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Last week’s General Hospital had quite a few surprises as things got deadly on Cassadine Island, Julian took some drastic measures and dopplegangers turned up in Port Charles. It was a weird week for the sudser to say the least but mostly in a good way. Where some of these stories are heading is anyone’s guess.
Jeffrey Vincent Parise was back this week as Ghost Carlos and his never before mentioned twin Dr. Jose “Joe” Rivera. The choice to bring back Parise in a new role has not been without its controversy. I have enjoyed Parise’s work as Carlos and think he is a terrific actor. What makes it such a hot topic is that GH just did this with Michael Easton in March. If the show wants to keep an actor around, they shouldn’t write the character into a corner. Carlos was killed, brought back to life and then killed again. A bit of an overkill both literally and figuratively. All that being said, I think Parise did a great job with his new character. He’s playing Joe differently than Carlos and I’m glad they brought on another doctor. I hope GH doesn’t just put Joe into Carlos’ same orbit. Parise could generate chemistry with a lot of the show’s leading ladies.
There was a lot that happened this 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 18th-22nd.
Break Your Heart
Griffin and Finn are perplexed by Julian’s episodes.
Julian’s journey has taken a sad turn. Less than a year ago, he was walking down the aisle with Alexis, happily in love and ready to be a family man. Boy did the tides change quickly and all because of his own wrong actions. Julian has hit his rock bottom. Lucas rejected him, Olivia won’t let him see Leo and Alexis dumped divorce papers on his hospital bed while he was sleeping. The only thing Julian has left to hold onto is the hope that he’ll stay out of prison. Unfortunately for him, his well-maintained physic is getting in the way. Julian manages to push back his day in court by damaging his heart with some sort of drug. It is a risky thing to do and could very well backfire. But if he doesn’t accidentally kill himself someone else might…
I was kind of excited when at first it appeared that Sonny was going to have Finn kill Julian in exchange for ZenZen (the drug that Finn is taking to keep his made-up disease in check). It seemed like a very Sonny thing to do and would have perked up the whole Finn story line. Alas, Sonny just wants Finn to make sure that Julian gets well enough for his day in court. What a snooze! Anyways, Griffin and Finn both are a little thrown off by Julian’s condition. I have the sneaking suspicion that they won’t find out what’s really going on soon enough.
Something else that I thought was interesting was that Julian has the same patient number as another patient, Richard Fitzgerald. Maybe that means nothing at all but I wonder if it could later connect the story to the hospital murders. What if the killer gets his targets mixed up?
Fall Of The House Of Cassadine
The Cassadine Island story line upped it’s suspense factor this week beginning with Nik’s second untimely death this year. Valentin made Nik sign over his inheritance, threatening to kill Ava if he didn’t comply. Nik signed the papers and then got into a struggle with Valentin. Valentin shot Nik and he fell to his death from the window. Is Nik really, most sincerely dead this time? Doubtful.
Ava uses her charm to tempt Valentin.
Ava’s self-preservation mode kicked into high gear. She used her charms to get Valentin into bed and, when he had his guard down, whacked him across the face with Helena’s diary. Her escape was intercepted by the henchmen and she joined the guests downstairs where she informed Laura that Nik had been killed. Ava was very tender with her words to Nik’s mother. One of the most important redeeming qualities of Ava’s has always been her gentle approach to parents who have lost or might lose their children. I like that the writers remembered this about Ava. A lot of the writing for her works against this trait and I would like that to change.
Laura broke down upon learning the news about Nik. She screamed at Valentin and he aimed his gun at her. Kevin stepped into the path of the bullet, saving Laura and getting shot in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Lulu, who escaped during an earlier diversion, stumbled across a corpse in the catacombs. Just who’s body is that and what happened? I like that this gothic adventure is finally getting a bit goth.
I just don’t understand why Carly and Valerie aren’t having scenes together. I know a couple of fans of Valerie who want to know the same thing. Plus shouldn’t Valerie having scenes with Michael and Morgan too. Valerie is related to them.
Aren’t Morgan and Valerie related.
You’re so right, I forgot they’re related. I think you’re right that val and carly need more story together, perhaps they’ll pull val into the kidney story since she’s a cop. I so like the actress. Should chem test her with morgan, I’m already a jordan and curtis fan, val and morgan might have potential.
I’m all for Jeffrey as a doctor and I LOVE the haircut. Now get roger and devry to the same stylist ASAP. Devry’s haircut is so bad I thought it was a clue about his personality change. I now think it’s just a terrible haircut.
Finn’s story that the drug is both saving his life and very addictive makes tons of sense lots, so common in prescription drugs especially on the pain side and people us pot/canabis for MS and epilepsy, so I like the story and of course finn, tracy and hayden are great together. Really nice side story I enjoy when sonny’s not around it.
yes, they were everything. truly reminded me why I haven’t given up on GH, though I have taken many breaks lately.
Also, Valentin is a terrific actor for the new villain, he popped in his scenes immediately and his reaction to both genie and maura’s performances were interesting and layered. If only we had tyler, would have been some epic scenes. I like NuNik, I want him to come on board as a long lost casadine cousin, but I could have had tyler, maura and genie, and frankly the show would have had a good episode for emmy nomination time.
I was kind of annoyed with the MorKiki love scene at first but then I loved Friday’s episode with Killon. Morgan is the angst! Scott & Lucy were a nice surprise. We need a lot more of them.
Val doesn’t interact with her family at all. It’s weird. Laura and Ava were everything.
Too bad we don’t get any Carly and Valerie scenes. Awesome Laura and Ava scene.
Dillon and Kiki have more chemistry in 4 min. scene than anything Morgan/Kiki. I miss them. This week was really painful with Morgan. Not sure the direction but hopefully it moves along. It was pretty sad for Kiki to say to Dillon that she needed at least one optimistic friend. Ava really needs to come back. I know their relationship is still being rebuilt but you can see that she would not take kindly the pressure from Carly/Morgan.
I’m really hating that they added Darby into this. She’s not needed at all. I’ve been reading on some boards….Please no surprise pregnancies.
I agree that Hayley Erin has been really good with the material and that’s not easy because the writing sometimes it is all over the place.
And I love Dillon/Tracy scenes. JE and RPW have great mother/son chemistry.
Curious about Liz and her connection to Naomie. Loved Liz/Franco and Kevin/Laura. More Scott/Lucy please. Enjoyed those scenes with Franco. This is what I want to see more on GH.