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General Hospital was still very much building up to the climax of one of its long-running storylines, while others simply recapped a lot of things we already knew and remembered. It’s far too apparent that this last week was just to prop up the big reveal for the week to follow as it gave us just enough to keep the viewers teased but not enough to satisfy us. There were some stand outs among the doldrums of this last week in Port Charles, from the introduction to a new (technically) legacy character and the double release of havoc personified! Let’s check out what happened this last week on General Hospital!
C’mon over, Valerie
As in leave Pennsylvania behind and come set up shop in Port Charles, NY! This last week, viewers got to meet Valerie Spencer, daughter of long lost Spencer sister, Patricia and many of the viewers took to the new character. We meet this new addition to the Spencer clan in an extremely traumatic manner. After finally getting a credible lead Tracy Quartermaine and Lulu Spencer-Falconeri show up at Valerie’s doorstep to inquire about the missing Patricia. Little do they know, they’re just a bit too late as Uncle Luke Spencer has arrived before them and is holding his niece at gunpoint just beyond the slightly opened door.
Lulu and Tracy try everything they can to get Valerie to let them in at first, practically begging for any bit of information on her mother but with a gun to her back, Valerie can do nothing more than deny them. Luke doesn’t want her to lead them in the right trail so she sticks to the same story she told Luke when he first arrived, that her mother is dead and gone and there’s no way anyone can find her. Even after barging in unannounced, Valerie refuses to give up any information – until the other two women hear a noise caused by Luke who has since hid himself from his daughter and wife.
In a rushed attempt to get the women out of her hair, Valerie blames the noise on her cat which Tracy finds suspicious later as she didn’t remember seeing any indication of a cat living in that apartment. Lulu pleas a final time to know where her Aunt Patricia is buried and Valerie divulges it, closing the women out only to meet with her uncle and his gun once more. Luke promises to stay with her until she gives up the information on his big sister but she sticks to the story that Patricia is dead until the next day where under distress – both mental and physical – from being tied up all night, she lets slip that her mother is definitely alive. In a big move that anyone (and everyone should have done a long time ago), Valerie breaks from her restraints and tackles her geriatric uncle to try and get the gun from him. Why no one ever thought of using their decades younger bodies to shove crazy old Luke before is beyond me, but I was purely satisfied watching him topple over. Imagine all of the pain and strife we could have missed out on these last few months if someone realized how easily they could overpower Luke.
Both Lulu and Tracy begin to have doubts about Valerie’s story; Tracy’s come instantly but Lulu takes a while longer, meeting up with her husband Dante Falconeri who wonders if maybe his father-in-law was the other person in the room with Valerie. When her cousin doesn’t answer her call (too busy fighting her father for a gun), Lulu takes Dante back to Valerie’s place only to find her unconscious after her battle with Luke. She explains everything from being held hostage to the fact that her mother is very much alive and not in Oak Hill Cemetery, but Oak Hill Convalescent Home due to complications with MS. Tracy and Bobbie Spencer too have figured this out after discovering no cemetery with that name exists, so from Port Charles to Pennsylvania they go, arriving at Patricia’s room in record time only to instead find an armed Luke awaiting them.
There really wasn’t much time to get to know Valerie during this action-packed storyline this last week, but the actress took to the role well and even got to kick a little butt. Though the cast is already so bloated, I can’t help but selfishly wish that Valerie will move to Port Charles after this ordeal so we can see her all the time. The town is in dire need of some diversity (as all of our four favorite fictional towns are), as well as some better actors. I understand these few scenes were just a taste, but she did very well with them as usually it takes new actors a bit of time to find their groove. I bought into Valerie Spencer right off the bat. But was I the only one whose skin was crawling as Valerie was held captive, knowing that her uncle was both a murderer but also a rapist? It was a shame they had to dumb down Lulu for them though as she’s usually the one who doesn’t take simple answers as fact but in order to push through the plot-driven scenes, they needed someone to have the “A-ha Moment” to connect with the viewers. As a fan of her character now, I couldn’t help but want to rattle her just a little, wondering why she so uncharacteristically believed every word her obviously distressed cousin said but in the end it made sense. What did you all think of this week’s Fluke…Uh, Luke drama?
Suite Life of Nina and Franco
Nina Clay and Franco are the kind of comic villains that I love the most in soap operas. Having larger than life mob bosses with weather machines and resurrection technology is good to a certain degree, but most of the time it’s nice to just have an everyday off the rocker villain based in reality who pulls stunt after stunt to get ahead. Nina and Franco are those kinds of villains, wacky enough to pop on a TV screen but believable enough to be seen as real people.
After what felt like too long of a time away from Port Charles, both Nina and Franco are free and set to return to town. They’d initially planned to remain together at the Shadybrook facility until they could break out, feigning psychosis to stay together though both have long since gotten over what had caused their mental instabilities. Luckily for them, they both are assigned release hearings on the same day and on that day, they both discover that each of them had broken their promise to keep their acting stunt a secret. Nina told her lawyer Alexis Davis that she faked her earlier breakdown and Franco told his father, DA Scott Baldwin that he was by no means insane. Both of them felt that it was their best shot getting out the legitimate way but neither of them expected for those people to betray their trust by spilling the entire details in court. Alexis and Scott’s admissions worked in Nina and Franco’s favor however.
Nina was released on the technicality that her breakdown happened outside the court room, thus she would not only not face perjury charges but attain her original release deal after being found competent in court last time. Franco is ultimately released when his father is forced to drop the charges against him. The couple celebrates for a short period only for Alexis to rain on their parade, informing Nina that she must live with her brother and that all of her accounts are frozen by the government until further notice. Without any options, Franco crafts up a plan that has Nina excitedly making out with him and calling him a genius. The freed pair shows up at the Metro Court later, greeting a stunned Olivia Falconeri by ordering the most expensive champagne to their deluxe suite. The pregnant co-owner of the hotel obviously does not want to serve them until Franco reveals himself to be completely mentally stable, threatening Olivia with the truth that Julian Jerome is her baby’s father, a secret she couldn’t help but to babble when she saw how out of it Franco was in the institution.
Two arguable sociopaths in a huge hotel with every service at their fingertips – sounds like a twisted version of a Disney Channel sitcom, right? Even though I stated above that I love these two as villains, I’d rather them set up their new lives in Port Charles more as schemers or interlopers who push the conflict along whether it be to more conflict or a resolution. It’d be a change of pace for them rather than always being the catalyst to the big drama in Port Charles. Plus, imagine the two of them just always in the middle of things being nosy snoops who blackmail from the sidelines. Nina and Franco are perfect together when they’re working together to bring someone down. What do you think about the couple’s return to town?
Once again, these recaps are not always blow for blow recaps and contain my own feelings toward the storylines this week. Use my points to kick off a conversation. Comment or tweet me if you agree or disagree with me, I want to know what the readers have to say. Your input is what makes this all the most fun. See you next week!
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