Jax and Chloe, Ned and Alexis

The Quartermaines

Sonny and Carly

Roy and Hannah

The Scorpios

The Cassadines

The Spencers

Elizabeth Webber

The Scorpios:

• As Felicia says good-bye to Luke, Mac makes preparations for Georgie's birthday party. Laura arrives with Lulu and talks with Mac about putting his anger aside for Georgie's sake. When Felicia comes home, Mac is irate with her. Bobbie takes the birthday party to the movies while they begin to fight it out. He tells Felicia that he had seen the videotape and even makes her watch it. He asks her to deny that she's in love with Luke. (3/2)
• Felicia continues to try and explain, but Mac won't accept her excuses. He walks out. (3/3)
• Mac tells Dara that his marriage is over. Meanwhile, when Bobbie brings the girls home from the movies, Felicia tells her daughters that Mac has left for a little while, and Maxie blames her mother for everything. Felicia talks to Bobbie and says that she will not give up until she convinces Mac that she loves him and wants their family back. But Mac goes to confront Luke about his affair with Felicia. Laura convinces him to help them find Lucky, but Mac is still angry, and thinks that this might all be a lie from Luke and Felicia to cover up or excuse their affair. Finally, Felicia asks Mac to come home, and he refuses. (3/7)
• Felicia comes to Mac's office, but he brushes her off. He meets with Stefan and Luke, trying to get to the bottom of Lucky's kidnapping. Meanwhile, Felicia speaks with Bobbie again, and is determined to save her marriage. When she returns to the office, Mac still refuses her attempts at peace. (3/9)
• Felicia is disappointed when Luke tells her goodbye; he's going to look for Lucky with Laura. (3/10)
• Felicia tries to get through to Maxie, but the girl is too angry about Mac's leaving. She blames her mother for everything. Felicia calls Mac, who comes to visit Maxie. After talking to her, he agrees to come home and try again, for the sake of the family, if Felicia promises never to see Luke again. (3/14)
• Maxie sets up dinner for her parents, and they manage to take a few steps towards starting over. But when Mac is called away on business, Felicia promises she'll wait for him at home. Instead, she goes to the docks to say goodbye to thoughts of Luke. While she's there, she overhears Helena talking about Lucky. (3/16, 3/17)
• Felicia listens to the rest of the conversation while Mac tells Dara that he's moved home for Felicia and the family. Mac calls home; there's no answer. He briefly talks with Kevin about the nurses' strike at GH and Kevin's heart surgery (he was stabbed by the General Homicide killer, who turned out to be Greg Cooper). Felicia arrives and tells Mac that she was on the docks and saw Helena. (3/20)
• She tells Mac what she overheard on the docks, but while she thinks Lucky is the most important thing, Mac can't believe that she was out on the docks, where he knew she used to spend time with Luke, so soon after making her promise. Felicia promises that she won't follow any more leads on Helena, won't talk to Mac about Luke or Luke's problems, and vows to Mac that she wants to put her family first. (3/21)
• Mac and Felicia have dinner together. Afterwards, Mac takes her for a walk to the docks; he wants to reclaim that spot for them. Mac is called away to work, however, and Felicia says that she'll wait for him at Kelly's. When she overhears Helena say that she has a trap for Luke and Laura, Felicia wavers in her determination, but tells herself to stay out of it. Mac checks in, but has to return to work. When Felicia runs in to Elizabeth, who's upset that there's no word on Lucky, she changes her mind. (3/23)
• As Felicia shows up on the Cassadine Island, Mac finds the note from her saying that she's gone off to find Luke and Laura. (3/24)
• Mac fights with Stefan and threatens to charge him with Lucky's kidnapping. Even though he gains a court order to hold Stefan because he left the country, Mac lets Stefan go. (3/27)

I. Georgie Gets Her Birthday Wish (3/2)

Georgie: "I wished for mommy to come home for my party."
Mac: "Well, sweetheart, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's going to happen."

Laura: "Well, you know, this stuff is kind of tricky. You almost need two people--one person to do the decorating, another person to stand back and watch. It's--"
Mac: "Two people--preferably the parents. Too bad that's not an option here."

Laura: "For the next two hours, you have to do everything in your power to help her to forget about what's missing and to concentrate on what's here."
Mac: "That's a tall order."
Laura: "I know. I know it is. But it's a one-time event. You know? And--and the look on your daughter's face when she blows out the candles on her 5th birthday cake and listening to her giggle--you know, you just can't get that stuff back again. Believe me. Each birthday is a gift, and you can't let anything ruin it--especially not yourself."

