea — it isn't like Bobbie was running the diner full-time or anything; you'd think it'd be safe to assume that she and Luke were always owners in name only, farming out the details to their staff.
I digress. Bobbie has evidently taken advantage of some loophole in New York law that allows parents to sell their assets to their children at very low prices, which means Carly is now the owner of Kelly's, all for the cost of a single dollar. Those of you with long memories will no doubt have already noted that this isn't the first time Carly's gotten mixed up with the diner — she opened a club underneath the building around 20 years ago — but for the moment, it sounds like she'll be strictly focused on the above-ground portion of the business, including the rooms for rent upstairs.
Plenty of other people have already pointed out that this is yet another case of Carly being given a very expensive leg up, thus giving the lie yet again to her perpetual insistence that she clawed her way out of the gutter or whatever, and I would also have to assume that even this character's most rabid defenders would have to concede that she is, how do you say, not a very good choice for owner/operator of a beloved Port Charles eatery. (It took her all of half a day to say "get the hell out of my kitchen," after all. No, I'm not granting an exception just because she said it to Nina.)
So this is a weird direction to send Carly in, is what I'm saying. That being said, I'm also not mad at it — at least not yet. If the show ultimately intends to have Carly give the diner a complete makeover, then I will add this to my list of reasons to vehemently dislike this character, but if they're honestly trying to revitalize Kelly's, then great — it's high time the show recognized that not everyone can afford to live at the goddamn Metro Court indefinitely, and it'd be great to have a Brownstone-style anchor point for blue-collar characters who'd be fine with a single room.
Anyway, let's see where they go with this. As with most things involving Carly, my hopes are not high, but you never know, and I'm always up for a pleasant surprise. Fingers crossed!
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