General Hospital Recap: Wedding Bombshell Cliffhanger, Michael Bonds with His #TrueDaddy; Ava’s in Danger

Last week’s General Hospital had its share of undesirable elements, every soap opera has them but they seemed so miniscule in comparison to everything that was done so right. The last episode of the week had me on the edge of my seat as the multiple storylines finally began to converge; I hadn’t been that excited with a soap opera in a long time! Let’s dig deeper into Port Charles’ exciting last week of October!

General Hospital Recap | Episodes airing October 27-31, 2014

A royal return

Of course, it was all for naught. Just when maybe it seemed like the big Luke Spencer reveal would coincide with all of the other storyline climaxes, we were thrown yet another doozy sure to extend this tiresome plot. We saw this coming, of course but that doesn’t make it any less painful. A week ago, Tracy Quartermaine gave up hers, her son’s and her former maid’s ELQ shares to Jerry Jacks In hopes of getting her missing husband in return. Everyone told her not to trust Jerry Jacks and maybe be a bit cautious when it came to serial flight risk Luke, but as usual Tracy steamrolled everyone in the room with her loud voice until they listened to her. I don’t think anyone got to tell her “I told you so” just yet because her, Ned Ashton and Lulu Spencer were all too shocked to find Tracy’s ex-husband, Larry Ashton tossed onto the Quartermaine mansion’s patio.

Jerry’s explanation for the shock return was that he never specified exactly which husband he’d return.  If you can’t tell already, this was my least favorite part about this week so I’ll try to keep it short. Apparently, the boozed up lord was vacationing somewhere when he was drugged by young women he meant to seduce. Lulu, Ned and Tracy deduce that said women were working for Jerry and helped him transport Larry back to Port Charles after twenty or so years. Now with the power ELQ in the hands of a maniac, a drunken long lost father and ex-husband on their hands and still no Luke, the three of them have to figure out how to proceed from here on out. And I do not wish to watch it much longer. Thankfully, they were only on screen a bit this week to take a backseat to the real drama.

More over-sharing with a stranger

Parents always warn against talking to strangers and kids usually listen, but I guess when even parents don’t follow that rule neither should the child. After speaking with Sonny Corinthos in the Quartermaine tomb and letting him know about his desire to hunt his birth father’s killer down, Michael runs into his uncle Jason aka Jake aka Jakeson at General Hospital. Of course they don’t recognize each other what with amnesia and plastic surgery working against them, but somehow they feel a connection there and began to talk like old friends – much like Carly did with Jake just a week ago.

Michael unknowingly helps the man once known as his uncle by wheeling him around the hospital with conversation naturally going from their mutual experiences with comas and brain trauma to Carly’s wedding which “Jake” had heard before and then AJ’s murder. Even though he promised Sonny that he wouldn’t seek revenge, Michael can’t help but get excited over a new twist in the long cold case. He wants justice for the man who always had his back when he was alive, though the feeling was rarely mutual though both his second father and his uncle Jason warned him against taking matters into his own hands, Michael feels like he can’t back down just yet. Even later when congratulating his mother on her upcoming nuptials, he reiterates just how much he wants to solve this for AJ’s sake. Too bad for him, Carly is in the know too and tries her best to steer him off this course of vigilante justice to keep him from discovering the ugly truth about the murder. But Michael is set in his ways and honestly, I’m loving that. For a long time it felt like Michael just floated in the background of each story – even when he was focal point of a story!  Every soap opera needs a good character but to watch the wool constantly being pulled over the eyes of said character by every person he loves and trusts, you start to feel sad, you start to feel worn out. It’s about time that Michael learns the truth about his family and what they’ve done to “protect him”. Maybe this will be the impetus to a much needed shake up for the straight and narrow character of Michael Corinthos. Maybe he’ll be the one to take down Sonny when Maurice Benard takes his break from Port Charles? We’ve already seen Michael prove himself when he shot down one of the Jerome’s boss’ men but could he do it to the man he loved as a father too?  Let’s cross our fingers for such justice!

