GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

[TeeVee329]

I feel like I keep bringing up in the episode thread how I found Liz's dismissing of Monica's pain as a mother - given what she went through losing Jake and then getting him back - to be the most disgusting, character destroying thing she did during that storyline.  So here's the clip of what I'm talking about:

Laura: It wasn't seeing Jason that led me to this decision.  It was seeing Monica, his mother.

Liz: (sighs exasperatedly)

Laura: I watched her walk out of here, elated that her grandson is alive.  But she doesn't know that her own son is.  Elizabeth...doesn't that mean anything to you?  Look, you believed Lil' Jake was dead for many, many years.  You mourned him, you know about that ache that never, ever goes away.  And the feeling you had when you found out he was alive, don't you want that for Monica?

Liz (immediately): It isn't the same thing.

Laura (smacking her hand on the table): It is exactly the same thing!

Liz: (another exasperated sigh)

Laura: We are all the same, we are all mothers.  We all love our sons more than anything else in the world.

Genie Francis plays the hell out of this.  As does Rebecca Herbst, but gawd, Liz comes off horrrible here.  And it's stuck with me.

Edited August 31, 2016 by TeeVee329

[KerleyQ]

Watching that clip, and knowing exactly how character destroying that shit was, it makes me realize whey TIIC think they can just make Franco our hero.  Because fans of characters like Liz, Sam, Nik, etc, can grudgingly wipe the slate of shit like this.  But, the difference is that these are characters who have been around for a long time, who their fans have an established history and affection for.  Even the fans who don't like those characters can often get exactly how character destroying some shit is.  They still don't like them and will often still use that same character destroying shit against them, but they also can get why the character's fans are bitter about whatever the shitty writing did to the character.  Franco was shit from jump.  There's nobody to sit around and say "but, Franco would have never done that!  They threw him under the bus!"  You'd think that people in the business of writing and producing soap operas would realize that one important fact.  Even a lot of people who have disliked Carly for years, and seen her do some pretty awful things at times, can look at Carly/Franco and be like "seriously?"  The only thing about Franco getting that kind of side eye from most viewers is his repeated whining about how people won't just get over his serial killing and other illegal activities.  

[ulkis]

Was Epiphany at Scrubs' last wedding? I forget.

[HeatLifer]

8 minutes ago, ulkis said:

Was Epiphany at Scrubs' last wedding? I forget.

No. Just Sonny, Carly, Jason, Liz, Mac, Felicia, Maxie, Anna, Robert, Emma.

[ulkis]

8 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

No. Just Sonny, Carly, Jason, Liz, Mac, Felicia, Maxie, Anna, Robert, Emma.

Oh, okay, thanks. 

Edited August 31, 2016 by ulkis

[Darklazr]

On 8/26/2016 at 11:55 AM, HeatLifer said:

Such a low-point for Jason. Again, people fight over this character. Whhhhhhy.

That's not for me to answer, lol. Because I just don't care. But others might have wanted to see them discuss certain things. I was just saying TPTB's priority was not to analyze that relationship. They wanted men to fight over Sammy. That's it.

Jason is a lead character who gets story and airtime, otherwise, no one would give a rats ass about his pairings.

[Oracle42]

I think SBu was also able to generate chemistry with a number of love interests - at least on GH

[HeatLifer]

Honestly, I don't know what it is. I used to think people just loved SBu, but now I think anyone could play Jason and there would still be a cyber battle over him. It's really turned into a contest of sorts. 

Edited September 1, 2016 by HeatLifer

[dubbel zout]

SBu's Jason had a POV, and I knew who he was. (Even if I hated him.) BW's Jason has no POV, and I haven't the faintest idea who he is. 

[HeatLifer]

3 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

SBu's Jason had a POV, and I knew who he was.

A hypocritical hitman? Yes, I knew him well.

[KerleyQ]

41 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

SBu's Jason had a POV, and I knew who he was. (Even if I hated him.) BW's Jason has no POV, and I haven't the faintest idea who he is. 

Right now, the character just feels like a blank canvas onto which everyone around him projects whatever they want or need him to be.  

