Daily Updates

General Hospital Update for Wednesday, 23-Jun-1999

Why does Laura always have to be in the episodes I write summaries about?

I.
Hannah and Sonny are lying in Sonny's bed. He has a nightmare in which he recalls Lily's death - and at the moment that the car explodes, he wakes up with a yell. Sonny won't tell Hannah what he dreamt. He brushes her off & as he gets dressed, Hannah is clearly bothered by his silence. "It's OK for us to sleep together and for you to parade me around in public, but if you actually need something, if you're hurting, I'm just supposed to disappear, not even try to help you?" Sonny explains that this issue with Juan is between him and "someone who's not here anymore." He's worried about keeping Juan safe, once his enemies realize who that boy is. Later that day, Sonny returns. Hannah is there, waiting for him. Benny enters on Sonny's heels, with what information he could uncover about Juan Santiago. He did disappear from his family two weeks ago, but his current whereabouts are unknown. However, a current picture the family faxed over looks just like the boy who accosted Sonny after the Nurses' Ball. Sonny wants to know why the boy came to Port Charles and what he knows. "The sooner I get to the bottom of this kid, the safer he'll be." He turns to make a phone call.

II.
(These scenes are cleverly juxtaposed with the above scenes when Sonny is explaining to Hannah about having to protect Lily's son.) Juan is looking for food in the trash cans behind Kelly's. Tammy comes out twice to offer him food. "I don't take charity," he obstinately replies. After Tammy offers to put him to work in exchange for food, he follows her inside and adopts a more cheerful demeanor. Later, Tony (after his conversation with Laura detailed below) enters to get a takeout lunch. Juan steals the money out of his wallet. After Tony leaves, Tammy offers him the empty room upstairs, which he accepts in exchange for further work. (Note the parallels between Ruby's treatment of Jagger and Tammy's treatment of Juan.)

III.
Laura enters GH and greets a somewhat subdued Bobbie. They discuss Laura's recovery at the country house. Laura goes off to her appointment with Gail, and Amy bounces in with a paper. She shows Bobbie the headline on the Society Page: "Video Mishap Adds Spice to Nurses Ball." Tony notices them and calls out, "Reading your reviews, Bobbie?" Bobbie asks Tony if he's going to use it against her. After recalling when she and Jerry made love on the floor of Kelly's and when Lucas walked in on them, Tony sums up that he just wants Bobbie to protect Lucas from what he's too young to understand. He won't bring it up to gain custody of Lucas; he'll prove to her by his own actions that he's capable of being Lucas' father. Tony leaves Bobbie, and a contrite Jerry enters with a bouquet for Bobbie. She reminds him demurely of what happened last time he brought her flowers at work. He explains that it's a gesture of apology. They then discuss their unfortunate videotaped tryst. As Jerry leaves, he leans in to kiss her, but she tells him they must forego public displays of affection for a while. He instead kisses her hand as he bids "Nurse Spencer" good day. Meanwhile, Tony catches Laura after her appointment ended early. They sit down to talk. Tony brings up BJ's death and recalls Laura's sympathy gestures. "You made a difference because you reached out with your heart... If I can do that for you, I'd be so honored." Laura and Tony continue wallowing in their grief together for a bit.

IV.
Luke joins Felicia for lunch outside of Kelly's. He shows her the birth certificate of Baby Jennings, which proves that the baby is not Lila and Edward's (it's Jennings, Sr. & Lucinda's; this baby girl died of bad lungs). Luke proposes their next move, but Felicia refuses because she's through with breaking Lila's trust. Luke resolves to continue, but Felicia tells him, "If I bail, you have to bail, too." Though she wants to know the secret, she'll not hurt Lila any further. Luke starts explaining that if he's working alone without Felicia's sensitivities to guide his behavior, he'll likely reveal the secret. Felicia relents and agrees to continue digging with him. She runs off to meet with Lila to attempt a reconciliation.

V.
Ned enters the Q mansion. Reginald tells him that he has a visitor. Ned asks Reginald, "Do those pallid cheeks of your have a little more color than usual?" "It's summer," Reginald replies. "I thought it might have something to do with Miss Suarez," Ned pries. "Miss Suarez is summer," Reginald proclaims. (Yay! A story line for Reginald & Laticia!) Anyway, Ned finds Alexis in the sitting room. She's there to celebrate Ned's liberation from ELQ. They are kissing when AJ barges in, smirking. "What's that - a consolation kiss for the loser? You know, Ned, you never missed an opportunity to insult me, harp on my mistakes, belittle me in front of the rest of the family. You hurt me anyway you could. But you didn't break me, Ned. I fought back and I won." Ned tells AJ he is now captain of the Titanic, at the helm of an unsinkable company which he will steer into the next iceberg (this is the best of the many water disaster metaphors employed in the ensuing conversations). Edward enters to defend AJ. Ned then submits to him his letter of resignation, effective immediately. AJ feigns disappointment; he wanted to make Ned his VP in charge of office x-mas cards. Ned, Edward, and AJ continue to bicker. At one point, while explaining how he proved himself, AJ (very foolishly!) calls on Alexis for support. Alexis realizes he's recalling their New Year's Eve conversation when he told her that the weak shall inherit the earth. She starts off kindly, explaining that as a former family underdog, she wants to root for him, but her tone becomes quite harsh & exasperated as she concludes, "But for the life of me, I can't figure out what you've done to deserve this appointment!" Enter Alan: "Where do you get off criticizing my son?" He then turns his criticism to Ned, who always only wants to see the family fail so he can graciously rescue them. Ned assures Alan that AJ will "self-destruct just like he always does - only this time, he'll bring everyone down with him" And just like before, right before they hit rock bottom, some one will turn to Ned, begging for help, but Ned will not help them this time. (Ned recites this prediction only a hundred times in the course of these conversations.) He and Alexis then march out. Edward follows him out shortly thereafter to talk to Ned. "I have permanently retired as your last line of defense," Ned maintains. "I've always counted on you," Edward begs. He sorely wants Ned to stay attached to the company so Edward can call on him when necessary. "If I were you, O great and powerful Oz," Ned spits, "I would start working on getting AJ a brain, because like it or not, he's all you've got." Edward looks quite pained and stalks off. Alexis is beaming. Back in the sitting room, Alan heaps gobs of praise on a quite contented AJ. "I really believe you have arrived, and I believe you are here to stay." Back outside, a bitter Ned rants about how AJ will sink the company. "Drop the keys, gatekeeper," Alexis consoles him. "There's a whole new world out there waiting for you." As they leave the Q mansion, Ned takes a final, lingering look around the foyer.

I see from the Scoops & Spoilers that Jason's going to reveal his true feelings for Carly. I knew it! I can't wait! Happy watching...