Daily Updates

From: Teresa Elaine Leslie <tleslie@emory.edu>
Subject: GH: Update Friday May 1 (long)
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 22:35:29 -0400

May Day, May Day:

MAY I take your order?:
        We open the show at the restaurant of the Port Charles Hotel.
Nikolas is there, smoothly ordering a dinner for two (or is he using the
royal "we"?)-- monkfish, with glazed pears in cinnamon sauce for dessert.
At another table,we find Liz and Lucky checking out the menu.  They
are there, it turns out, looking for the former Mrs. Murty (maiden name
Cassidy).  Why this needs involve ordering food they can't afford is
beyond me. This gets my nod for contrived story of the day-- first we have
them going to such great lengths to ferret out Mrs. Murty, whom the police
report indicated works at the hotel, rather than simply calling the hotel
and asking for her.  Even worse, they are contrasted with the
smooth, wealthy Nikolas in painfully obvious ways.  While he orders
without a second thought, they gawk at the menu as if they have never seen
such exotic food or such high prices in their lives.
        The waiter gives them attitude when Liz tries to get away with
nursing a drink and not buying dinner.  They opt to split a spinach salad
and give the entrees more thought.  Getting down to business, Lucky
reminds Liz thatall they have to go on is the soapy smelling handkerchief
and the fact that Mrs. Murty once called the police to report a domestic
disturbance. [Nice recapitulation, but WHY haven't they picked up on the
fact that the 911 call was lodged on a Valentine's Day?] Lucky takes off
to find the hotel timeclock and figure out which department employs the
woman they seek.
        Robin enters and joins Nikolas at his table.  Once again, we're
reminded of his "sophistication"-- read "money"-- when he tells her he's
waiting for his Jaguar to be serviced and thought he'd wait with Robin.
she didn't realize the invitation was for dinner [she musthave missed the
waiter's speech to Liz about the tables being reserved for people who are
dining, not lingering] but lets Nik convince her that the errand she has
to run can wait.  [and from later conversations between brenda and jason,
we can assume the errand entails dropping by the penthouse with the baby
clothes she has bought]

MAYbe It's You:
        Next comes my fave part of the episode-- a Stefan Greek
flashback.  Stefan, dressed in his customary black suit, is in his
bedroom, where a fire, oddly, is roaring in the fireplace. We hear that
evocative tinkling piano music as he kneels by the trunk, opens it, and
tenderly picks up a baby blanket. As he gazes fondly at the blanket, we go
into a flashback utilizing the Laura stand-in, which works fine for me
although I know some ratsafarians are underwhelmed by the "ruse."  "I
won't try to stop you, Laura," we hear Stefan say as the shot
dissolves into the flashback of a young Stefan facing Laura (like tim
taylor's neighbor, we never see her face),who is holding an adorable baby
Nikolas in her arms.  "I understand why you must leave Nikolas
temporarily. Travelling with an infant will only make it easier for Helena
or Stavros to find you." His voice goes all husky in that sexy choked-up
way he gets when he speaks of his bond with Nikolas, as Laura hands him
the baby. "I will protect him with my life. You have my word."  Pause. "I
wish you safe passage and a speedy return."  NotLaura removes her
engagement ring and gives it to baby Nikolas. [nitpick-- the close-ups of
her hands were not a good idea, as it reminded sharp-eyed fanatics like
methat Genie's mole is not there, and so that it isn't Genie]  Then the
flashback is over, and we see Stefan's gorgeous, troubled face, still lost
in memories.

