By 
Despite some frustrations, last week’s General Hospital was for the most part entertaining. I feel like GH sometimes takes a step backwards when building momentum and that was evident this past week. Plot moved along but it didn’t always blend well with the relationships and romances. There was still a lot to love though.
The best part of GH currently still remains to be its new couples but I felt like some of those important romantic beats took a backseat to plot points this past week. The highlights of the week were definitely the more character-driven material such as Anna and Griffin’s conversation outside Julian’s hospital room, Ava and Nik finding a connection and Liz and Franco’s admission of feelings. I felt like I didn’t quite get enough of those sort of moments but what I did get was good. GH needs a little bit of work on where it lands its focus. If it flipped what it has frontburner with its supporting story lines, it would be near perfection.
A lot happened last week on GH and I wasn’t able to write about all of it. If you would like to share your thoughts on anything I did or did not mention, please leave a comment below or tweet me and we’ll chat.
General Hospital Week In Review for the episodes that aired July 11th-15th.
Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
Ava gets her hands on Nik’s diamonds.
My favorite part of the Cassadine Island mystery is Ava. It so refreshing to see the Ava I know and love again, the one who always had the upper hand due to devilish charm and keen slyness. Ava Jerome was an instant smash when she first sauntered onto our television screens. However, for some reason, someone at GH decided that audience wanted to see the strong woman abused by weak men. Glad that’s finally over, for now anyways as I’m sure when she gets back to Port Charles we’ll just get more of her cowering to Sonny. Hopefully I’m wrong and that doesn’t happen. But back to the fabulousness of Ava Jerome pulling diamonds out of a man’s pants. Ava sees Nik hide an unmentionable in his unmentionables and decides to use her feminine wiles to get her hands on it. She seduces Nik into a kiss and then retrieves the pouch from his pants. To Ava’s delight, she finds that she has her hands on the family jewels. “Next time, don’t hide your valuables with your valuables. Or at least don’t do it when I’m around.”
I liked the conversation that Ava and Nik had about past mistakes that won’t go away. Ava is still feeling the weight of what she did to Connie while Nik is feeling regret about his recent Cassadine-like behavior. It was a touching moment that showed how these two characters connect. I like the mixture of lust, greed and tarnished power this potential couple provide. I’m not really sure why they aren’t the ones locking Jason and Sam up instead.
Speaking of Jason and Sam (and I know I’m going to get a lot of heat about this) but they are the weak link in this otherwise interesting tale. Jason is just not the commanding presence that we’re being told he is. Where’s this cold intimidation that he’s suppose to embody? There’s no freaking way that I buy that he would be the one in charge. This isn’t even his story really. It’s Sam’s story. She’s the Cassadine, Nik’s her cousin, Ava’s her aunt and this is about her family. Yet she’s been reduced to “Jason’s wife or ex-wife or I don’t know partner in crime”. If the powers that be at GH really want me to root for Jasam, the story needs to be about Sam’s point of view. She’s the one I care about.
Despite the misplacement of Jason’s role, I am really excited that this story line is finally being told. James Patrick Stuart is excellent casting. He can play wicked so well. The cat is already out of the bag regarding “Theo” which is a bit of a shame. It would have been great to come to the realization of who he really is while watching the story unfold. Theo seems as harmlessly mischievous as Huxley. I would have thought him to be another campy villain with an agenda and it would have been so cool to discover that he’s someone much darker. There is a lot we still don’t know yet regardless. How long has he been on the island? What’s he up to? Did he have something to do with Helena’s demise?
Mean Girls
Nina puts Curtis on the case.
I like the set up for the story involving Claudette. Bree Williamson is a perfect fit for the seductive troublemaker. She plays the bitchy blonde in a way that makes it believable that Claudette could cause good guy Nathan to go bad while tempting a priest. Why does Claudette want Nathan back now? I suspect it’s because she heard he was getting married and that his rich sister was awake and running Crimson. Nathan benefits her now and she saw the opportunity to use his crime to her advantage. She’s a classic soap vixen.
Does Claudette know that her ex-lover is in Port Charles though? That could put a damper on things for everyone once it’s revealed that Griffin is the man with who Claudette had an affair with and Nathan shot. And the truth is definitely on it’s way to being exposed. Maxie wants to keep her enemy close so she convinces Nina not to fire “the smarmy green card vixon”. However, Nina has Curtis put his investigation skills to good use when he offers to dig up some dirt on Claudette. Nina doesn’t know that what Curtis might dig up would land Nathan in jail. A worried Maxie bumps into Curtis while rummaging through Claudette’s room and later lets Nathan know he needs to get Nina to call the whole thing off. Unfortunately for them, they may be too late. It’s clear that Curtis found something that lead him to Griffin. While Curtis obviously knows that Griffin had an affair with Claudette, I don’t think he knows what Nathan did…yet.
I agree with you on that Sam regret what she did to Jack. but she is a better mom then Liz. she is trying to help Jason so her son would have his father the one Liz kept from him.the same one Liz gave Jake and lie about but he had he’s dad Danny have not only two time. Jake had him more
We’re very much on the same page about GH last week. I appreciated your choice of screen caps too – from Ava’s delightful query about Nik’s jewels … to a hungry Nina watching Curtis … to the poignancy of those lovely scenes between Anna and Griffin. Like you, I want to see more important beats in the stories- and not only in romances but in relationships and character development in general.
