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GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself


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For the record, is it Rik or Ric Lansing? I've used both today (although I think I later edited them all to be Ric), so this question isn't coming from a place of judgment. It's coming from a place of personal pedantry. Also, why the hell can't it just be Rick? (I know. Not our call.) I get why Nik is Nik, but I don't get the Ric (or possibly Rik) thing. I was on my own private barge when his character was introduced, so if he's a Ricardo, rather than a Richard, I'll accept this, quietly. I just need to know.

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It's Ric. I think they probably made it that way to avoid confusion with the actor, who is Rick, but I have no idea what Ric's first name is, so maybe it is Ricardo.

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Ric and Sonny's mother Adela was from Puerto Rico I believe. Also I remember reading that Ric was originally supposed to be Lily's brother, so that is another tie to Puerto Rico. Just because he goes by Richard professionally doesn't mean Adela didn't name him Ricardo but Trevor Lansing raised him so could have Anglicized all the records.

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Does anyone remember a few years ago when they did fauxbacks of young Luke & Bobbie breaking into the Q manse; I think Days' Guy Wilson played Luke?

First, did they establish a year that those scenes supposedly took place in, and second didnt that contradict history because my understanding is that Q's didn't show up in Port Charles until after Bobbie did?

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second didnt that contradict history because my understanding is that Q's didn't show up in Port Charles until after Bobbie did?

 

Alan first appeared in August or September, 1977, Bobbie in late 1977.  The Q family showed up a year after Alan.  

 

GH has become one giant contradiction to it's history.

Edited by LegalParrot81
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Does anyone remember a few years ago when they did fauxbacks of young Luke & Bobbie breaking into the Q manse; I think Days' Guy Wilson played Luke?

First, did they establish a year that those scenes supposedly took place in, and second didnt that contradict history because my understanding is that Q's didn't show up in Port Charles until after Bobbie did?

 

Was that the story where Lila wanted to adopt poor orphaned waifs Luke and Bobbie?  I have a vague recollection of it.  I think it was supposed to be the heartwarming Christmas story.

 

Yeah, it was a contradiction.  And, correct me if I'm wrong, it's way before my time, but when Monty brought in other families, characters, etc, she didn't have the writers total screw with established history, did she?  Unlike, say, Guza and Carlivati?

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Honestly, I wasn't watching then but I'm sure everything did not perfectly line up. After all this is the woman who decided to retcon a rape as a seduction.

 

Messing with continuity isn't necessarily a great sin in and of itself. If it's entertaining and well written (like Nikolas and Stefan in 1996*) than there's some room for leeway. If it's something like freakin' Ethan popping out of nowhere, ruining continuity and the past for absolutely no good reason except to have him wander around purposelessly just to kiss Luke's ass, then it's a bad idea.

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Question about the Q's?

 

 

When Alan (and then the rest) came on the show was it established at the time that they were from another city or could they have been in town the whole time and maybe Alan worked at Mercy before he joined GH?

Edited by jennifer6973
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Yeah, it was a contradiction. And, correct me if I'm wrong, it's way before my time, but when Monty brought in other families, characters, etc, she didn't have the writers total screw with established history, did she? Unlike, say, Guza and Carlivati?

To be fair, she had a lot less history to screw up. Not that she didn't do some stuff I absolutely hated, like the mess she made of Anna's past at the beginning of the 90s and the shitty death of Robert and Anna story.

But back in the day there really wasn't this insane obsession with changing past stories and making everyone related. It's so annoying.

Now that I'm watching the early 80s stuff and getting to know and love Rick Webber, I finally fully understand the fans who wanted Guza's head for the terrible Laura goes nuts and kills Rick story in the early 2000s.

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Alan, Monica and Rick in 1977. Michael Gregory was still playing Rick at the time. Condition could be better, but considering how hard it must be to find GH stuff this old, it's still fun to watch.

