Making the Rounds at General Hospital – Emerging From the Night Shift

On Friday's General Hospital:

If you haven't been a frequent follower of the Night Shift, your head was probably spinning on Friday with the bustle of new characters and the overabundance of new sets. Since I've been a faithful follower, I was excited to see such focus back on the hospital and hoped against hope this would be an indication of where future story lines are headed.

For those of you who haven't been following, here is a quick score card. Dr Leo Julian is the cardiac surgeon who would rather be a rock star. Dr. Andy Archer is the anesthesiologist who has been helping Dr. Lee with her sex addiction, even though he himself is addicted to dosing himself with anesthetic in order to sleep. These two have become good friends. Nurse Layla was in the student nursing program until the final episode of the Night Shift, when she graduated at the top of the class. She's been a distraction for Patrick Drake during his break-up with Robin. Jolene, who is on life support, has spent the last 13 weeks in the student nursing program causing accidents and deaths around the hospital to help MedCam take control. She was shot saving Spinelli in the final episode when a gang war opened up in the ER waiting room.

On Friday's episode, these stories saw the 'light of day' for the first time and we learned Robin is still very much in love with Patrick and having a hard time letting him go, even though she knows their very different life goals make them incompatible. After a phone call with Anna was interrupted by an explosion in the background, her immediate instinct was to call Patrick for support, an instinct she didn't follow through on.

These two have been through the emotional wringer while they’ve been working the night shift, and I'd like to see them find a way back to each other, even though in order for that to happen one of them will have to change their mind about parenthood.

Kelly and Andy talked about how their mutual recoveries are going and reaffirmed their deal to 'get together' and celebrate when they've both completed ninety days of 'sobriety.' Andy, however, expressed a desire to take this recovery time to try and nurture a real relationship, so when they do come together it will mean something. Maybe it was a fear of commitment that sent Kelly on the chase with Leo — she followed him into an exam room and put the moves on him.

Spinelli came by the hospital to visit Jolene, who remained on life support. When Epiphany reminded him of the havoc she had caused in the last thirteen weeks, he said he hoped she would wake up long enough so he could ask why she had saved him. He's obviously troubled by the heroic move made by someone seemingly so uncaring. I have a feeling he isn't going to find any resolution though, as I suspect Jolene will probably die, giving the writers an easy alternative to what would be the consequences for her night shift actions.

One last left over Night Shift story saw Lainey going to visit Cody at the jail, where he is being held on murder charges for turning off her father's life support. She told Cody she didn't want to see him convicted for doing what her father wanted, and suggested they instead try to make it appear as if the incident was one of the many deaths Jolene instigated. I'll be disappointed if this is the tool they use to get Cody free so he can pursue a relationship with Lainey. I'd rather see a storyline on the issues of choosing to die and knowing when it's time to let a loved one go.

In stories not related to the Night Shift, Carly tempted Spinelli with orange soda and BBQ potato chips to dig around in Trevor Lansing's past, telling him it could be the only way to keep Lulu away from Johnny Z. Lulu being a stronger temptation than the orange soda, he complied, but then wisely went to Sonny and told him what Carly was up to. Sonny went flying over to Carly's and was quite upset to find her entertaining Trevor.

Nikolas flew into another rage, only this time it had heroic effects as he took down a combative suspect brought into the jail. Lucky still found the violent outburst out of character for his brother, but didn't press the issues. Later, Nikolas found himself in the park, with a bloody hand, and seemingly no knowledge of how it got that way.

In the midst of warnings from everyone they know, Liz and Lucky stood back and let Diane and Alexis turn their divorce proceedings into a personal war between the two attorneys. This is setting up to get really ugly, and both Lucky and Liz have done so much to hurt the other, if they proceed on this path, my prediction is they are going to end up bitter enemies in the end.

Warning! News and Spoilers!

• Luke returns to the canvas early this week and is less than pleased to find out Lulu is involved with Logan, Scott Baldwin's son. He seems determined to keep the long running family feud aflame, and insists the two put an end to their relationship.
• The catalyst to bring Luke back may very well be a deal Scott makes with Lulu. He tells her he will return guardianship of Laura to Nikolas if she will forgive Logan and give him another chance.
• Jerry gets stabbed, and is later shocked to learn Nikolas has no memory of doing it.
• Carly is the next one to receive a disturbing text message.