Triptych

Okay, I'm sometimes prone to hyperbole with my post titles. But today's General Hospital had three hugely noteworthy setpieces that merit a little attention, however brief.

1.) The strangest, most unlikely alliance ever turned out to be incredibly fascinating and even a little touching. When yesterday's preview's hinted we were getting some serious Connie and Tracy scenes today, I was all, "Eh? What do you mean, Connie and Tracy?"

What started as more anti-A.J. machinations on Tracy's part turned into a very unlikely but lovely bonding scene, where they did more than just connect as overt bad girls with terrible instincts and lousy taste in men, but the writers even remembered why there actually is something for them to talk about -- considering the Trey/Joe history. 

Color me surprised! And really, if this was just a one-off I'd still think it was nice but at this point I'd be bummed. Both of these woman are ostensible mega-bitches who are really just insecure little girls inside; this would be a compelling female friendship moving forward. Sure, they could scheme together. But they could also be the rare person to see the other one's best side and fight for it. (I'm being naively optimistic here, I know. But I liked it, dammit!)

 

2.) You know how sometimes the dialogue for and about Sonny on this show is so off-the-wall and offensive that you want to throw things at the screen for how tone-deaf these people are, and other times the dialogue for and about Sonny is so off-the-wall and offensive that you're 1000% positive that these people know exactly what they're doing and exactly what a hypocritical mess Sonny really is? Today, for me, fell squarely into the latter category.

Kristina: There is no Kate, Dad. It's just Connie. And she's horrible and you refused to stop her so I had to do it myself! [SHE's horrible, Kristina? Oooooh boy. --L.]

Alexis: No, no, you don't get to do that. No matter how terrible you feel or how wronged you think you are, you don't get to take the law into your own hands.

Kristina: But Dad does it all the time!

Sonny: 

Sonny: Forget what I do!

Sonny: You don't get to grab a baseball bat and try to hurt someone. You don't do that!

Oh my god, y'all. It was just too rich. Sometimes he just makes me laugh so hard that I want to just pinch his little cheeks and pat him on the head (although I don't want my hands to get too oily, despite how dried-out they've been lately). Priceless, this guy.

 

3.) Anna and Duke. I've made a lot of noise about my love for them, but if they don't deliver and the material doesn't deliver, there's not much reason to make noise. But after Anna's crisis today (she and Mac about killed me and I'm so glad they were involved in the one-day storyline of Emma being missing), she ran into Duke and they had the sweetest, simplest scene. She filled him in on what happened with Emma (DUKE NEEDS TO MEET EMMA!) and he filled her in on his job interview and his brand-new employed self. She congratulated him.

Duke: Thank you very much! We should celebrate sometime.

Anna: Yeah. That would be nice.

Duke: Well. I'd better get going. I'm relieved everything's all right. It was nice seeing you. Good night.

Anna: Good night.

And then she just watched him walk away.

In lesser hands, that could be the most simplistic, banal scene in the world, but Ian Buchanan and Finola Hughes imbued it with a lifetime of subtext. It was at moments nostalgic, at moments wistful, at moments frightening, at moments glorious and alternately heartbreaking. It felt like the early parts of a courtship, or that first polite meeting after a devastating parting. I'm still on board, and pretty soon I'm going to volunteer to drive this ship. 

Luke who?

Comments

[C]

I'm so confused about what the show is doing with Connie/Kate. Are we supposed to think she's integrated now? Is the show just done with Kate altogether? Because they're going overboard making Connie more sympathetic and likeable and Kate hasn't popped her head out once.

I do like the slow build they're giving to Anna and Duke. Luke doesn't stand a chance.

[C]

In other news? Kevin tomorrow! All the exclamation points! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LadyBug]

I liked the Anna/Duke scenes.

The characters that I want dead always end up hogging the show (Connie, Connie, Connie), however, I did like the scenes with Tracy.