 

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Now that I'm watching the early 80s stuff and getting to know and love Rick Webber, I finally fully understand the fans who wanted Guza's head for the terrible Laura goes nuts and kills Rick story in the early 2000s.

I didn't and still don't know really know or care about Rick, but I hated Kauar's disgraceful '02 exit. I suppose we should be grateful that Guza sent her off in a wheelchair drooling as opposed to killing her. He certainly got off on killing women and vets as the decade progressed.

Anyway, I think part, but not the predominant reason, of why I hated that exit so much is that it was well publicized why she was leaving. I thought and still think it was utter bullshit to not give Genie parity with Tony. It would have been so easy to write Laura off for a few months; she and Lesley and Lulu could have just been off travelling. It was so vindictive and so petty for Jill to deny Genie that summer off and then write out Laura as a drooling loon.

Which is exactly why I'm hoping that is now Luke is now written out, permanently. If it was good enough for Laura, it's good enough for Luke.

ETA: it's interesting that no more than six months later they lost Vanessa Marcil, again, because they wouldn't work with her schedule. My understanding is that back in those days because the frequent dark weeks, they were working almost every week five days a week and that they had Vanessa working almost every single day. IIRC, she asked to only work three days per week, the show balked, and she walked.

Edited by Tiger
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Anyway, I think part, but not the predominant reason, of why I hated that exit so much is that it was well publicized why she was leaving. I thought and still think it was utter bullshit to not give Genie parity with Tony. It would have been so easy to write Laura off for a few months; she and Lesley and Lulu could have just been off travelling. It was so vindictive and so petty for Jill to deny Genie that summer off and then write out Laura as a drooling loon.

Which is exactly why I'm hoping that is now Luke is now written out, permanently. If it was good enough for Laura, it's good enough for Luke.

 

Well, to quote jsbt, it would be kind of annoying to kill Luke off because it would satisfy Tony Geary's adolescent nihilism, but I think I'm leaning towards killing him off again, because this is just too much at this point imo. Plus I think after the high of taping some schmaltzy Sprockets style death scene wore off, he'd regret asking to be killed off, so the petty part of me is fine with that, although I do think Luke does deserve a big send off.

 

Anyway, there were/are rumors that Geary was threatening to retire in 2013 if they reunited Luke and Laura, and that's why Genie wasn't asked back after her three contract expired. If that's true, it's pretty disappointing that this team didn't call Geary's bluff. I can understand wanting to keep Geary circa 2002. Not being able to part with Geary circa 2013, not so much.

Edited by ulkis
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Honestly, I wasn't watching then but I'm sure everything did not perfectly line up. After all this is the woman who decided to retcon a rape as a seduction.

 

 

Well, to be fair to Monty (and I am not defending the decision, because it's gross, even though it may seem like I'm defending it), Luke was supposed to be killed off after the rape; but due to the amazing chemistry between him and Genie, they had to figure out a way to keep him, and I think, them, Luke and Laura, together, so the show could cash in, if you will, on it. 

 

And even after they made into a seduction, and UGH, Laura called it "the first time we made love", Luke, right after she said those words, denied it and said, no, it was rape.  I remember seeing a clip of that scene awhile back online.

 

But as has been stated, when Liz was raped, they revisited Laura's rape, and man, that scene between Tony and Genie was so raw, so powerful....when she yelled "How could you call me your Angel and then RAPE ME?!!!.

 

So, to read speculation that this fuckwit in charge is looking to blame in on a fucking psychotic break, really pisses me off.  And takes away from those scenes back in '98.

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Alan first appeared in August or September, 1977, Bobbie in late 1977.  The Q family showed up a year after Alan.  

 

GH has become one giant contradiction to it's history.

 

According to Wikipedia, Alan first appeared on September 12th, 1977, while Bobbie appeared in December 1977. Leslie Charleson, meanwhile, first taped in August of 1977. It says on Wikipedia that she first taped on August 17th, 1977, but LC has always said that her first day was the same day Elvis died, which was August 16th, because she was a huge fan of his--she was president of a fan club of his in high school, and even met him once years later; she accidentally spilled coffee on his suit when she reached out with the wrong hand to shake his--so that factored in to the depressed mood she was in that day. 

