GH and PC in Review: May by Amy McWilliams

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General Hospital
May 18th - 29th

The Bacchanalia at Wyndemere

Before the Ball

At the Ball

After the Ball

The Spencers

Bobbie

Lucky and Elizabeth

Lucky and Laura

Port Charles

General Hospital

The Bacchanalia

Before the Ball

• Nikolas recognizes Katherine's engagement ring to be Laura's.
• Nikolas visits Laura in North Carolina and she becomes worried about his well being.
• She becomes more worried when she receives an invitation to the ball.
• Luke and Alexis plot to kill Helena at the ball even though Stefan's invitation makes her doubt.

While I don't understand why Nikolas hasn't put everything together and at least come up with a suspicion of the secret Laura and Stefan are working so hard to keep, I did enjoy his scenes in the days before the ball. His visit to Laura, upon seeing that Katherine's ring was the one Laura had worn, was very representative of their relationship thus far. He went all that way and still couldn't tell her exactly what was on his mind. Yet somehow she understood. He did ask her whether Stefan had ever been in love with her, and perhaps the fact that her answer matched Stefan's--she said that Stefan had been kind to her out of sympathy--was too suspicious.

Laura also understands what Stefan doesn't say. When she received the invitation to the ball, with the note saying that Stefan was giving Nikolas the mother he deserved, I knew immediately that she would be there. And she knew immediately that Stefan wanted her there for some reason. That knowledge, combined with Nikolas's state of mind, made her pack her bags.

Luke: "This is fantastic. Here we are, down on our knees, praying to acme, god of lock picking, when suddenly the gate just swings wide open."

Luke: "We've waited too long. Too long. And let it be a lesson to you: Never put off 'til tomorrow who you can knock off today."

Luke and Alexis, meanwhile, plotted to kill Helena. Alexis was hesitant, since Stefan had invited her to the party, but Luke insisted. I was glad to see the scene between Alexis and Stefan, actually. Stefan has become so isolated that he needs Alexis back in his life. She is, in some ways, his only link to the outside world. Or at least the only link the writers are currently giving him. I long to see Stefan involved in business again. But the events of the ball would keep him from that for a while.

At any rate, his invitation made her balk at Luke's insistence. I don't know why she denied that Stefan was the reason she was now hesitant; perhaps she simply didn't want to raise Luke's suspicions or hear his commentary on their relationship. And I suppose that the reason she gave in was because he was dead set on doing it with or without her. But I wasn't looking forward to the day Stefan found out about all of this. The little step forward he and Alexis took today would be easily wiped out. And that truth was in the hands of somebody who was not loyal to Alexis except as far as it protected him to have her along for the ride.

It was a nice set up, and a couple of nice scenes with Alexis at the center. And for me, this is all about Alexis, rather than Luke. Some were already chaffing at the fact that Luke could plan a cold-blooded murder. To that, I say that he has planned the murder of an enemy before--Frank Smith. That he would plan to kill Helena now has little to do with her treatment of Lucky and everything to do with timing. He needs the distraction--needs to focus on somebody other than himself--needs to channel his aggression and anger away from himself and his family and the fact that the rape has taken a hold on his present life. And in the meantime he needs to do that which he has made his life's work--protect his family. Since he can't protect them against himself (which is, perhaps, his biggest fear), he would protect them against an enemy, even if he had to create the threat himself.

But as I said, this was about Alexis. She also needed to protect her family and herself. Actually, she needed this murder attempt for the same reasons as Luke--to take her attention and guilt off of herself and put it on the easy target of Helena. And she needed to channel her rage against that target, rather than against herself or against her family. She can't allow herself to be angry with Stefan, just as Luke cannot allow himself (at this point) to be angry with Laura. And, like Luke, she's taken on more than enough guilt at this point.

Yes, it was a lovely partnership indeed.

Later, Luke visited Mac to find out what kind of security the PCPD would have at the party. None. I love Luke and Mac together, and it was nice to hear "Bubba's" name again.

The last pieces set in place were a meeting between Tony and Helena in which he demanded to know what she wanted of him and a visit between Edward and Katherine in which he gave his blessing to her engagement. We cut away before Helena could respond, of course, but we were to get an answer--though maybe not *the* answer--at the ball. With Edward and Katherine I was reminded again that I can tolerate Miss Bell only with Edward. Perhaps, however, that is only because she gives him reason to show his sweet side. Whatever the reason, he was charming with her as usual.