Nina and Madeline’s Tag-Team of Evil Deeds

This week’s biggest attraction focused around two parent and child duos and the bad things they did, sure to cause major ripple effects throughout town. First off are Madeline Reeves and her daughter Nina Clay, both doing very bad things for very different motives but forced to work together nonetheless. For the promise of no longer being penniless, Madeline becomes Nina’s henchman with barely any questions asked. This week, Madeline gives up information to her daughter regarding Ava Jerome’s whereabouts, information received from Nina’s former nurse Rosalie Martinez. This gets Nina pumped up at the prospect of her plan going into motion though her mother thinks it best that they wait this out a few weeks for when the baby comes but unfortunately for Madeline, her sister Liesl Obrecht walks into her office and offhandedly mentions the pill mix up that nearly made Ava have her baby prematurely. Thanking her aunt, Nina figures out that the poor pregnant woman Liesl mentioned was Ava and has her mother forge a prescription for the very same drug. Nina can’t wait any longer, she wants that baby and she wants it now.

Even with the possible reveal of her big secret dangling over her head, Rosalie goes to warn Kiki Jerome and her mother that Nina is looking for her though she has no idea Madeline has already figured out their safe house location. Madeline later does more reconnaissance work around the brownstone, deducing that Ava is staying there with a makeshift security entail of not just her daughter but Morgan Corinthos and Silas Clay, who’d just helped to quell her premature labor. Nina hears this information and a switch immediately flips, taking her back to twenty years ago to when Silas and Ava were having an affair and she violently attacks her mother as if it’s all her fault. Though it takes time, Nina eventually comes to understand that maybe Silas was there for the baby’s sake and nothing more so she gets to focusing back on her plan which involves inducing Ava’s labor and taking the baby for herself. Nina intimidates her mother into getting rid of Silas, the only member of the posse that hasn’t left the brownstone (for Carly’s wedding), though Madeline is unsure of how to do so. By chance, she overhears Sam Morgan asking Brad Cooper for her son’s leukemia test results and she springs into action. Under the guise of a high ranking doctor, Madeline seizes the test results from Brad, alters them and allows Sam to believe her son is cancer stricken again so that of course Silas comes to her rescue.

At the brownstone, Silas relays all the issues Nina brought up for him and Sam, how he never believed his wife could be capable of such things and Ava wishes that he could get a second chance with her. The timing of Sam’s urgent call can’t be more perfect for Nina’s plan as Ava urges him to go to her side, assuring Silas she’d be fine alone for a few hours. Now charged with keeping Silas and Sam busy while they go through the medical tests to back up the bogus results, Madeline remains at General Hospital, giving Nina the opportunity to slip her way into the brownstone to corner Ava with a muscle relaxer. Terrified and slowly paralyzed now, Ava can do nothing but watch with wide eyed fear as Nina goes about discussing her plan of replacing Ava’s new baby with her own that died twenty years ago. Nina blames both Ava and her mother even when Ava tries her best to convince her that she’s not at fault for that loss. Stricken with fear, Ava even has to listen to Nina as she promises to ruins Kiki’s life for the simple fact of being born. It’s just the two of them in the brownstone now with Kiki off to the wedding, Morgan meeting with his father and Silas tied up with examining Danny Morgan.

These last scenes between Ava and Nina were some of the most chilling I’ve seen in my short time (compared to a lot of soap opera fans) watching soaps. Nina’s journey into near insanity was entertaining at first, but watching her terrorize a (mostly) innocent pregnant woman with all sorts of drugs showed just how dangerous she’d become. As a viewer you wanted to look away but something made it too delicious to turn away from it all. Maybe it was the actresses and their portrayals of such polarized emotions that kept it all so riveting; I could truly feel Ava’s fear through my screen. Craziness was promised for these next few episodes and I really think this is all just the beginning.