Daily Updates

From: Teresa Elaine Leslie <tleslie@emory.edu>
Subject: GH:  LAST Friday's Update 3/27/98
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 23:17:04 -0500

        Okay, it's more than a day late and more than a dollar short, but
it's an update. Other, non-ratsa, priorities kept me  away from my
computer most of the week.  Luckily, you guys discussed this episode a
lot, so hopefully that filled in a lot of gaps for those who missed it
entirely.  And given the passage of time, I hope I'll be forgiven for
"editorializing" now and again.

        This episode was scripted by TJ's fave, Patrick Mulcahey, and
directed by Ludel.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE:

        The episode opesn with Luke alone in his club, drinking, waving a
pistol around (giving this updater pause, esp. this week, with the
Arkansas shooting still fresh).  It was eerily reminiscent, for me, of the
way Stefan was acting the night he was playing with the gun after Laura
was "buried" and he shot Katherine.  But I digress.  Luke aims at a glass,
shoots, and shatters it (watch out, LUke. True story-- my father shot a
glass lantern as a teenager, the bullet richocet, lodged in his leg, where
it resides to this day.)  Then he aims at some spot near the door and
shoots, just as a tall blonde woman comes through the door and gets the
fright of her life. She is Tammy, a woman of easy virtue, who was supposed
to meet a customer at Luke's Place.  She is put out that Luke's closing
the club has cost her a night's pay.  Luke has a proposition of his own
for her-- he'll pay for her time, if she will listen to him and serve as
his judge.  He peels off a hundred bucks, and she agrees.
        Next, we see the door to the Hardy house.  Lucky startles Liz at
the door.  (Smooth move, Lukcy, slipping up on a rape victim in the dark)
As he's done before, he tells her he's headed out of town; as she's done
before, she pleads with him to stay.
        From there, we move to Carly at the penthouse.  Bobbie, enters,
and we learn she has come by to ask a favor of Jason, who isn't home.
From her remarks,s it has something to do with LUke and Lucky, although
frankly the updater doesn't buy it, and I'm not sure if this is an excuse
on Bobbie's part or on the part of the writer to put BObbie and Carly in
the same room, but let's go with it.  Carly is irritated that Bobbie would
want to burden Jason with other people's problems when he is having so
many of his own, now that not only Michael but also Robin has been
snatched.  Robin's disappearance is news to Bobbie, and many ratsa-farians
commented on this continuity glitch, since Brenda had interrupted Tony's
birthday party to tell Mac the news.  Taggert comes to the penthouse to
take the tap off Jason's phone, upsetting Carly in the process.
        Meanwhile, Jason is at Tony's cabin, where he slips in quietly,
alone.  Since we know several of his men are with him (in fact, NO ONE was
guarding the penthouse OR Carly when Bobbie showed up, which the updater
thought was pretty silly), it is not terribly realistic for him to go in
alone.  I know, dramatic license, and besides, WonderPony, my asst.
updater, loved it, as he wanted Jason to find Tony and "beat the crap out
of him."  (WP is usually a pacifist, but he is a huge Baby Michael fan and
has hated Tony since LONG before Dr. Jones went psycho-- his WGC Carly
keepership is "the way she yells at Tony)
        But as we were reminded by the recap at the top of the show, Tony
is not there because he had a flat tire on his way back to the cabin with
Robin's HIB medication.  So why didn't jason and the gang pass him on the
road?  GUess they took a different route.  Jason searches the cabin,
calling Robin's name, and kicks in the door to the back room when he hears
Robin call out weakly.  He goes to Robin first-- darn-- and staes the
obvious:  "You're sick."  "i'm better now," Robin answers in typical
"rescued damsel" style. She points weakly to Michael's basinette.  Jason
rushs to the baby, picks him up, says a Hail Mary prayer, concludes with
Thank You.