[SlovakPrincess]

On August 29, 2016 at 5:32 PM, ulkis said:

Honestly I think I would have jumped out the window if I had to watch all this as it happened. I can understand why the ratings declined eventually under Labine.

Yeah, while the 90s stuff was arguably better drama than the relatively sunny times of the 80s, at a certain point if felt manipulative to me.  Of the sad stories, I probably liked Dominique's brain tumor the best, since it brought out a nicer side of Scott and gave Lucy something heartfelt to do with the surrogacy.  Monica's breast cancer was also well done, and I did like the way they used that to bring in Emily (also, Monica got to live, which was nice).  

I didn't like B.J.'s death or Robin getting HIV because it seemed like overkill and just plain cruel ... Tony had already lost B.J.'s mother and his marriage to Bobbie was going to crap, and at that point all of Robin's parental figures were still dead.  

And let's not forget Karen's repressed memories of being molested as a child!  And the black hole of depression-making that is Sonny!  And the fact that Stone's life pretty much sucked rocks except for the year or so he got to be happy with Robin.  And the fact that they kicked off the decade by murdering Robert and Anna offscreen and making poor Sean Donnelly weep like a baby after telling Robin.  Good times, good times.  

Oh!  And Tiffany's miscarriage and alcoholism and near suicide!  (Ok, I liked that one, since it showcased Sharon Wyatt's drama skills for once).    

I read somewhere once that the writers were planning to give Audrey Alzheimers, and at that point the network was like "Stop. It. Now."  No idea if that's true, though.  

[Tiger]

IIRC, Audrey getting alzheimer's was actually Rachel Ames' idea as she was ready to retire completely from the show, and that well after the Labines had left the show.  

And it would have a far better 'fade away' than babysitting kids off-screen for weeks at a time inclusing trips to Disney World in the height and heat of summer.  

Edited September 2, 2016 by Tiger

[HeatLifer]

All those '90s stories listed are stuff I rewatch all the time. LOL. I need help.

[ulkis]

1 hour ago, HeatLifer said:

All those '90s stories listed are stuff I rewatch all the time. LOL. I need help.

It's different to watch it a couple clips at a time though.

[HeatLifer]

Just now, ulkis said:

It's different to watch it a couple clips at a time though.

I know. But I also watched it in real-time. It was my favorite show. I'm OK with being the oddball with this. :P

[ulkis]

12 hours ago, HeatLifer said:

I know. But I also watched it in real-time. It was my favorite show. I'm OK with being the oddball with this. :P

I'm not trying to save you of that, heh. But even watching each day in real time once is different than watch the whooooole story over again.

Edited September 2, 2016 by ulkis

[HeatLifer]

8 minutes ago, ulkis said:

I'm not trying to save you of that, heh. But even watching each day in real time once is different than watch the whooooole story over again.

But I guess maybe I'm just a wimp, cause I've never re-watched the Lucky 's death stuff and that was just a hoax. I don't know, I've re-watched other sad stuff but not that. 

I understand. It doesn't make you a wimp, you just don't want to watch something that you know will make you sad. It's smart. I'm trying to think of stories or scenes I don't really re-watch. There's not many. Mostly it's crap that would make me angry as opposed to sad. 

[HeatLifer]

16 minutes ago, rags said:

I have to say I always wondered what the last Carly/Robin scene would have been like if it was SJB and KMc. I hated the way LW acted in that scene.  She was just more smug than "grateful". Also, it didn't help that the crap writers actually had Robin apologizing to Carly that she never gave her any credit. Oy.

I dunno. Would I have loved to see SJB play that scene? Yes. But I actually thought LW played it in a genuine way, and did her little giggly uncomfortable laughing, but it made sense and worked in the context of that scene. I did believe that Carly was grateful to Robin for bringing Jason back.

