Daily Updates

From: Teresa Elaine Leslie <tleslie@emory.edu>
Subject: GH:  UPDATE FOR TUESDAY, March 17 (LONG)
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 00:54:03 -0500

        Surprise, it's me, Terry, the long-winded half of the Friday
update team.  I'm filling in for the ever-wonderful Maire, whose VCR
betrayed her on Tuesday.  Since I wasn't planning to update, I was kinda
sloppy with my taping and missed the first few moments of the show, which
was beautifully written by Michael Quinn and directed by Joseph Behar.
Warning:  It's a long update, as there were just so many gorgeous scenes,
so many yummy lines just crying out for inclusions.

Today's Theme:  Rude Awakenings
        Some of the rude awakenings were literal ones: Lucky waking up to
a policeman's rousing in the bus station, Stefan being awoken from a dream
about Lasha by a real-life Katherine.  Others were more metaphorical.  And
then Edward tried to awaken the memories of Port Charles citizens who may
have seen the kidnapper.
        Let's try the "breakdown into blocks of related stories" approach
again today, rather than a scene-by- scene recital. There were really only
two main threads, which both break down into pairs-- Michael's kidnapping,
with the Carly/Jason angle and the Q angle; and Laura's past, with
Luke/Lucky/rape interwoven with the Lasha/Stefan story. I'm particularly
enchanted by the skillful weaving of Stefan's romantic memories of Laura
with the harsh words being tossed around about The Rape.
        So here goes:

Facing Another Morning Without Michael:
        Edward's is the first face many Port Charles residents see this
morning, as he has arranged for a live broadcast from his home of his
appeal for information about the kidnapping of his great-grandson.
Flashing a suitcase full of money, he announces a $5 million reward and
gives out an 800 number for informants to call.  Jason enters the
penthouse where he joins Carly in front of the television, watching
Edward's performance.  Carly:  "Do you think it will work?"
Jason:  "I think it's a disaster."  Carly clutches a stuffed bunny and
looks worried.
        She was concerned when he didn't come home the night
before, and he tells her he was out looking for Michael, to no avail.  He
has been thinking about what she said that night, however, and has decided
she was right about his job endangering Michael, an idea from which she
backs away in the light of a new day.  Jason tells her she should consider
telling everyone that AJ is the father, for Michael's safety.
        At the Qs, Lila and AJ enter the living room, questioning the
wisdom of what Edward has done.  AJ is angry, saying Edward will only
succeed in stirring up kooks and spooking the kidnappers.  You should have
let the police handle it, Grandfather.  Edward: "The only way they'd find
Michael is if he were being held hostage in a donut shop."  Jason?
"There's an idea.  Send a crook to find a crook.  What if he has a sudden
attack of professional courtesy?"  Then Alan and Monica enter, and join
the chorus attacking Edward.  The first call comes in on the tip line,
but it's a nut case.
        Edwards calls Taggart to see if the police have gotten any leads.
"Any news?"  Taggart tells him there is one piece of news: "Some old
jackass went on tv this morning and yapped about the kidnapping in direct
violation of our orders."  Edward:  "I don't take orders from the police.
With what I'm paying in taxes, you should be taking orders from me."
        AJ's sarcastic "Another lead, grandfather?" as Edward hangs up
the phone is amusing.  Edward argues that since no one is making progress
anyway, the time has come for extreme measures, a "bold move" as Alan put
it.  when Alan agrees with his father (an attitude that doesn't hold, as
he changes sides with every breeze throughout the episode), Edward says,
"Now you're thinking like a Quartermaine," to which Monica responds, "Like
an idiot." [To which my update assistant, Logan the WonderPony, responds,
"Same thing." He may be only 12, but he's catching on fast.]
        Another call comes in, and Edward's smug look of triumph
evaporates as the Qs listen to his side of the conversation:  "No, two
months, not six months; not dark hair, red hair; no, it's a boy, not a
girl."  Then, indignantly and loudly, "No, we will NOT give you the 5
million to hold while we check out your lead."  The family around him
dissolves into giggles, which I thought was a bit much, under the
circumstances.  The laughter dies when Emily walks into the room, asking
what is going on.
        Cut to Carly and Jason.  Carly is upset by Jason's change of
heart, and argues that it is not going to help Michael to tell AJ he's the
father.  She pleads with him not to take what she said in anger to heart.
"I was hurt.  I was hurt so bad that I needed to hurt somebody, and you
were there, because you are always there.  But when you were gone last
night, I started thinking about what I said and how unfair it was."  Jason
reminds her that since he took over for Sonny, the people in his life are
targets. Carly counters that it might have nothing to do with his
business, and Jason assures her that it is her secret to tell, her call to
make.
        Carly says that the penthouse is a good home for Michael, and
that she won't let the Qs take him away from Jason. "If it
helps Michael to tell the truth, tell the truth," Jason tells her. "The
truth is that you are Michael's father in every way that matters.  We are
his family, and we are going to get him back-- together."
        Later we see Carly and Jason having a quiet moment over tea.  She
says it's time she started thanking Jason, and he answers, "I didnt' do
anything I didn't want to."  She wonders how he managed as a single parent
when Michael was first born, and he reminders her that he had Leticia and
the bodyguards to help.  She ignores his protests, telling him that's not
what she meant, but rather that a parent needs "more than an extra hand,
you need an extra heart to take over when yours is too full."  [Updater
says, "awwww, that's beautiful" and then "huh?  what does that mean?"]
She tells him that the night before, "when I was alone" (and although
carly doesn't mention it, being alone scares her worse than anything), she
thought about how much she felt that she and Michael belong with Jason.
Jason says solemnly, "That's what I want."  [And the updater says, "YES"
as that's precisely what she wants to hear.]  But he's just not sure it's
the best for Michael.  King SOlomon would love Jason, and his
determination to give the baby up for his own good, if need be.  "Jason,
you ARE good for Michael. Okay?  You are his father.  You're the one who
raised him. [well, to be precise, carly, it's only been 2 months]  You're
the only one who wanted me to be his mother.  You treat him like your son,
not like something you own or something you can hold over my head like a
lot of other people I could mention." [okay, it's all old material, but
it's what Carly needs to say now, to remind herself as well as Jason.]
        Speaking of other people, Qs are busy trying to reassure Emily
that the baby is probably fine, even though he's been kidnapped.  Emily
didn't know until now that he'd been taken.
        Jason decides to head to Puerto Rico to check out a "business
associate" who has been acting funny, on the off chance that he's the
kidnapper.
        Near the end of the hour, we see Michael in a crib at Mercy,
kicking his legs.  Updater, a real softie, thinks back to Jason's talks to
the baby about learning to roll over, and silently wills Michael not to
develop this skill before he's home with Jason again.