And then there's a commercial break, after which:

        Luke is telling his story to Tammy the Hooker.  He tells her he
always knew life would not go well for him. "I knew this wasn't gonna
last..... I knew from the cradle, if I had one, that this life wasn't
gonna fit me like a glove.  More like a dry cleaner's bag over my head."
        "But my wife, Laura, made me forget that, made me want to forget
that. But it was a mistake to think that I could ever live like other
people."  Tammy has doubts about his logic, and says she has felt the same
way, but that you don't know unless you try.
        "I knew."  He answers.  "And she should have known.  How could she
sa she loved me? How could I believe that?  Even if she believed that, HOW
COULD I?"  His voice is low, almost a whisper, as if he is talking to
himself, not Tammy.  "How could I?"
        Updater cries.

        Cut to Lucky and Liz.  Liz thinks Lucky is upset with her because
she talked to his dad, but he was unaware.  Why talk to my dad, he asks,
and Liz admits to "selfish" reasons-- she wanted to make things right for
Lucky so he won't leave town.  She tells Lucky she knows he cares about
his family.  "Don't pretend you don't care, I know that game, I INVENTED
that game."  He wants to know if tshe would tell HER rapist's son to
forgive his father.  "I don't give a damn about your father.  He scares
me.  He was nice to me.  That about sums it up."  What matters to her is
Lucky, and losing his friendship.
        At this point, I should note that this scene was blocked
beautifully.  The two teens stand almost back to back, angled out from one
another, so that we could get a full view of both but they were not
looking at one another.  It allowed them to have a certain level of
intimacy that might have been uncomfortable if they had looking in each
other's eyes, and it was very nicely done.
        She wishes it were as easy for her to say goodbye as it is for
Lucky to go.  but Lucky assures her she misread him.  "it isn't easier for
me.  Are you listening?  Do you believe me?"  liz tells him that if he
must go, she wants to go with him.

        Back to jason at the cabin.  He's back at Robin's side, giving her
the medicine Tony left and water.  "You lips are blue, you aren't getting
enough oxygen," he tells her in a SWATCH moment, reminding us of
OldJason's pre-med past.  Robin says, "Tony says it's pneumonia.  Not THAT
kind of pneumonia." [that is, not aids-related]
        Tony comes through the front door of teh cabin, which BEGS the
question, where the hell are the bodygaurds who will later be all over the
cabin, and where the heck are their behicles that Tony did not even notice
them?  Jason comes to door o the back room, and Tony is not happy to see
him.  "You got the girl last time.  You got the girl this time.  But I'm
gonna leave first.  And I'm taking Michael with me."

More commercials, and then:

More Luke.  He's explaining to Tammy, vaguely, where Laura is.  Then we
have an exchange that goes something like--

Luke:  It wasn't easy for her.  But then again she's been gone so long, it
must be getting easier.

Tammy:  You disrespect her.

Luke:  No.

Tammy:  You doubt her and accuse her of lying.

Luke assures her she must have misunderstood something he said.  But Tammy
doens't mean the long absence, she means the fact that Laura loved him,
despite it all.  "You don't believe she loves you.  Or you don't believe
she should.  She married you.  She gave you your children.  And yet you
say this is all a big mistake?"
        Luke tries to explain why he would feel that way.  "Beofre she
loved me, I did something, I hurt her."  He never uses the word "rape" but
he says he hurt her "in a way that you don't recover," "a way that I could
have gone to jail."
        Then we have this revealing look into his relationship with Laura,
from his perspective.  "but she took it upon herself, she made it her
problem to solve, see.  She blamed herself for pushing me too hard and for
not realizing I was obsessed with her.  She believed that because we loved
each other, everything would be okay and she painted the whole thing pink
like a fairy tale."  Regretfully-- "And I let her." LOng sigh.  "Because I
felt like a guy who had fallen off a ten-story building and lived."  Long
pause.  "You know what I called our first child?  Lucky."  He tries to
explain why he is still punishing himself for it after nearly 20 years.
"But I didn't hurt her because I loved her.  I hurt her because I was weak
and I couldn't control myself.  because I was a coward.  And I wish she
would hate me for it.  Because if she won't, as her husband, it's my job
to."

