GH in Review
by Amy McWilliams

The Spencers

The Mixed Marrieds

The Quartermaines

The Cassadines

Roy and Hannah

Sonny Corinthos

Elizabeth Webber

The Scorpios

The Spencers:

• Laura confides to Lesley that she believes Lucky's death was the final straw in her troubles with Luke. Later, Stefan comes by to tell her that he's going after Helena. (2/1)
• Meanwhile, Luke tells Felicia that he's convinced that Lucky is alive, and that Helena has him. He wonders if Faison told him that Lucky was alive to get back at Helena. Felicia again asks him to tell Mac, but he refuses, so she agrees to keep this a secret. Right on cue, Mac arrives to tell her about Chloe's accident. (2/1)
• Luke arrives at the house when Stefan is leaving. He wants to see Lulu. (2/1)
• Felicia tells Luke that she wants to go with him to look for Lucky. He's hesitant, but she insists. She tells Mac she's off on book research. She tells Luke that she knows Mac has to have guessed that she's going somewhere with Luke, but she's still determined. Mac will understand when they bring Lucky home. Luke wants a change of ID because of the run in with the law in Mexico, but Felicia insists on Hiram and Orphey. (2/3)
• Luke and Felicia, in Greece, make plans to invade Helena's island. Luke, however, comes down with food poisoning and they have to postpone their plans until the next day. (2/8)
• After Stefan's visit, Laura and Lesley talk about Luke. (2/8)
• Luke and Felicia are drawn together in Greece. Back at home, Laura asks Roy about Luke again. She then asks Mac about Felicia, not telling him that Luke is out of town (but he's suspicious and figures it out). Later she tells her mother that the fact that Luke is away with Felicia bothers her. (2/9)
• Luke and Felicia go to the Cassadine Island and witness Stefan there. (2/10)
• Roy and Laura visit in the park while Lulu plays, until he gets a call from Bobbie. Laura then visits with Elizabeth about Valentine's Day. (2/11)
• Meanwhile, Luke and Felicia watch Stefan. Hearing Stefan talk about Lucky, Luke assumes that Stefan may have been a part of the kidnapping. They sneak into Stefan's quarters and Luke finds photos of Lucky in Libya. (2/11)
• Luke and Felicia find the bunker in which Faison kept Lucky just after the kidnapping, but though Luke finds a shirt of Lucky's, they don't have any clue where to go next. They head to Switzerland to follow the money. (2/15)
• Meanwhile, Stefan and Laura talk about the possibility of a future together. (2/15)
• Laura is surprised at Mac's reaction to their spouses being away together. (2/17)
• Luke accesses Stefan's bank records. Felicia calls home, and Mac tells her that he knows she's with Luke. He asks her to come home, but she refuses. She tells Luke that she's going to stay with him and find Lucky, and that Mac will understand. Luke phones Laura and asks her where Stefan is, and she tells him what little she knows. (2/17)
• From Laura's information, Luke and Felicia head to Nova Scotia, and arrive at the house where Helena now has Lucky. (2/18)
• Laura snarks at Bobbie about Felicia and Luke, and Bobbie snarks right back, telling her that she has no right to criticize Luke for letting go. Afterwards, Laura checks in with Elizabeth. (2/18)
• Luke and Felicia enter the house carefully and find warm coffee, telling them that they missed whomever was there by only a brief time. Outside, they meet a local man who used to work on the estate who says he saw some people moving a boy that matches Lucky's description. Back at home, Mac tries to explain Felicia's absence to the girls. (2/21)
• Laura talks with Mac again. He comes to the house, wanting to talk a bit about Felicia's phone call and the girls' reaction. After he leaves, Laura leaves a phone message for Luke, and then greets Stefan upon his return. (2/22)
• Laura talks with Tony about Juan and the outreach program. When Tony asks about Stefan, Laura admits that she's needed the time apart from him lately to think. Tony notes her reaction to his mention of Felicia, and realizes that something's going on with Felicia and Luke, but she doesn't want to say anything more. Mac arrives at the tail end of their conversation, but Tony doesn't let on that he knows anything. Later, Laura talks with Mac again. (2/23)
• Luke decides that Helena and Stefan have been stealing Lucky back and forth between them over the past year. On Helena's yacht, Luke and Felicia listen in as Stefan questions Andreas. (2/23)
• Luke and Felicia arrive at the cabin where Helena's now holding Lucky. Finally, Luke sees Lucky in the window and knows that his son is alive. (2/25)
• Luke and Felicia plan their next move, but can't make it before Stefan shows up and takes Lucky away. They try to follow. (2/28)

I. Laura's Man Troubles (2/1)

Lesley: "What's the matter? Something on your mind?"
Laura: "Would you believe me if I said no?"
Lesley: "Probably not."