At the Ball

• Luke puts Stefan's letter opener, which he used on the railing, back in Stefan's desk drawer.
• Katherine goes to the guesthouse to get his present and comes across Laura, who has come home to see about Nikolas.
• Laura confronts Stefan.
• Katherine finds the portrait and accuses Stefan of trying to turn her into Laura. They fight, and she backs into the railing and falls.

I always like these big events--the Nurses' Balls, the Christmas party, weddings--because they offer the change of having a large number of the cast on the screen at once. Often, we get to see interactions in these scenes that we don't see at other times; the canvas of the show is so compartmentalized right now. The pace moves more quickly as we jump from group to group and conversation to conversation. And in the span of one or two episodes, we get a nutshell of everything that's going on with the show at present.

The Bacchanalia was no different. Everybody looked gorgeous, and we were treated to the interactions of Bobbie and Jerry, Ned and V, the Quartermaine men (in a good mood, actually), and best of all, Emily and Nikolas. Their dance was much more beautiful to me than Stefan and Katherine's, because it was such a fantasy. He was every bit the gentleman, and you could see the wonder in her eyes. Of course, things were marred, for everyone, by the presence of Tony on Helena's arm.

Not everything happened in the ballroom, though. Lucky and Liz looked on from outside and even danced together. And their dance was more beautiful to me than Stefan and Katherine's.

But the main action centered on Laura, who, at the end of the first episode of the ball, arrived outside. Elsewhere, Luke finished loosening the railing and unveiled Laura's portrait. He immediately shoved on his mask, which was crowned with the laurel wreath, sign of victory. And in that moment, as Theresa Leslie so beautifully pointed out, he both revealed Laura's other past and distanced himself from it. I found it appropriate that Laura would be the next to see it, and that her reaction was one of horror. For that picture surely represents one of the main things that stands between Luke and Laura, hurting their marriage.

Laura's confrontations with Katherine and then Stefan were beautifully done. She insisted that Katherine know the truth about the gifts Stefan had given her, but it was clear that she was telling her these things not out of spite but out of concern. That concern was present too in her conversation with Stefan. He was wonderful as well, from his recognition of her despite her mask to his telling her that Nikolas was their son. Her progression, from fear that this is a plot against the Spencer family through the softening of her anger to her admission that she had always known that Stefan was the father was lovely. I did not see in these scenes, however, signs that Laura wanted to be with Stefan now in the present. I saw only her regret concerning their past together, as well as the residual love she had for him then mixed with the sure and abiding affection she has for him now as Nikolas's father. This is a choice she didn't make, and I think that she will have to work that out in the days to come; I look forward to watching her do so.

And in the final scene of that Friday's episode, Katherine found the portrait as well. Luke's unveiling of that portrait mirrored the havoc Laura's arrival had caused. And the outcome of both their actions, combined with Stefan's own, brought about Katherine's fall from the parapet. It is important to note, for the future, that she died believing that he didn't love her--that he was trying to make her into Laura.

Do I believe the same? Not at all. I think that Stefan wanted to love Katherine. I believe that he did, though that love was not untainted by his love for Laura. He wanted to give her the love she deserved. When Helena sent that chest of things, he determined, I believe, to take back his past and to turn it into a future with Katherine. Of course, that doesn't mean that Katherine wasn't also right. As much as Stefan wanted to do this, I don't think he was able to. And I think that he gave her Laura's things precisely so that he would have the painful reminders of the past intertwined with the present--so that in loving Katherine he could never forget Laura. As if that were possible.

After the Ball

• Alexis is frantic and Luke tries to calm her down.
• Laura tells Luke that she wants to return home for good.
• Katherine dies at the hospital, after Stefan asks her forgiveness.
• Stefan demands that Mac investigate Luke Spencer, while Luke points the finger at Stefan.
• Stefan tells Laura that Luke is behind Katherine's murder, but she doesn't believe him.
• Mac arrests Stefan, having found the letter opener that Luke used to loosen the railing.

After Katherine's fall, the criticism of Luke's actions began to mount. As I said before, people first faulted him for planning a cold-blooded murder. He's done that before. People then faulted him for making a stupid plan, or faulted the writers for the plan. Luke has always created stupid plans, or plans that don't quite work. If his plan to use copies of the Frank Smith's black book against him on the day of the wedding to ensure that he'd be kept in the clean part of the business had worked, we wouldn't have gotten the summer on the run storyline. Luke's plans have to fail sometimes so that we can get good story out of them.