        Meanwhile, Luke's son is explaining to Liz why she can't go with
him.  Lucky says he's "lived out of a duffel bag before" and Liz hasn't,
but shhe asks him what he thinks she's doing in Port Charles.  It isnt'
her home.  And she dares Lukcy to tell her she needs to stay in PC  to
heal.  She tells him of trying to go to a rape survivor group, but turning
back at the door.  Yes, next time I might get inside, she whispers, but
"Who am I gonna wanna talk to about it if you're gone?"  She admits she
should feel bad about laying a guilt trip on him, "but I'm too much of a
brat to care.  I should be nice and wish you luck, but what would I do
tomorrow?"  Lucky is touched. "Okay, I'll come up with Plan C."  However,
he cautions, "I can't stay in your room like a pet hamster forever."  He
has a n idea, and starts to go.  Liz talke him into leaving his bags at
her place, and asks him to be careful.  (clever girl, our Liz)

        Carly is upset that Taggert is giving up, but he tells her they
are just shifting focus. Little does he know the case is drawing to a
close, becuase Jason is rescuing Michael even as they speak:

        Tony and Jason are talking.  Tony has a gun and is trying to force
jason into the other room, where he wants to lock up Jason and Robin while
he escapes with Michael.  He wants to rescue Michael, rather than let him
become "another wasted life on the dungheap like you and me and Carly and
BJ.  he's not wasted yet.  He hasn't heard one lie."
        "He's not your son, Mr. Jones."
        "Doesn't matter.  God gave me Michael to make up for the child I
lost."  [funny, jason thought God was on his side]
        Jason tells Tony it is hard to kill someone, that "you have to
make sure the first shot coutns, 'coz you won't get another one."  There's
a scuffle for the gun, jason gets the upper hand, smashing TOny's gun hand
in the process, and Robin appears at the doorway, says "jason, stop."

There's a commercial, after which:

Jason has the gun poised, butt aimed at Dr. Jones' head, it appears.  He
isn't planning to shoot him but to bash his brains in.  Robin pleads for
Tony's life-- "He can't hurt you or Michael any more."  Jason disagrees,
saying, "He'll try again."  "Tell him you won't, Tony," Robin begs, but
Tony does not speak.  Robin collapses, and Jason hurries to her side.

Luke is still rambling.  My son used to idolize me, he muses.  He wanted
to be just like me, and I encouraged it.  Insane, isn't it?  Tammy gives
him one last bit of advice-- love is impossible to explain, and not
something you "earn."  "If your wife tells you she loves you, it's a bad
idea not to take her at her word, or to ask if you earned it."  She's
headed home, and Luke insisted on walking her, since she lives down by the
docks.  "A lady should never walk alone."

COMMERCIAL

carly is worried, and Bobbie tries to make her feel better.  Carlyu is
worrying over the police sketch of Michael.  "Maybe I forgot.  maybe I got
his face confused with a baby food label."  She 's afraid she'll forget
him, and berates herself for not memorizing him,k because she never though
he wouldn't be with her.  "Maybe I dreamed him up."

        Meanwhile, Jason is stroking Robin's face and assuring her he's
taking her to the hospital.  The goon squad is inside now-- Rinaldo is to
take Michael to the car, not-Rinaldo is to stay with Dr. Jones until the
police arrive.  Jason's parting shot to Jones, the chilling "What do you
think your chances are of living one moment longer than she does?"  The
Bookie wouldn't bet on it, that's for sure.

        Lucky meets up with Helena on the docks.  Why does this
Greek/Russian tycoonette have a southern accent sometimes, anyway?