 

All three of them were brought in by Tom Donovan; LC had worked with him on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and met with him even though she originally didn't want to do another soap again. That, combined with replacing the original actress (Patsy Rahn, who was fired, but apparently no one else knew this until LC showed up on set), and a strike that was going on at the time behind the scenes (and of course, she was mourning Elvis) made for a very unpleasant first day for her.

 

Also, Tom Donovan quit very shortly after she got there (and was the only reason LC originally took the job in the first place); JZ claimed in an interview that she started just two days before Gloria Monty got there, and she (GM) was the one who named her Bobbie (I guess she went by Barbara Jean those first two days). She had wanted to call her Barbie, but JZ didn't think it worked for her, saying she wasn't blonde and didn't have that type of a body, so GM decided on Bobbie.

 

 

But as has been stated, when Liz was raped, they revisited Laura's rape, and man, that scene between Tony and Genie was so raw, so powerful....when she yelled "How could you call me your Angel and then RAPE ME?!!!.

 

 

 

Those scenes are great. I've seen them online before. They're broken up into parts, but are definitely worth watching. Here are the first two parts:

 

 

 

That said, the way Laura seems to be apologizing for it happening is still somewhat disturbing to me. 

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When Alan (and then the rest) came on the show was it established at the time that they were from another city or could they have been in town the whole time and maybe Alan worked at Mercy before he joined GH?

 

Yes, it was established that they had moved to PC from Long Island when Edward decided to move the corporate headquarters of ELQ.

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From clips I never really liked Rick Webber that said the horrible way he was written off in 02 made no sense.I'm still wonering what the heck happened to his kid with Ginny that they had after leslie suppsodly died lol.

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Rick and Ginny didn't have a child together.  Mike was Ginny's son with Derek Barrington, who'd been raised by his grandmother after it was believed his mother had died (if I remember correctly).  After Mike's grandmother died, Rick and Leslie took Mike in and legally adopted him. Ginny showed up a couple years later.

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I suppose we should be grateful that Guza sent her off in a wheelchair drooling as opposed to killing her. He certainly got off on killing women and vets as the decade progressed.

I don't think even Guza would have dared kill off Laura. The network would never have allowed it. So instead he stripped her of everything that made her a great character.

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Well, to quote jsbt, it would be kind of annoying to kill Luke off because it would satisfy Tony Geary's adolescent nihilism, but I think I'm leaning towards killing him off again, because this is just too much at this point imo. Plus I think after the high of taping some schmaltzy Sprockets style death scene wore off, he'd regret asking to be killed off, so the petty part of me is fine with that, although I do think Luke does deserve a big send off

This is exactly why I don't want Luke to die and instead want his "permanent" exit to him carted off in a wheelchair, drooling, and slipping into a catonic state; it's only a matter of time until Frank, Ron and Tony decide to bring Luke back for a short-stint and I would rather have an alive Luke wake up from a coma than a dead Luke resurrected.

And about a possible retcon of Luke's alter having raped Laura, what I'm hoping for is that it is made explicitly clear that Luke had a dark side but that he was whole and raped Laura and that the actual split occured later.

I think it should be made clear that Lucky dying and coming back wrong, Laura going away, and Helena drugging Luke all swirled to give rise to Dark Luke. It's still patchy, but it'd be very easy to blame all his post-'02 behavior and absences on the split.

Edited by Tiger
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Rick and Ginny didn't have a child together.  Mike was Ginny's son with Derek Barrington, who'd been raised by his grandmother after it was believed his mother had died (if I remember correctly).  After Mike's grandmother died, Rick and Leslie took Mike in and legally adopted him. Ginny showed up a couple years later.