In the Lusty Month of May:  We abruptly move to young lovers in heat.
AJ and Keesha are making out in an empty room down the hall from ELQ
boardroom.  They exchange remarks about how great the sex was, and about
wishing there were time for "seconds" before the board meeting. They
straighten their clothes and slip out one at a time to join the meeting.
        Edward and Ned are talking about Jason, who has travelled
earlier in the day from PC to Manhattan with Ned on the ELQ jet.  Ned
used the trip to acquire Jason't proxy for today's meeting.  Jax is absent
as well, but Ned has his proxie.  Alexis enters, to everyone's
surprise.  Ned says she can stay, and calls the meeting to order.
Apparently, her presence has  shaken him up, since he makes the
grammatically incorrect request that "everyone take their seats." The
first order of business is "the termination of our chief legal counsel,
Alexis Davis."

I'm Brenda, Fly Me:
        Brenda boards the ELQ jet in NY, expecting to meet Ned.  It turns
out he took a commercial flight to get back to Port Charles earlier, since
Brenda's photo shoot ran long, but there is another passenger-- Jason.
        Brenda wants to get off the plane, but the pilot tells her it
would be hard to get a seat on a commercial flight on a Friday (unless
you're ned, apparently), so she reluctantly stays.  She and Jason make no
secret of their disdain for one another.  Since there are no flight
attendants, the pilot acquaints his passengers with the safety procedures,
as per FAA regs, while Jason reads a book and Brenda looks peeved.

I'm Carly, Get Me Outta Here:
        Justus visits Carly at the psychiatric facility.  Carly's mood is
as foul as Brenda's, to no surprise. Carly asks about Michael, and Justus
tells her that Jason is in Manhattan, "talking to some people on your
behalf."  Carly tells him she refused to go along with an evaluation
before she had a chance to talk to him about how she should "play" this.
Justus gets irritated at her for being uncooperative with the authorities,
but she says she had to know what she should do to conform with whatever
story they will use in court.  Should she tell the doctors the
truth?  "Jason says I should, but he can be a little naive as to how much
good that can do."  Carly asks if she should claim Tony threatened her,
and he snaps, "I'm not going to tell you to lie."  Justus doesn't think
much of Carly, and lets her know that.  He worries that Carly may change
Jason from the honest man he is,  because "once upon a time, Tony Jones
was an honest man. And then he met you."

Manipulate This:
        The ELQ board unanimously votes to terminate Alexis.  Ned wants to
go further, and explore legal action against her.  Alan and Monica feel
this is overkill.  Alexis sits waiting for a chance to talk to the group
while the Qs bicker, then apologizes forhaving disappointed a family that
has treated her with kindness and respect by doing something that they
must perceive as a betrayal.  Ned insists on telling her, "We are not
dismissing you because of our hurt feelings. You manipulated the court
system to such an extent that an obsessed kidnapper went free, very
possibly to commit the same crimr again.  Now if you feel compelled to
apologize, I suggest you do that to Carly and Jason."
        Alexis leaves after promising that she will find some way to earn
back the Qs' trust, since "this was more than a job to me." She addresses
her remarks to the family as a whole, but it's clear that she's speakingto
Ned, who is the only person in the room to make eye contact with her.
        After she leaves (and we have a commercial break), Edward muses
that Alexis would have been helpful in landing custody of Michael, since
she turned out to be such a clever snake.  The rest of the family is upset
at his talk about taking advantage of Carly's problems to get Michael. AJ
suggests an even more outlandish proposal-- they work with Mac Scorpio to
shut down Jason's mob operation.

May Day, May Day-- the beginning of the trouble:
        The jet is airborne, and Brenda is giving Jason a piece of her
mind, while he tries his best to ignore her.  Looking admittedly gorgeous
as she paces the cabin, she snarls at him that she knows he has men
watching her house. She wants to know if he's spying on her or on Robin.
"I have someone watching the house so no one gets kidnapped."  "Oh,
Robin,"  she says, assuming she has him all figured out.  Then she snarls
at him that Robin had baby clothes delivered to the house, and she taunts him
about grooming Robin as "Michael's new mommy."  He snarls that he and
Robin are none of Brenda's business, and the updater snarls that Robin
needs no invitation to start playing house with Carly's baby, and then the
plane snarls.... er, the plane hits turbulence and shakes violently.