The last complaint, however, was the greatest. People couldn't believe that Luke was so cold-blooded when it came to Katherine's death. Yes, he made several matter-of-fact comments, but let's look at the surrounding circumstances. First of all, at the point immediately after her fall, Luke was desperate to get off the island so as not to be caught. Back at the office, he had Alexis in hysterics on his hand, and he had to get her under control. And most importantly, perhaps, he had to stay alert to see which Cassadines had figured things out--to see who was coming after him and his family. It was not at all clear to me what Luke's feelings about Katherine were. It was, however, clear to me that the man was desperate. He had too much going on--all of it of his own making--and had taken on too much guilt in the days recently past to take on any more, especially when there was no promise of forgiveness.

So do I think this whole escapade was weakly written? Yes, because of the strangeness about the key. Luke gave Alexis the key, having locked the door so nobody else could get up there and fall. But then he entered the room later without the key, as did Laura, Stefan, and Katherine. That made no sense.

Do I think this sequence is out of character for Luke? Absolutely not. The motivations for the plan and for the aftermath are perfectly clear to me.

At the hospital, two things stand out to me. The first is Stefan asking Katherine's forgiveness while Nikolas listened at the door. That was a beautiful scene. At that moment, I actually wondered whether Stefan would turn back to Laura as the object of his obsession...er...affection, or whether Katherine would replace her as his unattainable ideal. Of course, I should have known the answer. For while Katherine was wrong about his motives concerning her presents, she was dead right (pun intended) about his feelings towards Laura.

Stefan: "Did I ever really love Katherine? I don't know if I'm capable of giving an honest answer to that. I know I tried to love her. I know that I wanted her desperately. But my reasons were selfish. I was in a prison...of my own making, and I wanted her to free me. I am weak, you know. Not the way Helena always accused me of being.... My weakness is to fall prey to the belief that with the right woman, with the right help, the curse I have borne all my life will be lifted and I will be able to live like other men, I will be able to have happiness...love...children. That was my thought, that was my deepest wish, when Katherine came to me...bright...as the sun. But that light was lost...was put out, put out by my darkness."

His scene, later in the week, on the parapet with Alexis was fascinating too. He blames himself for Katherine's death--although I doubt that will stop him from blaming Luke. Nancy Lee Grahan beautifully performed the pain on Alexis's face as she listened to him, and her reaction to Stefan's arrest, like Nikolas's reaction, was nicely done as well.

The other thing that nags on me still is the scene in which Helena visited Katherine's room. We cut from her out to the people in the lobby, and then she left the room. That give her a small space of time in which she could have either killed Katherine or given her that Cassadine something to make it appear as though she were dead. Her involvement may be her undoing, and it may be the way Luke and Alexis are cleared legally.

The Spencers

Bobbie

• Bobbie meets with Tony and then Carly on the anniversary of BJ's death.

Tony: "Ya, if I had to...trace my life back to the millisecond when it...uh...jumped the tracks and started to derail it would be when Amy stepped off that elevator and said that BJ was in ER. I remember, uh, I saw her lying there in the cubicle and I remember the nurse telling me her condition, but I, I didn't believe it, you know? Not 'til I saw her eyes. Her beautiful eyes. The pupils were...blown. And that's when I knew. I knew she was gone. I envy you. I mean, somehow you found a way to get up and go on. How did you manage that? And I'm, you know, stuck in...mired in grief. Four years have gone and nothing's helped or, or changed. The fundamental truth in my life is that my daughter's dead and I can't get past it. It really embarrasses me to blame my downward spiral on BJ's death."
Bobbie: "Then don't, Tony. Do us all a favor and just stop."

I loved this meeting. Bobbie said things that had been said to Tony before, but her calm-but-intense recitation of his past wrongs was just to me. Back when their marriage was on the outs because of her affair with Damien at the time of BJ's death, Tony was the one who got to read the litany of her wrongdoing and pronounce his psychological judgement on her character. She was left simply to apologize and plead, while he got to believe that he was the good guy--the wronged party. It was nice to see Barbara Jean confident enough in herself and angry enough with Tony to let him know exactly how she sees him.

And afterwards, Carly called her out to the institution and gave her the key chain, wanting only to be there if Bobbie needed somebody to talk to. This was such a sweet scene, from Bobbie's original testiness with being called out there and Carly's hesitancy to their sweet moment over BJ's death. I found it appropriate that Bobbie didn't talk about things much--there's no reason for her to be so open with Carly yet. But I loved that the gesture had been made and accepted.

