Daily Updates

This is my first update, and GH handed me a good episode to cut my teeth on; parts of it were outstanding. I'll try to keep my personal opinions to a minimum, but if I see something especially good, bad or insane, I think you need to know about it. So, without further ad0...TODAY...ON GENERAL HOSPITAL...

The show begins in Jax's apartment. Brenda is sitting on the overstuffed sofa that has seen so much x-rated action lately. She is, I swear to you, wearing Pocahontas braids. The effect is jarring. She asks Jax a barrage of questions about floral arrangements for the wedding. He suggests that they fill the church with greenery and she will emrge down the aisle as the only flower in the place. Brenda dismissed this idea with a roll of her eyes. She wonders aloud if Lois will show up for the wedding and muses over whether they should invite Veronica. Do they really want a stranger, particularly one as strange as Veronica, at the wedding? What if she causes trouble? Jax suggests that they postpone deicding, since there's plenty of time to see how things develop with Veronica. Brenda agrees and gets up to go and meet Robin for an L & B Records pow-wow (she sure has the braids for it). Jerry knocks and enters, Brenda kisses Jax goodbye repoeratedly, and leaves. Jerry informs Jax that, after they all met up with Veronica and she denied having met him before, he went back to the bar. She again denied to him that she had ever met him, and he is concerned. He knows a con when he sees one and her doesn't think she is a con. He thinks it's more serious than that. Jax asks him to go and find out all he can on Veronica. Jerry leaves, and Jax picks up the phone to call Veronica and ask her to come over.

The scene shifts to Taggerts apartment. Dara knocks and Tags lets her in. He is wearing a mustard-colored shirt with matching tie and black slacks. It might look like pimp-wear on someone else but he definitely makes it work. He tells Dara that he called her over to discuss business and she is instantly suspicious. Why can't he disucss it at work? Tags shows her the tape with Justus's confession and she asks him if he's logged it in as evindece. He tells her that he hasn't, and for good reason--it involves her and could take Justus down.

The scene cuts to Liz'z room. This is the first of several excellent scenes in which Rebecca Herbst does some of her best work yet. Her acting is stripped down and quiet in these scenes and I'm sorry you missed it. Liz lies in an exhausted fetal postition, surrounded by broken glass, strewn clothes and the other shards of her room, which she trashed in a rage. Audrey knocks and comes in, then exclaims over the mess. Liz looks at her , distant and a little numbed-out, and says in a small voice "I got mad." Audrey asks her why she didn't call her for help and Liz answers "I didn't want to call anybody. i just wanted to get mad".



The scene shifts to the Cassadine mansion. A distracted Stefan tells Nik that Kat will be there any minute; he hasn't spoken with her himself, but the security guard has called to tell him she's on the way in. Nik notes that Stefan hasn't slept all night and Stefan tells him that he ahsn't been able to come up with anything to contracdict what Helenda and KAt said in court. He can't believe that Kat is alive. Nik is thrilled that she's alive, but enraged at Helena for ptting Stefan through the stress of the trial. Kat's entrance is announced and she strides in, wearing a blood-red blazer and an inscrutable smile. Commerical bread, then the scene continues. Nik hugs Kat and she winces slightly; she is still recovering from the fall. The scne takes a drastic turn into weirdness. Nik and Kat give each other a long look. Nik tells her "I just want you to know how much i missed you...I mean, uh, we both did. i just want to hug you". He holds her again. He holds her lingeringly. Kat looks over his shoulder provacatively at Stefan, who looks weirded-out by all the clinginess. Nik leaves. Stefan tells Kat that seeing her stadning there is the answer to all his prayers. She scoffs. "You haven't missed me at all...you've been thinking of seomone else all along."