MAY I suggest tonight's special?:
        Back at the restaurant, the waiter is suggesting two dishes to
Liz,who is vamping while she waits for Lucky to come back from his
"fishing" expedition. This young woman, the daughter and granddaughter of
doctors, acts as if not only can she not to afford to eat here (plausible,
since Lucky is on his own and can't afford to pay for dinner, I'm sure)
but that she is clueless about fine dining in general, not even knowing
what the items on the menu are (implausible, since she comes from an
upper-middle class family and should not be unfamiliar with dining in good
restaurants). She gives up and orders "the first one" for herself and, for
Lucky, "the other one."  Argh.
        We move to Nik and Robin's table-- yes, it seems he did take the
liberty of ordering for her.  Robin wants to be sure that Nik did not
break up with Sarah on her account.  He explains that he did not, but
because he and Sarah were raised in different worlds.  She assumes that's
a common problem for him.  He agrees, and says, "That's why I was so happy
to meet you."  [Why, because she too was raised as European aristocracy on
a remote Greek island?  Did I miss something?]  She wants to know, before
they go any further, what he has in mind for the two of them, and he
claims he isn't really sure yet.  She feels she should make clear that "I
am not completely free of emotional ties." "Jason?"  "The woman that Jason
lived with [live_d_ with?  LIVED with?  Past Tense?  SMACK] was sent away
[classic understatement] and in some ways I feel responsible for that.
[why?  because your fondest wish came
true, or because you helped her nemesis go unpunished for his crimes?]  So
now jason is a single parent and," sheepishly, playing with her fingers,"
I kinda offered to help him."  [What about Letitia and the rest of the
staff?  What about Bobbie?  What about the legion of people already
helping Jason raise Michael? Chopped liver?  who asked Robin to play house
in Carly's life?]
        The end of the scene, btw, is awkwardly staged.  Nik asks "So
where does this put the two of you?" -- presumably Jason and Robin.
Instead of answering, Robin gives him a blank look.  If the scene had
ended immediately, that would have worked as a rueful expression. Instead,
the camera lingered and she looked stoned (no pun intended) and vacant.
        Then we get more filler (guess the new guy-- I think he's
relatively new, anyway-- is having trouble getting the timing of an
episode just right).  This time it's a scene of Luke at the bar, using his
cell phone to try to contact Alexis.  He has a short conversation with
Liz, realizing that her absent dining companion is Lucky, and reassures
her he's not there spying on Lucky.

Mother, MAY I?:
        Stefan goes back to the trunk, which bugged me. Couldn't we have
just had him still digging through the stuff afterthe hour or so that has
presumably passed since his last scene?  Instead, we see him move to the
trunk, open it again, and retrieve the ringLaura was wearing in the
earlier flashback. As he gazes at it, we move to another flashback, a less
pleasant memory of Helena.  I'm amazed at how Stephen Nichols manages to
look 15 years younger in these scenes.
        This scene takes place after Laura has left the island.  There's a
baby carriage, and Stefan is holding the adorable baby Nikolas in his arms
while arguing with Helena.  Helena is belittling her son, as always, and
ignores his denial of any knowledge of Laura's plans to leave the island.
"I swear to you, I have no idea where Laura has gone."
H:  You're as bad at lying as you are everything else.  I know Laura went
to Spencer because _I_ arranged for her to find out that he was alive.
[Aha, just as I always suspected.]  What I didn't foresee is that Stavros
would go rushing off after her. [Wonder if Stefan put that idea in his
head?]"
S: " Laura will be back.  She gave me her word."  He rubs the baby's back
nervously.
Helena laughs derisively.  "And you believe that? You're pathetic!"
S: " Nikolas is her son.  She would not abandon him."
H: "If she intended to return, would she have left this, the symbol of her
marriage?" She picks up the ring from the baby carriage. "You think she
will return because she loves you instead of Stavros." Stefan's face
reveals no emotion, as he continues to jiggle the baby and stroke his
back rhythmically. "Am I right? Come on, Steffie, tell Mommie your
secrets.  Even a woman as desperately common as Laura would never love a
man as weak and worthless as you.  She USED you, that's all, and you
allowed it."  Ouch, why DOES she hate her second son so much?  "Now, give
me my grandson and get out of my sight."
        Stefan clutches Nikolas even tighter, shouts "NO," and baby
Nikolas shoots Grandma the finger. [Great coincidence-- check your tape.
Special thanks to assistant updater WonderPony and his brother Ethan for
bringing this to my attention.]  "If there is any way I can help it, you
will not so much as BREATHE on this child ever again."
        Helena is taken aback by this show of resistence.  As Stefan
walks away carrying the baby, she calls after him, "Your brother will hear
about this,and you will pay for it for the rest ofyour life."
        There's a knock on the door which brings Stefan back to the
present.  It's Katherine, who spies the ring and is duly impressed.
"Whose is it?"  she asks.  Stefan's answer is to seize her and give her
one of those kisses in which he seems to be devouring her.