Lucky and Liz

• Despite Audrey's attempts to persuade her otherwise, Elizabeth leaves him to live on the streets with Lucky.
• They first stay at the docks, and then spend a night at Wyndham's department store (which looks surprisingly like Mac's kitchen).

As much as I love them, I was worried about Lucky and Liz at this point. Yes, he's helping her to heal. But as long as she won't let anybody else help her, is she going to be able to heal completely? And is his devotion to her some version of his devotion to his mother, transferred to this rape victim? I wanted, at this point, to see more of their motivations spoken, though I knew that was asking a lot of teenage characters. I think that these two were attracted to each other before the event, and I want to see their friendship continue to grow to the point where it it's not just about the rapes.

But the various scenes we had of them on their own were fun. The night at Wyndham's was not very believable, primarily because there was running water and electricity in the wall outlet. I thought they were pushing the parallels to the first L&L a bit hard, but it was very nice to hear Lizzie laughing at Lucky's misfortunes with the blender.

After realizing they were gone, Audrey called Luke, who showed up at her house to hear the tale. He was unfazed, and talked Audrey out of calling the police--if she did that, the kids would leave town or go underground the next time they ran away. She was skeptical, and with good reason. And I found myself hoping for more of Audrey and Luke. Her common sense and skepticism, mixed with the fact that he won't sound off at her like he does with most people, makes them fun to watch.

Lucky and Laura

• Lucky confronts Laura about her marriage to her rapist.

Laura had told Luke that she wanted to come back home for good after the ball. But she had left for North Carolina to pack before he had the chance to tell her about Lucky--or before he had made the chance. When she returned, then, she had no idea what was waiting for her--no idea that she Luke had let her believe that Lucky was sleeping down the hall when he was really out on the street.

Audrey gave her the news when she arrived demanding to know where Elizabeth was and what Laura was going to do about it. Audrey realized quickly that Laura was in the dark, and gave her part of the story. Laura went to look for Luke at the club and ran into Lucky. Luke had not prepared her for the anger she would face from her own son, and that was a greater failing to me than anything else Luke had done in these two weeks.

Meanwhile, Luke ran into Audrey at the hospital and begged Liz to tell Lucky to find him--that it was a family emergency.

But the damage was already started. Laura smiled at the sight of her son, thinking that Audrey must be mistaken since he was here where he was supposed to be and not missing at all. Lucky made it immediately clear, however, that he wanted nothing to do with his mother. He took relish in capitalizing on her ignorance of the situation to make a point about Luke and their habit of keeping things from each other and threw Nik's shooting in her face. As she struggled against this unexpected onslaught, delivered in a calm, almost cruel, voice, he continued. He told her he was glad Luke didn't tell her, because he wanted her to come back for him, not Nikolas. Now he just didn't care.

She then asked him why he was so angry, stopping him from leaving. She said he was as angry now as he had been when he found out about Nikolas--looked at her in the same way. But this wasn't about Nikolas anymore. He told her that he was angry because she had married Luke. She pointed out that this meant he was wishing he hadn't been born, and he agreed. He started taunting her about getting a thrill out of being at the club alone with a man, and asked her how she had felt when Luke decided to open another club.

Laura: "Does naming it really make you understand?"

Laura insisted that it was her life and he had no way of understanding it--no right to judge it. It had happened to her, before he was born. But he told her the story of Liz's rape, and said that he knew what rape was. And she had too, the night it happened, when she didn't plead love at first sight or say that it was one bad night. Her line above was powerful, because it highlighted the difference between them--the obstacle between them, put in place consciously by both.

Lucky has named that night as rape because rape is what he's most afraid of right now. It's what hurt Elizabeth, and he feels helpless because he can't do anything for her--nothing concrete or measurable, anyway. And it's what he fears he will be capable of doing, because he is his father's child. Rape is rape is rape to him, because it has to be. That one bad night has to be an ugly thing standing there between him and his father because he needs that distance. He needs to see his father in that light because he can't stand the thought of sympathizing with him even for a moment.

And for Laura, at this point she may have been in some denial. The fact that she doesn't call it rape--doesn't want too--might be read as a necessity for her to deal with the truth. I think, however, her description of that night wasn't a whitewash. She knew full well the horror of that night, and she's right. She lived through it. She's also lived past it, and, spoken or not, she's forgiven Luke. She does not, cannot, hold that night against him any more.

Lucky: "Maybe you need to be kidnapped or raped to feel important to someone."

Lucky cannot come to that point right now. The fact his mother can scares him as well, and he has to distance himself from her in the same way, making her simply a rape victim and discounting all else. But his question above was, again, cruel. And I was quickly losing sympathy for him.

