By 
General Hospital had an interesting week this last week. Events in Port Charles all seemed to center around a few characters moving on together though in different aspects and forms all around. To say the least, it was almost like a week of transition to the next stage especially now that the Fluke mystery has been mostly put to rest. Let’s check out what went down in Port Charles!
Like a twisted Rugrats episode
If it wasn’t apparent before, Kiki Jerome and Morgan Corinthos showed the extent of their childish nature this week when going after Michael Quartermaine. It’s safe to say that people don’t get into soap operas to enjoy seeing families treat each other kindly yet when Kiki and Morgan hatched a plot to get their shared sister back from Michael, it put a bad taste in just about everyone’s mouths. As of late, Michael has been a polarizing character having fans either love his crusade against Sonny Corinthos or utterly hate him for coming off as such a brat about it but even his haters couldn’t side with little brother Morgan’s schemes.
This last week, Morgan and Kiki set Michael up to look incompetent by first poisoning him with the wrong drugs then getting him riled up and drunk. What they were hoping for was for the reporter they hired to catch Michael behaving erratically around baby Avery, but Sabrina Santiago managed to whisk the baby away just before, successfully throwing a wrench in their ill crafted plan. Luckily for them, with all the pollution still in his system, Michael does begin to act out accordingly. All it takes is for him to see the two getting snuggly together for him to lash out, airing out his still unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend before he topples over on the Metro Court furniture.
Kiki and Morgan have such contrasting reactions to it all; Morgan is reveling in his older brother’s character destruction while Kiki begins to have second thoughts. She expresses her worry many times only to have Morgan shoot her down, reminding her of the plan. While Michael stumbles away to the hotel lobby, Morgan and Kiki decide to reconcile as if swaying a dead alcoholic’s son to the same vice gets them in the mood.
The reporter, who’d earlier provoked Michael over ELQ’s troubles and recorded his confrontation with the new couple, follows behind Michael to capture more footage, this time of the CEO railing Sonny Corinthos for being near Avery in her stroller. He’s clearly intoxicated with something, words heavy and slurred as he berates Sonny, ordering him to keep away from the stroller. His adoptive father shows concern about Michael by asking if he’s drunk which makes the argument escalate until Michael, out of his mind, stumbles and knocks over the stroller with baby Avery inside. Though the baby is unharmed, everything is captured on video by the reporter who eagerly reports back to a pleased Morgan and a worried Kiki.
When the news piece on the tipping stroller airs concurrent with Michael losing over thirty percent of shares at ELQ, it’s safe to say he becomes the talk of the town. While his family works against him to get back baby Avery, Michael turns to Sabrina wondering how he managed to get so drunk when all he’d had was two drinks; a fact that Olivia soon confirms after speaking with her bartender. But even Sabrina beginning to wonder about those pills isn’t soon enough as Child Protective Services promptly arrives to remove Avery from the Quartermaine home. Morgan and Kiki are there to gloat, of course as if their little sister is a prize in some game.
Isn’t this exactly what they wanted to protect her from? Instead of thrusting her into a life of shoot outs and drug deals, they’ve set the poor girl up with enough family drama to rival a mob war. Avery has only been around for a few months and she’s yet to have a stable home. Now she’s back to living with her sister, a twentysomething with no career, prospects or goals as if that’s supposed to be a good life. Avery’s only hope at truly surviving is if Ava Jerome makes a rapid recovery and takes her away from this mess. Life with Ava does not equal a promise of stability, but at least she has experience with child rearing unlike Morgan, Kiki and Sonny to an extent. Even though Morgan and Kiki are technically the winners in their sick game at the moment, everyone simply sees them as losers. They planned this fallout for quite a while then just a day into the aftermath and holes are already being poked into their set up. Their schemes really reminds me of a Rugrats episode where the babies would plot out something elaborate in their immature minds only for it to fall apart so easily by the end.
Kiki and Morgan are babies in many senses of the world but once their roles in this scheme come out, they’ll have to learn to grow up quickly when their families turns their backs on them. Lots of viewers are hoping this leads to a story of them being cut off from their families privileges – or a double whodunit murder mystery. That’d be just fine with a lot of us.