Awaking from Dreams of Laura
        Stefan has come to the guesthouse for some morning wake-up nookie.
He mentions that he's been gone in the evenings a lot recently, implying
Kat has had to spend her nights alone, and he wants to make it up to her.
He's bearing a tray with breakfast, but when Kat purrs from the bed, he
quickly shucks [attention, Brenda!]  his gray jacket and black dress
shirt, causing the updater to begin purring as well at the sight of his
Cassadine medallion gleaming on his magnificent chest.  Stephen Nichols is
a sight to behold.
        This is our first glimpse of the guesthouse, btw, so I should
report on decor.  Funnily enough, since Kat has mentioned her unhappiness
with the heavy, dark decoration of the main house, this bedroom is
similar in style.  There are orange satin sheets, as on the master's bed
there, and tall windows that paradoxically don't seem to let in much
light, big furniture and a candelabra of tall, thin tapers (as opposed to
the short, thick, wax-splurting candle of Serenity).

        Lucky is sleeping at the bus station, until he is awakened by a
policeman ready to run him in for truancy.  he lies his way out of it,
claiming to be over 18 and a resident of Asbury Park, NJ (ha!) on his way
to Sandusky, Ohio.  He's missed the last bus and is waiting for the
morning one; but after the police officer moves on, Lucky changes his mind
and heads out of the bus station.
        We next see him at Lizzie's door.  He waves at her through the
window, rather than knock and disturb the household (unnecessary, since it
turns out Liz is home alone).  She comes out to the stoop to talk to him.
He tells her he's leaving town, but doesn't know where he'll wind up.  She
asks him to let her help, to tell her what's going on.  She says that
she's been raped, so "what can you tell me that's worse than that?"  "Not
much.  You'd be surprised."  She tells him that she wants to be there for
him as he was there for her during her worst times, when he "never
flinched, never looked away.  You were solid.  You were someone I could
depend on, someone I could trust.  I want to be the same for you.  I can
be.  You just have to let me."  Lucky does let her, telling her that what
he had wanted most was the name of the guy who raped Liz.  "Well, I got a
consolation prize, the name of the guy who raped my mom."  Lizzie is
puzzled, since she thought they already knew it was Stavros.  "My dad."
"Oh," Lizzie begins, clearly flustered.  Lucky pushes her to finish
her thought: "What? How sick, how sickening, what?"   "How sad," Liz
answers quietly, " for you."  They talk a bit more and Liz asks a favor of
Lucky, "before you go."  "What?" "Don't."  He doesn't.
        Cut to Stefan and Kat in the afterglow, enjoying a late breakfast
propped up in bed, wrapped in sheets.  They banter, including this
humorous exchange: Stefan: "Have the last scone."  Kat: "I'm all sconed
out."  Things take a serious turn as he tells her trouble is coming, "in a
matter of days, or even hours."  "Helena?"  "No, Luke Spencer."
        He goes on to tell her that Lucky and Nikolas exchanged words,
"and I'm afraid young Spencer got the worst of it.  He provoked Nikolas
and Nikolas revealed something that I had told him, of which Lucky was
unaware.  Something devastating."
        He goes on to tell her the deep dark secret, which peeved the
updater a bit, but was necessary, I figure, for purposes of allowing us to
see how he talks about the knowledge he has of Laura's past when he isn't
in Luke's face.  His words are measured, his face stony, and he does not
look at Katherine as he says, "Many years ago, Lucky's father...forced
himself on Laura."  "Luke?"  "Yes, Luke.....raped Laura, two years before
they were married." [wonderfully effective delivery by Stephen.  He
hesitates over the words "forced himself" and "raped" and absolutely
caresses the name "Laura" each time.]
        Katherine is surprised. "That's unbelievable."  [updater note-- I
had to rewind a half dozen times before I could decipher the word
"unbelievable."  MBE's speech was often hard to understand, rendering it
difficult to transcribe her half of the exchanges.  Thankfully, SN had
most of the lines, and the crucial ones.]
        "I would venture to say most people would say the same thing
[voice rising in anger, words growing more clipped] and that is what has
protected Spencer from exposure all these years."
        "It certainly has," Katherine agrees solemnly.  "I never heard it
and I know Luke. At least I thought I did."  Pause.  "But she married
him."
        That inspires one of those fabulous, heartbreaking lines of
