Sonny and Carly

Roy and Bobbie

Lucky, Elizabeth, and Nikolas

The Quartermaines

Jax and Chloe

The Cassadines

Rae Cummings and Tony Jones

The Scorpios

The Cassadines:

• Stefan asks Jax to help him take down Helena. (4/18)
• When Alan confronts him about his absences from the hospital, Stefan threatens to end Cassadine funding to GH. Later, he continues his phone conversation with his search team, insisting that they must find Lucky. (4/19)
• Stefan comes to greet his mother upon her release from prison. He wants to know where Lucky is. (4/20)
• Helena works to track down Lucky. (4/21)
• Alexis and Stefan meet with a doctor, who suggests that Helena may have used mind control on Lucky. While they contemplate her motives, Helena meets with the doctor herself. (4/25)
• Stefan pays a call on Ned and Alexis, who are enjoying a day together at the office. Ned's not happy about Alexis's helping Stefan, and he confronts him for using her and putting her in danger. (4/26)
• Helena scolds Lucky for going to New York City without informing her of his plans. (4/28)

I. Helena's Welcome Home Party (4/20)

Helena: "That jail cell was horrific. And the food--the only thing that was even barely edible were the saltine crackers."

Helena: "Oh, how I have missed your skillful touch."
Stefan: "I'm afraid you'll have to postpone your reunion with your masseur."

Helena: "Delightful as it might be to watch you attack my son, he's a practitioner of some sort of martial art or another. I couldn't bear it if he actually harmed you in some way. Why don't you just wait in the next room."
Stefan: "Very prudent."
Helena: "This vendetta of yours is getting tiresome, Stefan. You've had your petty victory. I was incarcerated for more than a week. Why don't you just run along and let mommy recover in peace."
Stefan: "As soon as mommy tells me where I can find lucky Spencer."

Helena: "Really, Stefan. Who would have thought that you would develop a sense of humor this late in life? I have no idea where lucky is. Nor would I tell you if I did."
Stefan: "Given that the boy is your instrument of revenge, I'm surprised you're not more eager to put him on display."
Helena: "Lucky is free to go wherever he chooses. Evidently, he has no desire to return to Port Charles."
Stefan: "Or is it that you're not ready for him yet? What game are you playing, mother? What other pieces have to be in place, hmm? Luke and Laura? Nikolas, perhaps? Or is it lucky himself? Is he your pawn? Or a more useful piece? A bishop, perhaps? Even a king? What are you using lucky Spencer to do?"
Helena: "Chess is your game, Stefan. You know it bores me."

Stefan: "Chess may bore you, mother, but you and I both know that lucky is your pivotal piece. Your victory depends upon controlling him. I wonder if you do and for how long. Checkmate."

Helena: "Andreas, how did my miserable excuse for a son get aboard this vessel?"

When he arrives, Lucky looks at the chessboard and checks behind the bar. Later, we see the music box sitting on Helena's desk. Lucky hides behind the bar, smiling, as he listens to Andreas and Helena.

When he arrives, Stefan goes to the bar for a drink. Before he leaves, he moves one of the chess pieces to checkmate, and after he leaves, Helena wipes the board clean, scattering the pieces with a dash of her hand. She calls for Andreas in the last line, above.

II. He's Kind of Like One of Those Red-Shirted Ensigns from Star Trek That You've Never Seen Before This Episode... (4/25)

Stefan: "Make yourself comfortable."
Alexis: "That's going to be nearly impossible to do on 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Next time my phone rings before dawn, I'm going to rip it out of the wall and then I'm going to come over here and kill you."

Stefan: "We have a meeting with a doctor who examined lucky."
Alexis: "I hope he's a psychiatrist."
Stefan: "No."
Alexis: "That's unfortunate. Then I won't find out why you are still obsessed."

Alexis: "This fixation with Laura has got to stop."
Stefan I will wash my hands of Laura as soon as she admits she was wrong--when I prove that Lucky's kidnapping was Helena's doing."
Alexis: "And you think this doctor is going to help you?"
Stefan: "I have a theory."
Alexis: "So do I. It's time to move on."
Stefan: "As soon as I grasp the master plan."
Alexis: "That could take you the rest of your life."
Stefan: "Or it could fall into place in an hour."

Alexis: "So you think that we're wrong?"
Dr. Gladstone: "Not necessarily, no. There are more subtle forms of mental conditioning. The literature is full of instances."
Alexis: "What do you mean, subtle?"
Dr. Gladstone: "The subject appears to be normal--no anomalies of manner or speech. Then an image appears or a code word--the queen of spades or black. It triggers the mental programming as if a button were pushed."

Alexis: "You know, it's funny. In this chair, I can actually hear what you're thinking."
Stefan: "The big picture is beginning to emerge."