Mac: "It's not just Georgie's birthday. It's every day, every night. You know those little routines that make up a family? The movies Friday night, the pancakes Sunday morning. I live by that, Laura. I live for that. My girls, my home--it's all that's keeping me together, but I know it's almost gone."
Laura: "No, no, no. Don't get ahead of yourself."
Mac: "Isn't it clear by now that I'm way behind?"
Laura: "I don't think anything is going to be clear until your wife comes back."
Mac: "My wife. My wife who's run off with another man, who refused to come home when I asked her to. My wife, who's been lying to me for months. I mean, what part of that is hard to read?"
Laura: "Well, obviously that can't go on. But how can you take a position until you sit down with Felicia and you hear her side?"
Mac: "Whenever that is--tomorrow, next week, maybe in the spring. Give me one good reason why I should believe a word Felicia has to say."
Laura: "Because you love her and she loves you."
Mac: "I don't trust her anymore. I can't believe a word she tells me. Could you stay married to someone if you felt like that?"
Laura: "I was married to someone who didn't trust me, and for a lot of legitimate reasons, too. All I'm saying is give Felicia a chance. I guarantee you she's in a lot of pain about this, too. Don't give up on her so quickly."

Laura was in red, while Mac was in beige; they talked at the Scorpio house while Felicia and Luke were talking at the club. There were balloons tied everywhere, and Laura's contribution was to move the end of a streamer so it was more even, which kind of amused me, since Mac surely could have at least done that, given the rest of his decorations. *G*

In all of these conversations with Mac, Laura has identified herself with him, saying that she knows what it's like to be a partner left behind. But here she spoke as the woman who had done something untrustworthy, and I thought that was interesting. Though she repeatedly would fight with Felicia, or otherwise show her frustration and jealousy, I would remember this scene and wonder if Laura's primary objection to Felicia was that she had done something similar to what Laura had done, and Laura had to face that comparison even though she tried hard not to.

Felicia: "Happy birthday, my sweet big girl! Ooh!"
Georgie: "I knew you would come."
Felicia: "Oh, of course I'd come. I wouldn't miss you for anything."

Felicia came in with presents just in time for the wish. I was reminded of Luke coming in with Christmas presents too late for Laura's birthday, back when he was trapped in Faison's bunker with Felicia. She and Mac stared at each other over the cake, and Mac didn't look at all happy.

I noticed that Felicia was in red, black, and grey--the colors Laura, Luke, and Alexis and Nikolas were wearing, respectively. While all of these people were talking about Lucky, Mac wanted to talk about their marriage, and he, as noted above, was in beige. And actually, Laura was in red over grey, so she had on the same basic colors as Felicia, providing a nice contrast and still connecting Felicia to the Spencer scenes and putting her out of place with Mac.

Felicia: "You did a beautiful job."
Mac: "How would you know?"
Felicia: "Because Georgie seemed so happy."
Mac: "Yeah, well, she got her wish. Her on-again/off-again mother decided to make an appearance."
Felicia: "There's so much you need to know."
Mac: "You have made things very clear, Felicia."
Felicia: "There's something I've been wanting to tell you, and I haven't been able to until now, so I--"
Mac: "You're sleeping with Luke."
Felicia: "No, I'm not."
Mac: "You're in love with Luke."
Felicia: "No, Mac, it's not what you think."
Mac: "Damn it, Felicia, stop lying to me!"

Felicia: "Give me a chance."
Mac: "You had your chance. You had hundreds of chances. I begged you to open up. But it doesn't matter. I figured it all out on my own."
Felicia: "Oh, Mac, please."
Mac: "But I can't take all the credit because you flashed me a picture in a major way by running off with Luke."
Felicia: "No, you don't know what you're saying."
Mac: "And for the details, Felicia, I had visual help, you see. Think it's time I shared it with you."
Felicia: "Where are you going?"
Mac: "Here. This is it. Here. All your reasons. The big mystery that you couldn't share turns out not to be that complicated."
Felicia: "The tape?"
Mac: "Here, watch it. Watch it, Felicia. Watch it. I have a thousand times, over and over again. You see, I could recite the action frame by frame in my sleep blindfolded. But I bet you could, too, but for different reasons, right?"
Felicia: "But you have to listen to me."
Mac: "I think the silent image says it all."
Felicia: "It's not what it looks like, Mac."
Mac: "No, you're not in love with Luke? You're not in love with Luke? Go on, Felicia, lie to my face again. Nobody does it better. Or you know what? Why don't you for once tell the truth and admit that you are."

Mac tore down the streamers to get at the videotape while Felicia began to cry, and held her still so she'd have to watch. But she averted her eyes, while he watched it yet again.

Terry: "I know you're behind, Amy, but you were saying you couldn't wait to see Mac's reaction. It started yesterday, and you must rush to get there. John J. York is magnificent (and the man looks good in a turtleneck). I loved Mac's scenes with Felicia as well as the scenes with Laura before she got home. And I don't think 'Lucky's alive' is going to change things for him much."

