Sweet dreams (are made of this)

Exploding fireworks weren't the only things to rock Port Charles on the Fourth of July as Ava confided the truth to Franco, Dante had an illicit night of passion with Valerie, and the prayers of a grieving mother were answered. Secrets, lies, and a shocking twist have our columnist eager to dish in this week's Two Scoops.

Monday was the kind of episode that made me so very glad to be a General Hospital fan. It was a smorgasbord of delicious goodness from the moment Lucky ran into the lumber mill with guns blazing, just in the nick of time to save his parents from Frank Smith's deadly intentions, to Laura not hesitating to pick up a gun and join the melee of gunfire as one by one, Frank Smith's men fell. Rock on, Laura. Show that boy his momma is the original ride or die chick.

Then there was the shocking -- and very exciting -- revelation that young Jake is alive. More on that later, though.

First, let's talk about Ava's decision to clue Franco in on her little secret. It was done in spectacular fashion when Ava quietly made her confession as the night sky lit up with fireworks. The booms underscored her words as Franco slowly realized that Ava was indeed back and in action. His horrified expression and resigned, "Hello, Ava," cracked me up, but Ava had once again underestimated him. She had inadvertently given him the means to clear Nina's name by revealing that Silas, not Nina, had snatched Avery.

Something tells me that both Ava and Silas will live to regret that when Nina eventually finds out. And she will. Franco will make sure of it when he figures out what Ric is really up to as a way to desperately regain her trust before it's too late.

While Ava and Franco's titillating uneasy alliance made me smile, Dante's actions with Valerie had my blood boiling and steam shooting out my ears. Okay, it wasn't my ears -- it was my mouth -- and the steam was actually a slew of obscenities.

Where do I start? Oh, yeah, Dante is a hot-tempered, dirty, lying, low-life, faithless, cheating snake.

Nothing, not even suspecting his wife of cheating, excuses Dante from sleeping with Valerie, especially since it wasn't about sex. If it had been about sex, Dante would have picked up a stranger in a bar and taken her to a seedy motel where he paid cash by the hour.

Instead, Dante picked the one woman he knew had feelings for him -- whom he admittedly was drawn to -- and had sex with her in the bed that he shared with his wife and in which he played with his son. If that wasn't enough, he then invited her to take a shower in his family's bathroom. The levels of betrayal didn't end there. Valerie is Lulu's cousin and someone Lulu had repeatedly expressed concerns about, which Dante insisted had been completely baseless.

From a soap opera standpoint, the affair has all the elements of a perfect storm, especially when you factor in the ramifications an unplanned pregnancy might have on Dante and Lulu's marriage. Lulu has a boatload of issues because she can no longer produce eggs or carry a child. The idea of her own cousin, the woman her husband had been unfaithful with, giving Dante the child Lulu can't would tear Lulu apart and quite possibly destroy any hope of saving the marriage.

To quote Sonny, "Dante is dead to me."

It wasn't enough that Dante allowed his jealousy to spiral so out of control that he followed his wife around town, dumped his son on his father's doorstep, flew all the way to Canada to confront his wife -- only to leave without talking to her -- and then betrayed her upon his return home, but he had the temerity to continue to rage at Lulu once she clarified that she had been off to save Lucky, not get lucky with Dillon.

I hated the way Dante treated Dillon, who had only shown up at Sonny's request to assure Dante that Dillon and Lulu were just friends and Lulu only had eyes for her husband. Dante was a total jackass to Dillon for no other reason than because Dillon had been at the right place at the right time when Luke decided to come clean about Lucky's kidnapping.

The reality is that Dante had been unfaithful to Lulu long before she left town with Dillon. That was why he was so jealous; he was projecting. He openly and freely admitted to Valerie that something had been growing between them, and he initiated every kiss and caress. The only regret Dante had the following morning was that he hadn't officially ended things with Lulu before sleeping with Valerie, which might be why Valerie foolishly assumed she and Dante had a chance at a relationship.