I'm not talking about mike.THey had a child in 85 or 86.I've seen clips of it it was a boy and Ginny suffered PPD afterwards.I think it might have been in some of the clips of the asian quarter story.

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I'm not talking about mike.THey had a child in 85 or 86.I've seen clips of it it was a boy and Ginny suffered PPD afterwards.I think it might have been in some of the clips of the asian quarter story.

 

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten that child.  I was watching sporadically during that period so that kid didn't register.  

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The first trophy we saw Sonny lose.... Karen Wexler. 

This and what he did to jagger is THE reason I would never like Sonny, feel sorry for him. And the day he leaves the show I could return. evil Sonny picking on a high schooler who was molested as a child. yea , he has a good heart?  I'd love to see someone cut it out. To me sonny is scummy.

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That's Stone in the video that he pushes around. Yes, "the" Stone that Sonny "loved " so much. Because we all know even today (ask Micheal, Morgan, AJ, get a Ouija board and call Connie) that no matter how much Sonny "loves" you, if you're in his way he will literally and figuratively push you out the way.

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To me, Sonny's "big heart" has always been solely based on him throwing money around to make himself feel better about what a worthless shitty human being he is.

 

The ironic thing about this is I don't think Sonny is self-aware enough to know that's what he's doing. He doesn't think he's a bad person, especially these days.

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Well, to be fair to Monty (and I am not defending the decision, because it's gross, even though it may seem like I'm defending it), Luke was supposed to be killed off after the rape; but due to the amazing chemistry between him and Genie, they had to figure out a way to keep him, and I think, them, Luke and Laura, together, so the show could cash in, if you will, on it.

 

I've been watching this for the first time. I was watching the story where Luke and Lucky find out about Nicholas Cassadine, and then I flipped back and found the clip where Luke rapes Laura, because their history was bothering me, how they turned it around. 

 

Now I haven't seen the eps in between but it has definitely affected my view of Luke, I find I have to keep reminding myself he's supposed to be the good guy, in the later episodes. And then he and Lucky seem quite accusatory towards Laura for sleeping (or being raped by) Stavros. It's a bit hard to take from Luke. I also feel like some of his attitude is like Laura is his possession, rather than out of a genuine concern for her, but I don't know if that is just my interpretation or if that's actually there in the scene.

 

At any rate, I have to keep reminding myself he's the 'good' guy. I know similar story lines have come up in other fiction but it's so unrealistic is so many ways. 

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I've been watching this for the first time. I was watching the story where Luke and Lucky find out about Nicholas Cassadine, and then I flipped back and found the clip where Luke rapes Laura, because their history was bothering me, how they turned it around. 

 

Now I haven't seen the eps in between but it has definitely affected my view of Luke, I find I have to keep reminding myself he's supposed to be the good guy, in the later episodes. And then he and Lucky seem quite accusatory towards Laura for sleeping (or being raped by) Stavros. It's a bit hard to take from Luke. I also feel like some of his attitude is like Laura is his possession, rather than out of a genuine concern for her, but I don't know if that is just my interpretation or if that's actually there in the scene.

 

At any rate, I have to keep reminding myself he's the 'good' guy. I know similar story lines have come up in other fiction but it's so unrealistic is so many ways. 

 

luke definitely gets more morally ambiguent; Stavros is the bad guy for sure but Luke and Stefan are played (at least from 1996-99) as the two morally ambiguous two sides of the same coin.

 

Lucky does a huge turnaround on his father later on when he learns Luke raped Laura, although I do think he still blames Laura in that he feels she likes being the victim, which I don't think is the same as blaming but is still kinda gross, but maybe he wasn't wrong; I can't say I know Laura's character well enough to have an opinion on that.

 

But yes, early in the story Lucky is just 14 and still worshiping and parroting everything Luke said and did. It's interesting because you can see him slooowly finding holes in his father's logic. There's one scene early on where Lucky talks about how Luke is always saying family family they have to protect the family against the Cassadines, but the fact that Nikolas is his half-brother, and thus Lucky's family too, and Luke quickly shuts that down, but the disconnect for Lucky starts there.

