‘General Hospital’ Week In Review: Lucky chases his demons, Monica and Jakson bond, Ric gaslights Nina

This week’s General Hospital was an emotional one. I began my week of soap viewing crying and ended it laughing. It really had a little something for everyone. It feels like GH is returning back to its, as TVGuide’s Michael Logan put it, “soap on crack” ways. Honestly, I’ve missed this hyped-up mess of sudser. I enjoyed more than didn’t this week.

I found myself wanting to comment on a lot of what happened this week, but if I shared my thoughts on everything this article would be a never-ending story. If you want to discuss something I didn’t mention though, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll chat with you.

Lucky Leaves

Lucky left Port Charles again, this time with a major secret. Nik spilled to Lucky that Jake Doe is really Jason. Nik then put Lucky into the position of being the deciding factor as to if the charade should continue or not. I enjoyed these scenes between the two brothers. Both of them are struggling with their demons and looking to the other for some sort of moral guidance in a way. Mostly though I just liked seeing Jonathan Jackson and Tyler Christopher in scenes together again.

That’s sort of a good summarization of my thoughts and feelings on Lucky’s return. “I enjoyed seeing Jonathan Jackson with (fill in the blank).” Jackson was the original Lucky and I adored the character that he created. His return made me nostalgic for that Lucky and the powers that be were wise enough to have him interact with the characters who were important to that Lucky.

Lucky is sort of the Kevin Buchanan of GH. A legacy character that fell victim to recasting and inconsistent writing, causing him to fail to create much of his own legacy. I saw a lot of viewers online saying they were disappointed with Lucky’s choice to leave because of this vague darkness inside himself he now has and that he chose to keep the truth about Jason. It is very hard to connect the noble teenage hero to the Lucky we just saw.

After seeing the chemistry filled scenes between first loves Lucky and Liz, I chose to believe that Lucky’s decision to leave and keep the secret has to do more with his feelings for Liz. He loves her unconditionally and wants her to be happy regardless of the cost or whether it is the right thing to do. I’ll admit I had to put on my rose-colored glasses to reach this conclusion. But it does give me hope that Lucky will one day return to help Liz pick up the pieces.

The other standout Lucky scenes were the ones he shared with his father. From reading Anthony Geary’s interviews, I’ve always gotten the impression that he prefers the roguish version of Luke more so than the family man. He makes some pretty good points as to why one version of Luke works more than the other. But I respectfully disagree with him. The darkly mischievous Luke was what shot the character and actor to stardom, but Geary excels at the dysfunctional family stuff. The scenes between Geary and Jackson as a struggling father and son made me feel a lot more than Luke’s recent exploration of his darkside a.k.a. Fluke. What drives soaps are the relationships. Seeing how Luke’s darkness has affected his family and how they all struggle with it is good soap. Seeing Fluke play with himself is not.

Jake and Monica

The scenes shared between Jakeson and Monica were by far my favorite this week. I wanted these scenes. I’ve wanted them from when it was first announced that Jason would be returning. I think a lot of fans felt the same way.

The scenes were really everything I wanted them to be. Billy Miller and Leslie Charleston had excellent chemistry together. The moments were very touching. I loved Monica talking about the love she felt for a child that wasn’t hers, a love she felt for him the moment she held him. She talked of the pride and love she felt when Jason grew into an intelligent, loving man who wanted to follow in his parent’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. And she talked of the love she still had for him when the son she knew was tragically taken away from her and replaced with someone dark and damaged. Readers, I want Monica to have her son back.

TVSource Magazine published the article Iceberg Ahead: What’s Behind ‘General Hospital’s Ratings Collapse? last week and Jakson’s story made the list. Miller is one of the best actors in daytime but so far this story has been lacking. I don’t care about Jasam or Liason and I don’t like seeing fans attack each other over which couple is better. Sam is great with Patrick. Liz has opportunity with Nik. I’m not excited about any romantic prospects with Jakson.

Emotional scenes between Jakson and his family is the way to go in my opinion. I want heartfelt moments not fan wars. There is great potential in having Jason return as Jason Quartermaine or a combination of Jason Quartermaine and Jason Morgan. GH toyed a little with having Jakson as Stone Cold and it just didn’t work. Miller has a wonderful cowboy quality to him, his mascuality is shown through an ethic based on hard work and taking care of loved ones. He doesn’t need a gun in his hand to be manly. Head writer Ron Carlivati has stated that he wants more Quartermaines and he’s not alone in wanting that. Now’s the chance. Please seize this opportunity.

If you missed the scenes or just want to watch them over again, I posted the clip below. I tried to find the clip on GH’s official website but it wasn’t there.