General Hospital Recaps: #Jasam starts to rise from the ashes, Sonny gets pardoned and Franco gets groovy

This week in Port Charles, NY was talked up to be a huge one, even explosive! But in the end, I felt that a lot of the week fell extremely flat. Few have noted that this has become a deadly cycle for General Hospital, to build up to an event with excellent drama and have the actual climax not be as fulfilling. A show with as rich of a history and such a huge cast of developed characters shouldn’t be relying on plot-driven stories. There has to be more meat to these stories. Let’s get into a few of this week’s highlights.

Franco in the sky with diamonds

Franco and his biological mother, Heather Webber could have been a match made in crazy heaven. Between the two of them, the amount of enemies they’ve got at their backs would literally turn them into that family against the entire city of Port Charles; though I can understand the writers’ decision to keep the two at odds with each other. Heather already has Steven Lars Webber, her first son, to fiercely dote on and to have her do the exact same for Franco would be just a wash, rinse and repeat of what we saw done to the maximum about two or three years ago. There were inklings of that when Heather and Franco first discovered their relationship, showing that Heather was ready and willing to do anything for her younger son no matter the legality. But since Heather’s personality is all about extremes, when Franco turned on her during his faux bomb scare during his wedding, she completely wrote him off and began to classify him as one of her enemies too. The comparison might not be fair, but seeing Franco work together with his mom has not been as entertaining as watching the two mentally shaky family members going at each other’s throats.

I practically cheered when Franco abandoned Ava Jerome to be shot and tossed over a bridge by Carlos Rivera, all so he could race to Nina Clay’s mental institution to save her from his mother’s revenge plan. Of course that plan involved LSD. Heather Webber and LSD have gone hand in hand since the late 70s! Armed with a gun, Franco was ready to eliminate his mother to save Nina who had a syringe full of the mind-bending drug poised at her neck and a deranged Heather at her back. They both try to talk her down but she’s dead set on revenge, accusing Franco of being a bad son for setting her up like she was one of his enemies too. He disarms himself to keep her calm, tucking the gun away in a cupboard so he could continue to plead for Nina’s safety. Heather doesn’t fall for it, but it’s enough of a distraction to get Nina the opportunity to break free. After desperately trying to get back the drugs and even the gun, Heather slips out of the Shadybrook room to go report the couple.

In a great parallel that kicked off Heather’s instability, the very same happened to her son when he managed to save the woman he’d grown to love and in order to stay with her, took the LSD injection himself after vowing to never leave Nina, hoping that with his hallucinations he’s deemed insane enough to remain at Shadybrook. The pair kisses before the drugs begin to take effect in a great culmination of what started off as an entertaining friendship then partnership, one that made me sigh a big breath of release. Hate them or love the, Nina and Franco are well molded characters played by talented actors who have chemistry! What a far cry from the drivel that we had to deal with when they were tied down to Carly Corinthos-Jacks and Silas Clay. The soft side of Nina always comes out whenever Franco is involved, and watching her care for him through his scary tie-dye filled drug trip (another nod to Heather’s Lazy Susan LSD switch from the 70s) displays that there is a humanity to her. A lot of viewers I remember were afraid that with her being so hard set on revenge, her kidnapping and bludgeoning ways, she might not ever be more than just a psychopath but it seems like there’s a lot more to her that we still have yet to see. As someone who loves both of these characters and even more so when they’re together, I’m excited to see where Nina and Franco’s Shadybrook adventures (if they even allow him to stay) go. And add a little Heather in too, I wouldn’t mind. How do you feel about the blossoming of this new couple?