General Hospital Has All the Pieces in Place — and *Out* of Place! — to Electrify Port Charles

Helena, Stavros and Stefan Cassadine are long gone. Victor Cassadine is now really, most sincerely dead. Nikolas Cassadine is sleeping it off. Valentin Cassadine… well, he’s a pussycat. And Spencer Cassadine… he’s a card-carrying good guy. So you can well imagine the other characters on General Hospital breathing a sigh of relief. Port Charles’ scariest family has, for all intents and purposes, been neutralized.

For now. No way is ABC’s soap going to let Ava keep Wyndemere and leave the canvas without a supervillain. No, the powers that be are sure to introduce a new Cassadine to evict Nikolas’ former wife and attempt to do what Victor couldn’t: lure Spencer over to the dark side. But who? Our money’s on Sophia Cassadine getting the call.

“My own haunted house? I’ll drink to that.”

Credit: ABC screenshot

Every Death You Fake

Though Mikkos, Victor and Tony’s sister is said to be deceased, we all know how fast and loose Cassadines play with death. She could have been merely hiding out until she got word that Victor was no longer walking the earth to shorten her life expectancy. Imagine what could happen…

Sophia comes to Port Charles with her “nurse,” Eugenia, and feigns surprise to find Ava living at the clan’s castle. Playing up her vague “condition,” Sophia receives from Ava an invitation to stay. The house has so very many rooms, and it might be nice when Avery isn’t around not to have to guess that the footsteps she hears are ghosts.

Little by little, Sophia charms not only Ava but Spencer and Valentin. The reason Victor wanted her head on a platter was because she was determined to right the (So! Many!) wrongs of the past by turning the Cassadine empire into a force for good. And no, not by wiping out most of the planet!

Imagine Days of Our Lives’ Olivia Rose Keegan (ex-Claire) and Robin Strasser (Dorian, One Life to Live) as Genie and Sophia.

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (2)

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Spencer and Valentin happily come onboard her charitable endeavor, blissfully unaware that Sophia has masterminded the ultimate money-laundering scheme. Cut off from the family fortune decades ago, she’s broke and intent on bleeding her relatives dry as soon as she gains access to their coffers.

How does Eugenia fit in? The meek young woman is a con artist who made the mistake of trying to fleece Sophia, who had no dough to steal. Their chance acquaintance gave Sophia the idea to team up to take her family for all they were worth. While Sophia handled the business end, Eugenie — Genie to her friends — would cozy up to Spencer.

Obviously, Trina’s beau is completely and totally devoted to her. So Genie’s strategy would be to praise their relationship, all while playing up her own pathetic lack of self-worth. Esme, of all people, would see through the act. She’d even warn Trina. But both she and Spencer would be suckered. Terrible parents, Genie would lead them to believe, drilled it into her that she was stupid, she was ugly, she was unlovable…

“I only have lips for you.”

Credit: ABC screenshot

A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss

During a particularly fraught “confession” to Spencer, Genie would admit, “embarrassing” as it is, that she’s never been kissed. No one has ever wanted to. No one has ever looked at her and thought, “I can’t help myself. I have to—”

And just like that, Spencer’s lips would be on hers. It would an impulse. A foolish one, just to make Genie feel better. But, thanks to Sophia, Trina happens to be in the right place at the right time to see it. Unfortunately for the scheme team, they have a far bigger problem to deal with: Anna. Removing Trina from Spencer’s side may be child’s play, but separating Valentin and Anna… that’s a whole other ballgame!

See who’s who in the Cassadine family in the below photo gallery.