Daily Updates

From: rika@netcom.com (Melissa Martin)
Subject: GH: Update, Wednesday, 5/15/96
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 20:44:57 GMT

                          GENERAL HOSPITAL UPDATE
                          Wednesday, May 15, 1996

The East coast had a 20-minute pre-emption of the early part of GH
due to Bob Dole's press conference; thank you, Razz for sending me
a summary of what I missed.  As a result, though, I can't provide
extensive detail on the first third of today's episode, since I
didn't see it.  If I missed anything important or got anything
wrong, I hope someone who saw the show will post additions or
corrections.

Apparently the weather is warmer in upstate New York than here
in North Carolina, where we have had cool weather ever since
the beginning of the week, because the unifying theme of this
episode was a major Port Charles heat wave.

TODAY'S STORYLINES:
* The Way to a Woman's Heart
* Turning up the Heat
* Hot Air in the Courtroom

The Way to a Woman's Heart
--------------------------
Ned arrived at the gatehouse carrying two bags of treats for Lois:
green tea ice cream, escargots, strawberries, vanilla wafers,
spicy pomodoro sauce, artichoke hearts, capers, and fudge sauce.
Lois used these ingredients to concoct some unusual snacks - such
as pimentos on sugar wafers and artichoke hearts with fat-free
fudge sauce.

Brenda dropped by.  Lois told her that things were going well with
Ned; he's still sleeping on the couch because "things take time."
She changed the subject, asking why Brenda hadn't returned her
phone calls.  Hey, I've been busy with my career, said Brenda.
(Aha!  I didn't understand that stalking Sonny was important to
the advancement of her modeling career!  I feel SO much better.)

Lois asked how Canada was.  "Fine" was Brenda's terse answer.  Lois
pressed for more details; Brenda gave a superficial "nice weather,
but I sprained my ankle" response.  Lois told Brenda that she had
already heard a fair amount about Canada - from Jax.  Brenda rolled
her eyes and repeated her usual Jax-said-I-could-use-him defense.
Lois tried to explain to Brenda the highly sophisticated concept
that people have feelings that sometimes get hurt; Lois had
suspected for a while that Jax was falling for Brenda.  Brenda
wasn't sure:  maybe she's just a challenge to Jax, like Lois was.
Then Brenda dropped the bomb, telling Lois about Jax's marriage
proposal.  Brenda wasn't sure what the proposal really meant - it
might be just a game.  Lois understood why Brenda might suspect
that about Jax, but insisted that Brenda has managed to touch
Jax's heart.  Brenda remained unconvinced - Lois might have
just said what she did to steer Brenda away from Sonny.  Lois
retorted that Sonny was doing a good job of that himself.

At that point, Ned returned to the gatehouse (he had gone to the
courthouse to get Edward to sign a trust fund document) with a
sheet cake, complete with a chocolate-frosting rendering of the
Brooklyn Bridge in honor of the possibility of naming Baby Ashton
Brooke Lynn.  Brenda escaped at this point, without revealing any
of her recent contact with Sonny.

Lois worried that if she kept eating so much, she'd get huge.
Ned told her it didn't matter.  At first when he met her, he fell
for the "gift wrapping", but then he found he was "deeply, madly
in love with the whole package" - and that the inside was more
lovable than the outside.  Lois kissed him, and we went out on
Ned and Lois embracing each other.

Turning Up the Heat
-------------------
Katherine, getting a massage at the spa, told the masseuse about
a new product for Deception - a men's fragrance called "Heat".
On the other side of the wall, Lucy (also getting a massage) heard
this and let out a trademark shriek.  A nasty battle, pre-empted
entirely on the East coast, erupted between Katherine and Lucy.
Katherine told Lucy that, since she didn't file a patent for Heat,
the fragrance belongs to Deception.  Lucy insisted that the
fragrance is "mine, mine, mine".  It's a good thing Lucy didn't
have her boxing gloves on, because the battle nearly became a
knock-down fist-fight as it was.  Katherine threatened to
have Lucy arrested for trespassing at Deception.

Lucy made a phone call.  A few minutes later, Lucy, in a bathrobe
with green goo all over her face, met with a Deception chemist.
He plans to come to Jax Cosmetics when his current contract
expires.  (How nice that so many people in Port Charles have
employment contracts.....)  Lucy asked why he gave the Heat
formula to Katherine.  "Sank Heaven for Leetle Girls", he sang in
reply.  No, not really, I made that up, but we were definitely
supposed to notice that the chemist was French, oui?  Ah, quel
dommage; he explained that, according to his contract, the formula
belongs to Deception.  Mais oui, c'est typical, n'est-ce pas?
(Help - I'm speaking fractured French and I can't shut up!)  Lucy,
never one to be stopped by minor details like laws and contracts,
urged him to give "la bleached blonde" (wouldn't that be "la blonde
bleachee"?) a slightly modified version of the formula.  He would
then steal the genuine formula, which she and the chemist apparently
developed together, and bring it with him.  She assured him that
Katherine won't be able to smell the difference (probably not, what
with all the fried chicken and blini smells surrounding her), and
that it would be sad to let "their baby" fall into Katherine's hands.
This last remark got to him, and she kissed him on both cheeks in
gratitude, thus getting green goo all over his face and puffing up
his ego at the same time.  Sacre bleu!