I thought of these missed beats when I watched those Griffin/Valerie scenes where their introductions included a reference to their mutual connection to Lucas. And I thought of how sadly little we’ve seen of either of those connections. As well, as their conversation progressed, I thought of the common ground Valerie and Griffin share with each having made serious mistakes from which they are in various stages of rebuilding. I actually found it out-of-character for Valerie that the writers chose her as the voice for Franco’s undeniably evil past – considering that, on a few occasions, she has spoken about moving past her mistakes including this line to Dante on March 15: “We’ve all made mistakes. And I, for one, would hope that people would judge me for who I am now and not… what I’ve done in the past.” Oh well, maybe, if I’m really, really lucky, Valerie and Griffin might talk more about their mutual mistakes and forgiveness once his story with Claudette is revealed. I won’t hold my breath though.
Back specifically to last week’s Val and Griffin scenes, IMO, they were meant to provide context for the parallel scenes of Franco and Liz in the elevator. Scenes in which, as you so rightly put it, the writer took the wise step of acknowledging Franco’s dangerous, sadistic past. A past which must be acknowledged if Franco and Liz are to develop their relationship. As their emotionally intimate scenes unfolded, Valerie and Griffin provided more factual, objective background and validation for the elevator scenes. Valerie, the young, keen cop who had been reviewing Franco’s record, became the voice to remind us of Franco’s grievous past crimes – and the voice for those viewers who struggle to accept Franco because of that past. And Griffin, the doctor, reminded us of the validity of Franco’s medical diagnosis. Griffin, the priest, then focused on the ability of people to change and the power of redemption – at the same time as Liz was also moving to that point with Franco. I thought it was all well done!
Now about that hospital mystery: I read fan speculation about Valerie because of the mercy killing idea. However, unless Valerie has really changed, she fought for every hour and every day she could have with mother. Hence, her concern about the stress Luke’s redemption story put on her mother and her anger and sadness about losing precious time with her mother. So, unless she has changed a lot, I don’t see her being into the idea of mercy killing. But then her presence at the Ball when Lucas was injected and at the Metro Court when Dr. Mays died should eliminate her as a suspect.
So who do I think is committing these murders? Right now, my #1 suspect is Dr. Obrecht. She has been at been at GH for all the deaths – as we have seen from how quickly she appeared so she could focus blame on Finn. In fact, did she try to TOO hard to divert attention to Finn? And did she try TOO hard to get Franco to be their mutual alibi? Specifically re the night Lucas was injected, Dr. O was clearly back in the hospital after being forcibly prevented from performing at the Nurses’ Ball. She had strong motives to act out that night – and what better revenge than to take out beloved nurse Bobbie who HAD performed that evening. As for Dr. Mays, I do wonder if he caught her trying to end the life of Dr. Mays’ elderly patient and if he died as a result? We can’t forget that, in the past, Dr. O has proven to be a formidable combatant (in the days before her past was forgotten so she could be named COS at GH). As well, we should remember that Dr O had a series of questionable medical procedures in her past.
Of course, the killer could easily be someone else – especially since in-character writing and past history sometimes fall victim to plot points. However, I do think a good case can be made for Dr O being guilty.
If it was the tumor that made Franco do all the things he did then than what is his excuse now? His tumor is gone but Franco continue to taunt his victims and remember that time he put a camera on The necklace he gave Carly? Yep, no tumor. And, his mom didn’t make him do it either. So what does Sam have to do with this? Typical of Liz fans to bring what Sam did to try to justify Liz’s actions. Since you wanna talk about the past. Liz also kept Danny from Sam and Jason because she was threatening by Danny’s existence knowing Danny would reunit his parents. Because of what Liz did, Danny was in the hands of a lunatic hanging from the hospital rooftops. Did Liz learn her lesson? Nope. Liz tried again to keep Jason from Sam and Danny by keeping his identity a secret.
Lol! You don’t know GH history or the character Liz you claimed to love. Because if you did you’ll know that Liz also left her children behind so she could go chasing after the D. If Liz was such a good mom, she wouldn’t have Grams raising her kids and do it herself aka your words: stay home with her children. Looks like you have selective memories so let me remind you that Liz also lied to her son that his father is dead so she could continue keep her secret, called another man her miracle not her dead child who returned back to her, ignored the fact that her child needed help, traveled to another country to chase the D, let her son play with fire and the best one; it was under her watch her son was hit by a car and was “killed”. Yeah, Liz is such a great mom. Don’t I dare question her. Lol. Liz is the worst mother on GH. If you ask me, Helena is a better mom to Jake and Gram is a better mom to Cam and Aiden then Liz would ever be! Liz is too selfish to be a mother!
skank hurt Liz’s sons more than once and went to her house and taunted her about her son being dead,but somehow deadbeat jason forgave her.and skank didn’t have the excuse of a brain tumor, she just hated that Jake existed and was jealous and knew the woman who took him was crazy,it was malicious. Franco was ill and wanted to help his mom. and really, who has abandoned their children to go running off for no reason, have either db or skank called their kids or checked up on them? Liz is home with her children and working an actual real full-time job, so don’t put down Liz as a mother.
Liz saying Franco will never hurt her is BS. Did you and Liz forget that Franco kidnapped her son? Typical of Liz to sidebrush her sons as long as she gets what she wants though, right?