Lesley: "Luke, man of a thousand surprises."
Laura: "I mean, I know that we're living separate lives now--I know that--but I never expected that he would just completely cut me out. I still care about Luke. At the very least, I'd like to know when he almost dies."

Lesley: "Is Luke all right?"
Laura: "Yeah, he seems to be fine. Fine, you know? You'd never even know that anything ever happened to him. So what does that tell you for my ability to read him?"
Lesley: "Is it the fact that he was kidnapped or that there was another woman involved?"
Laura: "Honestly? Both."
Lesley: "Oh, now, is that really fair? After all, you're seeing someone."
Laura: "I know, I know. It--you know, the concept of divorce is pretty simple, you know? You get a lawyer, you sign some papers, and that's it. It's done; it's over. But the reality of it all, the finality of it, it's--it's incomprehensible."
Lesley: "You and Luke have a lot of history."
Laura: "Yeah, we do."
Lesley: "Letting go is never simple. You just have to start sometime."
Laura: "I thought I had. But Luke isn't the kind of man that you walk away from easily. The last year of our marriage was so hard. Everything we thought was behind us turned out to be a bomb that was just ticking away. But I think something shifted when Lucky forgave us. And sometimes I think that if Lucky hadn't died--I think that we would have found our way back to each other."

Lesley: "It's easy to get lost in the past, but it doesn't get you anywhere. Lucky is gone. You can't change that. But you can change anything else as long as you want it badly enough."
Laura: "That's the problem, though. Knowing what I want isn't as easy as it once was."

Laura was in a sort of olive green color, dark over light, and Lesley was in yellow over grey, but the same tones. I can't describe it, apparently, but the blend was really nice.

Amy: "I have to admit that I'm irritated with the writing for Laura, wary of Stefan (I think I could really be ticked with him in upcoming things), but actually finding myself liking Laura a little better despite the writing. That's probably only a passing thing, however. I loved her scenes with Sonny (that's still a fling I'd like to see, before she ends up with Tony Jones), but her line about Luke taking what he wants and leaving her behind had me screaming at the television. Pttttth. I wondered if it was comforting or disconcerting for her to know that Sonny had been cut off too--if she felt like it explained some things or put her in good company, or if she felt like she was just 'somebody else' Luke had tossed off. I loved that Lesley told her that she had a double standard where Luke was concerned, but my favorite line ever, perhaps, was 'Luke isn't the kind of man you walk away from easily.'"

Joan: "Well, I'm liking Stefan a lot more these days (very recent days, too. It must be those ka-razy retro spy glasses, as Terry and Judy have noticed. And knowing what comes next--you see what surrendering to spoilers has done for me!--my heart sort of goes out to him."

Terry: "Yeah, Joan! I knew we'd win at least one of you back over. I too am loving him these days--big surprise. Love the jacket, the glasses, the whole 'Bond, James Bond' snoopin' around."

Amy: "Well, if you put it that way.... I suspect that the Lucky-stuff spoilers paint him a little harshly, and that the threat of sureness about Laura (though I can't believe he's sure about her) turning to loss will win my sympathy again. Do you think it's that I can't adore him when he's winning?"

Terry: "The whole upcoming scenario as I've seen it spelled out frosts my cookies, but I hold out hope that Laura will respond in a way that will gladden my heart. (Yeah, right.)"

Joan: "I don't worry as much as you about Stefan--I see the very unjustness of this accusation--the part about Stefan's having taken and kept Lucky, not the stupid refusal to make Laura a partner in the rescue, not the dazzled recipient of yet another familial present--as something that will force Laura to face whether she does, truly, love him. And that can be a good thing, whatever she decides. If she is capable of deciding. Oh, and anything that gets us back to that lovely 'Pride and Prejudice' Stefan/Luke paradigm would please me. Do you remember? One man has all the appearance of truth and the other...?"

Amy: "But now that we've seen what the writing has done to Stefan--and to Laura and Stefan, what with the manipulation to get her to back off from him because of his treatment of Helena, etc.--I'm not sure I can take any decision on her part (what, she's going to make a choice?!) as the one she would have made when we started this whole thing out. And maybe that's why I'm not so invested in Laura and Stefan or her choice anymore--I'm not sure that what I will see, at the end of this long road, is what I should be seeing, or what I would have seen, etc. But I agree, in theory, with the sentiment. Lies aside, she may have to figure some things out. Even the fact that she could suspect him of taking Lucky--whether he did or not--would tell her something about what she thinks of and feels for him."

