Whatever reset button was pressed in the writers' room a few weeks ago still seems to be working, because General Hospital just gave us another week of well-paced, reasonably solidly constructed episodes. There are still things we can quibble about — and I'll probably do my fair share of quibbling over the next 2,000 words or so — but the show seems to have officially shaken off its recent doldrums.
It probably doesn't hurt that the writers are treating Ronnie's sudden arrival as the A story, and Erika Slezak's short-term availability means they need to know where things are going, and they can't waste time getting there. That sense of urgency has blessedly spilled over into other areas of the canvas, and the end result is a show that feels like it's on the verge of a major moment during many if not most of its scenes.
Of course, this kind of thing can't last if you don't have multiple long-term plans mapped out, and we all know how rarely that seems to be the case on GH. But for the moment, things are cooking, and I'm reasonably optimistic about pretty much every storyline that's currently in progress. Let's talk about why.
Barbara Saunders, Esq.
As we discussed last time, Carly now knows that Brennan recruited Joss into the WSB, and she is 32 flavors of pissed about it. And not regular Carly pissed, either — rather than falling back on her typical MO, which is to shout people into submission, she's taking the far more terrifying approach of letting her daughter and boyfriend twist in the wind while she schemes in the shadows. This is rare for her, to put it mildly, and this satisfying change is elevated further by the fact that for the first time in as long as I can remember, she's genuinely the wronged party here.
I'm so intrigued by this turn of events that I'm not even going to laugh — much — at the deeply corny turn events that saw her turning to Spinelli for a "new identity" that took him two whole days to provide, then donning a supremely unserious wig-and-glasses disguise so she could bluff her way into Steinmauer by pretending to be Valentin's new lawyer. All of those things: So dumb. But they led to Carly and Valentin agreeing to team up and take down Brennan, so who's going to complain?
We still don't know anything about how this unholy alliance will proceed, or how in the world Carly actually intends to get Valentin sprung from prison, but those details matter less than the fun that promises to follow. It'd be a lot more fun if Charles Mesure was still playing Brennan, but that ship has well and truly sailed, and it's worth noting that Chris McKenna has gotten a bit better about injecting his character with the level of oily menace that he needs in order to be truly compelling. This could be a genuinely good time, and I'm looking forward to finding out.
Carly's trip overseas went unnoticed by Brennan as well as Joss, which makes one wonder how good at their jobs they can possibly be. In their very limited defense, they were both busy grappling with the mystery of the Five Poppies. Joss was confronted by Anna, who pressed her for information about her time in Croatia and warned her that if Faison is involved in anything that's going on, the situation is a lot more dangerous than she realizes. Brennan, meanwhile, tried threatening Nathan with criminal charges if he didn't come clean about where he'd been for the last seven years — a ploy that failed miserably, with Nathan angrily pointing out that Faison hadn't been any kind of father to him, to put it mildly.
While Brennan tried interrogating Nathan, Anna did the same to Britt, with similarly fruitless results. After being threatened with a massive bill for taxpayer funds wasted on investigating her "death," Britt feebly pretended to cooperate by telling Anna that she'd been at the Five Poppies to develop an exfoliating skin treatment using peptides, and insisted that Pascal had been her boss. Anna didn't buy any of it, of course, but she had to have known she was going to be stonewalled — the real point was just to put Britt on notice, increasing the pressure she's already getting from several different directions at once.
This remains a deeply, perhaps fatally flawed storyline, one that's been allowed to dawdle and stumble along for far, far too long. And GH's curiously blasé treatment of Nathan's return from the dead doesn't inspire confidence, especially after we've endured months of the narrative water torture that is everything to do with Professor Dalton. I'm also not particularly eager for any kind of Faison return — as formidable as he was, and as delightful as Anders Hove is, this show needs new villains more than it needs another redux. Still, all that being said, I see potential here. Enough of it that I want to see where this ends up going, anyway.
You Bitch!
As expected, Nina ended her day in court by flipping on Willow and admitting she'd lied about being with her when Drew was shot. Even though this was basically a formality because of the footage proving they weren't together, Drew and Willow both acted like Nina had sunk to dastardly new lows — at least for a few moments, anyway. They quickly had bigger issues to contend with, chief among them Willow being denied bail and promptly shipped off to Pentonville.
Desperate to free his girlfriend from prison, Drew did what Drew does best: turn to extortion and/or blackmail. With Martin out of the picture and Willow in need of a lawyer, Drew slithered over to Alexis' place, where he strongarmed her into taking the case by agreeing to drop the restraining orders keeping her, Kristina, Molly, and Rocco from seeing Scout. He refused to lift Danny's order, and they fought about it, but the chance to spend time with her granddaughter eventually proved too difficult to resist. Before the week was out, Alexis headed to Pentonville to confer with her new client; she wasn't shy about telling Willow why she'd agreed to do it, or about telling her that Drew was still keeping Danny from his sister, but we can all rest fairly easy that Willow's promises to try and change Drew's mind won't amount to much.
