Tick-tock, time's up

It was an explosive week with Dante, and a ship of partygoers, narrowly escaping certain death thanks to several heroic people, Franco making an unexpected sacrifice for Nina, and Ava presumably falling to her death after being shot by Carlos. It's time to dish about who lived, who died, and if there really is a new chapter in the Fluke saga.

February kicked off with an explosive start, truly making it an exciting FanFebruary for us GH fans.

I was a tad bit disappointed that we had two bombs but didn't see any actual explosions -- which is probably why I'm more suited for Ned than any other man on the show -- but there was still plenty of action to keep me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next, starting with the shootout between the Pentonville Gang and Fluke's Minions, Johnny and Carlos.

Johnny impressed me with his foresight to enable the GPS on the contraband phone Sonny and Julian swiped from him in prison because it led Johnny and Carlos straight to their targets. Too bad for Johnny and Carlos, Sonny and his crew were armed, except for poor Ava, and smart enough to split up. Ava was thrown to the wolves by being left with Franco, but it forced Johnny and Carlos to work independently rather than together, which gave the gang a greater chance at survival. Well, at least Sonny and Julian. Ava was pretty much left a sitting duck.

After Franco ditched Ava -- who couldn't really blame him after the beastly way she's always treated him -- she was forced to face off with Carlos. Once her closest ally, Carlos became her executioner because he was furious that she had forced him to confess to a murder he didn't commit by threatening Sabrina and Sabrina's unborn child.

According to Carlos, he snapped at the thought of Ava getting away with her crimes, so he shot her and left her for dead after she tumbled over the railing and into the freezing river below.

I was not swayed by Carlos' "snapped" defense because he's been a mobster for years who has probably killed and committed just as many, if not more, crimes than Ava, which he's gotten away with. I don't feel sorry for him because he spent a few months in jail, since he deserved it. Don't hate on Ava because she managed to figure out an escape plan a few weeks into her sentence.

Carlos' night went from bad to worse when he decided to take Johnny to Sabrina's place to be patched up. Seeing Johnny bleed out from a gunshot wound on her sofa confirmed Sabrina's deepest fear -- Carlos never left the mob. It hit Sabrina like a bolt of lightning that the signs had been there all along, but she had foolishly chosen to ignore them. It became clear to me, as Sabrina forced the ugly truth out of Carlos, including what happened to Ava, that Sabrina was through with him.

That said there was one hilarious moment during those scenes when Carlos waved that wooden spoon around in front of Johnny's face, and Johnny asked if Carlos planned to make cookies. Even my daughter, who was doing homework, cracked up at the banter between Johnny and Carlos as Carlos explained that he thought Johnny could use the spoon to distract Johnny from the pain as Sabrina stitched Johnny up with the biggest needle she could find. As partners in crime, Johnny and Carlos are perfect.

Back at the bridge, Sonny found Ava dangling from a beam, waiting for someone to come along and hoist her up. To her horror, the deed fell to Sonny, who admittedly -- and quite understandably -- was tempted to let her drop to her death. But in the end, he opted to do the right thing because he didn't want to put his youngest child, Avery, through the same pain he had put Michael through when Sonny killed A.J. Plus, it's not what Connie would have wanted.

I was gobsmacked. Sonny actually showed genuine growth in that moment. I'm not ready to embrace him or anything -- Sonny's actions over the past few years have been tortuous to watch -- but if he stays on this road, I might begin to like him again. Maybe.

My friend, Sue, asked if I thought Ava was dead, so I reminded her that without a body, no one is truly dead -- *coughs* Jason -- on a soap. However, I suspect that Ava will not be gracing our television screens anytime soon because, as a character, she has been written into a corner, which makes it impossible for her to walk the streets a free woman.

But I do see hints that reports of Ava's demise had been premature and that Silas might have played a role in getting her to safety and possibly treating her gunshot wound. The calm manner in which Silas behaved when he arrived home, explaining he had been busy with a patient (Ava?), and then urging Kiki not to ever give up hope on her mother all suggested that Silas knew something about Ava's fate that no one else did.

Perhaps it's wishful thinking on my part because I love Maura West and would love to have her return for occasional visits to stir up trouble, but I really don't think Ava is dead; she's just gone for now.

Unlike Sonny, Ava didn't save a boat full of people, including the daughter of the governor of New York.

Dear Readers, I do not like Ivy. I disliked how she picked up Nikolas in an elevator on her way to meet her date at a party, even if Kyle Sloane is a dirty dog and crooked police commissioner. I also disliked how she obsessively called Nikolas when he failed to show for the party until her phone battery died. But, I especially disliked how she decided to send Sam's call to voicemail when Ivy borrowed Patrick's phone so she could leave yet another whiny and needy-sounding voicemail for Nikolas to call her back.

