General Hospital: Five Years is Not Enough

Now I am hardly the first person to be complaining about it, and I spent a good chunk of yesterday having a bit of a meltdown about this. But sometimes a thing just needs to be documented.

There is a disclaimer over all of this that maybe General Hospital is playing an absolute genius long game here and that we're all meant to be freaking out about this massive continuity lapse so they can give us a Big!Reveal! that, as one viewer I wish I could find again suggested on social media, maybe Nikolas got into some of Helena's concoctions and has drugged or mind-chipped Laura, Curtis, and Sam into conveniently forgetting what they know. If an explanation to this is forthcoming, I welcome it. I'd love to be proven wrong here.

Because they know. Boy howdy do (Mayor) Laura and Sam and Curtis know that Nikolas was the one who hired the hitman to kill Hayden. And Curtis knows that Laura and Elizabeth know. Wait, are we sure? Maybe they just momentarily suspected it and then let it go? Maybe it was no big deal and it's just one of those soap things where we have to hand-wave a minor piece of retroactive continuity for a great new story? 

No. We're sure.

Nikolas: Who the hell do you think you are?

Curtis: I'm the man that knows enough to put you in prison for attempted murder. Like I said, I got proof you had Hayden shot.

Hayden: It's true, Nikolas.

Curtis: Hayden hired me to find proof that she was the intended target that day in the garage. Once I found said proof, I took steps to safeguard Hayden.

Nikolas: Wow.

Curtis: And myself.

Nikolas: Convenient. What kind of steps?

Curtis: Like I'm gonna tell you. Let's just say it's enough evidence to get the case reopened. And it's a good bet that they're probably gonna drag your moms in for questioning. Now, is that what you really want?

Nikolas: Every word that comes out of your mouth is a lie.

Curtis: All the cops have to do is assemble ballistics tests to prove that the bullet they took from Hayden's head did not come from Shawn Butler's gun. That'll open a second investigation. I can make that call at any time to make that test happen. And then the dominoes fall. Next thing you know, your ass is on trial for conspiracy and attempted murder. Unless you cooperate. It's really up to you.

Huh. Curtis sure sounds like he knows who did it when he investigated! But now? Now!

Shawn: I know you did a deep dive on the case.

Curtis: Yeah, and I got exactly nowhere...I never found a smoking gun. If I did, I would've immediately notified the cops!

And then Curtis promised to check his old files and see if maybe something "clicks" now that didn't back then. Interesting! Curtis, for whom dishonesty is a dealbreaker, is lying to Shawn's face! He knew this whole time who'd committed the crime. So he's lying, right? Dramatic irony! Clearly that's the story here, right? The next time we see him, he'll obviously have a scene with Sam where they discuss how they're going to handle this. How is Sam going to explain the fact that she knew Shawn was in prison for a crime committed by Nikolas and his hitman? This should be interesting!

Sam: I'm working a case, and it's no secret that Shawn Butler didn't shoot Hayden Barnes and he hired me to find out who did. And that's why I tracked you down here to the MetroCourt, because you're gonna help me find him!

Oh! Well, clearly what she means here is that she knows Nikolas can help her find the shooter, since as they both know, Nikolas hired the shooter.

Sam: Hayden went to see Shawn while she was in prison, and she hinted that she might know the identity of her shooter, but she left Port Charles before Shawn could press her for any information.

Then after asking telling Nikolas they're trying to track down Hayden to find out from her who shot her, she asks Nikolas to let her know if he might have a lead on her location. 

Nikolas: Hayden made toxic friends and questionable choices. My advice to you and Shawn? Stop looking for her, unless you want trouble arriving on your doorstep.

"I drank from the fountain of youth while I was gone, and that fountain means I can erase
bits of your memory just by looking you in the eye"

Huh. It doesn't seem like Sam does remember that she knows who did it. It doesn't seem like Nikolas remembers that Sam knows he did it. Which is particularly odd! BECAUSE IT WAS KIND OF A BIG DEAL AT THE TIME! If I recall correctly, Sam and DrewJakeson confronting him with their new revelation was not a light-touch kind of moment.

"Isn't it crazy how deeply unmemorable this is? We'll probably have completely
forgotten it in five years' time!"

Surely after that, Sam and DrewJakeson calmed down and never brought it up again.

Or wait!

Jason: When you tried to kill Hayden, you left a trail. So you either sell me the stock, or I'm gonna turn you over to the police.

Nikolas: Wow. Look how the far the mighty have fallen. Jason Morgan is now going to the police. That's -- wow.

Jason: You know what? You raise a good point. Maybe I should ask Sam. Sam?

Sam: Yeah, with pleasure.

Jason: Look here, Prince. This isn't a negotiation. You sell me that stock, or you can go to prison.

Nikolas: Okay. It appears that, uh, we have a deal.

Weird! Seems like a massive stock sale based on blackmail that gives controlling interest in ELQ back to the Quartermaines would leave more of an impression five years later. Ah, well.

Oh and just for good measure, here's Laura's face the prior year processing the fact that her son just acknowledged that, yes, indeed he hired someone to kill Hayden.

"I am clearly still a wig on a stick. Does not compute."

That would be October 2015, for all of our records. A thing she found out... from Elizabeth. Who somehow now "didn't want to believe it at the time???" Oh, she believed it. She worked to convince Laura and Hayden not to turn him in.

I imagine everyone's feeling a little sheepish in retrospect about all these people (some of whom allegedly really care for Shawn) covering for the real culprit either to protect him or for some personal or financial gain, but it seems odd to reconcile that by letting Shawn out of prison in a story where we find out he only got the sentence he got because his sentencing judge was a virulent racist. So racism is what sent Shawn to prison for so long (rather than the original story they told, which was trying to say he had changed his worldview, seen the errors of his mob ways, and wanted to serve the time for the crimes he had committed for the Corinthos organization), and that judge was able to make that racist choice due to actions of Nikolas, Laura (the mayor!), Elizabeth, Sam, Hayden, Curtis... and probably a few more I don't have the time or energy to do recon on. I can hardly blame them for wanting to rewrite that now, but they just did this to themselves.

That's a choice, folks. Quite a choice. 

This wasn't a retcon for Jimmy Lee or Grant Putnam or Paul or even some story from the late 90s that never really took hold. This was five years ago (let's not pretend GH has gained a ton of new viewers since then who wouldn't question this, it's pretty much the same viewers!), and it was a big story that had major repercussions, both personal and business.

In short

WHAT

 

IS

 

HAPPENING.

Look, even when a story is a mess or there are (multiple) couples I can't stand, I fully admit the show has been a hell of a lot livelier and more interesting lately than it had been in a while, so this is not some "the show suxxxxx fire evvverybody!!!1!" rant, because those are boring. But seriously

WHAT

 

IS

 

HAPPENING.

Comments

[Louise]

A lot of folks are reminding me elsewhere that I left off Jax as someone who knows. And yes, they (Hayden/Nik) did say something in front of him but I didn't mention him only because THAT minor exchange is the type of thing that I could easily wave away for story purposes. But yes, it's significant that it's on top of all these other 350 things. So add him to the list!

[Elizabeth Kerri Mahon]

I think he knew when Hayden, Jax, and Nikolas were having their pow-wow when Nikolas returned to town after faking his death for 3 years. The writers should face up to the fact that Nikolas is the worst. I mean, his actions haven't been stellar since he came back to Port Charles, he gaslit Ava and then got all salty when she blackmailed him into marriage.

[John Riddle]

You also forgot Finn. Hayden told him about Mike shooting her, blackmailing him and Liz knowing about it.

[Louise]

Keep 'em coming! Anyone else remember another character who knows?