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General Hospital Weekly Blog! Monday, June 29 2009

GH Rundown for the Week of June 22!

I didn’t realize it until I started typing, but I had a lot to say about this week, as my fingers just kept flying over my keyboard and wouldn’t stop! So let’s get right to it…

Shouldn’t Luke’s absence be featured as more of a concern for Ethan and Tracy? After Tracy warned Luke she wouldn’t take him back if he took off after Holly, I would think that’s the conclusion she would jump to and be running around town bad mouthing her philandering husband. Ethan should also be sharing his fears and arguing with Lucky about Luke, while Lulu tries to broker some peace. Helena grabbing Luke is quickly becoming just like the Kate storyline: If they aren’t going to give it it’s due, will anyone care when Anthony Geary (Luke) returns from his latest vacation?

While I was sad to see Ric Lansing and his portrayer Rick Hearst leave this week, I loved the nods they gave to the actor going The Bold and the Beautiful: Ric Lansing is moving to Los Angeles, which is where B&B is based and Ric explained his moving away as, “I got an offer I couldn’t refuse,” which is kind of what the actor has been saying in interviews about him going to the CBS soap. I loved it! His leaving GH comes at a bad time though, as there’s finally all this potential story mounting for Ric: His daughter Molly is being aged, he could be the father of Claudia’s baby and he and Andrea are in cahoots. It’s too bad the show waited until he was leaving to give him something to work with. However, the door is open for him to return, which if B&B doesn’t work out, I hope he does.

I do have to point out I don’t think Ric would just move away like that. I understand they had to write something quick for him to exit and I am so grateful they didn’t kill him off or make him do something irredeemable, but he loves Molly too much and is too interested in Claudia’s baby for him to just up and leave. I was also disappointed there were no goodbye scenes between him and Alexis and him and Sonny.

I am stunned by this week’s poll results regarding Ric leaving. So far 59% of you are happy he’s gone, while just 41% will miss him. I truly thought it would go the other way, so I’d love to hear why some of you are glad to see him go. My only problem with him is that they pitted him against Sonny too much without ever really allowing them to have a more interesting and complex relationship. There was so much they could have done with his character, but Ric always ended up just as the bad guy.

As one of my favorite characters left, one of my favorite couples were featured! Johnny and Olivia heated up the screen again and got right under Sonny’s skin, which was kind of fun. I have no problem with the age difference between the lovers, as I hardly think about it when they’re together, except when she constantly offers him food, like he’s her son who came by for a visit. Maybe it’s just the Italian, and not the mother, in her, but I wish she’d stop offering him pasta every time they have sex.

Johnny had other things to do this week as well, like spelling things out for Michael about how Sonny took advantage of a brain damaged Jason all those years ago. It was such a great scene. I don’t think anyone has really broken it down like that before, or at least not as effectively and Jason’s face was perfectly pained as he had to listen, but couldn’t deny what Johnny was saying. And then later, Sonny reiterated how violent his world was when he told his son he would never allow his kids to take over his business, which was built on crime and violence. It was such an honest scene and just as startling.

While that scene showed Sonny as a concerned father, his giving Michael a sports car and not caring that his teenaged children are hanging out at a bar really makes him the worst father on the show. Jake’s is a dive bar, with not the best clientele and Michael and Kristina are way underage, so they shouldn’t be anywhere near that place. Michael also just came out of a coma after being shot in the head! Giving him a potentially dangerous sports car when he doesn’t even have his driver’s license, really isn’t the best move.

As for Brianna’s death, can they really use the evidence Spinelli illegally obtained in order to arrest the mayor? Mac said he wanted this to be by the book, but I think by The Jackal hacking into the mayor’s bank records, that’s already been ruined.

I do like that the mayor announced that he and Alexis had affair as a way to discredit her prosecuting him. I hope this serves as a springboard for Alexis to have her own storyline, as it will undoubtedly affect her career and her relationship with her daughter.

I saved this for last because spoilers are contained. So do not read any further if you don’t want to know any thing more about Claudia’s hitman, Dominic.

It has been reported in Soap Opera Weekly, that Dominic is indeed Olivia and Sonny’s son Dante. This reveal isn’t really much of a shock considering he’s from Bensonhurst, (I think) he indicated that he’s catholic, he’s met all of Sonny’s kids, he interacted with Sonny’s ex-wife, shot at Olivia’s boy toy, as well as Sonny’s right hand man, he’s in cahoots with Sonny’s wife and he told Carly Sonny owes him and he will collect. All roads lead to Sonny and Olivia, which makes it pretty obvious who he really is, but regardless, I like Dominic and his portrayer so far and I think he has a good rapport with all the younger actors. He also proved he can hold his own against heavy weights Sarah Brown (Claudia) and Laura Wright (Carly) and by all indications, he should have no problem going up against Maurice Benard (Sonny). I can’t wait to see what Olivia does when she finds out her precious baby boy is working in the same business as the man she’s been trying to keep him away from all these years.

So, that’s all I got this week. Feel free to agree or disagree with me and to share your thoughts on GH below.

- Lori Wilson