It was a powerful scene throughout, and I was surprised to see Laura raise a hand to him, even though her slap didn't land strongly. It was as though in that moment Lucky wasn't her son, but was a representative of all the people who would frown on her choice. She felt very self-conscious about her relationship with Luke--even the fact that she desired a relationship with Luke--back six months after the rape. In this confrontation, it was almost as if she was bracing herself against the opinions and attitudes she feared then, but she was absolutely willing to defend her choices and emotions.

Laura: "Your father loved me, always. And circumstances collided that night in a way they never had before and never have since. And your father and I rose above it."

After she lashed out, her argument was two-fold. First, she reminded him that she was his mother. That meant that she loved him, knew him, and that they were bonded in a way nobody else could ever be. Secondly, she told him that Luke had always loved her. At that, Lucky left, and she followed close behind, not to stop him, but to return home and demand an explanation of Luke. I couldn't wait until June.

Jax and Brenda...and Sonny

• Jax and Brenda profess their love to each other.
• Sonny arrives in town with a warning for Jason about an outside threat to the organization.
• Brenda visits Sonny and tells him good-bye.

Jax and Brenda bore me. That's no secret; I've said it a squillion times. But this time around, even Sonny couldn't bring out what little spark is left in this storyline. I enjoyed seeing Maurice, and I thought the scenes he was given were good. I don't want Sonny to come back, however, until Brenda is long gone. Sonny became more and more limited as a character during his tenure on the show, and after Lily's death, when the polygon was pared down to a triangle at last, his only purpose was to be on of its points. Sonny's one of the most fascinating characters on the show to me, but the powers that be weren't using him to his full potential. I was pleased to see that in this visit, Sonny was going to have scenes with people other than Brenda. And his scenes with Brenda were very nice. But that goodness came out of the performances, rather than the story.

At the beginning of this time period, Jax and Brenda were happily professing their love to each other. But something about Jax's suggestion that they elope to Vegas then and there bothered me. It was too much like his ultimatum the first time. He wanted to marry her then to prevent something else from happening, it seemed. And I felt like he didn't trust her 100%.

We cut back and forth from them to Sonny at Jason's penthouse. He had come to inform Jason about an outside threat to the organization, and I never felt like they proved it was a sufficient reason for Sonny to come out of hiding. Moreover, I have always enjoyed Sonny with Jason and Robin, but at this point I see Robin in too much denial to enjoy her at all. I was glad that she was the first person to tell Sonny about Brenda's breakdown, however, because of their past relationship. She can speak the truth with the utmost gentleness when she wants to, and with Sonny she balances that gentleness with firmness.

As for the meeting with Brenda and Sonny, I found the set up too contrived--too much soul mate for me. After the ball, with the news of Katherine's fall, Brenda wanted to know if Robin had been hurt. That made little sense to me, but she called the penthouse. Sonny never spoke a word, but somehow she knew it was him.

The scenes, as I said, were nice. I think it was very important to have Brenda face Sonny after being left at the altar, and I was actually surprised to see how calm she was. That alone impressed on me just how much she was determined to be with Jax, and convinced me that it wasn't out of a sense of denial. I loved the combination of the blame and the thank you she gave him, though it could be read as the writers being soft on Sonny again--being unwilling to hold him accountable. But I thought that her mixed reaction to him--if not her calmness--was in character. And best of all I liked that he kissed her one last time and that she was the one that ended it, albeit with that little smile of hers.

The Quartermaines

• Monica suspects Alan is having an affair with Amy after seeing them in the car together, where Alan is really trying to convince Amy he has his pills popping under control.
• Monica tries to make love to Alan but he is impotent because of the pills.
• Alan meets Tammy the hooker and pays for a one-night stand, but still can't perform sexually.
• Alan starts to see the level of his addiction--but denies it all the same.
• Alan has a wreck with Emily in the car and gives her pain pills for her neck pain.

There wasn't much to the Quartermaine storylines, other than their appearance at the ball, during the last two weeks of May. Stuart Damon, however, continues to do a fantastic job with the story of Alan's addiction. He moves through all of the ranges of emotion--and lack thereof--convincingly, and it makes his scenes powerful even when they're quiet. The scenes with Monica where Alan couldn't make love were painful to watch, as were the scenes with Tammy (who was wonderful as always).

I have complained repeatedly about the slowness of this storyline. Some would argue that the addiction has been in real time. But this is a soap, and the slow pacing and repeated shots of Alan's pill popping for so long have weakened the story's impact for me. I enjoy Damon's performance, but I am still not invested in the events or the outcome.