Back to Tag's apartment: Apparently, Tags has told Dara about Alan's addiction and brushes with the law. "So the junkie you've been squeezing is Alan Quatermaine?" she asks in surprse. Tags gives her the laundry list of AQ's offenses, and admits that he pulled the paperwork on it so that he could push Monica into ratting on Jason. Dara is incensed, demanding to know how he can justify extortion and borderline entrapment--when Mac finds out, Tags could lost his badge and even see jail time! Mac knows about it and gave him the green light, Tags says, and Dara is stunned. She regroups, and says that she can understand Mac's position, but she doesn't like using Monica, a mother, to rat out her own son. Tags assures her that Moniocan didn't rat Jason out, she just gave him a tape incriminating Justus. Break for commercial, and Tags then plays the tape for Dara. "Have you ever picked up a baseball bat and bashed a man' brain in..." Justus growls on the tape.

Back in Jax's apartment, Verobnica breezes in and tells Jax what a conicnidenct it was that he called her; she has been trying to think of ways top get close to Brenda and she could use his imput. He tells her that Jerry thinks she is having some kind of trouble, based upon the way she has accused Jerry of stalking her. Veroninca flies into a snit, railing against Jerry, then lights upon an idea...Jax is tricking her! He and Jerry are in on it together, trying to make Brenda hate her and keep mother and daughter apart. It won't work!

The scence changes to the Port Charles Grill, where Pocahontas looks up from her table to see Jason looming over her. He literally casts a shadow over her; he is absolutely huge. He sits down and tells Brenda that Robin can't meet her--she has to stay in the penthouse until it's safe to come out. Brenda wonders how long Robin has to stay in the glass house, and she reminds Jason that Robin will never be safe as long as she's with him.

Back to the Cassadine mansion, where Kat nd Stefan are alone for the first time since she has returned. Kat is loaded for bear, and taking aim. They dive right into the weighty issues. Stefan is shaken and struggling to understand. Where has she been for so long? Does she honestly believe that he would have let her stay with Helenda all this time if he knew that she was alive? Before I launch into Kat's retorts, which she delivers with precision over the next few scenes, let me tell you how weird her body language is--she jerks her shoulders constantly, to punctuate her sentences. It's as though she is literally being pulled by strings--maybe because she is still supposed to be injured, or maybe it's symbolism, because Helena is pulling her strings. It's odd. Anyway, Stefan tells Kat that he has been in jail for weeks at a time, had to get bpermission to even go to her funeral and Kat is extremely underimpressed. She was in bed with tubes running in and out of her....how many spinal taps has he ever had? How many times has he had to learn to walk again? He was in jail? Ha! She was in HELL, and he can just get over himself. Stefan says he would have walked through this hell with her if he had known she was alive, he would not have let Helena poison her. Kat says dreamily that Helena saved her life, and Stefan tries to snap her back to her senses...it was Helena that loosened the railing and tried to pin it on Stefan so that she could be Nik's regent! Kat points out that Helenda saved her life--she obviously didn't want Kat dead, no one did, eccept maybe Stefan himself. "I did not do this" Stefan states evenly. Not directly, Kat answers. Coomerical breack and we're back for round two. Kat says that she never stood a chance against Laura's memory and Stefan tries to blow this off as part of Helena's brainwashing of her. Kat comes right back at him, reading him the riot act of lies he's told her. She rattles off all the strange things--the ring, the dress, the protrait--and correctly sneers that it was never about her, it was always about Laura. Stefan tries to soothe her, but she is in his face, reminding him that he never even told her he loved her, except once, when he came to get her at Serenity. Other than that,it was always that he cared for her, cherished her, was grateful that she loved him...but not "I love you". Stefan gave Kat everything that was Laura's except his heart, and he kept that for Laura alone, while Kat gave Stefan everything she had. I was in the way! she rails. "This is pure Helena" Stefan mutters. Kat says "Nik doesn't know, does he..."

After a commerical break, we're back in Jax's aprtment where Veronica is having a fit. She accuses Jax of acting under the control of the dead Harlon and starts talking to Harlon, telling him that he can't control her, that she should have known that he would try to control who Brenda loved...then she suddenly snaps out of it. She smiles vaguely and tells Jax that she lost her train of thought. Jax quietly reminds her that they were discussing Jerry. Oh yes, Veronica smiles broadly, he is a bit of a rogue but very dashing. She starts acting croquettish and asks for champagne.