Make me:
        Alexis enters her room, and finds Helena escounced in a
chair, going through her mail.  "Ah, Natasha, I have an assignment for
you," Momma Cass purrs.  "No, Helena, I'm finished,"  Alexis snaps back,
indicating that she's tired of jumping to Helena's tune.
        Helena threatens Alex with death for the blue-billionth time.
Alexis doesn't see what purpose would be served by Helena killing her, but
saysshe isn't afraid of this threat any more because "what I'm doing now
isn't living. It won't be much of a loss to anyone, believe me."  Helena
doesn't buy it, and continues to impress upon Alexis how serious she is.
"Your presence on this earth is a walking insult to my family, tolerated
ONLY as long as you do my bidding.  Should that end, I will have you
removed, and the threat you pose to the Cassadine gene pool, without
hesitation."  Tellingly, perhaps, it is this threat that changes Alexis's
attitude.  She begins to cry, and asks Helena what she is to do. "Deliver
these photographs to Katherine Bell," Helena answers, handing over a
large flat envelope.  She delivers a parting shot about Ned, suggesting
that she could loan Ari to Alexis for a night as compensation. "He's
extremely thorough."

Quickies--
        Luke tells Elizabeth that if Lucky gets in trouble, he's available
to help.  Then Lucky returns to the table, and Luke takes off.
        Carly has another visitor-- Ned.

MAY DAY-- it gets worse:
        There's a lot of turbulence.  The pilot makes an announcement to
that effect to Jason and Brenda, and reminds them to stay buckled. [He's a
terrible actor, btw]  Brenda makes her own announcement that dying with
Jason would be TOO ironic, so things will have to work out.  She continues
to harp at jason about robin, and about Sonny's supposed mistreatment of
herself.  She compares Jason to Sonny and Robin to herself, and that ticks
Jason off.  "You are SO exactly like Sonny.  I want better for Robin.
Can't you understand that?"  jason tells her there is no comparison
between Brenda and Robin.

Dial M for....:
        The opera music is still playing in Natasha's room when Luke shows
up at her door. "Just when i thought my day can't possibly get any worse.
Come on in. I'm too numb to feel anything anyway." He's still angry
about the doctored photos of Laura Helena gave Lucky.  Alexis is not
surprised; "If death had a face, it would be hers."  "Funny you should
mention death, because that's what I had in mind."

Maybe I'm Amazed at the Way You Really Love Me:
        Stefan is dressing, and Kat is on the edge of his now-rumpled bed,
so apparently they did the horizontal bop.  He steels himself for the task
at hand, Updater steels herself to hear it, and then he gives Kat one
of his grand speeches.  He takes both of her hands in his own and gazes
into her eyes.