Amy: "It really is amazing that Felicia is trying to make this all about Lucky so she won't have to face what's really going on, just as Luke and Laura used to fight about Nikolas instead of Laura's relationship to Stefan."

"And as for the 'Lucky's alive' defense, I see Felicia hanging onto that as consolation. But the thing is, yes, he's the police commissioner. But she could have told him this thing and asked him to keep it off the record until they saved Lucky, and I'm betting he might have helped. Instead, she didn't trust him. Period. She lied to him. Period. And she did it for Luke. Nope, I don't see anything changing."

II. But Felicia Doesn't Get Her Wish (3/3)

Felicia ripped the tape out of the cartridge so Mac couldn't watch it any more, I suppose, or perhaps so he couldn't make her watch it. As the scene progressed, Mac began cleaning--began doing the things he had had to do while she wasn't there to do them, taking care of the party debris, etc.--and she stood in the entryway, not quite in and not quite out.

Felicia: "Mac, you're my husband, and I love you."

Felicia: "I had to leave town with Luke this time because he found out that Lucky might still be alive."
Mac: "What, now Spencer's kids are more important than your own?"

Felicia: "No, please, just listen to me."
Mac: "Why, Felicia? We don't have a marriage."
Felicia: "Yes, we do."
Mac: "Oh, you know what? This tape says otherwise."

Felicia: "It was a mind game. Luke and I did everything we could to escape Faison. He was going to kill us."
Mac: "Come on, Felicia. It's a little late to blame Faison."
Felicia: "I never thought I would see you again or the girls again."
Mac: "And even after I found you and brought you back, you still kept lying to me. You followed Luke Spencer."
Felicia: "That's because of Lucky. He's alive. Faison told Luke just before he died. Luke went looking for his son. I had to help Luke."
Mac: "You sought him out, Felicia. You built your life around him for months."
Felicia: "You're my life. You're my life and the girls are my life. You have to understand that."
Mac: "And you walked away from us to follow Luke Spencer."
Felicia: "No, it's not like that, Mac."
Mac: "I asked you to come home, Felicia, and you said no."
Felicia: "Well, I had good reasons."
Mac: "Yeah. And this isn't about Luke? How long have you been sleeping with him?"
Felicia: "I haven't. I didn't sleep with Luke."
Mac: "Oh, come on. Don't you even know when you're lying?"
Felicia: "I know this is all completely twisted and you have to believe me, but I have never once been unfaithful to you."
Mac: "You know what I can't help but notice? That you haven't denied loving Luke. And I know why, Felicia. Because you can't. And right now that's the only thing you can say that I want to hear."

Mac choked on his question about how long she had been sleeping with Luke. Though he's leveled this accusation before when discussing this with others, he still struggled with the words when addressing his wife.

Felicia: "I barely even knew Luke. But he was in such bad shape after we thought Lucky had died. Lucky was the whole point of everything."
Mac: "I don't want to hear it. I am sick of this emotional dirty pool. Spencer was grieving hard, and you wanted to help. What was I supposed to say, Felicia? No? I was right beside you when Maxie almost died. We both saw what Bobbie and Tony went through with B.J. you know, I wasn't sure Spencer could take it. I didn't think most people could help him. But if you could--Luke was my brother's best friend. I mean, if you wanted to spend time with him, who am I to say no? And you know, you played on that. You knew I couldn't. You played on that."
Felicia: "I never saw it that way. Never."
Mac: "You started disappearing from the very start, with the same buzzwords. 'Got to go help Luke with his grief, do more research, work on Lila's memoirs.'"
Felicia: "I thought you understood."
Mac: "I did. I did understand. I walked in on you and Luke dancing, for Pete's sake. I didn't think twice. Felicia, I was glad you were having fun. Remember all those nights that you came home late, if you came home at all? I didn't mind being here with the girls. I love the girls. I was glad that they were safe, that they were well. Even after I rescued you and Spencer from that crypt, I still understood."
Felicia: "Because we understand each other. We always have understood each other."
Mac: "But you know, something was really different between you and Spencer after that. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, but I had to wonder. I mean, why--why wasn't Luke saying, 'Thanks, pal, I'm fine'? And why didn't you say, 'I've done all I can to help you, Luke, but I need to get back to my family now'? You never did, did you? No. And then Faison showed up. Boy, that was the perfect excuse."
Felicia: "I thought Faison was going to hurt you."
Mac: "Remember that night at the airport, the first time you lied to me and said you were going to Chicago? I wanted to believe you. You know, I really did. But you can't trust Felicia."
Felicia: "I didn't want you to get hurt."
Mac: "Oh, you were trying to protect me from myself?"
Felicia: "Yes."
Mac: "By running off to Mexico with Luke Spencer?"
Felicia: "To stop Faison."
Mac: "Because I was losing it, right?"
Felicia: "You were turning into somebody else, something different."
Mac: "So you were having--you were saving me from myself and having an affair with Luke Spencer."
Felicia: "I didn't have an affair!"
Mac: "And the best part--the best part was the simplicity. I mean, after all the lies, after all the trips around the world, after all the nights you slipped away, what was the final lie? 'Lila's memoirs.' translation - 'sleep with Luke.'"
Felicia: "No."
Mac: "Felicia, come on. I kept trying to make excuses for you. You know, 'Felicia needs a break. Felicia's just carried away. Felicia would never -'"
Felicia: "I didn't."
Mac: "Well, I finally realized. Maybe it was too many all-nighters at the station with no reason at all to come home. Maybe it was the nights here with the girls asleep upstairs. I had plenty of time to be alone, to think, and to wonder just where the hell my wife was. And you know what? It finally--it finally started to appear right in front of my face. Oh, and then at Christmas, there was no doubt."
Felicia: "Christmas?"
Mac: "Yeah, that's when the tape arrived. You see, I'm just a cop. I need that visual proof, Felicia."
Felicia: "You've had that tape since Christmas?"
Mac: "That's how long I've known for sure."

