Daily Updates

General Hospital Update for Monday, 17-Jan-2000

Author:	Elisabeth
Posting date:	Mon, 17-Jan-2000 7:22:20 PM PST

*Note* Chronologically, events have been slightly manipulated to make the update flow better. --Elizabeth

Laura’s house: Stefan’s come to confirm that all charges against Helena have been dropped, and share his fears that Laura’s her next target, as a way to retaliate against him. Laura doesn’t ask him not to do anything illegal to neutralize Helena -- just to be honest about it. Stefan cancels their date and goes off.

Mac’s office: We begin today’s show with Mac in his office re-watching that tape. Felicia and the girls come in with a birthday cake and balloons, calling surprise! Mac’s kind of distracted; Felicia asks him what’s going on. Stefan interrupts them, demands to know what’s going on w/Helena. Mac says he can’t do anything more w/out proof and points Stefan in Luke’s direction. Stefan leaves, and the party continues, with Mac/Felicia and the girls all telling each other they love each other.

PC Grille: Ari-twin (sorry, can’t remember his name) and Helena are having a celebratory dinner, celebrating the charges being dropped; Jax/Chloe come in to have dinner together. Blah, they’re in ‘luv’, blah, blah, tired of pretending, blah. Chloe talks some about her past, her father and mother, which is actually fairly interesting. I’m glad TPTB are finally fleshing out this character, giving her a playboy father and a mother who loved a man who couldn’t love her back; I just wish that she had talked about it to someone *else*, not Jax.

Jason/Carly @ the docks: Since it’s Jason Morgan’s last day (yes!!), I’ll be rather more lengthy in the part of this update concerning him and his three goodbyes. This one, his goodbye to Carly, was the one I’d anticipated with the most dread; it could have been horrific. Surprisingly, it wasn’t. It was, instead, rather low-key. Carly approached Jason, telling him no explanations or excuses -- she just wanted to know if her actions had lost her his ‘being there to catch her’. Jason says he’ll always help her when she needs it, but he can’t ‘love her the way she wants him to’. Basically, he says he’s not strong enough for her -- that they’re friends, the best of friends, and that he hopes she’s happy, that she finds someone who can love her the way she needs, but it’s not him. Never was. Carly tells him, sweetly, that the kind of love he’s given her -- being a person she could count on -- was exactly what she’d always needed. They hug, he tells her to trust herself with Michael and to watch out for him, and leaves. And, so ends Carly and Jason -- perhaps one of the most wasted couples that never was. As ol’ TS said, not with a bang, but a whimper.....

Back at Laura’s: Laura rather obliquely questions Roy about Luke; they re-iterate that Luke’s off-limits. There are some nice moments for this Luke/Laura fan, as Laura says that she never knew letting go would be so hard, probably because she never expected to have to. A side note -- I’m really enjoying these scenes of Laura at home, or with her child -- it’s giving her an identity seperate from any man. As a long-time Laura fan, I *like* that.

Jason/Liz ALSO on the docks: (I’ll try to do this without gagging, but these scenes made me ill....) Jason tells her he’s leaving; Liz doesn’t react well. She tells him if he’s leaving to protect her, she’ll hurt less if he stays. He says he doesn’t want her to be afraid all the time, and that’s only part of it, anyway (why *is* Jason leaving again??). Eventually, they come to an understanding, he kisses her long and lingeringly on the forehead, tells her ‘goodbye’ and Liz responds, with a shaky smile, ‘See ya later’, and runs off. Jason looks after her, lingeringly. (Okay, that’s over. I *tried* my best to be fair to Liz/Jason fans. It was very, VERY hard).

Jax, Chloe....and Helena: Helena interrupts the dinner between Jax/Chloe in order to propose ...business ties to Jax. Chloe/Jax/Helena banter, showing Chloe to be far, far out of her league. Jax/Helena, though, is quite good, as Jax warns her away from Alexis and Chloe, never stopping smiling, and Helena flirts outright with him. Stefan joins her as Jax/Chloe leave, with an absolutly priceless line about talking to oneself and senility, and he and Helena exchange veiled threats.

And, last, but not least, Jason’s goodbye to the true love of his life, Sonny: Jason goes to the penthouse to tell Sonny he’s leaving, not because of Sonny/Carly as Sonny first presumes but because his staying ‘hurts to many people’, mainly Elizabeth and Michael. Sonny latches onto Carly as a reason for Jason’s departure; Jason defends her. He says if he stays, Carly’ll keep fighting for Jason/Carly/Michael to be a family; if he leaves, she’ll fight for Michael. (Which I thought was AWFULLY presumptuous of Jason; who is he to judge Carly? Sigh....guess everything couldn’t change, on his last day). Finally, he says he just needs Sonny to accept that he needs to leave, as he gives him power of attorney, all his worldly goods, etc. He asks Sonny to watch out for Elizabeth and take it easy on Carly (which I found awfully prophetic). Sonny tells Jason he’s the worst enemy Jason ever had -- not just for the Carly stuff but for what he made Jason into; Jason retorts that he forgives Sonny and wants Sonny to forgive himself. They speak of growing up, and Sonny tells Jason, finally, that perhaps it’s a good thing he’s leaving -- he may find his life outside of Port Charles or he may find that he left his life behind and come back (please, oh, please, noooo). Either way, he’ll know, now. Jason calls Sonny the only father he ever had, and tells him Sonny gave him his life. Sonny, with a crack in his voice, admonishes Jason not to ‘die on him’ -- and even that, which should have torn at my heart being one of the cries that defines Sonny, left me curiously flat. Jason left, and Sonny cried, alone, and that got me. Bernard’s that good; he can make me mourn Jason.

Hannah the Banana: Hannah steals Sonny’s file at FBI headquarters, is lectured about staying away from Sonny by her boss, and then hot-foots it over to his penthouse. She comes in just after Jason leaves -- REMARKABLY bad timing -- and gives Sonny the file.

Last scene: A montage-ish cut between Carly taking a home pregnancy test, finding out it’s positive and despairing; Liz staring out over the water on the docks; and finally, finally, Jason (helmetless!) on his motorcycle, heading out of town.

“Don’t know where I’m going .... now that I’m gone....”

And the show is over....