Making the Rounds at General Hospital – Up From the Ashes

This past week the residents of Port Charles tried to pick up the pieces after the hostage crisis and explosion at the Metro Court. While family members on the outside tried to get inside, the evil Mr. Craig still pursued his precious shipment.

In horror, Nikolas pulled himself up from the explosion's force and tried to make his way back into the building after Emily. Sam, Alexis, and Mac held him back and tried to reason with him, but his fear and grief overwhelmed him. When Emily emerged toward the end of Monday's episode he pulled from his caring family and returned to his woman's arms. If nothing else, this crisis was a chance for Emily and Nikolas to reconnect and a chance for audience members to remember why these two belong together.

Inside the hotel, Sonny pulled himself from the debris and immediately began searching for Carly, finding her nearby under a pile of rubble that he cleared. The two, battered and shaky on their feet, began to look for Jason. First they found the briefcase which had been armed again. They then stumbled over one of the captors and picked up the gun, which laid near his body. Lucky for them, because it was at that very moment they were met with Mr. Craig.

He asked for the briefcase back, Sonny shot at him. Of course he was wearing armor. Some not so witty conversation and threats were exchanged and Spinelli, who was searching frantically for Lulu, pointed out to the rescue workers they were pushing on a main support beam. The warning came a bit too late, as there was a collapse, which Mr. Craig used to escape without the briefcase.

Outside, Sonny turned the briefcase and the code over to his brother, Ric. I don't understand why in the world he would do this. It was the largest leap of faith the writers asked us to take, and the weakest way to bring an end to this part of the crisis. Sonny hasn't trusted Ric in ages. Yes, Ric is the acting DA, but Sonny knows he's in Lorenzo's back pocket. He's just too damn smart to turn in the damning evidence against Lorenzo to him, but, no, that's exactly what he did.

Skye was right there arguing that Sonny was wrong about the code. She insisted Lorenzo remembered it, and gave an alternative last three numbers. Ric gave some stupid grandiose speech about not being able to trust his brother and destroyed the contents of the briefcase with the code Skye gave him. So, I guess Skye and Ric are now joined by this. Gag! I am so not interested in anything the writers could do with this pairing.

Sonny and Carly went to Sonny's house, and after calling Bobbie to check on her kids, Carly retreated upstairs to take a bath. Sonny soon received the good news that Jason and Liz were okay, albeit trapped in the elevator car. He went to share the news with Carly and ended up washing her hair for her. Just as the sensual scene was about to get even steamier, Carly held him at bay and asked him to leave, only to show up moments later at his bedroom door, apologizing and professing she did love him. True to Carly style, as soon as she was done professing and making love to Sonny, she announced it changed nothing. She still wants a divorce and she is still marrying Jax. Later, she told the kids to pack their bags, they were returning to her house. (Cue Jax! I suspect he will be returning from his two month vacation about Monday.)

Back at the  explosion site, Liz confessed to Jason the baby she was carrying was his and not Lucky's. Though he was angry she had lied to him, he did state this changed everything and again expressed his desire to be a part of his child's life. He convinced Liz it was unfair to continue lying to both Lucky and Sam and informed her he was telling Sam the truth as soon as they were free. He advised her to do the same with Lucky.

However, once they were out and reunited with their partners, things didn't go as planned. Sam confided in Jason that she had found out just before she was taken hostage that the damage from her previous gunshot wound has left her unable to carry children. Certain the knowledge that Liz was carrying his child would devastate her, he kept the secret to himself. In the meantime Liz learned from Cruiz that Lucky was out of his mind with grief thinking she and the baby had died in the explosion that had recklessly nearly walked into Mr. Craig's line of fire. Needless to say, both Sam and Lucky are still in the dark.

Jason tried to see Alan before going to exact revenge against Mr. Craig, but Monica held him at bay. She was concerned if Alan saw Jason cut up and bruised the worry would send him into another heart attack. She advised him to get cleaned up and come back, however while he was chasing Mr. Craig around the undamaged restaurant of the Metro Court, Alan went into another arrest with Emily by his bedside.

One character, and the actor portraying him, stood head and shoulders above the rest as far as providing both emotional and entertaining scenes – Damien Spinelli (Bradford Anderson). In the course of the week he went from heart-wrenching agony that he had been separated from Lulu, to the hyperactive explaining to the EMTs when and where he had lost the girl, all perfectly in character. Every scene he was in was better for having him in it. Amongst the emotional tension you couldn't help but laugh as he carried on in his video game-inspired language to a confused pair of EMTs only to have Dillon (Scott Clifton) jump in and say "It's okay. I speak Spinelli." Or to watch later as he spoke to Luke addressing him as "Father of the Blonde One."

It was also a bright spot to have Tony Geary back and addressing the multitudes of guys now clamoring around his little girl. As the stories move past the Metro Court drama it will be interesting to see who ends up winning Lulu's heart. I'm still hoping for Dillon.

Warning! News and Spoilers Ahead!

(News and spoilers are drawn from a number of websites, dedicated to keeping the fans who just have to know, in the loop. The list includes Soap Zone, General Hospital Happenings Two, Soap Central, and Scoops and Spoilers.)

• Luke punches Scotty when he finds him visiting Laura. Some things will never change. Word on the street, however, is the contract negotiation between Genie Francis and TPTB that would bring Laura from her comatose state once again have stalled.
• Alan passes away before Jason has a chance to say his good-byes, leaving him with loads of guilt and remorse.
• Jax returns and learns what the cat did while the mouse was away. The ego-laden struggle to win the girl commences between Jax and Sonny.
•  As I reported earlier this week, General Hospital: Night Shift will be making a premiere on Soapnet this summer. Some new details have emerged since the original article was written. The series will be thirteen hour-long episodes, but not an ongoing story. The storylines of each episode will wrap up neatly by the end of each hour. Only the first episode will be kicked off by an event occurring on the daytime drama – all others will happen independently of the day shift. And contrary to what I was hoping for, it seems it will not center on veteran hospital staff, but "younger characters with ties to core families".