Jalyn

I actually quite liked this episode, but I've been intrigued with Morgan's current mind set since the end of last season. I've been assuming that the extreme pacifism he's been espousing was an over-reaction to how dark he had gotten beforehand. It was nice to see that verified. He knows, or feels, like he was no better than the wolves when Eastman found him. I'm not sure that he's wrong about that either - he did try to outright kill Eastman when the man had done nothing but feed him and keep him safe. The thing with all of this is that this is not rational men coming to a rational philosophy. Eastman broke utterly and committed an atrocious crime. While he was breaking psychologically, the world broke without his knowledge. From that point, he built up a new way of living that allowed him to try to come to terms with what he had done. And then he found a test case, a man who appeared to be as broken as he had been when he started this path. So he tried to heal him, to mold him into what he had determined was the right way to live. Morgan was an empty shell, desperately trying to either die or have a purpose. So when he found a charismatic "leader" he was ripe to be molded into Eastman's protege. These aren't two men who have figured out the right thing to do in this society. It's two broken men trying desperately to not be monsters. Both of them needed a way to believe that they are atoning for their actions. Now Morgan thinks that he can pass along this knowledge to another broken man and bring him the same peace that Eastman gave him. The problem with that is that Eastman got incredibly lucky that the violent broken man that he tried to heal was at core a decent man who was haunted by what he had done. Perhaps this will teach Morgan the difference between a broken man that started as a good one and a broken man that didn't have the originally core of decency to be brought back to. Perhaps that will lead him to the balance that he needs. I do think, however, that he believes that taking a human life will bring him back to where he was when he met Eastman.

Dose heartburn count?

I'll watch the next episode, but this episode definitely didn't particularly impress. The actor that played Nick did a wonderful job of convincing me that he was a complete waste of space that I desperately wanted to die. I alternately rooted for him to get hit by a second car, for Cal to put a bullet in him, and for the Cal-bie to chomp him. Then he had to go and be the only person that could figure out how to handle a dead man trying to kill his mother and stepfather and I had to give him some grudging regard. The good: I liked the Cal plot twist. I actually like the mounting tension as it was clear that he was taking an oblivious Nick out to kill him, even if I hoped that it would go another direction. Talk about something that would have been a cool plot twist - what if Cal had killed Nick and then somehow ended up being the protector in a survivor group that included the rest of the family? Yeah, I really wanted Nick to bite it. The plot holes from my POV that I haven't seen mentioned: Nick shoots Cal and then walks away without searching the car for drugs? Maddie and Travis are told that Cal is a drug dealer that tried to murder Nick and that Nick killed him instead. They see an abandoned car, a dropped gun and a trail of blood. So they walk up to the person that they should assume is, not a zombie, but a man that tried to murder her son to try to help him? They may think that Nick is having hallucinations, but it's unlikely that he would suddenly believe that his straight-laced childhood friend has been his long time drug dealer unless it is true. At the very least, stay in the truck, call out to him asking if he wants you to call an ambulance or something. Don't give him a chance to shoot you all with his backup gun. The principal didn't watch the news at ALL before he goes into school? That video was apparently all over the place but he had no clue. The "district" that was so freaked out that they canceled the rest of the school day hadn't bothered to already call him? Also, they're freaked out about violence in the streets so they are sending school kids away from where they can be controlled and watched to homes where their parents have probably left for work and they'll be alone? If people are right and the hospital staff and police have a general idea of what's going on, shouldn't they have been trying to find out if Nick had any bites? The "could have been cool" misses: People complaining about more drugged out homeless people in the parks that they drive past. In the hospital - one or two people complaining about being bitten by a crazy person that they managed to run away from - or when Maddie and Travis go in to complain about Nick going missing the nurse is swathing antibiotics on a bite on her arm. Basically, random extras should have been talking about weird things that they've seen or had happen to them. These types of things would ramp up tension that we understand but wouldn't really mean anything to characters at the moment. It allows the slow burn but makes it clear that it's all headed to hell fast.

The problem is that Victor still thought that he was Todd at that point and had the memories of the rape meaning that that relationship wasn't really any less sick. I always thought that if they'd retcon some sort of existential break in Victor's psyche and the conditioning that caused him to try to fix a relationship with Marty. Throw in a reconditioning by mommy after the fact and it might have been palatable.