I didn't agree with Robin's apology as a viewer, but I understood why it had to be done. Carly and Robin needed to end their feud. There was no point for animosity to remain on either side after so long. Jason is no longer between them. And the Michael/AJ stuff just can't even apply anymore, especially because Carly knows how much Michael loved AJ and wanted him in his life.  Robin has done so much to help Michael, Sonny, and Jason. Carly should be able to see that by now. And Carly is Jason's friend and Sonny's wife, and since Robin loves them, she knows it's better if her and Carly can co-exist. 

[dubbel zout]

4 hours ago, HeatLifer said:

I didn't agree with Robin's apology as a viewer, but I understood why it had to be done. Carly and Robin needed to end their feud. There was no point for animosity to remain on either side after so long.

I agree the feud had to end, but Robin didn't have to apologize. Carly was by far the bigger aggressor with animosity and the one holding a grudge. And I know Robin had to say something to Carly after being thanked for bringing back Jason, but it shouldn't have been "I'm sorry I never gave you credit." Why couldn't Robin have been glad she was able to do something for Jason and leave it at that? But Carly has to be bowed down to.

[UYI]

13 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

 

And let's not forget Karen's repressed memories of being molested as a child!  

 

Which we only found out about after Brenda took pictures of Karen showering in the high school gym locker room and then distributed those pictures to every boy in school! And no one--not Karen herself, not Robin, not Jagger, absolutely nobody--ever found out Brenda was the one behind it. She obviously became a better person later on, but that's a hell of a low point to reach.

Edited September 2, 2016 by UYI

[SlovakPrincess]

Yeah, that was a really gross thing for Brenda to do.  

And Robin still has no idea!

As far as I know, Robert still has no idea his good friend Luke once raped Laura.  

I'll assume the Q boys never found out Alan once went temporarily insane and tried (twice!) to kill their mother.  

Did Anna ever tell Duke the full reason Robert divorced her?  I feel like maybe no.  

What other deep dark secrets never came out??

[UYI]

Anna's life as a double agent, maybe? Not many people know that, including Robin (unless she does and I missed it). 

ETA: That ties into why Robert divorced her, like you said. Duh.

Alan maybe raping Monica? Personally I like to think she fought him off before he could hurt her, for my sanity, but maybe not.

Edited September 2, 2016 by UYI

[SlovakPrincess]

7 minutes ago, UYI said:

Anna's life as a double agent, maybe? Not many people know that, including Robin (unless she does and I missed it). 

Anna, Robert and Sean hid that for a long time. I think they ended up having to tell Frisco when they needed his help defeating Faison.  (And as I recall Anna was so ashamed about it and stalled about what was really going on to the point that Frisco got really, really pissed at her). 

When Robert returned from the dead, he kind of half explained to Robin why the WSB had it in for him and Anna, but (a) Robin was so mad she refused to believe or really listen to what he said, and (b) there was absolutely no follow up (even when the whole family was onscreen together a few months later).  I assume by now Robin must have had the whole situation with Faison and Anna's past explained to her, but it's all been handled so, so, so terribly, who even knows.  

Edited September 2, 2016 by SlovakPrincess

[LeftPhalange]

25 minutes ago, UYI said:

Alan maybe raping Monica? Personally I like to think she fought him off before he could hurt her, for my sanity, but maybe not.

What's the deal with this? I saw a clip on youtube and it looked like rape to me. Did they later try to retcon it?

[SlovakPrincess]

I think it was rape, but from what I've found of 80s clips, it was never really followed up on - not retconed, just dropped.  Shamefully, the attitude back then may have been that marital rape is not really rape.    

Edited September 2, 2016 by SlovakPrincess

[UYI]

6 minutes ago, LeftPhalange said:

What's the deal with this? I saw a clip on youtube and it looked like rape to me. Did they later try to retcon it?

I think they just never mentioned it again. I do remember hearing that Alan & Monica brought it up around the 30th anniversary of the show, though, when talking about their relationship? I don't know.

And apparently in 1995, Claire Labine, of all people, wrote a scene where Luke & Laura were fighting, and then Luke appears to pull her into the bedroom while she's saying "no", and then it was implied they had rough sex? Which seems pretty fucking stupid for a couple that already started with a rape to begin with, and especially from someone as normally woman-friendly in her writing as Claire Labine is.

