Credit: ABC/Disney, ABC screenshot

Viewers tuning into General Hospital this week hoping for a delayed Quartermaine Thanksgiving got a rude awakening when the holiday was completely skipped over. Next week’s tease, which aired at the end of Friday’s episode, showcased Christmas festivities. This was a missed opportunity, what with Sasha as the new chef. The Quartermaines could have finally had their turkey! Lulu’s return was a mix of joy and sadness, and Ava’s trial played out exactly as expected. Honestly, much of the week was a bit of a downer. The residents of Port Charles may want to ask Santa for some happiness this Christmas!

Happiness and Heartbreak

As much as I hoped to see Emme Rylan return as Lulu, I’m enjoying Alexa Havins Bruening in the role, not having seen her work before. That said, Lulu’s return has been a big miss for me, much like Lucky’s. Lucky’s return, up until recently, was marred by his constant complaining about everything Port Charles-related. In Lulu’s case, killing Sam off to facilitate her return did this storyline no favors! With that out of the way, poor Lulu sure had a tough week. After a fleeting moment of happiness in seeing Rocco, she found out how long she’d been in a coma. She also learned creepy Cyrus was her Uncle, Nikolas was in the slammer, and Luke and Spencer had died. On top of all that, she was informed that Sam died after donating her liver to save her, and she immediately blamed herself. I don’t think anyone has told her about Bobbie yet, have they? Maybe they should just wait on that…

Lulu’s puzzlement over Dante’s reaction to her return was another blow. When she learned Dante and Sam were in a relationship, she realized he was grieving the woman he loved. As she put it, “I’ve never seen him in love with anyone else.” Dominic Zamprogna did a great job as an emotionless Dante in his few scenes with Lulu, as he struggled between his happiness for his son and his grief over Sam. One thing that I brought up in last week’s column was resolved. When Dante learned Cody picked Lulu up, he even asked how Cody didn’t recognize Lulu! Cody chalked it up to the dark night and that Lulu was super-secretive and protective.

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Lulu got another hit when she learned about Valentin fleeing town with Charlotte and that they hadn’t been heard from in months. However, she does not need to worry, as Anna, Jason, and Carly are back on the case! Maybe she should be worried with this crew working to find Charlotte. Anna enlisting citizen Carly to plant a bug in Brennan’s office was ridiculous, seeing Anna is there once a week herself to berate the guy. This was just a plot point to eventually create drama between Carly and Brennan once he discovers that bug. However, the bug proved useful when the threesome listened as Brennan contacted Valetin about Jason’s offer to bring Charlotte home to Lulu. So Charlotte looks to be coming home, but not Valentin? That’s a bit of a bummer!

I thought Jason and Carly’s conversation with Danny about his conflict over his mother’s death and how he was afraid Rocco would see he was jealous that he got his mom back was well done. Jason stepped up and told his son he’d be there for him, and Carly assured Danny that Rocco knew he and Scout were grieving. Likewise, I enjoyed Sonny and Dante’s conversation about how Dante was having trouble dealing with Lulu’s return on the heels of Sam’s death while struggling to keep the kids together, given their mixed emotions. Sonny was on point when he told his son that joy and grief could exist simultaneously and weren’t exclusive emotions. I chuckled when Dante told his dad he wasn’t half-bad at giving advice.

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Chaos In the Court

I don’t think anyone other than Kristina expected Ava to be found guilty in the death of Irene/Adela. As if viewers aren’t still dealing with Sam’s death, which remains unresolved as to who gave her the overdose, we had to watch the rest of the Davis family implode this week due to the outcome of Ava’s trial.

Molly and TJ went from “taking a break” to Molly moving out of their apartment overnight and pretty much ending their relationship. That’s called breaking up, not taking a break! I felt terrible for them, but honestly, I’ve never found myself that invested in TJ and Molly’s relationship. The surrogacy was their only major storyline that comes to memory, and it was a storyline almost no viewer was interested in watching play out because we knew it would end in disaster. I will say, though, Joss better watch out because I could see Molly coming for her man! Let’s face it: Joss and Dex have no storyline, and Dex has been reduced to a glorified day-player cop.

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Though Molly didn’t like how her dad acted in court, she finally came around to Ric’s line of thinking that Irene’s death was a tragic accident and there was no one to blame. Awful things like this happen every day. Of course, Molly accepted this and needed to move on, but that was not what TJ or Kristina wanted to hear. Kristina telling Molly she was never Adela’s mother was beyond low, and obviously, there will be no happy gatherings this holiday season for the Davis girls. Even worse than Molly and TJ’s split over the baby’s death? Viewers will have to endure who knows how many more months of Kristina and Molly at one another’s throats. I don’t know if I can listen to their yelling and screeching much longer!

Final Thoughts

Sonny and Kristina’s ever-so-grateful attitude toward Natalia for perjuring herself on the stand was nauseating. The writers beat themselves over their own heads in trying to redeem and make Natalia look good. Sonny’s urging her not to give up and fight for her kids made me think that if Alison/Blaze isn’t returning anytime soon, Natialia’s son will probably turn up in Port Charles at some point.

Kai and Trina are still doing nothing for me. He is also doing himself no favors by shrugging off his responsibility to Trina and their project to focus on the big game. These two feel forced, and a forced soap couple never works. Just look at Maxie and Peter, along with Maxie and Austin! Oh, Austin, we’re never going to find out who killed you, are we?

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Friday’s Deception drama was complete storyline filler, and there seemed to be a bit of that this week. At least something good came from this bit of fluff: Lois has finally ditched her new accent for good.

Please don’t hate on me, but I missed the Nina/Drew/Willow/Michael drama. I know… I know! But it would have been far more entertaining to watch everyone hate on Drew than some of the fluff they gave us instead!

I’ll leave you with this final thought: Lulu’s reunions with Lucky and Laura were both a hit and a miss. Yes, we’ve been waiting for them, but at the same time, they beat her over the head with so much bad news it put a damper on the happy moments. That’s why I’m looking forward to Lulu’s reunions with Maxie, Tracy, and others, who hopefully won’t have to bring down the happiness with sad news!