Rarely does anyone in town mention that when first we met Sonny, he was running a strip joint and getting underage girls hooked on pills. Well, anyone but Scott, whose daughter, Karen, was one of those girls! Instead, most people — including the local police — ignore the shadier side of Sonny’s halo.
In Port Charles, you’re nobody until somebody’s tried to shoot you. But where Sonny’s concerned, the bullets have hit their mark as often as they’ve missed! Despite having eaten more lead than is produced by a pencil factory in a year, Sonny’s managed to avoid having his name written in that great ledger in the sky.
One of those aforementioned shootings took place on what was to be Sonny’s wedding day. But instead of walking down the aisle to remarry Carly, he raced to save a kidnapped T.J. and wound up taking a bullet which left him in a wheelchair. Proving you can’t keep a (questionably) good man down, he ultimately took a literal stand to protect daughter Kristina from a would-be kidnapper.
We don’t know exactly what illegal activities fund Sonny’s empire, but we know he’s darned good at them! For years, he’s not only kept his family in the style to which it’s become accustomed (translation: He’s rich!), but he’s prevented rivals from selling drugs or running guns in “his” town, at least until the recent arrival of Cyrus Renault.
Discovering that he’s bipolar was, as Dr. Phil would say, a changing day in Sonny’s life. (The same proved true for portrayer Maurice Benard, who writes about his struggle with the disorder in his memoir, Nothing General About It.) It not only enhanced his understanding of himself and his behavior, it made him uniquely qualified to help son Morgan, who shared the same diagnosis before his tragic demise.
Don’t tell current wife Carly, but we suspect a big part of Sonny’s heart will always be with the one who got away, Brenda Barrett. Ironically, when their one and only attempt at marriage fell apart, Carly — who, all told, wed Sonny five times — was the one who fought to keep them from divorcing.
The former wives and lovers of Port Charles’ dimpled don have plenty of reason to despise him, yet somehow they don’t. Olivia forgave him for shooting their son, Dante. And clearly, Carly got over that whole shot-her-in-the-head-while-she-was-birthing-Morgan thing! Even Sonny and Ava have occasionally put aside their differences for the sake of Avery, the adorable result of their evening of hate sex.
There’s a poignant irony to the fact that Sonny is struggling to let go of his ailing father, given how many years they spent estranged. Long ago, Mike (then Ron Hale) walked away from his son without a backward glance, leading to a lifetime of regrets and recriminations. Will Sonny now be able to live with whatever decision he makes where his father’s ultimate fate is concerned?
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