I've never seen that scene, though. Anyone have a clip?

3 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

I think it was rape, but from what I've found of 80s clips, it was never really followed up on.  Shamefully, the attitude back then may have been that marital rape is not really rape.    

Which doesn't work either, because Guiding Light had a huge storyline in 1979, MONTHS before Luke & Laura, where Holly pressed charges against her husband Roger for raping her, very shortly after marital rape was legally recognized as a crime. A few years earlier on ATWT, John had raped Kim while they were married, but she couldn't press charges because it wasn't recognized as a crime yet.

Edited September 2, 2016 by UYI

[HeatLifer]

4 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I agree the feud had to end, but Robin didn't have to apologize. Carly was by far the bigger aggressor with animosity and the one holding a grudge. And I know Robin had to say something to Carly after being thanked for bringing back Jason, but it shouldn't have been "I'm sorry I never gave you credit." Why couldn't Robin have been glad she was able to do something for Jason and leave it at that? But Carly has to be bowed down to.

I don't disagree! But you know why it had to be done in that way....as you stated.

[Ambrosefolly]

15 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Yeah, while the 90s stuff was arguably better drama than the relatively sunny times of the 80s, at a certain point if felt manipulative to me.  Of the sad stories, I probably liked Dominique's brain tumor the best, since it brought out a nicer side of Scott and gave Lucy something heartfelt to do with the surrogacy.  Monica's breast cancer was also well done, and I did like the way they used that to bring in Emily (also, Monica got to live, which was nice).  

I didn't like B.J.'s death or Robin getting HIV because it seemed like overkill and just plain cruel ... Tony had already lost B.J.'s mother and his marriage to Bobbie was going to crap, and at that point all of Robin's parental figures were still dead.  

And let's not forget Karen's repressed memories of being molested as a child!  And the black hole of depression-making that is Sonny!  And the fact that Stone's life pretty much sucked rocks except for the year or so he got to be happy with Robin.  And the fact that they kicked off the decade by murdering Robert and Anna offscreen and making poor Sean Donnelly weep like a baby after telling Robin.  Good times, good times.  

Oh!  And Tiffany's miscarriage and alcoholism and near suicide!  (Ok, I liked that one, since it showcased Sharon Wyatt's drama skills for once).    

I read somewhere once that the writers were planning to give Audrey Alzheimers, and at that point the network was like "Stop. It. Now."  No idea if that's true, though.  

Labine was only on for a surprisingly short time, and I do think BJ's heart was the most memorable of the storylines, and considering how they treated Audrey and by extension Rachel Ames, her dying of Alzheimers might have been the best way to go. My beef is when it became clear Guza's GH from the 90s wasn't going to the GH for the aughts, Guza too didn't lose his job, along with JFP sooner (in 2005/2006)  rather than later (2011), possibly getting a team that wasn't going to be so wedded previous jobs. The ratings were constantly tanking, because there is just so much audience can take of "the Sason hour, and their box of pain" and especially the deification of Jason, the Holy Hitman along with the AJ Bus that flatten his rivals and the annual death of a legacy characters, even when they were in target demographics. Brian Frons was so fucking stupid, with only featuring "heavy hitters", so fuck any other character. Even shows like Veronica Mars and Mr.Robot would/will show the story threads of the support players without even mentioning the names of the leads.   Guza's not only was as depressing it was, worse, incredibly boring. Of course FV tried to "improve" upon GH by removing the two things that made Guza/JFP work: the supporting writers and Mark Teschner

Edited September 2, 2016 by Ambrosefolly

[UYI]

I should point out here that Dominque's death*, Tiffany's miscarriage/suicide attempt, and the majority of Karen's stripping story were written by Bill Levinson, the headwriter before Claire Labine. Labine went out of her way to wrap up the stripping story as quickly as possible when she got to GH (of course, she also expanded Sonny--again, created by Levinson--as a character, but nobody's perfect). 

*Now, Serena's birth, and Scott leaving town with her after he was threatened, I think, by the mob? THAT was Labine.

