General Hospital: Disney Promotion Day

I'm just actually going out on a limb with that title, as they did a lot of Star Wars advertising today and also mentioned Frozen and I'm just making a guess that those are both Disney movies even though I'm too lazy to look it up. I've never seen either so... shrug.

So! We had Q scenes today! Michael offered Monica egg nog and clarified that it's non-alcoholic, which was a quick reminder that Monica is one of the 45% of characters on this show who are on the wagon. Monica invited Ma and Son Nero for the holiday, but apparently Oscar didn't want to come and Kim went ahead and let him just go do his own 14-year-old thing for Christmas. (Okay, I guess this is actually Christmas Eve, because it better be.) (Wait, no, it's Christmas because that was the planned wedding day.)

Oscar did actually show up later, though.

Across town, Kevin and Laura were getting ready for the wedding when Maxie showed up yelling at them about bad omens. Laura wore a black tunic top and pants, which I respect.

I kept wondering if Kevin was ever Maxie's stepfather for a minute, but probably not? I know Felicia dated Ryan and he went psycho and then Kevin showed up and was a good guy, but did they ever date? Anyway, they had it snow out to justify the obviously anticipated absences of Lucas, Lucky, and Spencer. (They are maniacs for not recasting Lucky this very second as that would add a whole new wrinkle into this Another Dad For Jake storyline, but they literally haven't mentioned him at all in that context, similarly to how nobody cares to tell Jason that his best friend murdered his brother in cold blood and bragged about it to Michael later.)

Joss went shopping for Jason's bio-son Jake (I specify that since Lucky is Jake's legal father and Jason hasn't actually been Jake's father at any point thus far), while Jason shopped for Danny himself, purchasing only things for the dog... that isn't even Danny's. This is a weird gift choice, but Joss told him it was awesome, which led to Jason telling Joss she's just like her mother. Which, yes, I agree, Jason going to a store and buying a thing with minimal thought is indeed something Carly would praise Jason for to the heavens to the point of deification. And Joss gave Oscar a biography of Edward Quartermaine because, you know, that's his biological great grandfather! Then Oscar gave Joss a mix CD and a discman and it made me feel one million years old because they were talking about how retro it was and looking at it like an artifact, in the way I'd look at one of those old-timey hand-crank phonograph players.

Look, I'm openly a total luddite, but is it that bad that a CD is like a museum piece now? All the music I buy is on CD or vinyl, because everything's still available that way! So how can it seem that obsolete? Ugh. Aging blows, y'all.

Drew proposed to Sam, formally, with a new ring and all that good stuff. This was the second time this month on this show that a woman proposed to a man and then the man had to turn it around on her like the next day, because we can't go laughing important traditions in the face like that! Even Maxie would tell us it's a bad omen for a woman to propose to her ex-maybe-still-husband's amnesiac-twin-brother-who-has-the-ex's-memories. The man has to be the one!

Anyway, Franco played with a bunch of Jedi stuff and even though I can't stand them together one good thing about being in Liz's house set a lot is that we see her in things besides her scrubs.

It's just nice to see Elizabeth in jeans and a t-shirt. Jason stopped by to drop off Jake's gifts but Jake wasn't having it because, obviously, having yet another new dad is freaking scary and this one is super intense and doesn't smile or make any facial expressions, generally. 

Later Drew showed up for the holiday at the Quartermaines and Monica insisted that he is still her son and always has been, and it made my heart happy. But then actually the most joyous moment in the whole episode happened because I think it was an ad lib. Monica was trying to take Drew's coat, and it got a little tangled up and the hand-off wasn't quite working out so he made a little joke about "so do you want to play tug-of-war with me now?" and she chuckled and played right along and it made me smile because Leslie Charleson and Billy Miller have such a good rhythm together.

Kim had books made for Drew and Monica of Oscar growing up. Oh and Ned was kind of a dick to Drew about ELQ stuff and Michael got grouchy at him.

After Sam looked wistfully at her old engagement "ring" on a chain (as in, her engagement to actual Jason), he showed up at the door. He noticed her new ring and she told him about the re-engagement and there were lots of pauses and looks while they played the Jason/Sam love song. Sam offered to give Jason the penthouse back but he turned it down, and... basically the same with Aurora Media. He told her they were Christmas gifts. They exchanged holiday greetings and parted ways. I'm all in for Drew and Sam at this point but that was really sad.

Sam brought Scout to the Qs and introduced her to her big brother Oscar. Scout wore the cutest friggin' hat and outfit ever and looked very grumpy and I liked it.

Most of the gang welcomed all the new family(ish) members but Ned was very pissy, and Olivia properly scolded him for it. Drew took Oscar aside and gave him some good "the Quartermaines have decent hearts even though they're weird" advice and offered his support. Naturally Oscar eventually noticed Ned's guitar and appealed to the Eddie Maine in him, so there was a little bonding while Ned played the guitar for some Christmas carols. 

Kevin and Laura's minister's wife's water broke so he had to take off. Laura thought they'd have to postpone the wedding but then Lulu opened the door to someone we didn't see and said, "Did someone order a miracle?" (My guess is Lesley?)

And at the end, both Sam and Jason (in separate locations) flashed back to their Christmas with the little Charlie Brown tree.

So that's far from a concluded triangle there.

It was a pretty solid holiday episode, particularly because it had Laura, Kevin, Bobbie, Monica, Ned... all the old-schoolers. And I'm loving how the Quartermaine family is expanding! (I would love it more if it included an Undead AJ.)

As always, mea culpa for too much time between posts. That's just how life's gotta go! But I do at least tweet most episodes over at @SerialDrama (as well as Days and B&B), so visit there or the Facebook page for more frequent chatter.

Am I crazy or is this show on an upward trajectory to close out the year? There are still characters and situations that piss me off, as ever, or make me roll my eyes, as ever. But there's been a major uptick in quality, and I generally look forward to watching. Let us know in the comments below if that's just a mirage!

Happy holidays, my soapy friends!

 

Comments

[C]

While I think Kevin and Laura are sweet together, I don't like how the show plays it like Kevin had no friends/family/life before her. It's so sad to me that he has nobody from HIS life at this wedding, that he had to ask Dante of all people to be his best man because the show decided Mac and Felicia just couldn't be there, etc.

And that Lucy hasn't gotten an on-screen reaction to the love of her life remarrying is just...that's soap opera 101!

It also makes me grouchy when Michael gives Ned crap. Mikey is just so unbelievable as a CEO of a major international corporation.

But I guess we can be thankful for more Q's, evne if they are wet, Cole Thornhart-esque noodles like Oscar. At least Monica is happy and her home is getting full again.

Happy Holidays Louise!

[Elizabeth Kerri Mahon]

I wish that Elizabeth would explain to Jason that one of the reasons that Jake is so attached to Drew is that they were both held captive on Cassadine Island where they were being brain-washed by Helena Cassadine, and that Jake almost blew up the town with the Chimera. That seems like information that Jason would want to know in his quest to find out who was behind this whole plot. I know there are budget constraints but I don't understand why Kevin and Laura couldn't have had Spencer, Anna, Felicia, Mac, Carly and Sonny at their wedding but there were a whole bunch of people at Molly & TJ's. And what kind of wedding would it have been if Scotty and Lucy hadn't shown up to try and wreck it?

[Quinn]

I love Liz, Franco and Star Wars! I’m happy!
Jason is a deadbeat dad. If he wants to know what’s going on with Jake and what he’d like for xmas, he can pickup the phone and call Liz instead of asking Joss to go shopping. I’m just glad Jake has Franco in his life. Actually, I hope Franco adopts all 3 boys.