"Sadly, do you get the feeling we may snatch Laura back to her old self out of this but sacrifice Stefan along the way? Either that, or we're going to have further proof that I cannot have the Laura that I love and the Stefan that I love and have Laura and Stefan together. We haven't managed it so far."

Joan: "I think you are overestimating the rumors and spoilers--I think it will become clear that while both men who love her have concealed things from her, Luke, although he will inevitably leap to the wrong conclusion, will play it straight with Laura once he has the facts in hand. And Flea's being with him may rankle, but it should not negate that he would have spared her the pain but will freely share with her the joy. Stefan, on the other hand, said it perfectly last night on the docks (where else!) when he told the mercenary that he, Stefan, must be the one to restore Lucky to Laura. That is his old flaw--he is the man who kept Laura's mother confined, kept the fact of her even being alive a secret, for years, so that he could present her to Laura as a present, a wedding present. Gee, somebody should have told him about FTD...."

Amy: "See, this is what I'm not fond of. His 'wedding-present' line about Lesley still pisses me off. And that he's doing it again? Sigh. Maybe it's in character with the old Stefan, but not in the things I liked about him. Then again, I rankle more now that we're through Katherine Bell and the non-chance he's had with Laura--and the weeks of boredom for him and for me--at anything he does."

Terry: "Will this never die? *G* You know I never thought we should take that whole wedding-present business literally, and it was Culliton's Stefan. For me, forever, until forced to think otherwise, Stefan was fantasizing all his dreams coming true simultaneously. He would restore Lesley to good health so that she could return to her family whole and live happily ever after. He would marry Laura and live happily ever after. The two events would, in his mind, take place in close proximity. As he and Laura prepared for their big payoff, a wedding, he would be able to make her joy complete by giving her what she could not know to wish for, her mother alive and by her side. I don't get the impression, by the way, that he harbors similar delusions this time. He's talking about marriage and new beginning, and he's making plans to restore her son to her, but he doesn't seem, to me at least, to be connecting those two ideas directly. If he's feeling that giving Lucky to Laura will cause her to commit to him, I haven't seen it on the screen yet, and I hope and pray I never do."

Amy: "No matter who wrote it, it's out there, and you can't take it back. And, after all, it makes sense. If you look at his dealings with Lesley, it's the same thing he's doing with Lucky, and this ain't Culliton. I think it's in character--I think that he would not tell Laura until there was no danger, until it was 100% that Lesley (and now Lucky) can be brought back to Laura. Perhaps the 'wedding present' phrase was over the top, and yes, he was indulging his dreams. But phrasing aside, it's the same sentiment--he wants to be the one to do this thing for Laura (which is not completely bad), and he wants to create a family with Laura, including her mother and now her son."

"It was really interesting to me that Laura wailed that she couldn't stop wanting things to be just as they were and he didn't bat an eye. For things to be just as they were with Lucky would mean that Luke would be there in the picture too, because things just as they were would be back before the fighting, to my mind. But I think Stefan imagines Lucky's return without Luke in the picture, necessarily. And I sometimes think Laura can't."

"Finally, I think we see Stefan's motivations and thought process the same way. The difference is that you find it romantic and I'm soured on it."

Judy: "What I want to see, if I'm not going to get the really good Stefan and Laura story (or even a kinda good one), is a deep, dark Cassadine story, finally revealing the source of that incredible antagonism between Helena and Stefan (naturally, Alexis would be involved too). If not that, perhaps they could play on Andreas's amazing resemblance to Nik and have a new rival for the Cassadine throne appear from the shrapnel of Mikkos's apparently well-used pistol."

Joan: "Oh, I'd love to see this. But back to Laura, you know I always love her, even when I want to strangle her."

Amy: "Yes. That sums it up. *G*"

Joan: "But now I think I'm projecting my pleasure at Genie's apparent re-commitment to acting (and to how fabulous she looks these days; belted coats, for heaven's sake!) onto her work of late. Like a good athlete, she must be pumping herself up for the big revelation scenes. And, if poor Stiffy appears to screw the pooch, her big renunciation scenes. But, like Terry, I suspect she will ultimately believe him to be relatively well intentioned and certainly not the evil genius Luke will probably assume he is."

Terry: "Yeah, Genie is looking scrumptious. I love her hair especially."

Amy: "I've read that Luke, when he knows for certain that Lucky is alive, will tell Laura. Stefan, when he knows, will not. Guza says it's 'in character' for both of them--but this is the man who also believes his creation will never be happy. At the same time, I have to agree that it is in character. I just don't know that I'll like watching it play out, if it's simply an easy way to put L&L back together again."

"At the same time, the possibility for Stefan thinking he's getting all he wanted may not come to pass, but it seems like we might get Laura dealing with her images of Stefan, as opposed to reality, in some complicated and thus fulfilling-to-me way."