Edited September 2, 2016 by UYI

[SlovakPrincess]

How much does Jason know about his birth mom?  Or that Scott was his stepdad for about two seconds?  

The Susan Moore murder storyline was gold, but you still had to feel bad for her, getting murdered and then there was nobody around to say nice things about Susan to Jason after she died. (I mean, she was a scheming, vengeful alcoholic at the end but I kinda loved her, lol).

[Harmony233]

3 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

How much does Jason know about his birth mom?  Or that Scott was his stepdad for about two seconds?  

The Susan Moore murder storyline was gold, but you still had to feel bad for her, getting murdered and then there was nobody around to say nice things about Susan to Jason after she died. (I mean, she was a scheming, vengeful alcoholic at the end but I kinda loved her, lol).

I kinda liked Susan I kinda wish they didn't kill her off.I certainly liked her better than I like Jason lol.

[ulkis]

There was Manny. Alexis did a lot of heavy lifting and then when she tagged out, Liz tagged in. I remember Rexis and L&L2 being completely fucked over but JaSam reuniting while the other two went into the shitter. Then Franco showed up.  It was always someone else causing problems.

Manny was a villain, same as Franco. Plus Franco was barely even on. imo, it's totally different for those characters to cause trouble for a couple than it is for Alexis or Liz.

LL2 did eventually go to the shitter, but that was because of the Nikolas triangle and then their determination to get JJ's Lucky a new love interest, not because of JaSam.

Plus, it wasn't really Jasam that was being protected, it was Jason. After all, Sam took her turn playing the big bad to Jason and Liz. And when Ron came along, he wrote Jason as the asshole to make McBain/Sam rootable. 

I think for most couples after a certain point it's always other characters causing trouble for them. But there's a difference between having a crazy Lisa or a Franco come in between them than using a character like Stefan, making him totally unrecognizable, and then killing them off. I will concede that that's what they will have done to Nikolas if Tyler Christopher doesn't come back. But, imo, it is not a constant of Jason and Sam's history. (And I don't even care about them.)

[SlovakPrincess]

The funny thing about Jason is that as a baby Monica hated the very fact of his existence, and Scotty and Heather were mostly just trying to get his trust fund and using him. 

Now as an adult hitman, everyone is required to love him.  

[UYI]

36 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

The funny thing about Jason is that as a baby Monica hated the very fact of his existence.

Which is rich considering what she put Alan through with AJ as a baby. 

[HeatLifer]

46 minutes ago, ulkis said:

I think for most couples after a certain point it's always other characters causing trouble for them.

Yep. That's nothing new for a variety of couples. It just needs to stop being Liz for JaSam.

Edited September 2, 2016 by HeatLifer

[SlovakPrincess]

Yeah, that was not a good look for Monica.  She got so mad over the affair with Susan, which was nuts because she had totally just done the same thing with Rick the year or so before!   And at that point she made it clear she was only staying in the marriage because she feared losing AJ in a custody battle.    

They fell back in love by end of '82, but Alan started the Susan affair at a time when Monica and Alan had their own wings of the house and mostly loathed each other.  

Although, to Monica's credit, she didn't go apeshit and try to kill Alan over the affair.  

 

ETA: I always laugh whenever I think of Alan's murder attempts, because he ended up hurting HIMSELF both times.  

Edited September 2, 2016 by SlovakPrincess

[Melgaypet]

Right, this is where I meant to post this, not the spoiler thread.

Guys, check out this clip. Jane Elliot's bone structure is amazing. So pretty

[UYI]

My dad had glasses like Alan's when I was a kid. -_-

Actually, they looked more like this:

[cmahorror]

From when Robert first showed back up in PC, the epidemic. In all fairness, finding your dead dad going through files at your work will throw you off your game just a little bit. She was hurt and upset so I cut her a little slack.

Robin: The father that I loved died in 1991. Maybe it wasn't even real.  Maybe it was just a part you were playing. But that man, my father, would've come back for me.

Robert: I, I tried to.

