The Cassadines

The Spencers

The Scorpios

Roy and Bobbie, Hannah and Taggert

Sonny and Carly

The Quartermaines

Jax and Chloe

Rae Cummings

The Cassadines:

• As they move to their final stop, Helena offers Lucky videotape and written reports of his siblings and Elizabeth, but he turns them down. (4/3)
• Lucky steals some money from Helena's purse while she's on the phone. She wishes him goodnight and tells him that they're almost to their last stop. After she's gone, he inventories all of the valuables that he's swiped from her. (4/4)
• Stefan comes to the Spencer house and greets Lesley Lu on the porch. Lesley comes out, worried about what he's planning, but he tells her he's there to see her, and wants to help Luke and Laura. Nikolas faces off with Stefan as well. Stefan tells them both that Laura and Luke are looking in the wrong place--that they should search where they were happiest--and insists that he will clear his name. (4/5)
• Helena tells Lucky that he is now free to go wherever he wants. Meanwhile, Stefan realizes what her next move must be, and tells Alexis that he's going to find Lucky before Luke and Laura do. (4/6)
• Lucky hides from Stefan with the help of the waitress at the Triple L. When he doesn't find Lucky, Stefan goes to Helena. (4/7)
• As Stefan and Helena continue their conversation, Helena tells Stefan that she will have her revenge on Luke and Laura. Stefan tells her that he realizes now that Laura is much like her, and that she has broken his obsession with Laura. He calls the police he's brought with him and Helena is arrested. (4/10)
• Alexis and Stefan discuss Lucky. Stefan believes that Helena has let him go. Nikolas arrives, demanding to know where Lucky is, but Stefan says he doesn't know. Not realizing that Lucky is in Port Charles, Nikolas and Elizabeth plan to head to New York City to look for him. (4/12)
• After hearing the report from Laura, Nikolas and Elizabeth leave on their search. (4/13)
• Stefan has a cold run-in with Laura at the hospital. He instructs somebody to follow her, and he goes to meet with Alexis. (4/14)

I. The Calm Before the Storm (4/3, 4/4)

Though they've often been dressed in contrasting colors to match their chess pieces, at this point Lucky is in blue and Helena's wearing gold with a blue scarf.

Helena: "Well, if you'd rather not share your feelings, have the courtesy to tell me that. But please don't insult my intelligence by pretending that your mind is blank."

Helena: "Now, of all the places that we've visited, what was your favorite spot?"
Lucky: "Texas."
Helena: "Because it was one step closer to Port Charles."
Lucky: "That, and the fact that it's mine. The ranch in Texas was the only place that was really ever home to me. It doesn't have to do with you or the Cassadines. It doesn't have to do with my parents. It has to do with me."

Lucky: "Thanks. But I don't need photos to remind me of the people that I left."

On the next day:

Helena: "So judicious. So unlike your father."

Helena: "We've almost made it to our last stop, which I think you will find a fitting end to our journey. Sleep well."

This is the day we saw Lucky steal something from Helena's purse while she was on the phone, then pretend only to be reaching for a stick of gum when she caught him with his hand in his pocket. Later, he was still chewing the gum as he counted his loot. She would let him know later that she knew he was stealing from her all along, but there was no sign on her face here that she was aware of it. Lovely.

II. No Mud Tea For You (4/5)

Amy: "When I saw Stefan approach Lesley Lu in the previews for tomorrow's show, my eyes actually narrowed. Whatever he's there for, to check up on her, to plant thoughts in her head, to talk to Grandma Lesley, whatever--it's not good, and it's out of selfish motivation."

Terry: "Amy! How could you think that? Stefan has real affection for Lesley Lu, and while I'm sure the Spencers and Grandma Lesley will indeed jump to the conclusion that he has ulterior motives for visiting her, I hope to see that he misses her and is checking on her. He knows that her parents are away, that she has no inkling that Lucky is alive, and that he probably won't be seeing much of her once her momma is back in town. It doesn't surprise me that he, sentimental guy he is, would come by to see her, to sprinkle a little more lemon juice onto those wounds Laura has inflicted on him (and he's inflicted on himself) lately."

"Let's wait until today to see who's right, but the bookie here is willing to bet that if Stefan's motives are 'selfish' they are in the sense that he cares for the little girl and wants to see her to remind himself of what he's losing in Laura turning from him. He didn't drink mud tea just to impress Laura, in my opinion."

Amy: "How could I think that? Because that clip was so eeeeeeeeeevil looking."