Why couldn't RC simply kill off Krissy and be done with it?

[Rose Jordan]

i am so sick of Connie !!!! Now she is friends with Tracy who i can't stand!!!!

[Amy]

I agree with you 100% on the Anna/Duke scene, Louise. So lovely, with so many layers of meaning behind the simple lines. I love seeing Duke establish a life, leaving Anna in no doubt of his love for her (after all, Duke loved Anna like practically no man on a soap loved a woman) while not being pushy at all. I really enjoyed the Duke/AJ scenes, too. Unusual and interesting. And Finola Hughes was golden today - sobbing, happy, nostalgic, the gamut!

I ff'd Sonny today. It's kind of a shame, but not a surprise, to think that the things I imagine him saying as I ff are, in fact, the things he really says.

[Alison]

I personally liked Anna's "I'm a freaked out grandmother" comment. I just love how Anna has dimension and it doesn't hurt that Finola Hughes is simply crazy talented. I liked the Mac involvement. I also enjoyed the Duke interaction only because I am for anything that gets her away from Luke. However if tptb are inclined to bring Robert back I may just be transported to my soap heaven. But a little off topic I'm a little curious as to what is behind Sabrina's threat to Britt? What could she possibly do? Or are we gonna finally get some backstory and find out that Sabrina is a secret bad ass?

[Cindy]

Oddly enough, I too enjoyed Connie and Tracy. I also really liked Anna/Duke (now I can get behind the pairing because it turns out I like Duke) and I liked the scenes with AJ and Duke. They have something somewhat in common and there could even possibly be a glimmer of friendship there.

I applauded Sabrina when she stood up to Britt. About time. Patrick was fabulous with Emma.

Sonny/Kristina/Alexis? Meh.

And I squealed KEVIN! during the preview.

[Melissa]

Kevin! KEVIN! "I'll have you know that crackpot is my wife."

Considering how Port Charles destroyed Kevin and Lucy at the end (and how Guza didn't want them back) the idea of seeing him back on GH saying those words is unbelievable.

I'm hoping that Doc will actually do some Doctoring while in town to get Kate/Connie integrated (or clarify if she already is). I do not care at all about Kristina but I'm always a sucker for scenes of Sonny being an ass and Alexis giving him the stink eye. I'm hoping that at some point on of the returns (Kevin!) meets Kristina and,upon learning that Sonny is the Daddy, makes the appropriate WTF face.

And just HOORAY for mixing up the cast in some new ways lately. Tracy/Sonny, Carly/Felix, Tracy/Kate. It is a nice change from the seeing the same pairs of characters together all the time.

[Ziyal]

I am happy with Connie and Tracy :) And Anna/Duke are a dreamboat. Like both of them <3

[Ziyal]

Is Nancy Lee Grahn hot or what?!!

[Lisa]

KEVIN! KEVIN KEVIN KEVIN! KEEEEEEVVVVIIIIIINNNN!

(Now all I need is Stefan and my life is complete)

[Nancy]

This Connie thing is RC's dream come true. On One life to Live, a very popular character Jessica, had DID and he liked her alter Tess better (she was a lot like Connie) but fans did not want her as the dominant one after integration, so he couldnt do it. But that was then, this is now and he seems to be telling us Kate is dead. Connie gets on my last nerve just like Tess did, so I am not happy with this direction he's taking. Plus, what happened to the integration part, where both personalities come together and form one person.....you know, better, happier, stable? And wasnt the reveal about Connie not causing the accident that killed Starr's boyfriend and daughter supposed to make Kate come back....huh?? Dont get it.

[Gwen Hayes]

I never watched PC...are Kevin and Lucy still married? Because I'm trying to think and the only other married couple in Port Charles is Dante and Lulu right now, isn't it? Well, Robin and Patrick, but I don't think that counts since he thinks he's a widow.

It's really sad. I've been watching soaps a long time and understand that soap marriages don't usually last very long....but to have one on entire show?