Robin: Another lie. If you wanted to, you would've found a way. You always did before.

Robert: Your mother had never been black-boxed before. She was a double agent slated for elimination, kill on sight!

Robin: Don't tell me that you faked your death to protect mom!

Robert: Look, if you don't, now, we can keep on doing this, but unless you shut up and listen, you're never going to understand what happened. Now, I'll tell you a story, and then you can, you can believe it or not.

Robin: Fine! Tell me a story. You can say whatever you want, but it is not going to change how much I hate you.

Robert: Why don't we deal with the first question? Yeah, there was an explosion, but it wasn't caused by Faison. It was the work of the bureau.

Robin: So I guess they weren't exactly grateful for all of your years of faithful service.

Robert: Faison was an enemy of the state, your mother was a security risk and...

Robin: He kidnapped her! He tortured her!

Robert: Nobody ever believed that. It was, it was an embarrassment, potentially kind of messy, so they got out the book and followed through on policy.

Robin: Right, except no one died.

Robert: I did in every way that mattered. I was, I was taken to a holding cell. They knew your mother had survived because they had pictures. Apparently, she had some kind of amnesia, brain damage, no one knew for sure. But I was told, unless I cooperated, that they were going to kill her.

Robin: How did I know that this was going to end up all along that you were the hero?

Robert: They had pictures of you, too.

Robin: Oh right, dad, they were going to kill me. I was in junior high. What were they going to do, send a sniper to take me out on my way home from dance class?

Robert: Nothing that dramatic. They would have just picked you up and brought you to a facility and used you as leverage. Because that's what you were, you were leverage. The daughter of a couple of suspected double agents - ooh, there's a good bargaining chip.

Robin: So you saved me? Thanks.

Robert: I took the deal. I transferred to covert ops and went about cleaning up the world one dead body at a time.

Robin: Sounds ominous.

Robert: Killing people, my dear, is always ominous, but that's what I did for 11 years, where and when I was told.

Robin: Talk about a small world.

Robert: Excuse me?

Robin: Just someone I know is in your line of work. Isn't it ironic that my father and my - I'm sorry, I digress. You were killing people for 11 years - that must bring us to 2003.

Robert: Change of administration. There was a new director. He owed me a favor so I was let out of the deal. You were working in Paris at that point - Seventh Arrondissement, Rue de Tremplin, Number 68.

Robin: You came to see me?

Robert: I knew the route you used to take to work. You used to stop at this funky little bakery twice a week, pick up a chocolate croissant.

Robin: That's supposed to win me over, that you came to see me in Paris between jobs? I'm sorry, but the only thing that really proves is that you could've left any time and you chose not to, not because some agency was threatening my life, but because you were having too much fun with your work and you didn't want to quit.

Edited September 3, 2016 by cmahorror

[katie9918]

Hated that scene. Both characters were horribly OOC and slobbering over Jason while shitting on Robert fucking Scorpio (and pinning 1991 all on Robert while ignoring Anna's culpability) made me want Robin to walk right back out the door.

 

This is the story that trashed Holly as well, right?

[SlovakPrincess]

Yep.  Holly was written as a greedy lunatic and a comic villian.  

Although the 90s version of her that came back from the dead was pretty OOC, too.  

80s Holly was a much, much different character.  Her whole character arc was getting away from being a con artist and a criminal, and the "reasons" they gave for her behavior in later decades never rang true.   

Also, I thought Robert /Anna "dying" happened in 92, so I'm not sure why the writers couldn't even get that right.  

Edited September 3, 2016 by SlovakPrincess

[UYI]

IT DID happen in 1992. I guess the fact that Camilla More was playing Anna by then meant that it had be changed or something. Whatever. But the dates on these two videos make it clear as day.

Edited September 3, 2016 by UYI

[cmahorror]

A scene I have always loved from when Robert returned...

 

 

Robin: Love is not what Patrick and I are about.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

[LeftPhalange]

Someone give me an overview of Robert and Anna's "deaths." Anna was a double agent so the WSB faked her death because they thought she was a liability? Why did they fake Robert's death? Why did Anna turn up alive before Robert? Why does Robin put all of the blame on Robert and none on Anna?