Stefan's that always make me want to laugh and cry simultaneously.
Staring mournfully ahead, he sardonically answers, "Yes,
Laura has been known to take the concept of forgiveness to extremes." Long
Pause.  "Could you imagine forgiving, and then marrying, a man who had
done such a thing?" At this point, as the focus shifts, Stefan makes eye
contact with Katherine, and continues to do so through the rest of the
scene.
        "No, I can't imagine. [Now, if he had SHOT her......]  But it made
sense to Laura, so who am I to question it?  After all, if we put our
story up for scrutiny, [no, brenda, nobody said "shuck"] someone might
find it difficult to understand why we're together." [Updater's hand shot
up in the air in affirmation, as did WonderPony's.]
        Stefan nods as if in agreement.  "Sometimes I don't understand it
myself." [Updater cracks up. WonderPony turns and offers me a high five,
reminiscent of the move Brenda and Robin performed last Friday.]
        But Katherine understands.  "What's the great mystery?  We're
kindred spirits.  We belong together."  I'd love to give you the final
line of her dialogue, after which they kiss and we fade out.  But I can't.
I reran the tape time and again, and this is what I know-- after "we
belong together", MBE performed a loud popping sound with her lips, as she
is sometimes known to do.  After this lip-smack, she gurgled something
that ended with the words "....have lasted at all."  Sorry for the lacuna,
but that's the best I can do.   Can someone PLEASE tell MBE to speak up,
and enunciate?
        BTW, my curiosity obviously was greater than this Kat's.
Questions that ran through my mind as Stefan told his tale included "How
did you learn about the rape?  Why did you tell Nik?  Why do you care what
happned to Laura almost 20 years ago?  Why do you mean, this could
threaten our relationship?"  Kat asked no such questions.
        Back to Lucky and Liz---She suggests he go to North Carolina to
see his mother, but he will have none of it.  "But maybe she could explain
what happened," Liz argues.  Lucky, bitterly, counters, "Yeah, I'm sure
she could.  She must have some story she's been selling herself all these
years.  But I don't want to hear it. Besides, it's the first place my dad
would look."  Liz then invites him to move into her place, suggesting she
could hide him from her grandmother.  She coaxes him inside, assuring him
no one is home, but he doesn't plan to stay long.
        After they move inside, we see Luke at the door.  He has come to
see Liz, unaware that Lucky is already there.  He tells Elizabeth that he
expects she will hear from Lucky soon and that Lucky really needs a
friend.  He is extremely subdued, almost embarrassed. Lucky steps
from behind the door, and we cut to commercial.  After the commercial, Liz
makes herself scarce, and Lucky steps outside to talk with his dad.
Theirs is another heart-rending exchange.
        Lucky:  What the hell are you doing here?
        Luke:  She [liz] knows?
        Lucky, quickly, a snarl in his voice:  That's right, 'coz I don't
lie to people I care about and I don't protect men who rape.
        Luke, exasperated:  For God's sake, Lucky, I'm the same man I was
yesterday, I'm the same person you've known all your life.
        Lucky:  You really believe that?
        Luke:  YES!  [what a wealth of meaning TG can pack into a single
word.]
        Lucky:  The man I knew would never do this.  The man I knew
protected my mother; he didn't degrade her.
        Luke:  I raised you, and I have always honored my wife.  We
created order out of chaos and we've been faithful to each other for 16
years and you will not diminish that.  YOU ASK HER (voice choked with
passion, just the right hint of defensiveness as he says the next line)
She'll tell you it's been a good life.
        Lucky:  That just makes her as twisted as you are.  And you now
what?  I hate you both.
        PAUSE HERE, for a scene with Carly and Jason, and then we return
with Luke saying:  All right, you hate me. You think you have that right.
And I'll give you that.  Okay, I can take that.  But you remember why you
hate me.  Because you love your mother.  And don't you take this out on
her, because she has paid enough for that night.  You have no idea what
happened to her.
        Lucky:  I know exactly what happens to a woman when a man forces
himself on her.
        This makes Luke angry, and he shouts at Lucky:  You know NOTHING.
You know what happened to Liz. It's NOT the same.
        Lucky: Yours is even sicker.
        Luke:  And you're qualified to make that judgement?
        Lucky:  Yes, I am.
        Luke:  Who told you?