Alexis' willingness to represent Willow did get her and Kristina a bit of time with Scout at Bobbie's, albeit under the watchful eye of her humorously bitchy nanny, who shot dirty looks at Alexis the entire time and immediately texted Drew as soon as Danny and Rocco walked in the door. Moments later, it was time for her to go — and Danny, who was hurt and infuriated when Alexis told him about still being kept from his sister, headed home, where he found Drew in the middle of trying to buy the mansion from Ronnie.
Uptight, Frigid, and Completely Undersexed
Even before unexpectedly meeting her skeevy nephew (and mistaking him for a missionary when she opened the door), Ronnie had a wild week. As expected, Brook Lynn's big tea party did not go off without a hitch; in the middle of meeting everyone, Ronnie started acting strangely, eventually plopping down onto the sofa, kicking off her shoes, and getting into a tremendous whopper of an argument with Tracy.
Partway through, as Tracy was accusing her of being a sloppy drunk, Ronnie realized she'd been slipped a mickey — and, given Tracy's history in this area, every single person in the room was not only willing to believe she'd done it, but didn't bat an eye when Ronnie told her to get the hell out.
We all knew things were headed in this direction. What seemed altogether less likely was Tracy ending up sleeping on Lulu's couch, which makes absolutely no sense. Sure, Olivia told Tracy she wasn't welcome at the Metro Court, but we know there's another hotel in town. On the other hand, putting her at the Cosmo would require building a new set, and it also wouldn't give Tracy a reason to complain about teenagers waking her up, so the writers are only doing what they must.
Tracy, meanwhile, is loudly insisting she's innocent, and the general consensus among people not named Ronnie Bard seems to be that if she had slipped Ronnie a mickey, she'd own up to it and say she was perfectly justified in doing so. What neither Ronnie nor Tracy remember is that Martin showed up briefly during the tea party, ostensibly under the mistaken impression that Lulu had left her phone at the courthouse during Willow's arraignment, which makes him the obvious actual culprit. We still don't know exactly how Martin was involved in Ronnie's arrival, but he's definitely known of her existence longer than most, and it's clear he sees her as a useful tool in his ongoing quest for vengeance against Tracy. It will come as absolutely no surprise when it's revealed that he's the one who slipped something into Ronnie's drink.
Anyway, back to Ronnie meeting Drew. Because Erika Slezak is so good at what she does, we were able to watch Ronnie cordially entertaining the family black sheep, allowing him to unspool his version of events seemingly without guile, while also watching her mental gears spin. She seemed less like someone interested in learning about a new family member than someone who was waiting for him to hang himself — and she didn't have to wait long, because their conversation was interrupted by an angry Danny and Rocco, which was all it took to put Drew on the defensive. And when the doorbell rang, sending Ronnie into the foyer, Drew instantly started hissing threats at Danny and Rocco. Unfortunately for him, right around the time he suggested he might be inclined to send both of them to prison, Laura walked in, and she seemed almost happy to have a reason to throw down. After begging his pardon and informing him he was out of his depth, she let him know he was no longer just beefing with her grandson and his brother; now he had to deal with her.
Welcome back, Genie! And with that, I bring you your bullets:
- Nathan and/or the writers forgot he briefly thought he was Charlotte's father
- Dante and Michael got testy with each other after Dante asked Michael if he framed Willow for shooting Drew
- Jordan saw Porta get queasy after eating a stuffed mushroom at the tea party and immediately knew she was pregnant
- Curtis asked Kai to be there for Trina during the divorce
- Lucas threw cold water on Lulu's suspicions regarding Michael, warning her that Willow is more capable of violence than most people think
- Jordan told Anna that Portia's pregnant, and Anna wondered why Portia hasn't told Curtis
- Trina asked Jordan to keep her distance from Curtis
- Isaiah and Portia made plans for a romantic getaway at his cabin
- Lois returned to town just long enough to try and convince Gio to mend fences with Dante and Brook Lynn
- Emma told Gio that they need to step up their Dalton investigation
- Charlotte told Rocco about Valentin's warning regarding Britt
- Chase and Michael beefed at the sauna; after they were finished, Carly and Britt bickered at the sauna
- Ronnie told Cody she's always had a weakness for cowboys, which I choose to interpret as a very intentional Clint Buchanan Easter egg
- Michael and Jacinda agreed they needed to try and make their relationship convincing
- Chase told Willow he's going to investigate her case personally, off the clock
- Spinelli fretted to Jason about the possibility of losing James to Nathan
- While bonding over prolonged absences from Port Charles, Nathan let slip to Lulu that he'd shared a meal with Britt, Liesl, and Rocco
- Lois told Brook Lynn she's leaving town to serve as Blaze's tour manager, which made Brook Lynn sad
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