So, still no reason to bother watching the 67 episodes I have stacked up on the DVR? Good to know. When I first heard about the writer change, I thought that I might need to catch up or something.

But I thought Molly was supposed to be a good writer?

Eh, make the most egregious character assassination (literal and metaphorical) long cons that are being done for the good of all. Nik and Liz have actually told Jake all about who he really is, but they need him to pretend (at all times! Cassadine bugs could be anywhere) that he doesn't know so that the Cassadine that is holding Emily (recast if she actually shows up, please) and Georgie hostage won't kill them out of hand. They've also clued Sam and Monica in on the story and they are playing along. Besides, he doesn't remember them anyway and EVERYBODY knows what happens when you try to make a clueless Jason remember anything. Lucky went along with it because he had to get back to Robin, who would come back to town but she's busy trying to reverse AJs coma after she rescued the both of them from whatever Cassadine facility that they were in. Lucky's totally proud of how Robin saved herself, but is working to keep all of them off the radar until AJ can be brought back. Monica and Michael were both made aware that AJ is alive - that's why Michael decided to give baby AJ back. He's still pissed Sonny tried to kill his dad, but he thawed a bit from the shock of the news. Besides, he hopes that his dad will need his name soon. Haydn was actually shot with a tranquilizer and then bundled off somewhere for her own safety. Patrick pretends to check on her every now and then. Jordan made sure that Shawn's actual charge was attempted murder. Carly and Sonny, of course, know none of this, because they suck. And really, the storyline where they go absolutely nuts over being kept in the dark could be great. Especially the point where they force Jason back into Quartermaine mode by trying to make him remember and want to be Jason Morgan again. Franco and company... the event that will change everything (whatever it is) can wipe them all off the planet.

You know, the sad thing about all of this is that we can come up with reasonable motivations for people to be doing the completely out of character things that they are doing. Well, except Nik, I can't come up with anything that has him taking out hits on his blackmailer, but for the rest: Liz options: a) Doesn't know that Jakeson is Jason, she just feels a connection b) Has told Jakeson all about Jason's mob ties and he is shocked and horrified that so many people seem to adore such an awful person. Go so far as to say, I'm sorry, because you loved him, but everyone has to be better off with him dead. She's afraid that telling hum who he is will provoke a backlash like the Jason Q becomes Jason Morgan days. Come on, you have the history of Jason freaking out when everyone wants him to be someone he doesn't remember, USE IT. c) Nik knew little Jake was alive and that his grandmother had him, tells Liz that Helena will kill Jake if anyone finds out that Jakeson is Jason (and that he can't do anything to fix it.) Once she gets Jake back, she's fallen in love with this new person that Jakeson is, regardless of him ever being Jason and doesn't want to lose him. (This is awful, but at least it might make sense.) d) Patrick has told Liz that Jakeson is is unstable and that forcing memories could cause his mind to explode. Lucky: a) Never finds out about Jakeson being Jason. Leaves because 1) He's found another love interest and has to get back to her, 2) He's adventuring - he's heard Robin is in trouble and wants to help her, he wants to know what really happened with Jake and take down the people responsible, he's working for the WSB and has an assignment, 3) He sees Liz happy with her new man, doesn't want to interfere and doesn't think that there is anything for him PC b) Nik explains his real reason for all for all of this (Emily is in freezer container and Helena will pull the plug, whatever) and Lucky can't bring himself to either blow up what Nik is doing or be a part of it and leaves (Presumably, they don't know why Nik is doing this, so they'd have to pull the "offscreen" explanation.) c) See D above Wait! I figured it out as I was trying to come up with motivations for Michael and Dante. All of the plot anvils are actual anvils and everyone in PC actually has partial amnesia from them dropping on their heads.

Yeah, but there's a difference between Michael softening after 6 months and starting to allow the Corinthos back into his life and him capitulating and begging for their love and forgiveness because he somehow wronged his father's murderer.

As long as he's being charged with attempted murder, he is guilty. He took the shot, just because he shot at FrancoJake and hit a planter beam in the ceiling and Ava?Nik's hitman was actually responsible for shooting OliviaGreenlee, doesn't mean that he didn't attempt to murder someone. And, why does everyone say that Ron repeats storylines? That's just silly.