But we must wait for Lucky's answer, which only comes after the follwing
scene, my fave.  Speaking of "who told"---
        Stefan is asleep in Katherine's bed, apparently worn out from his
exertions.  (Swoon)  There is tinkly piano music, and we are invited into
his dream, a dream I LOVE, consisting of a flashback I missed first time
around but have longed to see, a flashback to the night he made love to
Lasha, all those years ago on the island.  Yes, it's a Greek Island
Flashback.  We see a young Stefan, shirtless and gorgeous, entering a
bedroom where Laura stands by the bed in candlelight.  He closes the door,
his eyes never leaving hers, and joins her by the bed, brushing her hair
from her cheek with the back of his hand.  She smiles shyly, and they
kiss.  There's a shot of him peeling aside her robe, revealing the
Cassadine medallion she wears.  That blends into a shot of him lowering
her ont the bed, then into a shot of her contented face [which looks
remarkably like Katherine's, for an instant] and her outstretched hand, as
he plants a kiss in her palm.  It is very sexy, and romantic, and quiet,
in vivid contrast to both the rape flashback we saw the day before and the
scene between Stefan and Katherine which will follow.
        Stefan is awakened from this dream by Kat nuzzling his neck.  The
same music continues to play under the scene, in a nice touch.  He opens
his eyes, realizes where he is, and the expression on his face is
PRICELESS.  He struggles to compose himself as Katherine purrs, "WElcome
back. Where were you?"  "Just a dream.  The usual mixture of metaphor and
madness."  [Ah, how that man can turn a phrase]  he clears his throat, in
a beautifully authentic touch, and slides from the bed.  If you must make
noises, that is how it is done.  "But I have a few real-life nightmare to
attend to," he submits, as he dons his silver robe, looking gorgeous.
        Now Kat's curiousity, notably absent earlier, kicks in.  "Do you
remember what your dream was about? "  He looks uncomfortable, and then
we cut to a commercial.  After the commercial, Kat is out of bed as well,
dressed in a white robe, thankfully NOT similar to the one Laura was
wearing in the flashback.  Stefan answers, "I never remember my dreams
clearly.  They always seem to evaporate as I open my eyes."
        "It's obviously disturbed you."  Well, no, Kat, the dream didn't
disturb him, the questions about it did.  "was it about Nikolas?"
        "I can't remember, " he claims, "and that's good.  Because I don't
want to share your attention, " as he moves toward her, with a  rather
chilling but sexy grace, "with anyone or anything."  He embraces her and
starts a series of remarkably noisy kisses, far more fervent than his
earlier love-making.  It is fascinating to watch his lovemaking after the
Lasha dream, as he attempts to obliterate the memory of Laura from his
mind, or convince himself that his passion is for Katherine, or gosh knows
what.  He is ferocious, sort of lifting Kat off her feet and sliding her
across the floor to the wall by the window where, planting his hand atop
her head, he begins to practically devour her as she is pinned against the
wall.  Katherine, unaware of the source of his ardour, is apparently
appreciative of the attention, matching him kiss for kiss.

        Then we cut back to the Spencer men, with Luke waiting for Lucky
to reveal his source.  Lucky taunts Luke with the news. "The little
cassadine, my brother Nikolas, told  me.  And Stefan told him.  Wonder who
told Stefan?  Mom? Kind of makes you wonder, don't it [sic], was she
kidnapped by the Cassadines, or rescued?"  Luke's eyes grow huge, and I
get the feeling  it had not occurred to him before this moment that Laura
might have confided in Stefan about this most painful moment in their
lives. although Lucky probably thinks it's the crack about the Cassadine
'rescue' that hurt most.  The news hits Luke hard, regardless, and he sort
of stumbles away to face this last rude awakening.

And that about sums it up.

Terry, Substitute Updater
RATSA Bookie