I don't like desperate women, and Ivy reeked of it when she ran over to Nikolas' castle the following morning to ask why he didn't call her. Not for a minute do I believe that she actually wanted him to lose her number, otherwise she would have blocked his number on her cell phone and moved on without giving him another thought. Something about her screams, "I wanna be a princess."

I suspect that Ivy's daddy, the governor, intends to give Sonny -- a confessed killer, reputed mobster, and prison escapee -- a full pardon for saving his precious Ivy, so I can't wait to see Michael's reaction on Monday. If the glimpse we had of Michael's reaction to Sonny referring to him as "son" was anything to go by, I expect steam to shoot out of Michael's ears and a full-blown meltdown to commence. It's always a thing of beauty when Michael rants at Sonny.

I wouldn't blame Michael because as much as Carly tried to use Sonny's brush with death to manipulate Michael into forgiving Sonny, the bottom line is that Sonny murdered Michael's father. Michael loved A.J. and feels betrayed by Sonny, so while Sonny and Michael will probably get past what happened with A.J., it's going to take time and far more than Sonny saving Michael's life to get there. I really felt Michael's pain when he explained to Dante that thanking the man who killed his father felt disloyal to A.J.

True, Michael yelled out "Dad" several times after the explosion as he desperately scanned the water for Sonny, but that doesn't mean that all is forgiven. Michael loved and idolized Sonny, which makes Sonny's betrayal cut so deep.

By the way, I was not making a dig at Carly. If I were in her situation, I would do everything possible to get my child back into my life, even if it meant resorting to a little manipulation. Carly is desperate, and I understand why she would use every tool in her arsenal to get through to Michael. I think Carly realizes that if Michael can forgive Sonny, then he will be able to get past what she and Morgan did. However, I think Carly is going about it the wrong way. She should focus on repairing her relationship with Michael first, then helping him mend fences with Morgan because those baby steps will ultimately open Michael's heart and mind toward getting past Sonny's betrayal.

Although, I have to concede it's hard to have any sympathy for Morgan because this week he proved how completely disconnected he is from what Michael has been through by making that ridiculous remark about Michael being too busy "nursing a little grudge" against Sonny to take the time to thank Sonny for saving Michael's life. I wonder how Morgan would feel if someone he loved and trusted were to murder his father in cold blood and then have everyone expect Morgan to thank that person for saving Morgan's life. Something tells me Morgan would have a far more violent attitude than Michael.

Meanwhile, at the Port Charles Police Station, Nathan had a chat with Jordan during which he actually solved a crime. Yes, you read that right; the Port Charles police solved a crime. If you want to get technical, Nathan solved several crimes this week, which has to be a department record.

First, Nathan arrested Jake after Carly turned over evidence that proved Jake had helped Faison escape. Of course, it won't stick because Jake was brainwashed and will soon be revealed to be Jason, so his crimes will be chalked up to temporary brain-freeze/mind control, but it still counts because Nathan closed the case on Faison's escape.

Next, Nathan proved he's not just another pretty face when he figured out that his partner, Dante, was in danger at the Elm Street house because Luke Spencer might be Bill Eckert, evildoer extraordinaire. Luckily for Dante, Nathan arrived in the knick of time to save his dazed and confused partner from certain death.

One of the most touching moments this week was when Dante, resigned to his fate, dropped to his knees and began to talk about how much he loved Rocco and regretted that he had failed to save the people he loved. It had me reaching for the Puffs Plus, while ignoring my snickering teenaged son who thinks it's silly for mom to get weepy over soaps.

After Nathan got Dante settled in at the hospital, he hotfooted it over to the Haunted Star to arrest Fluke/Luke. A collective gasp rang out as Nathan quickly filled everyone in about Fluke/Luke's recent shenanigans including nearly killing Dante.

Fluke has turned into a mystery wrapped in an enigma and drizzled with a conundrum.

At the close of Friday's show, it was revealed that the remains recovered from the house on Elm Street had been dead for at least two decades. However, this is GH we are talking about. I wouldn't trust a simple pee-stick pregnancy test from that place, so the results of any test should be taken with a boulder of salt.

Minutes later, Nathan arrived at the morgue to reveal that they ran Fluke/Luke's fingerprints through the system, and they were a match for Luke Spencer. Since we've seen everyone from Spinelli to Helena hack into the PCPD's computer system to access information and delete files, that information is highly suspect as well.