[Tiger]

I remember those scenes from a little over 10 years ago like it was yesterday, and many scenes from throughout out the 90's.  I barely remember after those amazing Anna/Faison scenes around Thanksgiving 2014 until I stopped watching for good in Jan 2016 when The Drakes left town happy and together.  

Actually, aside from a few scenes and storylines, almost exclusively Scorpio and Scorpio-related, everything after The Balkan story in 2010/11 is a jumble.  

[SlovakPrincess]

Oh boy, LeftPhalange.  This story actually doesn't make sense and got changed over time, but here's an attempt:  

In 85 we learn Robert had a wife before Holly, which is Anna, who comes to town with a facial scar and acting nuts and tries to mess with his marriage to Holly.  They had been WSB partners, fell in love on the job, but he learned she was a double agent - after she tried to stop being a double agent and stop the bad spy agency she'd been selling secrets to from killing Robert and got badly burned in the process.  She eventually fixes her face, and stops acting crazy and Robert forgives and befriends her (but remains committed to Holly).

In that story, Anna also reveals to Robert they have a kid, Robin, that Anna has kept secret from their spy enemies - and also Robert because, I guess, she knew Robert still hated her guts at that point, didn't want to share a kid with her, and was still off being an undercover spy when Robin was a baby.

Holly dies offscreen late 80s and Robert and Anna eventually reunite 1991.  

In the 90s, Faison becomes a thing - he is a retcon and was her bad spy agency handler, was always obsessed with her, and chose the early 90s to start coming after her again (maybe he found out she fixed her face).  He used the reveal of Holly's non-death to shock and distract Robert, kidnaps Anna, makes it look like she's returned to her bad ways, and the WSB refuses to help her. Robert has to go off alone to try and save her, and we are later told the WSB bombed a boat R, A and fucking Faison were on.  

Anna turns up alive on All My Children in the early 2000s.  She had amnesia for like a decade or something, and apparently had washed up on a shore somewhere after the boat explosion.  She reunited with Robin and got her memories back on AMC.

Robert comes back on GH in 2006, and says the WSB kept him a virtual prisoner and made him play dead and go back to being an undercover agent after the explosion, by threatening his family -- I guess Anna was useless to them as an amnesiac, so they just ... let her wander around South America or something? 

I guess Robin believed Anna's amnesia story (backed up with medical records, I guess) more than Robert's explanation.  And felt Robert could have tried harder to get a message home or get no-memories Anna some help.  But Robin's reunion with Robert was when GH was obsessed with parents being "deadbeats" and only Sonny being held up as a good dad, so the writers made Robin mad at Robert instead of happy to get her dad back   (Apparently AMC didn't have this issue, so Anna got a better reunion with her kid).

And Faison returns from the dead at some point just to piss me off.  The end.  

Edited September 3, 2016 by SlovakPrincess

[katie9918]

And let's not forget Sonny and Jason were the heroes of the show when Robert returned from the dead and Guza couldn't let his pet gangsters be shown up by an actual true-blue good guy hero from the past, because Robert beats Sonny and Jason in the hero department by simply existing.

 

I always wanted Show to delve into how those years had to have broken the upstanding, honorable Robert irrevocably and then he would have been shattered by the reception he got from Mac and Robin (and later got literally kicked in the teeth by Anna) when he was finally able to come home.

 

Yes, I'm still very bitter over 2006.

[UYI]

Anna was in Canada most of the time while she had amnesia before coming to Pine Valley on AMC in 2001 (where she met her identical twin sister, Alex). How she got there after being presumed dead off the coast of Venezuela, I have no idea. 

She also had her second daughter, Leora, who died in infancy. I don't think Robin ever met her, unless it was offscreen.

[LeftPhalange]

Thanks SlovakPrincess. Sounds unnecessarily convoluted.

Without starting any fan wars...where does Duke fit in all this? And why was Anna mad at Robert, did she not believe his story about being forced to stay dead?