I caught up on at least a month and a half of shows in the last few days and, well, there's some good there, some bad and an awful lot of "Huh?" The good - The fallout of the Morgan and Kiki drugging Michael storyline. YAY for consequences! The two idiots were never shown to be in the right - not even in the "doing the right thing in the wrong way" style. They cost Sonny any chance at custody of his daughter. While it might not be ongoing fallout (can't tell because neither have had scenes with anyone but each other since it ended) there was at least fallout. I've said, repeatedly, that I don't care if characters do awful things, I just want them to pay. And, with my original recipe AJ bias in full view, I have to note that when decent people hang someone from a meat hook in order to coerce custody from someone, it's metaphorical. And it was a joy to watch. I hope AJ got to watch a live video feed from whatever hospital bed/ Turkish prison/ friendly nurses home while he recovers from amnesia that he is currently holed up in. - The still existing rift between Sonny and Michael (after 6 months! and Sonny "saving" Michael! How many of us had the over/under in the weeks?) Michael's softened a bit, but I'm ok with that. You can't keep the level of rage that he had going and survive as a person. He's still having no unnecessary interaction and is explaining to other people why the mob's "code" is BS. - Michael in general. Given that for years I wanted AJ's reentrance storyline to be that he faked his death after figuring out that the demon child Carly and Sonny were raising had been switched at birth with his real kid and he took off to find him; the fact that I am so enjoying a Michael Quartermaine story is astonishing to me. I think I gave in the moment he started spending time with AJ, though, so it's been building for a while. According to Ron, Morgan and Kiki have a mature relationship? Not the couple where they both understand that the other has issues that they need to sort through and are giving the other the space to do it while making it clear that they want to be closer? The couple that actually has a conversation about what they want out of the relationship and what obstacles are in their way? Right, that makes sense. I can see why people might think that they are boring. Still, I'm quite enjoying two people that seem to honestly admire each other slowly moving closer together. I don't think their chem is off the charts or anything, but it's a nice story. - "Jake" has actually reacted strongly to Hadyn's shooting, even though she is one of the "bad people." I didn't watch a lot of Jason, because I like not tearing my hair out in frustration, but I'm pretty sure Jason Morgan wouldn't have given a crap. Maybe we really will get "Wait, I did WHAT?!" redemption story when he finally finds out who the hell he is. I know alot of people don't want Jason redeemed. I'll take that over there being no recognition that he NEEDS to be redeemed. Of course, we'll probably get him reacting that way and then the whole town falling over themselves to tell him that he was perfect, but I'll keep hope alive for a bit. - I'm actually going to put the Liz part of the secret here. I'm not saying that I buy the motivation for Liz to complete lose her mind, but BH is completely selling it. This isn't playing, to me, like they are trying to make her a standard soap schemer. It's playing much more as she lost her damn mind after losing Jake, having the relationship with Ric blow up publicly and then realizing that she was going to lose Jake/Jason yet again. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, but I'm enjoying watching the downward spiral and the actress is playing the desperation well. The bad - FH is killing the acting, but the Anna storyline is awful. Everyone is so stupid that Duke offering to pay TJs tuition on the day that someone tries to kill Jordan doesn't immediately make everyone understand that he tried to kill her? They buy that Jordan saying "OK, I'll kill Julian for you if you just verbally confirm for me that you are ordering me to do so" was enough to convince Duke that she's all in? Then Anna is dumb enough to forget that that mob bosses are the ones that order hits on people and that the only person that could prove that is the person that actually pulled the trigger. To make it worse, she forgets that that person would be the one person in the world that Duke would most want to pay for anything. Right. Anna's a murderer AND a moron. - The only slightly likable people in the dead baby lie are on the periphery of the story. Ned and Olivia start out as morons, talking about the one thing that they don't want people to know in just about every public place that exists in Port Charles. Well, that's brilliant. If Sam's concerned that she might have harangued Olivia into a premature birth, what the hell does she think Julian's berating did? Olivia was certainly more freaked out about that. Julian's an asshole that doesn't have any more right to put his son in danger than Sonny does Avery. Letting him and his family to mourn the child, on the other hand is ugly. The "HUH?" What are the writers thinking? - If I cared about Franco/Nina/Ric I'd be confused and annoyed. As it is, I'm only upset to be consistently FFing RoHo, because I liked the actor at one point. I haven't watched enough of the storyline to be able to comment on his performance here. - Nik decides that no one in his life matters nearly as much as taking over ELQ and is now ordering hits? Unless we're headed to a "Who killed Nik" story, this doesn't make any sense story wise. They've taken him so far beyond the pale that there isn't a way to redeem him. Up until the hit, they could have given him a motivation at the end of it. But now that he's trying to murder blackmailers, I'm not sure that "Stavros is alive and put me in touch with a very alive Emily that he's holding hostage in order to force me to take over ELQ" would work. - No one in Mob War 2015 makes any sense at all. Carlos and Julian both know that if they take out Duke, Carlos is going to have to flee. This makes Julian weaker as well right when he's triggering all out war. Julian goes to Sonny and tells him that Jake is the shooter and he's all alone now. I can see Sonny believing the info on the shooter. He doesn't like Jake, he's upset about Duke. Whatever. But he's going to send Shawn in ALONE to take out Jake because he believes that Julian isn't going to set a trap to take him out? Sonny's an idiot, but I think I'm supposed to believe that he actually understands this mob stuff. If Julian isn't just lying through his teeth about retiring, then what the hell has all of this been about? He's taken out Sonny's power structure (Of course, he took out his own as well) and he's just going to walk away as he thinks he's won? Sure, whatever show, none of it makes sense anyway, so just don't expect me to actually try to pay attention to this idiocy. Sorry about the wall of text. As I said, I just watched a LOT of GH.