[Sarah]

Question. Was I having a Guza flashback or did Sonny order a cop to give Kristina special treatment and a private jail cell "or else" while the cop nodded mutely in agreement? I'm actually hoping for the flashback, if this scene actually occurred in pissed at Cartini.

[Stlbf]

EEEEEE!KEVIN! He and Lucy are still married! Still hoping that all matters Thorneheart really don't exist. Unless we get to see Todd's(and maybe Starr's) sure to be hilarious interest into the hated Thorneheart family of Port Charles. That MIGHT make it worthwhile. Hee. "That's not Granya,(or whatever the hell her name was)I'm telling you that is Patrick Thorneheart's WIFE, Marty Saybrooke!"

And Allison Barrington is back with a teenage boy? Her having a kid I can buy, but a teenage one? PC wasn't cancelled that long ago. PC fan here is loving this little side visit to lost side of Port Chuckles. It isn't going to last forever, but it will be fun to see.

And yes, it is really annoying that most soap writers still don't understand the whole DID "intergration" concept. The "alters" are not truly real and whole beings. Connie and Kate are just alters. To be whole Connie and Kate need to truly mesh together. "Kate" needs "Connie" and "Connie" needs "Kate".

[Michael]

In Carlivati's world--and this is one of the few real criticisms I have regarding a writer whose work I think is overall very good (and who has certainly breathed new life into this particular world)--DID is . . . whatever he wants it to be that day. Jessica's DID storyline on OLTL during its last year was all over the place. One day Jess knew what her alters were doing, the next day she didn't. One day Jess bore some responsibility for bad things Tess did because "Tess is a part of Jess," the next day she was being given a free pass because it was Tess, after all, not Jess. I stopped caring about the whole thing, frankly, even though I liked Jess and did find Tess entertaining.

So I don't find it very surprising that the Kate/Connie stuff doesn't really make much sense either.

You know, if I were King of Television, I'd hire Ron C. to write just about any show he told me he wanted to write. And I'd stay out of his way and let him write it, too. But I would put it in his contract, first item, in capital letters: YOU WILL NOT WRITE ANY STORIES INVOLVING MENTAL ILLNESS OF ANY KIND. EVER.

[Chad]

Yeah, I agree 100% with Michael. The famous 1995 OLTL story involving Vicki's alters would never win any prizes for medical accuracy and sensitivity toward the mentally ill, but the writers did clearly take notes from sources like Truddi Chase's "When Rabbit Howls" and it made the symptoms of Vicki's DID follow consistent rules even at its most exaggerated and unrealistic. All that was essential for making the story as classic as it was.

I have a weird fixation on stories about split personalities, but even I've grown tired of Ron's approach to DID stories. It's really a shame, too, because a lot of the inconsistencies really aren't necessary, and if anything get in the way of making the stories and characters more interesting.

[Lisbeth]

I am exhausted watching endless Kristina, Sonny and Connie scenes. Please, please, please gives us more Anna and Duke. I don't care about ELQ or Trey or vampires, just give me some Scorpio, Drake, Lavery, Devane family time

[Andrea]

I've missed many episodes in the past few months (esp. with Robin's return and disappearance again) but I do not understand WHY Anna is not frantically searching for her kidnapped daughter? She knows she's alive and in dangerous hands but goes on with life as though Robin doesn't exist (plus doesn't tell Patrick she is still alive). Am I missing something??? Please, anyone, do you have any ideas??

[Louise]

Andrea, Anna still thinks Robin is dead. It's only Robert who has seen her and he's now comatose.

[Andrea]

Thank you Louise for clearing that up!!! :) I think in trying to catch up with old episodes, I had read something about Anna having seen Robin before she was kidnapped by Jerry Jax.....thanks for the quick response too!! :)

[Judy]

Caption: Sonnyduhfacenumberthreemillion.

Howls of laughter.

Louise, you shatter me. :)