"But I have to say that, whatever reason Stefan has for visiting Lulu, it probably won't sit well with me. Whether it's him fishing for information from grandma Lesley or torturing himself with thoughts of what might have been, I don't like it. How's that for bias?"

"I don't disagree that he has an affection for the little girl. But he uses people he loves all the time, for Pete's sake. And I'm willing to admit that the trailer was calculated to affect us in just this way--to make it look sinister. But after that very cold ultimatum down underground, hey, he's looking pretty eeeeeeevil, rather than sympathetic. I think that we need some scene of him with somebody other than Laura--some scene outside his actions where she I concerned--for him to regain some sympathy. Longing and self-torture seems to come from reading into what we have, rather than directly what we have--at least with the stuff on Ice Princess Island. Oh how I long for him to break down and pour his heart out to Alexis. Alas, that doesn't seem do-able at this point in their relationship."

"But really, this determination to get Laura, regardless of what she's done, chosen, or said? We're nearly back in obsession territory, rather than looking at a love that could stand a chance if given the right circumstances. At least for me. I'd rather see him angry, turning his back on her even as he longed for her, than these excuses he's making for her. But we'll see...."

Stefan: "Hello, Lesley Lu. You're having a tea party?"

Stefan: "Oh. There's my favorite girl. But it's been too long since I've been able to visit you. I've been traveling on important business. Has your mommy been traveling, too?"
Lesley: "Why are you here?"
Stefan: "To see you."

Lesley: "Leave."
Stefan: "If you insist. But I had hoped we could pool our resources and help Laura find Lucky."
Lesley: "'Find Lucky.' Hmm. At best, you knew he was alive and didn't tell Laura. At worst, you are responsible for kidnapping him. And I swear, if I had not walked out that door when I did, you would have started to pump Lulu about where Laura is searching for him."
Stefan: "Laura is in Marrakech. Helena took Lucky to Texas. The next place the Spencers lived as a family was Marrakech. Luke and Laura will be searching there, but they're wrong."

Nikolas: "Lesley Lu said you were here."
Lesley: "Apparently, your uncle knows where Lucky is."

Stefan: "Instead of trekking all over the globe, Luke and Laura should concentrate on Helena's true motive--revenge. And what better way to make them suffer than to lure them back to the place they were happiest. Do you know where that was?"
Nikolas: "Port Charles."
Stefan: "Evidently not. Dr. Webber, do you know?"
Lesley: "Well, if I did, I certainly would not tell you."

Stefan: "I've indulged you too much, Nikolas, if you think you can tell me what to do. And when you speak to Laura, please tell her I haven't given up. I will clear my name."
Lesley: "When I came out on the porch, he was starting to question Lulu."

Terry: "I don't think his visit to her was malicious, now that I've seen it. But I don't mind that he's back to being, and the story in which he's involved is back to being, capable of being read in multiple ways. Stefan was at his best, I thought, in his early days on GH, when he was hard to read and some thought him evil, others thought him misunderstood, and all in all he was delicious."

"That said, I am pretty disappointed at a spoiler that I read recently. I hope Guza 'complicates' this sufficiently that we get 96-era Stefan--spurned and angry but loving Laura underneath it all--not a simplistic bad guy. That would p*ss me off bigtime. That sentence about 'This is not about real love anymore' makes me queasy, I admit, and I hope Guza does not play that straight. I expect more from him, and he usually delivers. He'd better deliver this time."

Amy: "Stefan was at his most vital, for me, in 1996. He loved Laura, yet he was completely angry with her for leaving him, and he made no bones about it. He was also manipulating her left and right--using Nikolas to get her to ask them both to stay in town, etc. He wanted to choose the moment he would return Lesley to her, both because he knew it would make her happy, he knew he could keep Lesley safe from Helena, and because he hoped it would make her see him in a positive light. He was asking her to leave Luke without actually asking, and he hoped that the troubles he would cause by just showing up would rattle the Spencer marriage enough that she'd give him a chance. He gave her ultimatums, he manipulated and schemed, he ran guilt trips, he tried to control how Nikolas would respond to her, etc."

"Now, that's not evil, but that's not sweetness and light either. And I loved it. Since then, he's been watered down, and lately he's been dealing with Laura in such a polite, sweet manner that I've been utterly bored."

"That I narrowed my eyes at his approach to Lulu is not a bad thing. It shows me too that there's a possibility he's back to his old ways. I want him to be angry at Laura for choosing to look for Lucky with Luke, and I want him to be angry that she could think the worst of him. And I want him to want her anyway. And while I think those old ways meant that he would never end up with Laura, hey, I can deal with that. It was more obsession than a practical love that would manage from day to day. Stefan and Laura have never had that, to my mind. And I don't think they can. But, weak writing for the couple beside, I like them at odds, though conflicted about it, rather than together, given the writing we have had."

