From The Bottom of My Broken Heart

I've been in a state of minor to extreme General Hospital depression since Kimberly McCullough's exit was officially announced. There were so many times I'd watch one of Robin's scenes--well, that's an overstatement, because it's not like she's had "many" scenes at all since then, so let me revise, for the sake of honesty: there were approximately eight times that I'd watch one of Robin's scenes and tear up, all sentimental-like. "This could be the last time Robin and Mac see each other!" "What if this is the last time Patrick and Robin kiss?" "This could be the last time ever that Robin talks about Jason!"

So I knew that the end to this story, the end of all stories for an iconic character who has been a part of my life since I was a tween with phenomenal taste in daytime television and the good luck to have a school schedule that saw me home before 3:00, would gut me. And every time I went to hit play on my DVR, I had a moment of trepidation: could I handle this? How hard would I actually cry? Did I have tissues, Visine and chocolate chip cookies within arms reach? And was I ready to say goodbye? How gutted would I actually be?

I am...like, ten gutted.

Robin: Listen to me. Listen to me. You have to do this for me.
Patrick: No! No! No! There has to be another way.
Robin: Patrick, do you love me?
Patrick: Yes. You're my whole life.
Robin: You're my whole life. You and Emma are my whole life.
Patrick: Robin, no--
Robin: Patrick--
Patrick: What?
Robin: Patrick, you have to go. The doors are about to lock.
Patrick: I'm not leaving you! I'm not going anywhere!
Robin: I'm not leaving you. I'm in your heart, just like you're in mine. I'm never leaving you. You've got to go.
Patrick: Robin, I love you.
Robin: I love you so much. I love you always.

I completely bypassed the ugly cry and went, full-force, into the realm of "hideously contorted wailing" and haven't looked back. My neighbors probably consider calling animal control every afternoon.

And until it is revealed, like I think/fervently hope it will be, that Robin is not actually dead but is being held captive by someone extremely nefarious, I will probably continue to be gutted by the loss of this character who was so special to me and by the fucking amazing performances this cast has been giving in the aftermath of Robin's death ("death"? Is using the airquotes a sign that I am in deep denial? It is a little bit, maybe, right? Damn). Every scene, with eyes full of emotion and cheeks stained with tears, could basically be used as a For Your Consideration ad.

I mean, Finola Hughes? Please.

I uploaded that screencap and started crying all over again.

It's such a treat to have Anna pop in and out of Port Charles, and I wish the sweet, delightful and hot dog-hating part of her visit had lasted longer, but gosh. Amazing.

And, as is fitting, the two most important men in Robin's life had the most epic reactions.

When Anna broke the news to a shocked and devastated Mac, it was almost painful to watch, wasn't it? Like we were intruding on an actual moment of real, visceral grief. Whenever he has the opportunity to, you know...appear on camera, John J. York reminds us all what a fine actor he can be. He completely devastated me to the point where my heart actually ached.

Mac: Robin fought her battles with courage and with dignity, Sonny. She was happy. She had a husband and a daughter and a lot of people who cared about her. And now just like that, shes gone. Her smile...her freckles...the little way her mouth went crooked when she was mulling something over. It's all gone now.

SOB TO THE TENTH POWER.

And Jason Thompson--if Jason Thompson doesn't get nominated for an Emmy this year, I will RAGE. I will blog angrily, IN ALL CAPS, and Macgyver a faux Emmy out of paper clips that I will not send to him because that would be crazy, but it would at least give me a sense of inner peace.

I contemplated just making a post Robin Dies ("Dies"?) and Jason Thompson OWNS ME: A Gallery and filling it with screencaps of his horrified, heartbroken face.

And then I was going to make another post called Patrick And His Sweet, Sweet Jason Hatred: A Gallery (Of LOATHING). I don't quite know how to phrase this, because I don't want it to seem like this story has a bright side at all, but Patrick emerging from his shell-shock with a passionate case of Jason hatred has been nothing short of fantastic.

 

Immediately after Patrick learned that Robin had died ("died"?), Sam approached him about performing Jason's surgery. Never mind that Patrick, in the midst of his grief, should not be operating on anyone or doing anything that requires more than the minimal amount of brainpower. And never mind that the hospital should have been actually been evacuated. No, Patrick was supposed to drop everything and fix Jason's brain and when he balked at that prospect, Sam had the nerve to get angry. ANGRY! With a new, heartbroken widower. What the hell, girl? It was hard for me to watch those scenes, and the scenes she and Michael shared bitching about how horrible Patrick is, because that behavior is so out of the realm of human decency that it defies description. HIS WIFE JUST DIED ("DIED"?)! BACK THE HELL OFF!