Later, Lucy was getting a seaweed wrap (apparently this involves
greenish-brown goo smeared on one's body and then being wrapped
in a big sleeping bag).  Lucy went on about her most recent
"triumph", and about the "awful, awful woman" who was so jealous
of Lucy.  Katherine, overhearing, snuck into the room, dismissed
the spa attendant, and began slapping seaweed goo all over Lucy.
Lucy, her eyes covered with cucumber slices, didn't notice anything
was wrong until Katherine spoke.  Katherine shoved a small towel
into Lucy's mouth, said "Bye bye, baby bunting", and left Lucy
immobilized inside the sleeping bag contraption, putting a "Do
not disturb" sign on the door as she left the room.  Lucy did her
best to shriek with her mouth full of towel.

Hot Air in the Courtroom
------------------------
At the courthouse, Justus told Edward he would turn himself in if
it looked like Laura would be convicted.  Edward continued to insist
that Laura will never be convicted, so why should Justus throw away
his life and damage his family's reputation?

Bobbie came to court and offered Luke some moral support.  Meanwhile,
Luke decided to go in search of Harper.  He grabbed Harper's address
out of Mac's hand and headed off on his mission.

Justus gave his opening statement.  Because of the pre-emption, I
didn't see any of it, but I think we can rest assured that his
statement included the following:
  * Laura could never do such a thing.  She is a loving mother, a
    good citizen, and an all-round wonderful human being.
  * The prosecution's case is completely circumstantial.
  * Laura was at Ward House with the sick babies that night.
  * The old commissioner was on Damian's payroll, so the evidence
    against Laura is questionable.
  * The police are more interested in convicting someone than in
    being sure they find out who really did it.
If he was smart, he also mentioned Katherine Bell's arrest for the
same crime (when the crime hadn't even been committed) as an example
of the past performance of the PCPD and the D.A.'s office.

Garcia took the stand.  The most notable part of his testimony was
when he sat mesmerized, staring at Lily, until Dara managed to get
his attention.  Hmmmm.  He reviewed the crime scene evidence, and
described the videotape of Laura threatening Damian.  On cross-
examination, Justus used Garcia's questioning of Lucky Spencer to
suggest that the PCPD was under great pressure to solve the case.

Later, out in the hall, Garcia spoke to Lily.  She explained that
she came to the trial for his sake - after talking to him the
night before, she thought he could use a friend.  She assured him
that he had been fair in his testimony.  Lily and her bodyguard
departed; Garcia watched her go.  Hmmmm.

Dara called Simone to the stand.  Justus objected, and in a
sidebar, he complained that Simone wasn't on the day's witness
list, and he hadn't talked to her yet.  Dara challenged him, saying
that she doubted he hadn't talked to Simone - isn't she his
fiancee?  He didn't answer, accusing Dara of changing the order
of witnesses just to throw him off balance.  The judge tired of
the "crossfire", and pointed out that they'd better have Simone
testify now before ST:DS9 needed her her again (:-).  Simone
testified about the phone call from Laura the night of the fire:
based on Laura's report of Baby James's ear infection, Simone
phoned in a prescription and they made an appointment for James
in the morning.  Dara claimed that phone call was to manipulate
Simone into offering Laura a plausible reason for being alone at
Ward House with the babies.  Simone had given James a check-up the
day before, and there was no sign of an ear infection then.  On
cross-examination, Simone explained that James could have developed
the infection after she saw him.  On re-direct, Dara got Simone to
say that James had never had an ear infection before since the day
he was born.

While all this was going on, Luke went looking for Harper at a pool
hall.  It might have been the one where Carly has been hanging out.
Harper overheard Luke, but he stayed hidden.  Later, Luke returned
to the courthouse.  After a brief conversation with Mac in which
Mac griped about Luke's method of getting a lead on Harper and Luke
didn't apologize, Bobbie came out into the hall and urged Luke to
get back into the courtroom.  He did so just as the judge decided
to adjourn for the day, hoping "The Powers That Be" would have the
air conditioning working by the next morning.  Don't hold your
breath, Your Honor - we on RATSA have been waiting for MONTHS for
TPTB to do some important things, and they ain't happened yet.
Simone apologized to Laura for the outcome of her testimony -
Laura understood.  Luke told Laura he would never had left, had he
known things were going to be difficult for her.  Laura said the
heat made her feel like she was going to faint.  She thought maybe
it was because she was in the "hot seat" instead of the real killer;
when assured by Bobbie that it really was hot outside, Laura said
she suspected the trial was about to heat up too.  Okay, okay, we
get it - it's hot in Port Charles.  Exhausted by the effort of
thinking up all those plays on words related to heat, Laura gazed
at Luke in concerned silence as the episode ended.

--------------------------------------
Rika, 1/3 of the Wednesday Update Team