Dear Readers, I love to watch soaps, but I love to talk about them, too. I've been watching daytime drama since I was 12 and I am now 53, so I have 40+ years of suds in my blood, which makes me a pretty passionate voice on all things soap.
One thing that cannot be taught, trained for, or easily replicated is chemistry. If a couple has chemistry, viewers can't get enough. If a couple doesn't have chemistry, viewers revolt.
Right now, there are two people on General Hospital that have crazy, mad chemistry, and it happens to be two characters who are...crazy and mad. If you troll the Internet soap feeds, you'll know them as NiCo. If you don't -- they are Nina and Franco.
Roger Howarth and Michelle Stafford are oozing chemistry when they are on-screen together. I can't avert my eyes. I never hit fast-forward. They light up the screen together.
But if these two become a real couple, I pity the denizens of Port Charles. And when you add their respective mothers into the mix? Yikes. Do two crazies make a sane? I doubt it, but they do seem slightly less mental when they are together.
I bet after Franco does evil at the HalloWedding, he will be able to paint again. Being nice is probably what is messing up his creative mojo. What does he have planned for the wedding? Is he going to turn Heather lose on Carly or Sonny? He admittedly still loves Carly, so will he really put her in harm's way?
Heather will get out of Ferncliff one way or the other, but readers, is it just me, or did Ferncliff not really seem so secure in the past? I recall people sneaking in and out of there with ease. The only one who never sneaked out, I think, was the back of Laura's head.
You know, this would be a perfect time for Heather to accidentally shoot Franco then Roger Howarth could come back a few months later as Todd Manning again, and I would suspend my disbelief into forgetting that he ever played Franco. Or have James Franco show up as Franco and reveal to us that Todd accidentally got a hit of Heather's super-potent LSD and was on a long, strange trip all this time.
That won't happen, of course. The web is woven too deep, we have Kiki and Silas and all the interwoven stories, and besides, as I noted earlier -- NiCo. Wow.
I've been contemplating Heather being on the loose again, and readers, consider the possibility that Heather might be the one to save Luke. If the corner of the body bag I saw at the end of Friday's episode is any indication, it could be that Jerry has killed Fluke and left a fake Luke on Tracy's doorstep. Heather may be the only one left who knows that the real Luke is locked away in Miscavige.
I haven't heard any updates on Tony Geary's condition -- is he well enough to return to GH? I don't know, but I sure am ready for a reunion with the real Lucas Lorenzo Spencer.
In an attempt to rescue Luke, Tracy persuaded Alice, Mr. Luke's biggest fan, to cough up her shares of ELQ. It was great to see Bergen Williams onscreen, looking so fit and healthy. Alice battled heart disease, but in real life, Bergen is a cancer survivor. But what will Jerry do with all that ELQ stock? He's still not the majority stockholder -- so whom will Jerry use to get Michael to cough up enough to give him controlling interest? And why does he want ELQ? He could launder money through any company, so why fight so hard for that specific company? And why isn't anyone calling Jax and saying, "Your maniacal brother is wreaking havoc on us again!"?
It's not like he'd come anyway -- he didn't come for any other can't-miss events in his family. Maybe Helena has him hostage with Robin. Double the torture.
When I saw those legs walk into A.J.'s grave, I thought Helena was cornering Sonny all weekend but couldn't decide what her motive would be-- turns out I was sniffing down the wrong path -- it wasn't Helena, at all, but a newly brunette Ghost-Connie. I didn't know that ghosts could dye their hair, so I am feeling better about heaven now, knowing I can cover up those unsightly grays.
Did Sonny forget to take his meds, or is his conscience finally getting the best of him? Oh readers, I can hardly wait to see the scene when Michael finds out that Sonny killed A.J. and gets to confront him. That will be a wondrous scene.
In my humble opinion, once that happens, it would be a perfect time for the writers to bring back Michael's old pal, Johnny Zacharra, who used to mentor Michael on the ins and outs of being the kid of a mob boss. Really, the pool of people in such a support group is probably quite small, so Michael could use a big brother figure to navigate this heartache.