I want him to think of Monica as well, but unless you mean some time when Monica operated on him, isn't he biologically the result of one of Alan's affairs? Or did you mean Robin, which would totally make sense. *Duh*

Oh crap. Michael goes to drive home. Morgan realizes how bad this is going to go and jumps in the car to try to stop him from driving... Who's head meets the tree?

Because one of them is a very pretty tree and the other one is annoying, self-righteous and, well, Spinelli? Or perhaps because she's stupid enough to actually be torn between a decent and incredibly pretty police office and, well, Spinelli?

Getting drunk with a baby in one's arms is bad. Merely having a drink or two while holding a baby is not the same thing. I don't think I know any children that wouldn't be with social services if the latter was a reason to remove custody. I don't however, know of any children who's father's occupation resulted in them being shot in the head, having their mother shot in the head, being almost blown up by a car bomb, being actually blown up by a car bomb (in utero), being kidnapped and/or being shot in the gut by the father. If I did, I'd call CPS.

I'm starting to be hesitantly optimistic about this storyline. None of the Corinthos + Kiki are being painted any shade lighter than charcoal. Sonny's pretending that he's out of the business, but Duke still reports everything to him. He tried to kidnap Avery against Carly and Ric's advice. (And when Carly and Ric agree, it's got to be either completely obvious or hell has frozen over.) He's making not so veiled threats against Michael. If Morgan and Kiki actually drug Michael... Bad people do bad things and can still be interesting characters. So long as I'm not expected to think that they are completely in the right. I was going to put in a disclaimer about Ron sucking at anything after the fallout, but this is still technically the fallout from the Hallowedding and it's just not as bad as I expected. Raise your hand if you actually believed that almost half a year later Michael wouldn't have gone begging Sonny to forgive him for some reason or another.

Are they talking about making Michael think that he has alcohol problems or convincing a court of that?

While I loved "I'll call her AJ" for pure twist the knife as hard as possible reasons, I really wish Michael wasn't going through with it. The main, completely out of storyline reason is because AJ Q is stuck in a Cassadine hospital somewhere and is going to need that name someday. In storyline, kid's been bounced around her entire life and already had her name changed once. It would be nice if Michael was trying hard to provide her with some feeling of permanence and familiarity in the midst of all of the turmoil rather than just adding to it in unnecessary ways.

I just watched KA's final scene on GH and I actually kind of loved pieces of it. Screw the "I couldn't make it work with your mother" BS, but the final scene was really a beautiful good bye from RH to KA. Had nothing at all to do with GH and PP should probably add the whole damn thing to their lawsuit, but it was clearly the actors saying farewell so I'll take it.