Stefan: "Katherine spent months in Helena's care and came back another person. And now lucky emerges, strangely changed."
Alexis: "I don't know why that's strange. He's angry. I would be angry. He got caught in the crossfire of a feud that started way before he was born, so he ran away. That's one approach to the Cassadine-Spencer war."
Stefan: "No, something's wrong."
Alexis: "Maybe he's legitimately angry. He has a bad temper, and this certainly isn't the first time he's fought with his father."
Stefan: "I would like to believe that lucky is in control of his thoughts, but Helena let him go, free and clear. Now, why would she do that unless she thought she was accomplishing something? The question is, what? What was her goal?"

Helena: "Well, unfortunately I had to miss that meeting, so Stefan suggested that I come here. Do you have a few minutes to brief me?"
Dr. Gladstone: "Yes, I--I suppose I do."
Helena: "Well, I would so very much appreciate it. Lucky is very dear to me."

Of course Dr. Gladstone was utterly doomed, by this point. This was the clearest discussion of the possibility that Lucky had been brainwashed. The idea had been brought up with Luke and Laura, but Luke made no inquiries and Laura dismissed it as beside the point. I wondered, however, if we were setting up something with Chloe, as well as or besides Lucky. Could she be remembering things? Was Helena controlling her too? Feeding her these dreams, somehow? Using them to block her memories of a Cassadine connection?

I still say Katherine Bell wasn't brainwashed, though, and if we go down that road I'll scream. That would be backtracking, and trying to make an excuse for her miserable behavior.

Terry: "I'm still trying to decide exactly what Helena's up to. I would agree that hurting Stefan is part of the fun, and it seems clear that she is still bent on making Luke and Laura suffer, but perhaps she does expect them to do so together. That makes Stefan's airplane conversation with her the other day intriguing--how serious was he about thanking her for helping him get over Laura, and how much of that was false bravado designed to keep her from seeing how hurt he was by Laura? Bad enough to have Laura hurt him so badly, but even worse to let his mother see his pain and revel in it as part of her plan."

"I think Stefan has been deeply affected by Laura's repudiation, don't get me wrong, but to me, he's sounds a lot like the bitter man who arrived in PC years ago, in love with Laura but wishing he weren't."

Judy: "I don't know exactly what's going on, but I like it. And I don't even like Chloe! *g* At this point, I'll take any grain of a Cassadine story that I can get. And if we need Chloe as a catalyst, so be it."

"Lucky's another mystery related to the Cassadines, so I guess it's no wonder that I'm interested in him. Sure, there's been a little too much lurking and not enough movement in the story (as Amy points out in her discussion of the pace elsewhere), but at this point, I appreciate the fact that the plot points in this tale haven't been driven home with a sledgehammer (ala Sonny and Carly). It's refreshing not to know exactly where a story's going, for a change."

III. Tough Day at the Office (4/26)

Alexis: "Good. Two more things. Listen, will you get me whatever you can on a former state senator from New York named Mitch Williams?"
Ned: "Can you hold on a second? Hold on a second. Uh, you are aware that my mother was married to Williams?"
Alexis: "Good or bad?"
Ned: "Bad."

Alexis: "Work! Work! Honey?"
Ned: "No, I'm not going to put on the pants."
Alexis: "Oh, come on."
Ned: "No!"
Alexis: "Oh, shoot."

Ned: "No. No. No. Alexis is not risking her life for you one more time."

Alexis: "This is between Stefan and me."
Ned: "She's not risking her life again for your psychotic family."
Stefan: "The level of my sister's involvement in this matter is not up to you."
Alexis: "True."
Ned: "Now she's your sister. You always treat her like dirt until you need her."
Stefan: "I beg your pardon."
Alexis: "Y'all mind if I say something here? Helena is a common enemy. You know that."
Ned: "I know that's what you and Stefan always say. But why is it that she always tries to kill you and not him? It's you in the helicopter that crashes in the desert. It's you that's almost run over in a crosswalk. If you've got a problem with your homicidal mother, then solve it yourself, all right? Alexis is out of it."
Alexis: "I'll talk to you later."

Alexis: "When did you turn into a caveman?"
Ned: "The moment I started fearing for your life. I love you. Don't you know that? So, apparently Helena has tried to kill somebody again. Would you please, please stay out of it this time?"

Alexis: "I am very well aware of how dangerous Helena Cassadine is, but lucky Spencer could be the key to putting her away. It's very important."
Ned: "Fine. Then leave that to Stefan or the police or the Spencers. I don't want you provoking her. You don't owe Stefan, and deep down, you know that. I realize that he and Nikolas are your family, but I don't want you at risk."
Alexis: "I am at risk as long as she's out there."
Ned: "No. No, that's not true. If you steer clear of her, she won't even think about you. She murdered your mother, Alexis. She killed that doctor in Greece. She tried to kill Chloe because she thought Chloe was you. Now, look, I know that my family is poisonous to each other, but we are not lethal. I really resent the way he puts your life on the line without a second thought. I don't want to lose you, ok? I don't want you dead. I don't want you maimed. I don't want you in some coma in a Swiss hospital. I just want you to think about us, all right, and make a choice to not jeopardize our future by getting entangled in another Cassadine war."
Alexis: "I'll think about it."
Ned: "I love you. And I don't want to lose you."
Alexis: "No one has ever loved me the way that you love me. And it means everything to me."

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