Back at the PC Grill, Brenda tells Jason she's glad he is okay after the bombing--she hated him for helping Sonny leave her, but she's had a hard time hating him after they went through the plane crash together. You're scared now, after the bomobing, Jason notes. Brenda admits that she is and just wants Robin to be safe. Jason assures her that Robin's life as a prisoner in the penthouse is termproary and that he will take care of it. Brenda asks if he's killed Moreno and, if so, who will come to kill Jason. jason brushes her off, reminding her that he can't discuss business with her. Brenda doesn't want to know anyway, she just wants everything to be alright with Robin. I got the feeling that this filler scene was the last scene between Vanessa Marcil and Steve Burton and that's why it went on so long. Brenda leaves, ane Justus comes in for a short-lived meeting with jason.

Back in Tag's apartment, Dara is overwhelmed by what she hears on the tape. Tags says he is sorry, he hates to see someone he cares about in pain, and he never meant for things to turn out this way. Dara asks him for 48 hours before he turns the tape over to Mac. Tags gently agrees and Dara telles him that, even if she isn't sure she agrees with the way he got the tape, she will not forget the kind way that he told her and gave her time to deal with it. [Note: the tape would be inadmissible in court, so it's nothing to get so excited about].

Back in Jax's apartment, he and Veronica are chatting about nothing as she blithely drinks champagne. Jerry knocks and breezes in, annoucning that he's found something out about the matter they were discussing and needs to talk to Jax about it asap. He greets Veronica cordially, but she takes her cue to leave. She thinks that she'll call her maid in France to tell her to send over some of Veronica's albums to give to Brenda. She leaves and Jerry tells Jax that he found out that Veronica has been in and out of mental institutions for the past three years. Jax asks Jerry to fly to Switzerland to find out what the problem was...drugs or mental illness? Jerry is on his way. Breanda comes in and she and Jax rehash their day. Jax tells her that Veronica was in and is sending her albums. Brenda tells him about her encounter with Jason and muses that you can't keep a loved one safe from bad things by hiding them away.

Break for commercial and we're back in Liz's room. Let me emphasize again that both actresses do a great job here--there is a real sense of tenderness between them. Liz asks Audrey if she is grounded for life and Audres shows warmth, compassion and humor in telling that she isn't. Liz turns a piece of a broken vase over in her hand and murmers that she has broken a lot of her grandmother's things. Audrey is kind. Liz tells her grandmother about being unable to pick out her rapist in a lineup. "I'm not going to find him Gram," she whispers. "He got away with it." Audrey tells her that God takes care of monsters like the rapist, and that it would be easier for the criminal to deal with man than God. Liz lifts her eyes and says, "God, if you're listening, get this guy good". (It's a very effective line). Liz sinks back onto her pillows, holding her teddy bear. Audrey soothes her and tells her that she has been wanting to ask if would be alright for the two of them to go to counseling with Gail together. "I'd love that." Liz whispers. It's the end of a truly moving scene, you'd have to see it to really get it, and I'm sorry I can't better convey the emotion that was there.

Back at the Cassadine mansion, Kat asks Stefan how it is to have Nik's mother back in town. Did he use his whole relationship with Kat just to make Laura jealous and bring her back? It seems to have worked. Stefan quietly tells her that Laura missed her family, including Nik, and came home for them. Kat is not buying it. She was just a tool to get Laura back she rails, and Stefan tells her again that this is Helena talking. Kat asks him sarcastically whether he can honestly say he wanted to maryy her her, can he say he wants to marry her now? She continues to badger him relentelessly, can he tell her that, huh, huh, HUH? He passionately cups her face in his hands as if to kiss her, but intead stares intensely into her face, apparently disturbed by what he sees there. "What did she do to you?" he whispers. She stares back at him. "Scared?" she asks. She takes his hands off her face. "You're free to be with Laura now, but be careful. I got everything I alawys wanted once, and it almost killed me." She walks out the front door, then pauses to collect herself. We see her mask fall a little, and a bit of uncertainty peek out. Then Nik approaches her from nearby, and they sit down on a bench to talk.