"Katherine, I realize that I'm not an easy man.  I'm secretive. Driven. At
times belligerent.  And yet you remain committed to me. I've
offered you nothing in the way of security.  And never once have you been
less than loving, kind, responsive to my needs.  I can imagine no other
woman treating me with the same consistent regard." [and that's what
really sticks in his craw and drives this whole charade, right?]

Katherine, lightly: "I love it when you talk dirty."

Stefan: I'm being serious.

Kat: I can see that.

Stefan:  "I come from a background of turmoil and violence, surrounded by
hatred and cruelty. Strangely, I've remained a romantic, a true believer
in finding that one person to whom I could devote myself body and soul.
[YES YES YES]  You are that person, Katherine. [Yeah, right.]"

A commercial break gives me time to recover, and then--

Kat turns him down.  She's flustered and thinks their current arrangement
is "ideal."

S:  "You deserve more."

K:  "More than the magic of emerging from a tunnel and seeing your face in
the morning?  More than you surprising me in my bed?  Stefan, I treasure
the time we spend together, and I revel in the freedom that we allow one
each other.  Why should we change that?"
I'd like to report that she delivered these lines dripping with sarcasm,
but she didn't.  She was apparently serious.

S:  I don't want to lose you.

K:  "Marriage offers no guarantees, and I don't need anyone to make me an
honest woman." [ As if they could]

S:  Frankly, I was hoping you could make an honest man of me.

K:  You are already more than any woman could ever want.  [Lip Smack.] I
trust you.  I adore you.  Just hearing you come into the house makes me
[LS] break into a smile.  YOu are loyal and generous and you protect me
against anyone. And why am I fighting this?  Of course I will. Of course
I will."

"Of course I will."  They embrace and he clutches her head with his
large hand, displaying the Cassadine ring.  "You'll never regret this,
Katherine, not for a moment."

Dial M, cont.:
Luke tells Alexis he wants to help her get back "your edge, your passion,
that certain gun-slinger mentality I found utterly irresistable when
we first met.  It's gone now.  You've sacrificed it to I-don't-know-what.
Natasha, Helena has sliced the fight out of you."
        Natasha agrees.  "I bow and scrape and I scurry around like a
scared little kitten.  I can't live like that any more."
        "Something's got to give, Missie."
        "Will you help me?"
        "Help you do what?  Come on, I'm a romantic, I need to hear the
words."  [WONDERFUL writing, and delivery, echoing Stefan, making ironic
commentary, etc.]
        "Help me kill Helena."
        "Oh, baby, I thought you'd never ask."

MAYbe baby:
        Ned has come to warn Carly about his family.  They'll do anything
to take Michael away from her.  Do not trust them, he cautions her.  Carly
wants to know why he's telling her this.  "Because I know what it's like
to be seperated from a child that you love.  Besides, except for Emily and
Grandmother, Jason is the only decent relative I have. ANd I sorta enjoy
looking out for him."  "Does he know you're here?"  "No."  "I think that
he would be grateful, and I am, too." "If there's anything you need, just
let me know."  Carly, clearly lonely, asks him to stay longer.  He leaves
to meet Jason's plane, asks if there's a message for Jason.  Carly asks
for pictures of Michael, "and tell him not to throw out any of my swatch
books."  Okay, I know she meant her paint/fabric sample books, but I
loved the "ratsa reference" all the same.

MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY:
        Jason is now yelling back at Brenda, telling her to stop
comparingyourself to Robin. "You wore the wire on Sonny."  Goes on about
how Brenda betrayed Sonny, and he can trust Robin.  "Afraid she won't buy
your act any more?" Brenda snarls.  Jason fires back, "I don't have an
act.  That's for people like you, spending all their time trying to figure
out who they are and what they want."  She goes off to tell the pilot to
land the plane so she doesn't have to listen to him any more.  But then
the plane begins to plunge, and she is thrown into her seat.

THE END
Written by: Craig Heller
Produced by:  Alan Pultz
Updated by:  Terry, One Half of the Friday Twin Updaters