‘General Hospital’ Week In Review: Dearly Departed

Last week’s General Hospital was pretty eventful both on and off of our television screens. The hospital killer story line got serious as the killer took his next victim, a character we actually know and care about. Julian’s trial began and it looks like the mob boss may get to walk after all. And Hayden and Liz finally know they’re sisters.

There was a lot of surprising casting news this past week beginning with the announcement that Tyler Christopher would not be returning to the soap as originally planned. Christopher has been keeping himself busy sans GH, having recently joined the independent film Pretty Broken. I’m sure his fans will have plenty of opportunities to see him in other projects. But for fans of Nikolas Cassadine, it is a shame to see him go especially with some great story line and a hot new love interest waiting for him upon his return to Port Charles. It’s unknown at this time if GH plans to recast or not. I personally wouldn’t mind a recast because I really, really wanted to watch Nik and Ava’s naughty affair.

In other casting news, Bryan Craig has decided to leave the role of troubled younger son Morgan Corinthos. Craig had started out his time at GH on a high note. Fans instantly related to his rebellious ways and angst towards his family. The forbidden romance with his girlfriend’s mother, femme fatale Ava Jerome, garnered some popularity. But then the writing for the character moved away from the qualities that originally drew fans. He became too dependent on his father’s approval. His love affair with Ava was swiftly rewritten as manipulation and a symptom of mental illness. Craig deservingly won an Emmy for his work during Morgan’s bipolar story line but fan response to the story itself was rather polarizing. The most perplexing direction was GH’s insistence on playing the hugely unpopular pairing of Morgan and Kiki as if it were a great young romance. Morgan could use a rest and a reboot. I look forward to seeing what Craig does next.

While some actors may be leaving, GH’s creative team isn’t going anywhere. Executive producer Frank Valentini and head writers Jean Passassante and Michelle Altman all struck new deals. I’m happy with this news. Valentini is an excellent producer, able to keep the show in budget and still looking good. Passassante and Altman excel at writing character-driven material and romance. Though not everything they have written has been gold, I’ve been pretty content with their overall work and want to see several of the stories they have set up continue to develop.

I wasn’t able to write about everything that happened last week. If you would like to share your thoughts about 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 September 12th-16th.

Goodnight Sweetheart

Michael is devastated by Sabrina’s murder.

You can always tell when something very bad is about to happen to a character on a soap by how happy they are. Sabrina had just gotten back her cherished job as a nurse and rekindled things with Michael. Then during her first day back to work, Sabrina was violently murdered by the hospital serial killer. This took place at the same time that Michael was cheerfully announcing to friends and family that he intended on asking for her hand in marriage. In fact, Michael showed Felix the engagement ring right outside of the door where Sabrina laid dead. If GH wanted to invoke a strong emotional response from viewers then mission accomplished.

The actors all did great with the material. Chad Duell and Marc Samuel were particularly heartbreaking in their portrayals of grief. This tragedy should have a hefty impact on their characters. Michael had disagreed with Carly previously regarding Sabrina. No doubt his anger at the situation will be directed at her now. Michael’s romances always end on a devastating note. Will this one send him over the edge? Felix and Sabrina’s friendship was not played nearly often enough the last few years and I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll get even less of Felix now. It would be interesting to see Felix’s other friendships with Brad, Lucas, Lucy and Epiphany highlighted while he deals with his loss.

Sabrina started out as a light character. She had a cutesy Ugly Betty inspired story line, sweet crush turned romance with Patrick and fun friendship with Felix. She was an unique character for GH in that she was the good girl and an innocent despite her flaws. But similar to the character of Morgan, Sabrina suffered from some lame creative choices. The first mistake was making her go nuts after losing her baby Gabriel, drug a pregnant Ava as revenge and lose her job as a result. Since being a nurse was a huge part of who Sabrina was, this stripped away a chunk of her identity. The set up of her romance with Michael Quartermaine and friendship with his aunt Tracy showed a lot of promise. But that was derailed when Sabrina became pregnant with Carlos’ baby and she went on the run with him. What should have been Michael’s grand romantic gesture, rescuing his lady love from bad guys in Puerto Rico, was watered down by the fact that he brought his daddy along for the ride. Yet the character of Sabrina could have very easily been fixed by making her a nurse again, playing her friendships and her romance with Michael. You know all the stuff the writers did just before they killed her off. The most tragic part is that Sabrina’s son Teddy is now an orphan.

When I found out that Sabrina was going to die, I was kind of okay with it. Now that it’s done, I’m disappointed that it came to this. What are your thoughts? Was killing Sabrina the right choice?

Unclear Motive

Paul’s motive is still unknown.

We still don’t know why Paul is killing people but we’ve been given some major breadcrumbs. The PCPD, with the help of Andre, walked through the information they have on the hospital killer. There wasn’t a clear connection between the victims and some of the victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They came to the conclusion that maybe the killer isn’t an angel of mercy and maybe the victims were targeted for another reason. “It could be that General Hospital itself is another victim,” suggested Andre.

It certainly appears that closing General Hospital may be the intent behind Paul’s actions. But what does he have against the hospital? There seems to be another unseen party involved who is either the motive for the killings or the one pulling Paul’s strings. Paul had a strange phone call and the person on the other end was someone he cared about. Perhaps he was talking to Susan? Paul did kill Sloane because of what he did to her. Could he be killing others for her as well? There is a lot of sorrow from Paul in regards to Susan, regret for not being a better father and for failing to protect her. Did the hospital somehow fail Susan thus provoking Paul’s revenge? I have a feeling that whatever is behind Paul’s killing spree will be a doozy.