But, no. She used every angry trick in her arsenal, from guilt tripping to rage and while he finally broke down at the end and agreed to the surgery (only because he knew it was what Robin would want and, oh, would Robin ever want that! I am so happy that her last moments were all about saving the one person on this show who never was and never will be in danger of actually dying), he did give us a whole lot of dialogue that had me attempting to high-five my television in a way that I hope was more charming and less unhinged than it seems when I write it like that.

Sam: Then DO IT!
Patrick: Why? Why should I? So he can go risk his life again? He didn't change for Jake, he's not going to Sam: Don't you think Jason deserves to be a father just like everyone else?
Patrick: No, I don't think Jason deserves that.

Sam: She would want you to save him. You need to honor that.
Patrick: I don't need to do anything. The answer is no.

Sam: If you don't help, he'll die.
Patrick: Good.

Patrick: I went to Emma's room. I couldn't go inside. I'm not ready to tell my little girl her mother's gone and that she died for someone who didn't deserve it.
Sam: What if it had gone the other way? What if Jason had died trying to save Robin and you were standing in front of me begging to save her. What would you say to me right now?
Patrick: That Robin deserves it. 

It was beautiful, every single word of it. And if Bob Guza were still writing, I'd fear that all of this would be followed by a story where Jason improbably and emotionlessly saves Emma's life, leading Patrick to spend an entire hour publicly worshiping the greatness that is Jason Morgan. But since we have a REAL and TALENTED writer right now, that might not happen! He might actually be allowed to be angry, indefinitely! And it will be wonderful.

I hate that any of this had to happen; like I keep saying, I am happy to see Kimberly McCullough doing what she wants to do, but I selfishly wish it didn't mean the end of Dr. Robin Scorpio. But if it HAD to happen, and it did...then I'm happy that the fallout has been so fantastic and the writing so good (!). This week promises to bring us more of the same, as more of Port Charles is due to find out about this loss and a superspy named Robert Scorpio comes to grieve his little girl. I have a box--okay, I have boxes of tissues handy.

A LOT of other stuff happened this week (imagine that--things happening. Stories moving forward. What show are we watching?!) that I barely got to react to, on account of the aforementioned emotional trauma. Briefly, in bullets:

• Dante actually said this, and I vomited all over my living room: "I always thought Sonny was a mobster first and my father second, but it turns out it's the other way around". FUCK THE WHAT?!
• In a feat of modern medicine, Helena is Cassandra(real name: Irina. Real purpose: Unknown)'s mother. AS IF. AS IF! AS IF! As if Helena could have a daughter so young. As if this "twist" would make anyone even marginally interested in this cluster. As if Stefan and Stavros could possibly have a sister so devoid of expression and vocal inflection. AS! IF!
• While some scenery chewing makes me roll my eyes or look away from my television uncomfortably, when Bruce Weitz really goes over the top, I clap my hands and say "Again! Again!"
• Starr Manning is on her way to Port Charles in a story that I am sure will be filled with pain and tragedy. How do I know this? Because the foreshadowing wasn't even shadowing; it was like forepitchblackness.

Starr: You're so sure of yourself.
Cole: Well, I'm sure of us. There's nothing to be afraid of. We're going to live happily ever after. All you have to do is say yes.

Child, have you ever watched a TV show before? Crowing about love and immortality is basically begging for murder. Either Anthony hits them or someone randomly sits up in the backseat and shoots Cole to death--it's possible, this IS Port Charles, after all...

Comments

[Dawn]

Not that they matter anymore, but if JT doesn't get an Emmy for this, then the academy needs to be blown up. I can't even talk about the rest of what is happening in the background because it just pisses me off. It seems Robin's "death" is only important to Patrick, Anna, and Mac. Everyone else is walking around the hospital like it is business as usual. :/ Seriously, what is THAT all about? This show bites. What I did like, although I don't care much for Starr and Cole, is when Cole was talking about the history of PC and there was not ONE MENTION OF SONNY CORINTHOS AND HIS MOB. He talked about the Cassadines and the Ice Princess. Nice nod to the history of the show when it was actually good, and also a big ole GO SUCK ON IT to Guza (at least in my mind it was).

[Dawn]

Oh, and as far as Sam goes......HATE HATE HATE! I was hoping Patrick would smash that vial of UNTESTED drugs on the ground and then kick Sam in stomach because that must be where her baby is residing considering SHE DOESN'T HAVE A UTERUS.