My disgust with Dante was complete when he justified keeping his cheating ways a secret by claiming that confessing the one-night stand to Lulu would be a selfish attempt on his part to clear his conscience at the expense of others. What utter rubbish. The truth is, Dante doesn't want to be called out for being a great ole big hypocrite because he did exactly what he falsely accused Lulu of doing.

I don't disagree that Lulu had been wrong to lie to Dante, but Dante didn't have any faith in his wife. None. He wanted to believe the worst because he wanted an excuse to sleep with Valerie.

Normally, I don't hold the other woman responsible for a cheating husband's actions unless she drugged him or took great pains to manipulate the situation. However, Valerie is held to a higher standard because she is Lulu's cousin.

Regardless how long the cousins have known each other, there is a universal family code. Having lustful thoughts about your cousin's spouse is bad but not something a person can control. However, acting on those feelings is another matter. That's a line one should never cross, so Valerie didn't score any points with me by leaping over that line and into Dante's arms. It was wrong, especially when Valerie then flashed her claws by badmouthing Lulu to Jordan in an effort to justify the slimy affair.

After this week, I am Team Dillon. Lulu deserves better than Dante, who appears to be following in Sonny's footsteps when it comes to women.

Speaking of people who deserve better, Tracy bumped into ex-husband Paul Hornsby at the airport when he popped into town to visit Dillon for the first time since Dillon was conceived. Tracy was at the airport because she had to *gasp* fly commercial. Apparently Nikolas cut the Quartermaines off from using ELQ's jet as a way to further stick it to them. After some witty back-and-forth banter between the two exes, Tracy and Paul went to the Quartermaine mansion, where we learned that Paul's wife, Jenny Eckert dumped him for another man.

So it appears that both Tracy and Paul are on the rebound. It's not hard to see where this is headed, since Tony Geary is on his way out. I admit that I'm intrigued. Tracy and Paul have potential because Paul is charming and might be the perfect partner to help Tracy wrest control of ELQ from Nikolas. She just has to find a way to stay one step ahead of Paul because he's a crafty scoundrel with a history of dastardly behavior.

Monica wistfully confessed that she wished she could fill the mansion with Quartermaines. It looks like she just might get her wish because not only is Jason waiting in the wings to return to the family fold, but so is his son Jake.

The latter is going to happen sooner rather than later because at the close of Friday's show, Lucky knocked on Elizabeth's door, while Luke and young Jake waited in the side of the yard.

From the moment they showed Jake, I was over-the-moon happy because they had cast one of the Nigbor twins (James and Edward) who had portrayed Jake at the time of the accident. It was a brilliant move because it eradicated any doubt that Jake is indeed alive.

As a side note: that boy's expressions are priceless. When Jake looked at Lucky with skepticism while Lucky explained that he was Jake's father and intended to take Jake home, I cracked up laughing. It was perfect and so very reminiscent of the Jake I had always loved.

I've already received feedback about it being impossible for Jake to be alive, but I respectfully disagree. There have always been lingering questions that led many to speculate about the possibility that someone had kidnapped/switched Jake. For example, there had been a mysterious black car spotted on the road the night of the accident, but no one ever followed up on it because it had been quickly determined that Luke had struck Jake, which had effectively closed the case.

Also, Elizabeth and Lucky had been warned before they saw their son that he would be unrecognizable. It completely fits in with the story the writers have crafted for us now. Helena had indeed been in town during the time of the accident, and it is perfectly logical to think that she would take advantage of a tragic situation like that to break Luke.

The matter of Josslyn receiving Jake's kidney is easily explained. At the time, there had been a black market ring transporting human organs through Port Charles. Plus, a person can live a long and healthy life with just one kidney. Either Helena arranged for Josslyn to get a kidney on the black market or Jake's kidney was indeed donated before one of Helena's "winged monkeys" spirited Jake to Cassadine Island.

Regardless, I'm happy for Liz because no one should ever have to experience the death of a child. More than that, I never agreed with the decision to kill off Jake because he's an important legacy character on both sides of his family. Both Steve Hardy and Edward Quartermaine are his great-grandfathers. There are few characters with such rich family history behind them, so it seemed absolutely senseless to kill him off.