Terry: "Guza's recent comments make Stefan sound so immature, and he is hardly that, I think, in this instance. Emotionally arrested, maybe, but not immature. And this is in character. I liked Stefan's explanation to Alexis, and the fact that he got to give one. Rescuing Lucky from a woman as determined and demented as Helena will not be easy, and there's a good chance it won't work. Wait until the bird is in the hand, Stefan reasons, and not raise Laura's hopes and fears. I agree that Guza's comments on Stefan often seem off base to me, which of course makes no sense, but this particular remark made sense to me."

Amy: "Agreed--and this is one of those times where Guza's explanation seems not to jive with the screen. Personally, I think that Stefan's choice not to tell Laura validates Luke's, and vice versa, and I can see how Luke's wanting to share the amazement that Lucky is alive, and his understanding that Laura deserves and needs to know, would mean that he would tell her he's sure Lucky's alive, while Stefan, who is, after all, slightly more detached from Lucky, would decide and manage not to tell her until Lucky is safe."

"However, it does reek of that line about Lesley the wedding present, and comes off as just a bit selfish to me. Granted, I've just seen the scene in which he looks at Lucky's photo and backs off from telling Laura the truth, and I applauded all of his choices in that scene. But I can't get past this bad taste in my mouth (and it's not just that Stefan should take off those Risky Business wannabe glasses on the docks at night--he can't pull them off). It's something about Stefan reverting, or being just the same about things as he was in 1996, showing no progress, etc. I see no development or change in his understanding of Laura or their relationship, etc., and it's frustrating."

"That said, I know Luke finds or has reason to think Stefan did this, and of course he'll be jumping to the wrong conclusions. But I kind of like the fact that he still thinks Stefan would do this--because of the bad feeling I have about Stefan. Of course we know Stefan wouldn't, and of course Laura should know that Stefan wouldn't. But Luke's belief that he would seems reasonable, somehow, for Luke. And it shows that he's not moved on completely either, as Laura believes that he has, after all."

Joan: "This brings me back to the line from Sonny you object to, Amy. It's very consistent, from her point of view. This is Laura, after all, the woman who cannot let go of love, from whatever source, and who subconsciously does expect men to remain tied to her. And Luke is the mother lode. Here, I thought she was expressing bitterness at the concept of being replaced by Flea."

Terry: "And I try to think that it's not so much that she wants to go back to Spencer marriage as she knew it, but that she feels left out of the loop and knows there's something afoot, so the old juices start flowing and then she gets brought up short, and that's a new feeling. Long, long ago, Luke would try to keep her out of harm's way and next thing you know, she's stowed away on the yacht or otherwise managed to involve herself in his exploits despite his attempts to keep her out. Now, that's Flea's 'job' and Laura feels funny about that. Not terribly attractive, but an understandable response, says this old lady who would probably feel the same way."

Amy: "Yet back then, Luke really wanted her to find out. He would keep things from her, but he wouldn't really be that upset when she found out--he rather reveled in the fact that she kept digging and pushing. It was, in the beginning, a way to keep her attention and draw her away from Scotty, but he continued to like it for a long time. It's different now. He has had to choose to move on, for his own sake, and she still can't make that choice, not really. (Not that I blame her on that score, after all.)"

"It's the thought that he took something from her and left her--not that he left her--that pissed me off. The leaving is surely a sore subject, and something that she never expected (and something that she couldn't do herself until he did). But the thought that she could think Luke was mercenary enough to be in this just for the taking-what-he-needed? It reminded me of those conversations about 'this isn't your past relationship' with Stefan that pissed me off too. It's not the feeling of rejection to which I object--I loved the version we got in the scenes with Lesley. But to blame Luke for using her and dumping her? I'm sorry, but that's just wrong. And it reeks of her putting all the blame for things on him."

Joan: "Speaking of Lesley: I love her. What a mother! I love seeing her, and hope for more now. Laura will need her."

Amy: "Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease...."

Terry: "This is the Lesley I remember, the one I love but want to slap as often as I want to smack Bobbie. I usually don't agree with her, and want to yell at her, but love her 'momness' and the way she says what she thinks even if I don't agree."

Stefan: "I needed to see you before I left town."
Laura: "Why? What happened? What has Helena done?"

Stefan: "I have no intention of losing anything to her. Certainly not my life or yours."

Stefan takes one hand, then both, as he holds Laura's hands through this scene. They've done that a lot lately, I seem to notice. I liked that Laura asked him if she could call him; it reminded me of her distress over Luke's never calling her, and over Felicia's expecting that she would indeed hear from him. It also reminded me of all of those calls we used to have between Luke and Laura back in 1997 when she was in Switzerland.

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