[Vicki]

Personally I LOVED Patrick's anger about Jason and Mac going off on Sonny. Best parts of the week!

[LaTanya]

There's nothing more to be said because your post stated it all......THANK YOU!!!

OK I got one....the only way Kate/Connie and her stained wedding dress of pain would be entertaining is if a couple of guys from Shadybrook were dressed in all white and chasing her around town with a huge net while Looney Tune cartoon music played in the background. *(Porky Pig Voice) That's All Folks*

[Dawn]

@LaTanya BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ***takes deep breath*** HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[MelP]

"Stained wedding dress of pain"? That is so going to be stuck in my head every time I see her. Thanks for the perfect description, LaTanya. :D

Can you imagine Todd's reaction to her? "Hello, Vicki? I've met someone you really need to get a load of...but she's nowhere near as fun as Nikki".

[Mary Beth]

I am actually thoroughly enjoying Kate's fast descent into madness. It's the only way to make me tolerate her screentime, and given that this is not the kind of cuckoo a character comes back from, I look forward to her inevitable exit....eventually. In the meantime, I hope she starts getting dangerous with cutlery soon....not just furniture. And I may be entertained by Sonny trying to deal with a paramour who is nuttier than he is...

As for Helena's improbable parentage of the most boring and pointless Cassadine ever, I like to imagine that she had obsessively saved some of Mikkos's, erm.... man juice ...and her own ovum and has been trying to engineer the perfect little Cassadine puppet over the years. But when you're forced to work with aged materials and easily manipulated (read: dumb) surrogates, this what you get.

And clearly I put way more thought into that than did any of the writers - new or old.

[Anonymous]

Umm, Dawn, Sam DOES have a uterus...
Her behavior was deplorable, but still wanted to clear that up.

[Dawn]

I thought when she lost Lila, it had to be removed?

[Anonymous]

No, she didn't have a hysterectomy then. When she was shot by Manny, Kelly said she might have to have one but in the end she didn't - she just had a lot of scar tissue in her uterus that made it difficult to conceive/carry a child to term. I believe the procedure she had last summer was supposed to fix that.

[SallyV]

Excellent post...I agree 100% with everything you said.

And LaTanya...loved what you had to say about Kate. Funniest thing ever!

[Mike]

Yes, excellent performances all the way around by the characters affected by Robin's death. And it's true - John J. York rarely gets meaty material to work with, but amongst all the excellent acting, his was the tops - it felt so real.

Sam - Sam, Sam. I know it's all about heightening the tension, but really? You couldn't even wait a few hours? She was basically, "You know Patrick, I know your wife just died - like, ten minutes ago - but seriously.. SERIOUSLY ... you need to get over it and save Jason's life!"

I was a little surprised that Ewan (or whatever that guy's name is) didn't meet his end on the docks. Based on the Helena reveal and the leap into madness Kate made - and the intro of Starr - i was thinking this was the canvas clearing high speed express, and imagined Kate pulling out a knife, stabbing the guy, and pushing him off into the harbor. The fact that she didn't makes me think they might actually have plans for the character.

And as for the intro of Starr and (soon to be) Co. to the canvas - I'm really excited. I was an occasional fan of OLTL and I'm looking forward to seeing how they mix it up with my GH favs. I know some viewers out there are resistant and down right angry, but if this can save the show - hopefully bringing along fans of OLTL that might not have watched GH - and injects some excitement and shakes up the ole' same ole' same ole' of PC life , then I'm all for it. I realize it's a VERY long shot, but it's worth a try and seems like the quickest way to juice up the ratings (and the show needs quick results).

[Dawn]

@anonymous Thank you for the clarification. :) Tells you how much I pay attention to Sam. :)~

[Emmy]

I watched GH this week for the first time since Robin and Patrick got married. I loved OLTL and I hope for the best, but I cannot imagine that this show can be salvaged. Not unless Sonny has consequences, which, so far, it does not appear that he will.
Also, I know that there's no point complaining about this -- because it's just the way TV, and especially soaps, work -- but I CANNOT TAKE the fact that NuKate is supposed to be Connie-who-grew-up-with-Sonny when it is clear that more than a decade (i just checked -- 15 years) separate the two of them. It's so insulting to the audience. Gah!

[LadyBug]

Starr "Freaking" Manning has arrived in Port Charles! I yelled at my TV set upon seeing Starr, Cole and Hope as I once again mourned the loss of OLTL.

Robin and Starr both grew up on their respective soaps, but only Robin managed to be back burned and lost in the shuffle of one mob twit after another when KMc returned to the show in 2005. In contrast, we (OLTL fans) saw Starr in story after story (sometimes too much Starr!) with her family and friends. Robert showed up on NightShift2 back in 2009 and we have not seen Anna in years.

