General Hospital Message Board

In the autumn of 2008, a rumor was dropped on “soapdish” stating that the on-screen story of a couple had turned into a “full fledged dangerous liaison”. The wording was vague and did not mention specifics. It could be interpreted in different ways. During that time, there were at least two soap opera magazine spreads, discussing General Hospital storylines, where the theme and title were “Dangerous Liaisons”.

During the summer of 2008, the story was a mixture of moments of happiness for Sonny and Kate, conflict among Kate, Claudia, and Carly, and hints to a possible storyline that could be written in the future to undermine and humiliate Kate.

The foundation was being built for the conflict and drama that would follow in the autumn of 2008 with all its ambiguities, secrets, and precarious moments.

One of the first building blocks of this saga was the storyline that aired from about July 16th, 2008, to July 21, 2008. Intrusions were introduced in the stories of Kate and Sonny’s lives that would come back to create problems later in the autumn of 2008.

In Kate’s story, Carly, who was on a confronting path with Kate, tried to have Claudia buy Jax’s share of Crimson; the fashion magazine Kate and Jax were collaborating on. This was threatening to Kate and she felt that she had to take steps to remove Carly’s influence and effect on her life. Kate then set Carly up and made it look like that she had lied to Jax and that she had undermined Crimson. Jax believed Kate and this made the grudge between Kate and Carly to go deeper.

The teases of the story were there. Would Claudia undermine Crimson later on in the story of Sonny and Kate? How would Carly get her pay back? The set up was there for something precarious to be written for the Kate character but at that time, it was merely a series of hints to a possible story. Hints the consequences of which were rarely discussed, and this made the situation even more tricky.

In Sonny’s story, Karpov, a Russian mobster, approached Sonny to hire his expertise in the mob business. Sonny agreed to be an advisor but only if there were no drugs involved (this might have been a hint to the story of Stone). He did not disclose this to Kate who believed that Sonny had no ties to the mob. Sonny’s dealings with Karpov created a situation later in autumn of 2008 when a mob war broke out after Karpov was shot dead.

The story was set up this way. That the complications of Sonny and Kate’s lives would cause problems for their relationship later on.

But the reason the story was written this way is not yet clear.

The fanbase believed that the story of Bensonhurst should be explored again for Sonny and Kate. But what was the barrier in way of that deeper story being told? Was it outside interference to influence how the story was being written?

July 18, 2024