It all comes together
Though she came close, Valerie Spencer had to learn to let go of her murderous animosity for her uncle this last week when the final pieces of the Fluke puzzle were placed down. Luke Spencer first comes to thinking that all of his past atrocities had been a nightmare but reality unfortunately sets in when he notices he’s restrained in a hospital bed. Tracy Quartermaine and Lulu Spencer-Falconeri are by his bedside which calms him but only for a time as they break the news that Patricia has passed away. Luke immediately takes the blame, launching into what was both a clever but rushed explanation for both Fluke appearances and Luke’s numerous disappearances. He went into detail about how in the past he’d up and leave town whenever his dark side – his father – would begin to surface. It’s during those trips that he’d get himself tied in with Helena Cassadine, Jerry Jacks and other nefarious enemies of Port Charles, pretending to be someone other than Luke Spencer to gain their trust. Blaming the shock therapy suffered at Miscavige for the permanent personality split, Luke worries that there’s nothing he can do now to escape that side of himself. Tracy goes giving Lulu alone time with her father, the same father she now understands and forgives for decades of absentee parenting. I didn’t so much buy Lulu’s easy acceptance but it was nice to see them make up.
Meanwhile, Valerie Spencer has stormed into General Hospital demanding to get a hold of her Uncle Luke for the role in her mother’s death. Elizabeth Webber can’t let Valerie visit her uncle, first because she cannot imagine them being related and two, Luke needs his rest. Luckily, Dante Falconeri arrives to calm Valerie down. At least he tries, attempting to assure her that Luke will face the consequences. Just when he thinks he’s got her calmed down, Valerie slips off into Luke’s room with a scalpel for his throat. Valerie wants her long lost uncle to pay for killing her mother, the only family she’d ever known and right when she finally feels ready to slice, Luke urges her to do it.
While hesitating, Valerie’s revenge plot is busted up by Lulu and Dante who plead with her and Luke to stop. Luke doesn’t want to be like his father and asks for Valerie’s help which Dante uses by saying she’ll just help Luke by killing him. He makes a big assumption about the aunt-in-law that he knew for half a day, claiming Patricia wouldn’t want Valerie to make such a big mistake while the viewers are pretty nonplussed about the whole scene. Valerie gives up, leaving herself open for Dante to whisk her out of the room for another oddly – but oddly intriguing – tender moment between the two of them. They embrace through Valerie’s tears outside the room as Lulu chastises her suicidal father for wanting to leave them so soon again.
After the big reveal week not to long ago, I was afraid that the writers would send us on yet another twist in this neverending storyline by saturating each episode. Fortunately, someone disallowed that and we didn’t hear any more from Luke for about a week. While the Fluke saga has finally come to a close, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of ride this fallout will put us on. Aside from whatever rehabilitation they’ve got signed up for Luke (high security prison or loony bin), I cannot be the only one noticing the subtle propping of Valerie with Dante? From the very beginning, I noticed the way he always swooped in to protect her – even if his wife was right beside him, perfectly unshielded as well. This could very well just be his cop instincts forcing him into protector mode but some moments have been pretty much eyebrow lifting. The most tantalizing moment between the two had to be when Dante opened up about his own relationship with his mother and the way he’d react if he lost her. I don’t know about you, but wasn’t it kind of touching to see? I won’t pretend to be an expert on the character of Dante Falconeri, so don’t attack me for this if I’m wrong but wasn’t it surprising to see him share so easily? Dante is no portrait of masculinity though nor is he an emotional softie; he’s more or less private with a penchant for being a meat head more so than being someone who shares. There was a hint of intimacy between the new family members by marriage, one that I hope the writers are testing and will receive positive feedback for. Unlike when stories teased us with a possible Johnny Zacchara, Lulu and Dante triangle, I hope this tease of a cousin vs. cousin love triangle actually pulls through to get this stale married couple feeling fresh again.
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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