Even With the Tragic News of Jason’s Death, This Year the Cassadines Took Home the Trophy for the Most Awkward Thanksgiving on General Hospital

Credit: ABC screenshot

The citizens of Port Charles celebrated Thanksgiving a week late on General Hospital, and there is a new reigning champaign when it comes to awkward and disastrous holiday dinners. News of Jason’s death brought a lot of heartache, and Valentin continued to break our hearts in dealing with the truth about Bailey. 

Thanksgiving Wars

Normally it’s just the Quartermaines who historically have a terrible time on Thanksgiving, but this year the Cassadines entered as challengers and took away the trophy. With every unexpected knock at the door bringing another uninvited relative she delivered zingers such as, “What in fresh hell?” and, “Who is it now, Satan?” And Victor, who we haven’t seen in a while, appearing out of nowhere was a great treat. Watching everyone’s reaction to learning Victor was Valentin’s father, and Alexis cringing, “You and Helena? Ew!” just added to the dysfunctional drama. Even more surprising was when Victor declared himself the family patriarch and suggested they stop the infighting and stand together. I am absolutely loving Charles Shaughnessy in this role! There was also a subtle warning from Victor that they needed to be united as a potential crisis was headed their way. This could be the issue bigger than Peter that Victor recently mentioned was his top priority. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a Cassadine gathering as much as this one in a long time.

Over at the Quartermaines, there was plenty of drama between Valentin’s and Drew’s arrivals. Valentin brought the hammer down on the Quartermaines, revealing he had his contract with BLQ voided and had taken back his ELQ shares, leaving him in the CEO position. In last week’s column, I theorized that somehow Valentin would stay in control of ELQ, though I thought perhaps it would involve Austin’s help. Even though Austin is still rubbing me the wrong way, I would like to see Valentin somehow give him a piece of the company. And while I felt no sympathy for Brook Lynn, I did not like seeing Valentin taking his anger out on Chase and setting him up for a six-month suspension. As Anna pointed out, he’s moved on from being that man. I was relieved that Valentin later admitted he regretted doing that to Chase. It showed us that he wasn’t backsliding completely.

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Drew’s arrival with pizza in hand was the second shock of the holiday, and one that came mixed joy and sadness as he delivered the news of Jason’s death. Finally seeing Cameron Mathison interacting with more than the Crete crowd really made me appreciate his casting as Drew even more. It’s always difficult when a new actor steps into a role and has big shoes to fill, but Mathison has amazing chemistry with pretty much every actor he’s interacted with so far. However it was his scenes with Leslie Charleson (Monica), and Charleson’s performance in the learning of Jason’s death, that impressed me the most. Charleson was the shining star of the week, hands down. Still, one thing was missing and didn’t go unnoticed…

What I missed was the Q’s singing
“We Gather Together” for Thanksgiving.
Are the Q’s now officially non-believing atheists? pic.twitter.com/ugcJ2w9X1G

— Louise Gaines (@LouiseGaines18) December 2, 2021

Peter’s Homecoming and Maxie’s Turnabout

Peter checked into General Hospital to have his little tiny flesh wound after being shot by Jason treated. Does Pentonville not have a hospital capable of looking after him? And there were only three guards watching over him. Why not just open the door and let him walk free? Austin did score some points with me for jabbing Peter in the arm with the syringe when trying to take blood from him, but the more interaction between the two, the more likely one or both of them is going to follow the breadcrumb trail to Bailey. The only good thing to come about Peter’s presence in the hospital was his run-in with Nina. Carly stumbled upon them as they argued about Nina falling in love with Sonny. I know not to get my hopes up that she overheard anything at all, as once again it looks like Peter has found a way to have leverage over Nina, and maybe even Sonny?

Though Brook Lynn maintained Bailey was better off with Chase as her pretend dad, Maxie didn’t agree. I’m on Maxie’s side here as she rightly pointed out, Valentin has the means and desire to put Peter down like the rabid dog he is. Kirsten Storms gave another powerhouse performance this week between her reunion with Drew, voicing her fears about Peter, and her reaction to seeing Valentin’s heartbreaking goodbye to Bailey. No doubt about it, Valentin should have been brought in on the truth about Bailey. Not only would it make him slightly more sympathetic to the situation, but he would move heaven and earth to keep Peter away from her. Part of Friday’s cliffhanger had Maxie coming to the realization her lies had hurt far too many people and they had to stop. Please oh please let that mean she’s going to get Nathan’s gun and put an end to Peter once and for all. What an early Christmas gift that would be!

First Time Falls Flat

Dante and Sam’s first time making love fell completely flat for me for a number of reasons. Sam had just been reunited with Drew and learned of Jason’s death, making it hard to believe sex was on her mind at that moment. Then there was the fact that she and Dante did it in the bed Sam shared with the now-dead Jason not so long ago, and all their kids were in the next room. It wasn’t exactly what I’d consider a romantic first-time. Also, given that Dante and Sam have only been together for a hot second, how did Scout become so attached and clingy to Dante?

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Sam’s second major order of business this week was to suggest to Alexis that she become her private investigating partner seeing she’s down a helper thanks to Curtis’ retirement. Well, it’s a step up from watching Alexis help Shawn run his non-profit, but is this the right direction for Alexis?

His Name is Liam Michael Corbin

We got a lot less Brando and Sasha baby drama this week, which was welcomed seeing how much airtime they’ve been dominating. I thought naming their boy after Mike was touching, as well as the explanation of the choice of the name Liam. And so far Liam hasn’t fallen victim to the General Hospital curse of killing off children. Plus Liam will facilitate a lot of uncomfortable run-ins between Carly and Nina, so he’s sure to make a recovery for that purpose alone.

Carly and Sonny’s Most Important Person

As I also noted in last week’s column, Jason’s death could be the catalyst that pushes Sonny closer to Nina. In her grief, Carly’s letting her guard down a little too much. She barely stopped herself in the nick of time from telling Sonny that Jason was the most important person to her, quickly changing “her” to “us.” Meanwhile, she continues to lash out at Nina at every chance she gets, not that she is unjustified. However, the way Sonny just turns his head and the expressions on his face… It’s as if we can all hear Sonny saying to himself, “Lord help me with these women!” And after every time Carly lashes out at Nina, it’s telling that Sonny hangs around just to make some kind of small talk with Nina. We see you, Sonny!

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Predictably Carly also lashed out and blamed Britt for Jason’s death, which only made me empathize more with Britt than feel sorry for Carly. However kudos to Carly for later apologizing to Britt, and to Britt for being the bigger person and offering support to Carly on Friday’s episode.

A Welcomed Reunion and Unwelcomed Return

Scott and Obrecht had one of the funniest reunions we’ve seen in a long time, with Austin likely going temporarily blind after walking in on them going at it like rabbits in Obrecht’s hospital bed.

Meanwhile, Cyrus’ return continues to hover like a dark raincloud. Even though I could have done with a little more time before we had to deal with him again, it at least is ushering in the return of Genie Francis’ as Laura, along with Michael E. Knight as Martin. Oh how I’ve missed them, and here is hoping their time in witness protection has drawn the siblings closer.

As usual, these are only my opinions. Please join the conversation below in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

Untangle the branches the Cassadine family tree with the photo gallery below.