I'm eager to see the reunion between mother and child because it's guaranteed to be incredibly emotional. Rebecca Herbst is a phenomenal actress, and I just know that she's going to knock it out of the ballpark, especially with Jonathan Jackson and Tony Geary in the scenes with her. I just hope that the return of her son will be the push Liz needs to finally come clean to Jason about who he really is. I'm tired of watching her keep the secret. It's exhausting to see her constantly weep and worry about her lies catching up with her. These days, she's as jumpy as a spider on a hotplate.

It's growing increasingly clear to me that Jason and Sam are the endgame as they begin to reconnect as more than friends. The spark is there, so it's only a matter of time before we have fire, especially as Jason and Sam continue to work together trying to uncover Nikolas' secrets.

Could one of those secrets be about Jake? My gut tells me that Laura is right; Nikolas did not know that Helena had been keeping Jake stashed away on the island for five years. I know Nikolas lived there for a while and visited often with Britt, but Helena's people are loyal to a fault. I could see them keeping Jake hidden from Nikolas, especially if the island is as big as they claim.

Nikolas loves Elizabeth, and even though he's turned rogue by embracing his dark side, it's only been recent. For a little over four years Nikolas has been a compassionate and caring person. I can't see that Nikolas standing by while Elizabeth and his loved ones suffered and grieved for a child when he had the power to put an end to everyone's misery.

This new Nikolas is another matter. He would find a way to rationalize not telling Elizabeth for her own good.

As we've seen in recent months, people justify horrible things under the guise of good intentions.

It appears that Luke doesn't learn from his mistakes because even though Frank was shot, he didn't bother to make sure that Frank had taken his last breath. I almost wish Frank had managed to shoot Luke in the foot before Dillon called out a warning to Luke.

Exactly why would Sam think Spencer was in school in July? Her sister Molly graduated from high school just a few weeks ago, so Sam should know school has been out for weeks.

Burn, Silas. I loved it when Nina caught Silas staring at Patrick, Sam, and Danny in the park during the fireworks show and told him that he finally knows how she felt when she found out that he had been cheating on her with Ava.

Did Franco and Ava break into Kelly's during the Fourth of July? The diner looked deserted as Ava spilled all her dirty secrets to Franco.

Ava confides to Franco Franco

: "You were shot. You were tossed off of a bridge."Ava: "Yes."Franco: "You were a goner."Ava: "And how would you know? You deserted me. You ran off like a rat, leaving me to Carlos' mercy. 'You're all on your own, just how you like it.' Do you remember? That's what you said to me."[Flashback to the confrontation on the bridge following the jailbreak]Franco: "How do you know that's what I said?" Ava: "Because I was there. Because I'm me... Ava."Franco: "Hello, Ava."Ava: "Welcome to the show, Franco."Silas learns about Ava and Franco's "relationship"Silas: "Did you say Denise DeMuccio?"Nina: "Yes, I did." [Sighs] "Do you know her? Uh... oh, wait. What am I thinking? Of course, you know her. She's Kiki's aunt. Poor Kiki. She really drew the short straw when it came to having Ava as a mother. Now she has to deal with this hot mess of an aunt."Silas: "And you're saying that she and Franco are, uh --"Nina: "Are together, yes. They left a whole slime trail at the Metro Court." Tracy makes it clear that she's not happy to see her ex-husbandTracy: "You've got the ex-husband part right, but as far as favorite is concerned -- not so much. In a lifetime of bad relationships, you were the worst."Paul: "Tracy, you wound me."Tracy: "If I were to use the word 'favorite' to describe you, I would have to put 'least' in front of it."Paul: "Am I as bad as, say, Lord Larry Ashton?"Tracy: "A weasel and a con man, but ultimately harmless."Paul: "Gino Soleito? Anthony Zacchara? You've married some real winners over the years."Tracy: "Well, I guess it takes one to know one." Alice threatens to give Paul a beat down if he hurts TracyPaul: "Can I expect to see Luke Spencer with broken bones and missing teeth?"

Take care and happy viewing,Liz Masters

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