A Week of Daytime Emmy Worthy Performances on General Hospital as Finn Says Goodbye — Plus, Two Huge Returns!

Credit: ABC screenshots, Howard Wise/JPI

It was another emotional week on General Hospital, with plenty of tears flowing on camera and at home, as Finn bid farewell to Port Charles and his family. We also saw yet another war between Sonny and Ava brewing, Carly stepping in a big pile of you know what again, and two big returns were announced! Finally, there were a few, “Wait, what is going on here moments” that had me wondering, did I miss something?

Until We Meet Again, Finn

In last week’s column, amidst all the rumors and speculation, I just couldn’t see Michael Easton departing as Finn, and boy, was I wrong! My biggest issue was it seemed like this was all happening way too fast. They finally gave Michael Easton stellar storyline material to work with, and now he’s just, gone! In a matter of two weeks, Finn became a full-blown alcoholic who needed a long sting in rehab. And while, yes, he is an addict, this would have at least made a little more sense if they had him starting to reach for drugs. But this is a soap, and sometimes… okay many times… we have to turn off our sense of reality and go with the flow. Just like those special sitcom episodes from the eighties and nineties where Alex, Theo, Heather, or Zach wind up a pill addict after cramming for one exam, or an alcoholic after one night at a party.

As I said last week, everyone gave stellar, Daytime Emmy-worthy performances, most notably Jane Elliot and Michael Easton. When little Jophielle Love cried, “I can help you stop drinking alcohol…” I thought, “Give her all the awards now!” Violet and Finn’s goodbye was so well written and acted. Of course with Finn going into rehab for a minimum of a ninety day stay,  everyone is wondering how will the show address what’s next when his stint it up? Some viewers have suggested he may join that friend he has been talking a lot about lately in Doctors Without Borders again, though how can we not expect Finn to want to get back to his daughter as soon as possible? It will be interesting to see what the writers come up with. And I still maintain this is the perfect opportunity to finally bring Hayden back, though then again, without Finn, there isn’t much of anyone to pair her with… Unless they tried Drew again, or brought back Nikolas… More on that in a bit!

More: An emotional farewell

The “It’s All About Carly” Show

Well, Carly stepped in a big pile of trouble this week, along with Sam and Spinelli. Sam should have known better than to tell Carly that she was the reason Jason had stayed away, because she had to have known Carly would want to somehow fix everything for Jason. There was a weird exchange between Carly and Spinelli where Spinelli told her that she loved Jason just like he loved and would do anything for Maxie. Are they hinting Carly and Jason are now, after all this, going to become a thing?

I enjoyed Carly’s talk with Brennan, but hey, I’ll take Brennan on screen anyway I can get him! I loved him telling Carly that she and Jason were basically idiots if they thought the FBI would honor their agreement with Jason and wouldn’t throw her in jail in the end. It was interesting that he told her she shouldn’t trust him, but gave her rock solid advice, including start lawyering up now.

More: Kristina Wagner shares her new tribute tattoo

Diane’s talk with, and comments to, Carly were just brilliant. “Why on earth would you do that?” “Oh great, another felony!” She hit it home when she told Carly that Jason never has needed her to save him, and think about all the times she’s tried to help him that turned out badly. Listen to Diane, Carly!

Friday’s show had Jason calmly, but in his own style, blowing up at Carly. He made it clear if she went off and tried to save him, everything he did, all his sacrifices these past two plus years, would be for nothing. And what did Carly do? First she agreed to back down, but then said she couldn’t do it! Then everything took a turn to the bizarro zone when Jason told Carly that if she went to jail for twenty plus years just to save him, to think how Donna would feel knowing her mother chose him over her. Um, Jason, did you bother to ask that question regarding your own children?

Other interesting developments. Dante basically telling Sam, “What the hell!” over her hacking into the FBI database with Spinelli was a great bit of conversation, with her basically putting herself in the same situation as Carly, choosing helping Jason and possibly going to jail in doing so, thereby abandoning her children for Jason. The saddest part really was when Sam noted if Danny found out his father chose Carly over him that it would devastate him. So basically, since Dante and Sam are going to keep this from Danny, the kid is totally going to find out.

More: Wesley Eure’s touching goodbye to TV father

Also, did I miss when Sam went from “Stay away from Danny, Jason!” to “Okay, you can see Danny now.” Did some scenes get dropped or something? Also, Jason knows Sam has her reservations about him leading Danny into the same kind of life he lives, so why on earth did he think introducing Danny to his bike was a good idea. He had to know it would lead to the kid wanting to ride it, even if he’s not old enough to.

Friends No More

So after learning from Kristina, who suddenly is acting like everything is back to normal with Sonny, about Ava’s role in Alexis’ disbarment, he’s tossed her out. Now they are both gearing up for what looks like a nasty custody fight over Avery. Of course, Ava has a bit of an upper hand in knowing Sonny’s meds are off. The question is, how does she expose this without looking like she’s the one who tampered with them? Also, I’d love to get a scene of Ava groveling back to Nina now that she no longer has Sonny in her corner. Hell, she’s getting to the point she might not have Trina in her corner, as even Trina is concerned about what Ava might do to Sonny!

The scene with Laura and Ava on Friday where interesting, especially with Ava stating she still did love Nikolas, and would let Laura know if she heard from him anytime soon. Could there be hope for an Ava and Nikolas reconciliation? Especially since Ava told Laura that aside from Avery, she and Trina were the closest thing to family she had? However her asking Laura to testify in court on her behalf against Sonny, but not actually telling Laura that Sonny threw her out because of what she did to Alexis, feels like it’s going to backfire on her. Laura talks to Alexis a lot, so she’s going to find out what Ava did to her! Ava should have fessed up, because she doesn’t want Laura not to be on her side coming up.

The Surrogacy Snoozefest

I’ve made it clear I haven’t been into this storyline since it first began, because it was either going to end with Kristina losing the baby, or wanting to keep it. Now here we are, with her looking into keeping it. She doesn’t know that TJ and Molly have reconciled, and TJ apologized for temporarily losing his brain thanks to the writers-switch-a-roo. So how she will move forward when she learns this is where we are now.

Kristina and Blaze’s scenes on Friday was another moment where I thought, “Wait, what’s going on here, did we just do a 360 or something?” Blaze and Kristina went from fantasizing about this being their child, to Blaze saying “Yeah my career is about to take of so I can’t be saddled with a kid,” and Kristina somewhat agreeing. All of the sudden it seems like Kristina is going to sue TJ mainly so Molly can have access to this child, but… but… who is going to raise it if that happens? The Davis bunch? Just, make this story stop!

Two Big Returns, Well, Maybe Just One

The first big breaking news this week was Bryan Craig’s return as Morgan Corinthos. But, it’s only for a single episode… So yeah, I think we can just assume he’s either going to appear to a manic, off-his-meds Sonny, or he’s going to haunt Ava for knowing Sonny’s off his meds.

The bigger news was Jonathan Jackson returning as Lucky Spencer. I had written before that it would be great to bring him home to help rebuild Laura’s family, I just really didn’t think it would happen given Jackson has been so committed to his music the past few years. But wow, Lucky’s coming home for what’s being called, “a long run.” So this is more than a guest stint. Can we press our luck (har har!) and hope this will lead to Lulu and even Nikolas’ returns too?

More: Big changes at General Hospital

Final thought, the Qs are going to put the Metro Court out of business soon as half of Port Charles lives there now!

That’s it for my opinions on this week’s episodes. As always, leave your own, and be sure to have a great upcoming holiday week if you are in the US!