It would also be a great time to bring back Ric -- Sonny will need someone to run his organization while he's in the slammer for murder, and he doesn't know that Jason is alive yet.
In fact, Jason doesn't even know Jason is alive yet because he thinks his name is Jake. I have to say I am enjoying this slow reintroduction of "Jake" to all of Jason's friends. I loved the scenes with Carly yesterday where she felt there was something familiar about him. My husband Jeff, who pretends he doesn't watch GH, keeps asking "Okay, he had plastic surgery, but why did his voice change?" And to that, I have no answer. Obviously, if the guy looked like Billy Miller but had Steve Burton's voice, the people in Port Charles might put two and two together and say, "We never found Jason's body, this guy sounds like Jason and has a brain injury...maybe he's Jason?"
But of course that's not possible. Also, the fact that Helena was able to hack into the police computers to change fingerprints is laughable, as is the fact that no one ran a DNA test on him.
No one even knows he is Jason yet, and Liz and Carly are already battling for control of his mind! Will they also be battling for control of his... romantic affection? Can GH recreate previous romantic chemistry when a recast is involved?
In some ways, I hope he remembers both versions of Jason. Imagine if a flood of memories of Alan, Monica, Edward, Lila, and A.J. flooded Jake's mind? Imagine if the next flood was Sonny, Carly, Sam, Courtney, and his past as Jason M? A merging of the two men into one man would be amazing. Billy Miller has the chops to pull off a complicated story like that, and I hope they give him the chance.
I must say in the latest round of Soap-Swappies, GH got the better of the deal. GH scored Michelle Stafford and Billy Miller, and the latest versions of Billy and Phyllis on YR aren't nearly as magnetic as their predecessors.
Ava Jerome is magnetic, which has saved her life in the fact that Morgan, whom she cheated on with his dad (Ewww!), still cares about her enough to let her hide at his house. The fact that his dad hasn't dropped by to visit him while Ava is lounging on his sofa is a miracle. In any other soap universe, that scene would have already materialized.
One scene I have been waiting for since Nina woke up was the big catfight with her mom, Madeline. When I saw Donna Mills, my first thought was "Holy crap, how can that woman be 73 and still look like she did when I watched her on Knots Landing?" and my second thought was "Catfight!"
I was not disappointed. Can you imagine how much fun it must have been for Michelle Stafford to straddle Donna Mills and yell, "Repent! Repent! Repent!" into her face? Oh, my gosh, I was howling and screaming at the TV. I want a t-shirt with Nina's face and those words in giant letters. And I want to wear it to church. LOL.
Madeline was all set to take the moral high ground until Nina offered her cash to steal a baby, and she promptly dropped all moral objections and agreed immediately.
Madeline is trying to persuade Rosalie to get back on board by dangling the fact that Nina will spill her secret if she doesn't. What on earth could she be hiding? Is she secretly Lorenzo Alcazar's daughter, or Lily's sister, or what? I admit my curiosity is piqued.
I'm also curious to know where Molly has been hiding. This week, we got a T.J. sighting, but still no sign of Molly. T.J. is studying French, though, so If Molly is in the same class, maybe she is studying abroad in Paris, using Robin's old apartment. She's an overachiever like that.
One scene that made me really happy this week was Bobbie and Brad teaming up against Lucas to get him to take control of his life. Who knew that Lucas was a doctor?! Not me. I loved the fact that Bobbie accepted Brad immediately and welcomed him into their lives. See how easy that is, parents? Embrace your kids and their loved ones. An unsolicited #PSA from Tamilu.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Olivia have more LSD-laced visions of the HalloWedding on the Haunted Star? Will she see cheap champagne and scream until glass breaks? Will Julian and Ned punch each other over the love of Alexis, or will Ned forget all about his former flame when Olivia finally admits she has feelings for him? Will Michael dump Kiki like a hot potato when he find out she's been lying to him for months and prancing around in her underpants with his brother?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows!
What are your thoughts on General Hospital? Share your thoughts on the show or this week's column with us. Leave your comments in the Comments area further down the page. If you prefer, you can click here to send our columnist a note by Feedback. You can also call our 24/7 caller feedback hotline at 267.341.7627 and voice your thoughts.