Edited by ulkis
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Lucky does a huge turnaround on his father later on when he learns Luke raped Laura, although I do think he still blames Laura in that he feels she likes being the victim, which I don't think is the same as blaming but is still kinda gross, but maybe he wasn't wrong; I can't say I know Laura's character well enough to have an opinion on that.

I don't think Laura ever liked being a victim; she wasn't one to throw the rape in Luke's face. Other characters certainly did, especially Scott (who still does). I don't think it was unreasonable for Lucky to feel that way, though, as it was probably a coping mechanism for him while he worked through his feelings about his father raping his mother and his mother standing by her rapist. Add to that his horror and guilt about Liz's rape, and you've got a lot of emotions to deal with. Talk about the scales falling from one's eyes. Lucky worshipped Luke, and then he finds out his father committed one of the worst crimes a man can commit, and it was against Lucky's mother.

 

Lucky was a giant asshole to Laura when he found out about the rape, though. It wasn't any of his business why she decided to stay with Luke, and Lucky acted as if he was owed an explanation. All of those scenes were so good, if painful to watch at times. JJ, TG, and GF were at the top of their game.

Edited by dubbel zout
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and he was 15 years old to boot. That's hard to process at any age. I always thought that Laura (and Luke) had the right to say, "that's my business and I refuse to tell you", or if they flat out lied I would have understood. Having said that, they did tell him, and I thought it was reasonable of him to react the way he did. There was a lot of criticism at the time and since then that he was a punk, a snot, etc, but for God's sake, he was 15-going-on-16, learning that his father was a rapist, that he had raped his mother. That's some pretty frigging big emotional upheaval, and it's not like he was living off of them while complaining how awful they were; he went and struck out on his own, and managed on his own.

 

All in all, he definitely could have handled it much worse than he did, even if there were ways to do it better.

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I swear What sonny did to Karen is whitewashed.I hate that were supposed to forget it.I'm not sure how sonny has a big heart.

Sonny does have a big heart; the problem is that, despite its size, there is only room for himself in it.

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luke definitely gets more morally ambiguent; Stavros is the bad guy for sure but Luke and Stefan are played (at least from 1996-99) as the two morally ambiguous two sides of the same coin.

 

This is helpful to read. I was wondering as I was watching how other viewers saw it, and trying to figure out what kind of character Luke was. I thought he was supposed to be this big hero and it really does not come across. Ambiguous describes it well.

 

I do give Lucky more of a pass, as he's younger etc.

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Luke was never a completely good guy, even when he was mayor of PC.

 

Exactly.  That's what made the character interesting.  He was never a white hate or a black hat, but many shades of gray.  You saw him struggle with right and wrong, struggle to be a better man for Laura and then for his kids, but mostly for himself.  You saw him want to rise above his Elm Street, poorer than dirt youth, slip and then start the trek all over again.  

As he said to Laura once upon a time "I don't want to be a hero, I just want to be the man you come back to".

Edited by LegalParrot81
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Luke was never a completely good guy, even when he was mayor of PC. I don't think show ever made him a big hero, and viewers weren't supposed to see him that way. It was always a mixed bag.

I DA as someone who has watched lots of clips from the early 80s it was nothing but a love luke fest.Now when he came back in the 1990s I don't think he was treated like a hero.

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I DA as someone who has watched lots of clips from the early 80s it was nothing but a love luke fest

 

Clips are just that, clips.  I watched it in real time and he was not a "do no wrong, always be right" character.  He had flaws, he had shortcomings.  He wasn't loved by all.

 

But we all form our own opinions based upon what is available for us to see.