Helena must have stolen some of Luke's junk and used her own eggs in a surrogacy gone wrong in order to produce Cassandra/Irina. Here's hoping that the latest Cassadine spawn dies real soon.

Sam is acting true to type. She has always been selfish, manipulative and only lives and breathes for "Jasiinnnnnn"! We're suppose to worry about her "baby" growing up without a father? Please! This is the same woman that tried to get rid of Jake on two separate occassions with the last instance involving armed guns and she didn't care about the child or their parents. So, I don't give a flipping rats ass if she or Jason don't get a chance to raise her "baby"!

Kudos to JT, JJY and FH for fabulous scenes last week.

The Dante/Sonny love fest is puke worth. Why couldn't Dante simply hate Sonny and not want anything to do with him? Now that would be soapy family drama.

It looks like Kate is going to get the Marty Saybrooke round of craziness which means someone (Carly, Olivia, Sam, etc) may get chucked off of the hotel roof!

[uliis]

Lady Bug, ITA re: Sonny/Dante. Plus, isn't Dante a little too old to be so desperate for a dad figure that he'll take one who shot him in the chest?

Emmy, you mean the make-up didn't fool you into thinking Kate is 50? (Actually I think the actress looks older than her age but she for sure doesn't look like a contemporary of Sonny's)

[tia]

this week was pretty much the same crap different writers aside from robin's horriblely written death for jason

[tia]

suprisingly sonny is actually not 50 yet. mb's not even 50 yet he's turning 49 i believe

[Lisa]

If Kate throws someone off the roof, she HAS to fling her arms in the air like a ref calling a touchdown. That MADE the Marty/Natalie scene.

On topic? GH sucks but I'll miss you Robin!

[uliis]

tia - I know, I was just rounding the number. :) In any case Kate doesn't look 50 or 48

[Kay]

I firmly believe that Robin is not dead, and is instead being held by Faison in a remote location. Besides, it's totally a Scorpio family tradition to be presumed "dead" in an explosion only to be revealed alive. Ron and Frank need to make this happen.

Mac killed me with his reaction. When you give John J. York material, he will deliver. I wanted to reach in to my tv screen to hug Mac. First for him to lose Georgie and now Robin. It's just nor fair.

Jason's brain problems Round 25 are boring me to death. We all know he's not going to die and near-death Jason seems just the same as regular Jason.

I'm actually sort of enjoying Kate now that she's gone cuckoo for coco puffs. the blood on the dress sold it for me.

[Bethie]

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised (what's goin' on here?) when Cole said "you've never heard of Port Charles?" I thought, "oh boy here we go. . sonny sonny sonny". Was so happy that the mob was totally ignored (did I just write that?)

Also, as long as we're handing out accolades in the Robin exit story for acting, MB did pretty good in his scenes I thought. It's been a while since he's had to act anything except violent rage and adolescent smugness and superiority, but I thought he did pretty good.

[Leanne]

I thought Starr and Cole actually had really good closure at the end of OLTL, so I hope they don't get screwed over their first week on the show. I have a horrible feeling Cole and Hope are going to die and Starr is going to hook up with Michael. The only slightly tolerable thing about that scenario would be Todd's intense hatred of Michael.

My theory about Robin, and this took me a really long time to come up with, was that she took her wedding ring off while she was working with chemicals and didn't think to put it back on before the explosion. Since this is Port Charles, there was already a dead body somewhere in the room (there would be. Come on, you know that would happen). The explosion burned up the already dead body, but it blew Robin out of the hospital and she fell ten floors onto the ground. David Hayward, in town for a medical conference, found Robin, his former step-daughter, and whisked her off to his top-secret Project Orpheus headquarters. When she woke up, she realized she was so badly injured from the fall that she might not survive, so she made David swear not to tell anyone she was alive until she was sure she would be okay (like Greenlee did when David saved her). David is so dedicated to saving her because she would have been Leora's sister, and he doesn't want Anna to lose another child. Robin will eventually come back (just as soon as Patrick's moved on, of course) and without Ryan "Douchebag" Lavery around, David might not actually come off as such an asshole. They could bring over characters from AMC, since they're already bringing OLTL characters over.

I have deluded myself into believing this is actually what happened, so I'm watching the actual show and thinking "Don't worry, Anna, Robin's not really dead! David saved her! She's alive!" If I think it enough, it'll come true, right?