Sonny was not exonerated of AJ's murder, he was pardoned. He is still guilty of murder, the governor just inexplicably decided that it was unreasonable to punish him for it. Of course, that means that a wrongful death suit that puts Sonny and Carly (does that work for an accessory after the fact?) in the poor house with no criminal enterprise, coffee house or hotel to run is the perfect way for Michael to legitimately go after the two of them. If he wants to then sue for custody of Avery, go ahead. (Heck, use the fact that they are monetarily unable to care for the child against them.) Did Michael state that he was exonerated? (I should really stop waiting until the end of the week to watch a bunch of episodes at once.) I wonder if that's on the writers or the character? AJ was exonerated of Connie's murder. Cause, you know, he didn't do it. I bet Michael could have several slander suits he could file against people as well. I still say that they should have had Michael make a bargain to keep Sonny out of prison in the first place because it was the only way to clear AJ's name. That way they don't have to twist logic to get him back out of prison, where they never meant to keep him. They could have twisted the knife on the Michael/Sonny relationship a bit more. Then it would make more sense for Michael to be trying to get back at Sonny through custody of an innocent child because he wouldn't have the obvious wrongful death suit that they bloody lampshaded in the show by having Alexis suggest it.

Oh, crap, you're right. The sad thing is that that could be soapy fun, if done right. It just won't be. Michael gets custody for all the wrong reasons, and then falls in love with the kid. After that point, he finds out the truth. He can't handle losing another person from his life, so he hides the truth from Morgan. In his guilt and confusion over the situation, he starts trying to repair his relationship with Morgan which is complicated by the fact that Morgan hates that he still hates Sonny and blames him for taking their sister away. The fragile rebuilding of the relationship blows apart when Morgan learns the truth. Michael loses custody of Avery and spirals down, (not an addiction story, maybe he throws himself into a ruthless business storyline, deciding that loving other people is just too hard.) From there you rebuild the character, including seeing Morgan interact with Avery and realizing everything that he cost his brother and niece by his selfishness. That story doesn't make Michael evil, it allows him to realize his mistake and change from them and yet still manages to make him the antagonist of the situation. Instead, we'll probably get Michael hanging Morgan from a meathook. In 3 years, when Avery is 21, Morgan will be a drunk that tried to kidnap her several times but was always luckily foiled by Jason helping Michael out. The audience will be supposed to think that Michael taking her was the best thing that ever could have happened to her. Especially as she got to spend so much time with her beloved Grandpa Sonny after Michael realized that AJ was the worst thing ever and Sonny is a hero for killing him. After all, we couldn't possibly paint with any grey colors in the characterization - they used all of it for the scenery.

Whoops, sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to Michael's legal standing after renouncing Sonny as his father. (Not that I think a brother has a lot of legal standing in the first place, but changing his name and publicly denouncing Sonny wouldn't affect anything.)

I haven't seen today's show yet, but I'm not sure why "these people are so awful that I wish to not recognize them as my parents and I'm going to change my name to reflect that" would conflict with "I don't want my poor sister to be raised by the same awful people that I believe shouldn't have been allowed to raise me."

I agree with a lot of what you've stated here, actually. As I said, I don't need Sonny to actually be remorseful about any of it to accept and enjoy the character. I do, however, need the show and a good portion of the characters within the show (who AREN'T members of the mob) to recognize that Sonny is not a hero. I don't agree, however, that being hypocritical is morally equivalent to being a murderer. The Quartermaines ARE better than Sonny, they don't murder people. And for the months where AJ thought it was possible that he had done so he was distraught and unable to function. Sonny proclaims that he'd do it again. Somehow, in Port Charles, AJ's the evil one.

It would even be fine if Sonny never felt any remorse - so long as that made him an out and out villain and at least half the town realized it. What doesn't make sense is this "have your cake and eat it too" way that they are trying to paint this where he hasn't changed, isn't going to change and is still somehow the hero of the piece. Of course, and to pull this back to the historical thread rather than harping on about current storylines, that is the way that GH has been written for Sonny, Jason and Carly (and anyone in their orbit) for years. Sonny tries to murder an undercover cop? Well, he didn't know that it was his son, which somehow makes everything ok. There's no recognition that just shooting anyone in cold blood is inherently bad. Dante was a cop - and a lying one at that, so that's not a problem. The fact that he's Sonny's son? Well, that's a problem but he didn't know you guys. So you should totally feel bad for him about it.