General Hospital Message Board

It was after Michael’s shooting.

The events that were written after Michael’s shooting were intense, controversial, divisive, depressing, and a source of conflict among many fanbases.

When the character of Kate was first introduced to the show, she was immediately defined to be a contrast with Carly. The conflict began from the beginning and although it was not the focus for the first few months, it intensified after Michael’s shooting.

Carly put the blame on Sonny and Kate intervened to support him. The situation was that, when the shot was fired, Sonny ran towards Kate to protect her but that the bullet ricocheted and hit Michael.

Carly implied that Sonny’s attention towards Kate had him distracted from his other priorities in life.

Because Kate was the person who took Michael to the warehouse, Carly expressed a great deal of animosity towards Kate, and this was only the beginning of this new phase of feud.

In late April, Sonny and Kate had a conversation about Sonny’s next move. Sonny stated that he had to retaliate and avenge Michael’s shooting because if he didn’t it could make him look weak. Kate told Sonny that this would only perpetuate the cycle of violence and that Sonny could stop this by making a different choice.

In the same episodes, the person who shot Michael (on Claudia’s orders) approached Kate and blackmailed her threatening to kill Sonny if she didn’t provide a certain amount of funds. Having had the prior conversation with Sonny, Kate gave in to the blackmail and, when Sonny found out, this led to a brief break up between them.

During this brief breakup, Sonny and Carly had grief sex after they took Michael to an institute where he would be taken care of. Again, the scenes were written with a great amount of sleaze and created a humiliating context where Carly was degraded as a woman and accused of using sex to gain leverage over the other side.

The stark contrast between Kate and Claudia was previously established. Now Carly was also added to the mix, and this was a dangerous set up. The story that followed was based on the premise that Sonny had moved on from relationships with women who were manipulative and cunning and that he had moved on to a relationship with a woman who was true to love and who had righteous qualities.

This was the set up and the context for the storyline that was told for the duration of the summer leading to the introduction of the character of Olivia, Sonny and Kate’s wedding, and the Thanksgiving story.

In various scenes and episodes during the summer, there were hints and teases of what might come later on in the story of Sonny and Kate. Closer to the wedding, there was a rumor that the story of a couple on the show had turned into a dangerous situation. Later in autumn, a couple of sweeps previews had theme and title “Dangerous Liaisons” and this was in direct connection to the story of Sonny and Kate.

What was this situation and why was it set up in this way?