[Lobsel Vith]

JT and JJY were fantastic, and I loved Patrick and Mac laying out the truth about Sonny and Jason. It was awesome, and I could do with more scenes featuring them over the mobsters.

Nice to see Starr and Cole - not surprised it took two outsiders to talk positively about Luke and Laura, after all the Laura vilification we heard from Luke, Ethan, and Lulu over the years.

Robin must be kept by Faison in an... undisclosed location.

[Sue B]

I know it's a new team at GH, but do you think they'd really kill off another child? I know Hope isn't part of the GH canvas, but two in under a year? Eek...

[kermitklein]

For me, it was all about the faces I enjoyed.

I'm starting to like bat shit crazy Kate. She's becoming fun for me. I do believe that she's the one that tried to kill Dante and Sonny got in the way considering that as Kate she was all "what the hell were you thinking getting in the way of the bullet for Dante Sonny" so it's my belief that one of her alters must absolutely hate Dante. I enjoyed Ewen's "am I being punked" look on his face as he walked up on BSC Kate standing there in her wedding dress. I have never felt so sorry for a psychiatrist as I did for him in that minute. The person chasing AZ, I think that was BSC Kate following him and his tire blowing.

And speaking of Ewen, I like how smoothly RC transitioned him out of the LIW storyline and over into BSC Kate storyline.

Cassandra being Helena's daughter, I have no problem with that. I don't understand why people think that she can't be Helena's daughter. We're talking about Helena. She froze her son and brought him back to life so why say she can't be Helena's daughter. It's not like Helena actually had to give birth to her. Frozen eggs/surrogate/adoption. All possibilities. The question now is why did Helena want this daugther. But I am happy that at least RC is attempting to give some interest and understanding to the purpose of this storyline.

Johnny/Carly and then the addition of Shawn. I'm going to be honest, I FF through all of that because I see no chem between Johnny and Carly, they still have not built a true reason why Carly should be caring about Johnny to this extent, and its basically feels like these are three people that have nothing to do on this show so they are just making things up for them.

Now, the good stuff. JT did the damn thing. Patrick broke my heart this week. From telling Anna about Sam, to looking lost because he's trying to figure out how to tell Emma, to just holding Robin's rings in his hand. Loved it. And his "I can choke a bitch" look everytime he looked at Sam or discussed Jason. LOOOOVVVEEED IT. I'm happy that for once Sam was written true to nature of being selfish and thinking only about her needs, and finally, someone called her out on it. It's been years since she's finally been called out on her WTF behavior. This is the only woman I know that can hook a teenage boy up with a hooker in his mother's hotel and people either never finds out the whole story (Carly, Sonny) or are alright with it (Jason). I'm just happy that finally her behavior was called out. I actually rolled my eyes at her telling Patrick that Jason deserved to be a father because I kept wondering where was her encouraging Jason to be a part of Jake's life when he was alive. And when Jake died, wasn't she the one that was all about Jason making the right decision to give Jake up. But now because its her baby, Jason deserves to be a father. Oookay on that one.

So happy that Michael didn't make that fatal error of trying to compare his lost of Abby to Patrick's lost of Robin to Patrick because Patrick would have choked him. I'm not getting the whole not telling Jason about Robin's death because now she fears he might have an episode and die when before she yammered on and on about Franco to Jason without worrying that he might have an episode and die about that. What also set my teeth on end, Monica the doctor/COS taking Sam who hasn't stepped foot in a college let alone a medical school word on what can and can't kill Jason.

I like the introduction of Starr. I like that they used a Cassadine story for Cole to tell about the town of Port Charles because it's believable that he read that in a newspaper or something his parents told him because after all freezing the world is not something that happens everyday.

Sonny and Dante. I just eehhhh....uggghhh...that's all I got.

[shan231]

@kermitklein... His "I can choke a bitch" look... I love you, never change...

[kermitklein]

Meant telling Anna about Robin...not Sam

[kathy]

I agree JT, JJY and FH delivered some of the finest performances I have ever seen.
And I also agree JT deserves and Emmy. If he doesnt get one then they need to stop giving them out

[Scotia]

Aw, I love Kelly Sullivan as Kate. Her and Mo have such chemistry on screen. And Kate's descent into madness is my 2nd favorite storyline after the Robin sadness. Sonny and Kate better get back together because after all the Robin stuff is resolved, it'll be the main, if not only, reason I watch. Not interested in the OLTL characters at all, but I won't object to them. Whatever can help GH and give OLTL fans a little treat is fine by me.

They could free up screen time, though, by getting rid of Jason and Sam, and Shawn, and TJ, and that doctor chick Steve brought over.