"So yes, Terry, I saw Stefan using Lulu. It wasn't sentimental, it wasn't self-beating, it was manipulation. And it was all about Laura. Is that so bad? I said nothing would really sit well with me, and I was convinced he really was going to either question Lulu or spill the beans to her about Lucky, just out of spite. But it amazed me how much I enjoyed these scenes!"

Terry: "I must say that I will be quite happy if Stefan is embittered temporarily by all this stuff, and if he and Laura go back to that 'wish I didn't love you' tension they had when he first arrived. But I'm worried, frankly, about the Guza-speak in the spring previews from wherever, when Guza says of Stefan, 'This I not about true love anymore,' and goes on to talk about Stefan being vindictive or some such. I hope he does this well. I don't mind Stefan being the subject of debate; I like it when he's interesting enough to elicit comment but still hard to come to a consensus about. But if he becomes a flat-out villain, living to make Luke and Laura miserable, I'll puke. (Besides, that's Helena's job)"

"I do like the theory from ratsa that Helena's purpose with the mystery tour was to reunite Luke and Laura and thus hurt Stefan. Works for me as part of her motivation."

Amy: "And because it would be a way of taking away a son. That works because of the Stavros stuff."

III. Stefan Heads to Canada, the Happiest Place in the World (4/6)

Stefan: "Listen, does Laura appear happy in this photograph?"
Alexis: "Let me get you something to eat."
Stefan: "I can't tell where it was taken. The notations are all out of order."
Alexis: "All right, what sounds good?"
Stefan: "There's coffee there if you want it. Answer my question. Does she look happy in this photograph?"
Alexis: "Yeah, she looks very happy. What happened to you?"

Amy: "You know, as Stefan displayed his accumulated material on L&L, I thought, 'Laura would freak if she saw this.' They always thought that Helena kept tabs on them! Anyway, it kind of freaked me out too!"

Stefan: "This is a work in progress? You have had weeks to build a case against Helena--a kidnapping case."
Alexis: "Let me explain something to you. The police can prove that Lucky was killed in a fire, but they don't believe it was arson. Are you beginning to see the problem here?"

Stefan: "Where did Helena believe Lucky, Luke, Laura--that they were one big happy family?"
Alexis: "You think that's where Helena has him?"

Stefan: "I don't have any time. I have to find Lucky before his parents do."

Stefan: "Lucky was sitting right beside me. If I'd only taken him home to his mother that night."
Alexis: "Hindsight. That was weeks ago."
Stefan: "I should never have given Helena the opportunity."

Stefan: "I believe I almost convinced Laura to set me free. But then she left with Luke."

Stefan: "If I'd only gotten to Ice Princess Island sooner, I might have the boy."
Alexis: "Wait a minute. Ice Princess Island?"
Stefan: "Yes."
Alexis: "As in the weather machine?"
Stefan: "Oh, yes."

Stefan: "I offered to help them. I could have. All Laura had to do was agree to go with me and search for Lucky."
Alexis: "She wanted to stay with Luke."
Stefan: "Yes. I lost her. But I still have to find Lucky."
Alexis: "Why do you have to do that? What, do you have to prove that you still love her?"
Stefan: "No. I have to clear my name."

Alexis: "Can I ask you something? What does Felicia have to do with any of this?"
Stefan: "Spencer's having an affair with her. He flaunts it in her face. She doesn't seem to mind."

Alexis: "Helena was in Texas?"
Stefan: "Yes."
Alexis: "And I missed that?"

Alexis: "All right, so what's our motto? How can Helena create the most pain for the most people in the shortest amount of time?"
Stefan: "Shortest amount of time. I've been asking myself that same question."
Alexis: "And she knows that the longer that she stretches this out, the higher the risk of getting caught, so this is nearing the end."
Stefan: "I agree."

Alexis: "What if she wants a train wreck? It's a figure of speech. What if she wants all of you to show up in the same place at the same time?"
Stefan: "That's interesting. So Helena's almost done. And if the end is Port Charles, then the place before the end--thank you, Alexis. You have been most helpful."

Alexis: "And what are you going to do when you find Lucky?"
Stefan: "I'm going to bring him home."
Alexis: "And what about Helena?"
Stefan: "Helena will finally get what she deserves."

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