Now that Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) has finally done away with FBI Agent John “Jagger” Cates, General Hospital fans can rejoice. When he was originally played by Antonio Sabàto Jr. in the 1990s, he was an honorable and decent guy. But when Adam J. Harrington took over the part in early 2024, he was portrayed as being far from that. Jagger would do anything he could to get what he wanted, and this time, he wanted to get revenge on Sonny for getting the agent's late ex-wife—Karen Wexler (Cari Shayne)—hooked on drugs and having her strip in his nightclubwhen when she'd been a minor.
To that end, Jagger did a lot of questionable things that weren’t always necessarily legal. Let’s take a look at some of his major misdeeds.
Captured Jason and forced him to do Cates's bidding
In 2021, mob enforcer Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) was on a mission to save his brother Drew Quartermaine (Cameron Mathison) and several others from the clutches of the villainous Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy). During the debacle, Jason ran into a cave after the villain Peter August (Wes Ramsey), and it collapsed on him. Everyone believed Jason was dead, but he had managed to escape to other side of the island, where Agent Cates and his men had met Jason and promptly captured him.
The plan was simple: Jagger had an audio recording from when Carly had stepped into Sonny’s shoes as head of the mob in Port Charles, announcing to the Five Families that she was in control. Jagger threatened to charge Carly with RICO crimes unless Jason did as Jagger ordered. Jagger tasked Sonny's enforcer with infiltrating the defense contract group known as Pikeman to find out who their leader was. As a result, Jason lost two years of his life and time with his loved ones, including his two sons.
John Cates interrogated Jason’s young son
After Jason was revealed to be alive and in Port Charles, he tried to make up for lost time with his kids. He managed to find some moments to bond with his son, Danny (Asher Antonyzyn), and Cates saw this as one of Jason’s vulnerable spots that he could exploit. He entered the Quartermaine mansion, where Danny was hanging out, and caught Danny alone, immediately questioning Danny about his father's whereabouts. Danny lied and said he hadn’t seen his dad, but fortunately, Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton) intervened when she saw what was going on.
Brook Lynn blasted John because he shouldn’t have been interrogating a young boy without the express permission of his parents. Her anger scared the FBI agent off, and she gave Danny pointers on how to talk to the authorities.
Cates blackmailed Jason — again
Jason’s mission under Cates was to find out who was running Pikeman, and in exchange, the evidence against Carly would have been deleted. Jason held up his end of things and learned that Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) had been running the organization. But Valentin managed to skip town, and Cates was so angry that he refused to get rid of the evidence against Carly. He ordered Jason to go on another assignment, or Carly would go to jail.
Fortunately, WSB agent John Brennan (Charles Mesure) got rid of the evidence without anyone knowing who did it, and Carly was no longer in danger of being imprisoned.
Cates didn’t tell anyone Sonny’s medication was altered
Because Sonny wouldn’t allow Pikeman to move illegal arms through Port Charles, Valentin (before he absconded) struck the mobster in a vulnerable spot. He forced Sonny's online pharmacist to reduce Sonny’s bipolar medication to 25% strength, so Sonny would slowly spiral out of control without realizing it. Valentin plotted to get rid of the mafia don, who would be in a weakened and confused state, and push Pikeman’s wares through town.
Ava Jerome (Maura West) was staying with Sonny for safety reasons, but she eventually figured out that Sonny’s meds had been tampered with. Later, she got angry with him and made the pharmacist replace them with placebos. She had been sidling up to Cates and told him what was going on with Sonny’s meds, so he also tried to use the situation to his advantage.
Cates tried to bait Sonny, who was spiraling into paranoia and depression, into hitting him, but fortunately, Sonny's son, Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell), caught Sonny’s arm and prevented him from attacking the FBI agent. Things got so bad for Sonny that he almost jumped off the hospital roof, but an appearance from his late son, Morgan (Bryan Craig), kept Sonny from following through with the impulse. After Sonny sought help, the truth about his medication/placebos came to light, and he was back on the right track.
Cates used threats, coercion, and assassination to get what he wanted
Cates, frustrated that he couldn’t get Sonny, tried a different tactic. Because Ava and Sonny were in a custody fight over their daughter, Avery (Ava and Grace Scarola), Ava had subpoenaed his pregnant daughter, Kristina (Kate Mansi), to testify on Ava's behalf. Kristina had witnessed Sonny beating up Dex Heller (Evan Hofer), and Ava wanted Kristina to share the details in court. Kristina was angry and went to Ava’s hotel room to confront her. During the fracas, the young woman tripped and fell out of the window into the Metro Court Hotel’s pool, which caused fatal injuries to the unborn baby.
Sonny had surveillance on Ava’s room, and he gave the authorities pictures of what had happened. Cates used that as a weapon and turned things around by interpreting the pictures as Kristina attacking Ava. He arrested Kristina and simultaneously coerced Ava into making a false statement that Kristina had attacked her. He clearly was not above using Sonny’s own daughter against him, making Cates more reprehensible in everyone’s eyes.
Once Ava gave an official statement, Jagger realized that she would get cold feet and recant. He hired a woman to pretend to be an FBI agent, who would be Ava’s guard. The woman, Linda Boyle (Amor Owens), drove Ava out to the Pine Barrens with the intention of killing her, but thankfully, Jason showed up and saved her, thwarting the villain.
Ultimately, FBI Agent John “Jagger” Cates met his end when Sonny shot him at point-blank range and then shot him again for good measure, ending Jagger's reign of terror on General Hospital.
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