COMMERCIAL Break, which includes a wonderful "Thirty-fifth anniversary
moment" which I liked so much, I decided to "update" it as well.  It
 opens with the song from the Wyndham's episode, "Fascination," which
plays under the clips as Tony Geary, looking gorgeous in McAMy's jacket
(or its replica, anyway) talks.  There's the danicing in Wyndham's clip,
my fave L&L moment.
Geary:  You know, love scenes are like fight scenes.  You can throw the
greatest punch in the world but if the guy can't take the punch right, its
not going to look right.  The same thing goes for a kiss"---- as we see a
kiss from that episode-- "or a look."  We see L&L clinking champagne
glasses.  "I can rev up every ounce of romantic Valentine I can find in
myself, and it won't mean a thing if the person can't take a hit."  As we
see the reunion on the lawn of the mayor's mansion.  "Ms. Francis takes
the hit better than anyone I have ever EVER know."  The wedding kiss shot
closes the commercial.  I loved it.

Back to the show:

Lucky's meeting with Helena continues.  He thanks her for having treated
him to lunch the other day.  "aren't you well brought up?" she drawls.
"Yeah, I have good manners," Lucky counters, in a subtle but telling
distinction.  He proposes an alliance-- he can open doors for her in PC,
in return for stories about his family and double minimum wage.  {this
begs the question-- what doors?  earlier, when talking with liz, lucky had
complained that PC doors would be closed to him if he stayed around,
because of his fatgher.  now he's saying he can open doors for Helena.
One can only presume he means that literally-- perhaps he wants to be a
doorman or a chauffeur}  Neither Momma Cass or th Luckster notice Luke
lurking in the fog on the landing above.  Helena agrees to Lucky's
proposal, and asks him to explain "that dolorous phrase, minimum wage."
They shake hands, to Luke's distress.

Jason is on the car phone letting Taggert know what has happened.  [before
he calls Carly?  ARGH]  A clearly very ill Robin and the baby are in the
seat beside him.  He hangs up, Robin says weakly, "I'm sorry."  "Why?" he
asks.  "Because[?} I knew you'd come."  UPdater has another of those
awww.huh?awww responses.  Actually, this was discussed on ratsa, and I
have a dissenting opinion. No oneseemed to think the two statements were
linked so that she was sorry BECAUSE she knew he'd come.  And that may not
be exactly what she said.  I rewound and rewound, but couldn't be sure.  I
AM sure that she said SOMETHING short before "I knew" and I DO read her
second line as a response to his "why" question, not just another
statement she's making in her fevered state.  I know she had faith he
would come, but I think she was, confusedly in her condition, also
expressing an apology for still feeling that connection, for still
inspiring such measures from him, for still counting on him when they are
supposed to be apart and she's supposed to be getting on with her life and
letting him get on with his.  I think we were being reminded that they
have tried to stay apart, but she was compelled to try to help him find
Michael and he was compelled to save her.

        But I digress.  Back at the penthouse, Carly is still worrying
about her son, not aware he's been rescued.  She fears she'll forget what
he looks like.  bobbie begins to recite from memory all the little details
she can remember from her brief moment with Baby Carly.  At first, Updater
thinks that this is in extremely poor taste, under the circumstances, but
I soon learn that either Bobbie or the writer knows better than I do, and
that there is method to her madness.  Bobbie tells Carly all mothers are
that observant, without being aware of it.  And then she cleverly leads
Carly to realize she's "memorized" Michael, by asking her some questions.
When he falls asleep for a nap, which should does he prefer to be against?
This one, Carly answers, pointing.  When he's fresh from the bath and
you're drying him off, which way does his hair fall?  To this side, Carly
indicates.  And when he's angry or sad, where does his face get red?
Carly tearfully points to her own cheeks and her chin.  it's helen keller
with anna sullivan at the well, as carly realizes she DOES remember her
baby, vividly.
        As Bobbie turns to go, the phone rings, and Carly signals for her
to stay.  it's jason.  we hear only carly's side of the conversation, a
single "Oh, my God," before she drops the phone on the floor and beigns to
cry.  Bobbie is alarmed.  "my baby, they found my baby."  And then Carly
throws herself into Bobbie's arms and sobs on her shoulder, "Oh, Momma,
he's alive."  [Updater, amid her tears, spared a thought for poor
Virginia and the waste it was to kill her off]  Bobbie is at first
uncomfortable, but then gives herself up to the embrace.

The END
Terry, the SLOW half of the Twin Updaters of Different Fridays