Meanwhile, in jail, Fluke/Luke was adamant that Bill Eckert was dead, thereby ruling out the possibility that Luke had been killed twenty years earlier and Bill had taken over Luke's life. However, Fluke/Luke insisted that the answer had been right in front of everyone's face all along, which means nothing to me. Is he an identical twin? A clone? A freaking chimera?

Whoever or whatever Fluke/Luke is, I hope that next chapter of his life he was babbling to Helena about will be blessedly short and end with him being pulled down into the bowels of hell by those shadow demons from Ghost.

Fluke/Luke deserves to die for many reasons, but most of all for that chilling scene when he ordered Nikolas to his knees and then prepared to shoot Nikolas in the head. Why Helena would continue to conspire with Fluke/Luke is beyond me because it was clear from those scenes that she truly does love Nikolas. Helena's frantic pleas to spare her grandson's life were genuine. I saw the terror in her eyes at the thought of losing Nikolas, so I was a bit surprised that she didn't grab her trusty dagger and bury it deep in Fluke/Luke's heart.

Helena actually appeared relieved when Nathan, super-cop that he is, burst through the French doors with his SWAT team and promptly took Helena and Fluke/Luke into custody, earning Nathan the gold star of the week in my book.

Finally, Franco made a huge sacrifice by injecting himself with a hefty dose of LSD, so he could rightfully be declared insane and stay at Shadybrook with Nina. He promised to fight his way back through the psychedelic hallucinations to Nina, so she vowed to wait for him at the end of the rainbow.

Those two crazy kids. As sweet as those scenes between Franco and Nina were, I couldn't help but wonder how Franco -- who is currently tripping down Alice's rabbit hole -- intends to protect Nina from further attempts on her life by his psychotic mother, Heather, who appears to have free rein over Shadybrook and access to a laboratory where she can whip up batches of LSD with ease.

I loved Helena's fashion choice for the explosion. She channeled her inner Dr. Zhivago and rocked that snow white fur hat and coat. I expected her to hop on a troika then glide across the ice to Spoon Island to check on her darling Nikolas rather than take the launch.

It's official. Silas has a teeny-tiny apartment. I didn't realize how small it was until Kyle instructed the police officers to fan out and search it only for them to return three seconds later to inform Kyle that the apartment was clear. Not only is it small, but apparently it's also very sparsely furnished. No wonder Nina went crazy-er during her stay there.

I found it interesting that Liz learned about Jake's arrest and the explosion by watching the news on television at the nurses' station. Liesl must not be cracking down that hard if she allows the staff to watch television while on duty. My Julexis (Julian/Alexis) heart quivered with joy when Alexis raced to Julian's bedside, but why exactly didn't Alexis alert hospital security about Fluke/Luke's attempt on Julian's life as soon as Fluke/Luke stormed out in a snit because his plot to smother Julian had been foiled by Alexis' impeccable timing?

Patrick explains Sam's absence from the party to Lucas and Brad Brad

: "Dr. Drake, you made it."Patrick: "Yeah."Lucas: "What happened to Sam?"Patrick: "She's actually, uh, still down at the station, doing a follow-up."Lucas: "You reported the phoenix stolen?"Patrick: "Well, we went down there with that intention, but when we, uh, got there, the culprit was already in custody."Brad: "For stealing a figurine? Wow, the department's really cracking down."

Even Sonny is getting tired of trying to figure out who Fluke isFluke: "You would really shoot me? You understand? You would really shoot your old friend, Luke Spencer?"Sonny: "I wouldn't hurt Luke -- but Bill Eckert, that's a different story."Fluke: "Don't tell me you bought into that cousin look-alike thing, too."Sonny: "I don't care who you are -- Bill Eckert, Faison, somebody back from oblivion."

Ned and Tracy talk about Fluke and Helena Ned: "I'm sorry. Luke and Helena Cassadine? How much have you had to drink, mother?"Tracy: "Oh, not nearly enough."Ned: "What happened?"Tracy: "Picture this. Michael's party is going swimmingly, or swimmingly enough, until Luke has a heated argument with Dante on the phone. He storms off to get some air. I decide to check on him. Where do I find him? With that vile woman!"Ned: "Was he in danger?"Tracy: [ Laughs ] "Oh, on the contrary. She was cuddled up to him like a teenager on a date. And Luke was not resisting."

Liesl has issues with Nathan's career choices after he was nearly killed in an explosionNathan: "Yeah, I'll probably be steering clear of basements for a while."Liesl: "Perhaps just look into another line of work altogether. Why stay in a profession in which you've been shot, kidnapped, and nearly blown up on several occasions? Find something less dangerous, like farming or modeling."

Take care and happy viewing,Liz Masters

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