Back in Liz's room, Liz is sweeping up broken glass from the floor, when Lucky taps at the window and comes in. She looks subdued, as though she'd be embarrassed by the mess but doesn't have the energy to be. Liz explains that she got mad and tore her room apart, and Lucky admits that he "kind of watched her". She gives him a priceless look over her shoulder--kind of a "what did you say, you pervert?" kind of scowl--and he hastily explains that he could tell when he left that she wasn't herself and he just had to come back and check on her to make sure she was okay. He tells her he watched until he was sure that she wouldn't hurt herself and asks if she's mad at him. She shrugs, admitting that she'd had done the same thing if it had been him. They sit on her bed and she tells him that she always thought that, if she could look her rapist in the face and tell him what he did to her, she would be free and could get past it all. Now that she knows that she can't do that, she has to find another way. She tells him that she and Audrey are going to counseling together and that she thinks that it might help her--something has to. Lucky puts an arm around her and draws her close, telling her that there is still a chance for ehr to catch the rapist, but she pulls back, reminding him that he was there at the line up and that he knows she doesn't have a clue what the rapist looks like. It's really hard, she tells him and he hugs her again, comforting her. Commerical break, then we're back in her room. She is sitting apart from Lucky on the bed, and seems more cheerful. She tells him that she wants to get betetr and will get better; if she just sits in her room her whole life because of what happended to her when she was 15, the rapist will have won and she won't let that happen. I want to heal, she syas, and moves forward to put her head on Lucky's shoulder. "Then that's what you'll do," he says, stroking her hair. "I know you". As always with these two, the scene is very sweet and real.

Back at PC Grill, Jason and Jsutus chat about Carly--Jason tells him he want Justus to lean on the judge to get a definite date for Carly's release. He agrees, and gets up to go when Taggert walks in. Justus asks Jason if he should stay, in case Tags tries to arest him for breathing, but Jason waves him off. Justus tells Tags that, just in case he's think of putting Jason in lockup that day, he should remember that one more false arrest will subject Tags to another nuisance suit, and put his badge in jeopardy. Tags promises to behave and tells Justus "nice tie" and Justus replies, "Same to you". It's a cute bit. Tags sits dwon with Jason, who is annoyed ands tells Tags that if he's here to arrest him, he should just do it. Tags wonders aloud why everyone is so worried about him arresting Jason--"I have no intention of arresting you...today". He tells Jason he is just thinking about Robin, Michael, all the people that the car bomb could have killed. How many people can Jason hurt and still feel good about himself? Does he even think of the people he hurts? "All the time," Jason says. "So do I," Tags says softly.

Back at the Cassadine mansion, we see Nik and Kat sitting on a bench and people, let me tell you that this was one wonky scene. They are sitting way too close, and Kat is explaining to Nik that thinks are over with her and Stfan, but she wants to pick up with him where they left off. She is his friend. Nik says, sensuously, yearningly (I kid you not)"You're more than just my friend...I love you, Katherine." The statement isn't inappropriate, except that it is positively erotic the way that he says it. She stares back into his eyes and says "I'm glad to hear it, because I love you too." They embrace, and Kat looks over Nik's shoudler to see Stefan staring at them from the window. She holds Nik even closer, if that's possible, and starts running her hands all over his back, looking haughtily at Stefan. Stefan is clearly shocked and disturbed, as was your updater. However, his experssion was unintentionally funny, becuase the window he was staring out of was so dark and gothic, it made the scene look like an outtake from Dark Shadows.

All in all, it was a good episode, particularly the parts with Liz and Audrey. The parts with Kat and Nik made the PCP Message Borad LIGHT UP with controversy. I'm pretty neutral on the subject of Katherine, so I am telling you without bias that the scenes with Nik and her were just strange--Nik was definitely projecting attraction to her. I hope I gave you some sense of what you missed--as I get more practice with updating, I hope to get more entertaining. Until next time!