That became very clear to me in the scenes with Emily's accident. I understood the desperation that Alan felt when he gave her pills to ward off any neck pain, but I still found myself criticizing him for giving addictive medication to his once-addicted child. I dreaded seeing Emily in another round of her own drug storyline, and I didn't understand why she accepted Alan's flimsy explanation for why he had the pills so readily at hand.

Finally, this addiction storyline has good moments, and it was to pick up pace throughout the summer. But at this point, the Quartermaines are still too isolated from the rest of the characters, too underused, and too repetitive for my taste.

Mac and Felicia

• The girls and Robin make wedding plans.

Other than the Qs, the characters that had the least to do during these weeks were Mac and Felicia. Mac was involved in the investigation after Katherine's death, but as a pair, they had little to do. On one episode, we again saw how much Felicia's children were looking forward to the wedding as Maxie showed her mom the wedding dress she had designed for her. The date was set, and Felicia and Mac faced wedding preparations for a ceremony they believed would never happen.

Even though this storyline has dragged on interminably as well, I still find Mac and Felicia enjoyable. Perhaps that's due to the actors, John J. York and Kristina Wagner. It's also, however, due to the fact that these are two of the most grounded characters on the show. Amidst all the larger than life characters in the other storylines, Felicia and Mac live the most normal lives. That's not always been the case in the past; they've had their share of adventures together and apart. Finally, however, they currently give the show the only touch of lighthearted romance it has. And that's something that is sorely needed to balance all the darkness on the show.

Port Charles

• Scott finds Eve's Bracelet by the dead body of Bennett Devlin and takes it while Lark looks on.
• Kevin fears for his own sanity and worries because the murder is patterned after the novel he has written, General Homicide.
• Lucy investigates Eve's past as a call girl after finding out she and Devlin had fought about that fact before he was killed. She goes to work for an escort service until Kevin stops her with his executioner impression--and then she's arrested. In jail, she finds the proof she's looking for from Tammy.
• Victor tells Kevin and Lucy about a picnic when the boys were young at which Kevin and Ryan murdered Victor's mistress.
• Grace Sullivan was found murdered next--strangled to death by Chris Ramsey's stethoscope at the pediatric circus.
• Victor was nowhere to be found, but he claims that he had seen the killer standing over the body. He describes Julie Devlin's clown makeup.
• Chris and Eve become each other's alibis for both murders.
• Matt, out to get Chris, announces that Devlin had given him a large amount of money just before he died. Chris reveals that he'd had a troubled, poor, past.
• Frank is still taking the DL-56 with the help of a couple of thefts and a chemist on the take. When Lark says she's going to tell Joe, he trashes the Scanlon house and takes her away. He tells Joe that Lark was responsible for the damage. Grace knew that he was on the drug.
• Julie was apparently poisoned, but survived. Garcia thinks she had staged it to throw the suspicion off herself. Julie finds a morphine vial in Eve's medical bag. The police say it isn't enough to convict, so Julie throws Eve out of the Scanlon house. She moves in with Chris.
• Joe and Karen become friends with little boy with cancer named Neal. Joe knows Neal's mother because they used to date. Courtney is now divorced. Frank hates her.
• Ellen moves to San Diego to take a job, and sleeps with Matt before she leaves. She comes back for her mother, who is ill again.

I'm leaving the Port Charles summary for May in one large list because I don't have time to talk about the show very much. I do have two general things to comment on.

May saw the beginning of the General Homicide murder storyline, which was to continue throughout the summer. This storyline was fabulous. From the beginning, we had no idea who could be the killer, and the writing cast equal suspicion on a lot of people. The mystery was tightly written, and at the beginning of August I was still undecided as to what resolution I expected. I loved that this story affected every character on the canvas, and that it gave us scenes with people we didn't often see together.

This is also when the Eve and Lucy rivalry heated up, however, and it has proved to be as weakly written as the murder storyline was strong. This writing is an exaggeration of all of Lucy's flaws, and it failed to take into account the Lucy that GH fans have seen evolve over the past years. Yes, it provided for the escort service sequence, which was pure Lucy, but her suspicions for Eve and almost obsession with Scott and Serena, while explainable to some degree, was over the top. We were shown little motivation for her sudden turn around against the woman who had helped so much to get Serena back from her kidnappers, and I began to see a Lucy I didn't much like. It was a shame, and was doomed to become worse as the summer wore on.