Edited by LegalParrot81
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Did the entire town ever find out back then that Luke actually was a rapist? Because if he hadn't saved from freezing with Laura, it would have been next to impossible for him to become mayor of PC.* By the time Lulu find out I guess it was common knowledge, but I'm curious how many people actually knew in the early 80's/in 1998 when Lucky found out (speaking of which, how did Nik find out? He's the one who told Lucky).

 

*I just realized that happened after it was retconned as a seduction, so that may render my question moot.

Edited by UYI
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The people who really knew Luke raped Laura (besides them, obviously), were Bobbie and later Scott.  Laura's parents, Lee Baldwin and Captain Ramsey found out almost a year later, when Laura was interviewed by the police in their presence after her summer on the run with Luke.  It came up that the guy she'd told police was the rapist - one of Frank Smith's mob flunkies found dead in an alley near her home - was not the guy, she had just named the dead man for ... reasons that I'm forgetting.   

 

But within a few weeks it became a "seduction" and something most people had stopped talking about.    So Robert never knew about any of it, because it had been retconned by the time he hit town in November '80, nor did Tiffany or probably Holly or anyone else who came to town and befriended Luke until his mid-80s move out of town.  I don't think Joe Kelly or any of Luke's old pals in PC knew, either.  

 

Helena somehow knew about the rape and told Nikolas in the 90s, I think.  I don't know how many people found out about in the '90s, maybe just Lucky, Liz, Nikolas?   Did Lulu ever find out?

Edited by SlovakPrincess
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZxhkQJ4rAk

 

Edited because I just found the full courtroom scenes, plus Lulu in the park afterwards (the first clip I posted had Lulu edits from that episode).

 

Scott brought the rape up during the trial for custody of Laura after she slipped back into a catatonic state in 2007, as proof that Luke was unfit to take care of her. I love Scott, and he has every right to hate Luke for what he did to his then-wife, but this was still pretty low. Lesley cleaned his CLOCK. 

Edited by UYI
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Helena somehow knew about the rape and told Nikolas in the 90s, I think.  I don't know how many people found out about in the '90s, maybe just Lucky, Liz, Nikolas?   Did Lulu ever find out?

 

It wasn't common knowledge until that custody fight over Laura (aka when Lulu found out, which I actually thought was awful and perfunctory and just used to give JMB another reason to eat the show at the time/emmy bait. I loved Lulu, but it was stupid).

 

Helena didn't tell Nik; Stefan did. When they were on the island Laura confided to Stefan about her romance to Luke, and she told him they had one bad night but she didn't specify that it was rape, but Stefan did his research and read between the lines, so he extrapolated the truth. He told Nikolas later on when he wanted to demonstrate the kind of hold Luke had over Laura. (This was all off-screen; we found out about it later on via exposition.)

 

I don't remember if they changed this later on, but during Tyler Christopher's original run as Nikolas, during that time it was established, and held consistent, that Nikolas never interacted with Helena except for a brief time when he was 7 years old when she managed to take over guardianship from Stefan, but he ousted her fairly quickly. 

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Helena somehow knew about the rape and told Nikolas in the 90s, I think.  I don't know how many people found out about in the '90s, maybe just Lucky, Liz, Nikolas?   Did Lulu ever find out?

If memory serves, Johnny's guys told Helena.

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It was so special that GH celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Jasus executing a wimmins in a church on Good Friday by having NuJasus pull a gun on Blasus!

I was on the barge at the time, please can someone give me the details.

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I was on the barge at the time, please can someone give me the details.

In the spring of 2005, Faith kidnapped Michael, Morgan, and Kristina. Sonny, FBI Agent Reese (who was really Carly's childhood friend who had allegedly died and whom Carly stole her identity from) & Jason tracked Faith to this abandoned church in New Orleans, and I'll let the clip speak for itself:Jason and the Shoot Out With Faith 2/05: http://youtu.be/PtRECU5j14w

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This looks like something someone would have written as a parody of a cliffhanger for a typical Guza era episode--except in this case, it actually happened. 

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