Felicia: "All those times you insisted on going to Luke's club, you kept asking me what happened, you kept grilling me about my statement. You'd seen the tape."
Mac: "Yes."
Felicia: "You were setting me up?"
Mac: "I was giving you the chance to be honest."
Felicia: "But how honest is that? You'd seen the tape. Why didn't you tell me you saw the tape?"
Mac: "I wanted you to come clean on your own, Felicia. I was giving you every chance to tell me everything that happened so our whole marriage wouldn't be a lie."
Felicia: "Our marriage isn't a lie. I could have done anything I wanted with Luke Spencer, and I didn't. Isn't that the point now?"
Mac: "No, not to me. I never thought I'd get married. I didn't want to settle down. I wouldn't take that risk. But, you know, you said that you would love me and that you would stay with me."
Felicia: "That's what I'm trying to do."
Mac: "I believed you for so long, even when it was so obvious. I never thought you would mock everything we have. Not my wife, and not with a lowlife like Luke Spencer."
Felicia: "I didn't."
Mac: "I gave you every chance to come clean, but you kept on lying."
Felicia: "I was trying to just figure things out."
Mac: "What--what is to figure out?"
Felicia: "I know that I should have told you in the very beginning, but I really didn't want to hurt you for no good reason."
Mac: "Felicia, what's on that tape--that counts as a good reason."
Felicia: "Do you remember the day that Faison escaped and Luke and I just showed up in your office? We were going to tell you what happened. Luke got a copy of the tape as well."
Mac: "So once you knew there was a tape, that's when you decided to tell me?"
Felicia: "No. Please--I--I have never en unfaithful to you. This is all so messed up. It looks so bad. But it's a misunderstanding. It's just a big mind game, Mac."
Mac: "Are you saying that the tape is edited? Faison remastered it somehow, that it looked worse than it really was?"
Felicia: "No."
Mac: "Were you faking, trying to trick Faison?"
Felicia: "Yes. But that wasn't until later. Luke pretended to attack me so that Faison would open that damn door."
Mac: "Was the tape real, Felicia?"
Felicia: "Yes. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. But then I stopped it. I stopped it!"
Mac: "Not soon enough. Well, there's really nothing for me here."
Felicia: "No, please--please."
Mac: "It's over. I'm leaving."

Felicia: "I have something very important to tell you."
Mac: "You know what? Tell Luke. I'm finished here."

For her part, Felicia would begin to cry again as Mac continued his narrative of the events. He turned away as he talked about the crypt, and she sank onto the arm of the sofa--no sitting side by side for them. Later, she would rise, and he would sit on the same arm. He would begin to cry too as he questioned the possibility that the tape wasn't real; again that question of "real," which Felicia had asked of Luke in Mexico, and which both Laura and Bobbie would address in an episode later this month.

At the end, Felicia was holding a wand party favor as Mac left. She chunked it at the door after he was gone. Somehow, I really liked that image.

Judy: "As good as York was on Thursday, he blew me away on Friday (and completely eclipsed Wagner). This is another story that could've been made so much better if enough attention were given to all the characters involved. York could've easily held his own throughout this story. There was no good reason not to include him."

Terry: "Ah, but we are getting it now, and it's great. York should be pleased with all the meat on his plate these days. I want to hear Mac tell Flea, by the way, about Kevin. I hate the PC/GH connection most of the time-there are not enough cross-connections and references, just lots of second-tier GH characters crossing over and no reciprocity. Give me LUCY! Loved the Mac/Kevin scene, but how rare was that? Extremely."

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