Townies and house thieves

Rooftop fistfights, hallucinations of bloody faces, ruined jigsaw puzzles, angry aunties, and so much more on this week's General Hospital. We unpack it all in this week's Two Scoops!

Dear readers, I am extremely fond of Spencer Cassadine (Nicholas J. Bechtel). That kid is so funny and talented and engaging, I just can't get enough of him. I hope with all of my heart that the character of Spencer will be like the character of Robin Scorpio, who started out on GH when she was a kid and is still on GH as an adult. I don't want anyone else to ever play Spencer, I don't want the character to be aged, and I want the same wonderful Spencer from now until he's 40.

I know he also stars on the Disney show Stuck in the Middle, so perhaps we only got to borrow him during his filming hiatus. I will say that Spencer is a far more layered character than Disney allows him to play, so if he gets to choose between roles, I hope he chooses GH.

Spencer came back with revenge in mind, and really, can you blame him? His dad was murdered, and his dad's killer has been living in his home and, as Spencer sees it, taken over his life. He's mad that Charlotte's dad is a house thief, and he feels she has stolen his life. We all know how he feels about "townies," and now he has to live with them! Curses.

This would be such a perfect time for his father, Nikolas Cassadine, to come back from the dead and steal their life back. Is Tyler Christopher in the mood for a family reunion? Laura is back in Port Charles, and Lulu is her only kid in town. Will Lucky ever come to visit? If Nikolas were alive, wouldn't he have found a way to beat the charges against him already and come home to see his mom and kid? It should happen fast before Spencer has to ruin any more jigsaw puzzles.

Nikolas could whip Spencer into shape and convince people in Port Charles to stop hating poor Valentin, who I refuse to believe is a murderer.

But that's a pipe dream. Valentin is in some foreign prison, Charlotte is living with Lulu, and Nina moved out, which means Wyndemere is empty except for the horses and the household staff. That sounds like the perfect place for Helena to hide out if she were still alive.

I don't understand how she can activate a brainwashed soldier like Jake or Costa if she is dead. Either Helena is alive, or someone else is controlling her solider boys to do her evil deeds. Jason and Costa, the two trained soldiers of doom, really went at it in that rooftop fistfight. All that was missing was the "Pow! Bam!" of the old Batman shows. (R.I.P. Adam West)

But I digress; Spencer is taking out his anger against Valentin on his cousin Charlotte. Thankfully, Dante and Lulu moved into a bigger place and have room for their whole family to live with them. But Spencer's arrival complicated that living arrangement, and it's Dr. Kevin Collins to the rescue!

Kevin declared his love and asked Laura to move in with him. She declared her love but also expressed her fears. She cited the reality of living together versus the fantasy and the perception. I suppose it's a fear we all have, "Will my beloved still love me when he sees the real me?" Kevin assured Laura adamantly that he would be in love with her today, tomorrow, in six months, and forever. He left no room for doubt.

After he laid that firm foundation, Laura felt secure enough to say yes and agreed to build a life with him by moving in together. Unfortunately, Spencer might have a say in that proposition. Since both of his parents are gone, Laura is his guardian. He comes with her as a package deal. He can be a handful, so if he doesn't approve of this arrangement, I can envision him wreaking havoc on his grandmother's budding romance. (And getting sent back to boarding school posthaste.)

Meanwhile, back at Lulu and Dante's, Charlotte is missing her Papa and Nina. Lulu is terribly insecure about Charlotte's close bond with Valentin to the point that she wasn't even going to let Anna show Charlotte her dad's goodbye video. Anna convinced her otherwise and allowed Charlotte to watch the video, and Nina was there to see it, too. Nina's bond with Charlotte is so sweet to watch, and I hope the three of them will someday be a family again. How could that happen?

My husband, Jeff, who pretends he doesn't watch GH, suggested that the WSB could recruit Valentin to be an agent and send him home with a mission, possibly even having to work with Anna's sister, Alex. (Because he thinks Finola Hughes must be having fun playing a dual role.) For a guy who doesn't watch GH, he sure has some good plot ideas...

Spinelli, hacker extraordinaire, came home this week for a secret mission to help Jason track down who was threatening Jake and Liz. It was so good to see Bradford Anderson. It was a little weird, though, that Maxie is supposed to be in Portland, visiting him and Georgie, and that Spinelli was in Port Charles and never mentioned her name.

Spinelli handily cracked the case for Jason, found the man who delivered the magic set to Jake, and found out the man bought scrubs, so Jason made the leap that he was on his way to GH to finish Jake off.

While this was going on, Sam was hallucinating and just acting weird in general. Griffin saw her and suspected PTSD. Sam refused the offer to have him run blood tests on her. She keeps seeing things that aren't there, like Jason with a bloody face. What, did Heather escape and give her some of that LSD she gave Olivia that made her see visions of the future? I can't quite figure out where we are going here.

I'm not sure this is her aim, but Kelly Monaco is doing a fantastic job of making me worry. I can't decide if Sam was exposed to the toxin from the Chimera, if her illness is part of Helena's curse, if she does have PTSD and we are going to flush that out and see her get help -- or any other crazy GH possibility.

It seems that Griffin is the only real doctor working on staff at GH. Lucas pops in occasionally; Monica wanders the halls once a week; we have Andre and Dr. Collins, our two resident shrinks; we have Dr. O, but does she ever actually see patients or just torment other doctors? We have Dr. Finn, but since Dr. O keeps tampering with his drug tests, he's not allowed to practice medicine. Griffin must have his hands full.

Thankfully he's taking good care of Ava, in spite of her desire to die. She tried to sign a DNR order, but Kiki persuaded her otherwise. Honestly, I can't say that I blame her. Can you imagine being covered in burns and knowing your life would be years of surgeries and skin grafts and pain? It's not much to look forward to. As much as she loves her kids, thinking about enduring that sort of pain would make anyone question their will to live, I think.

But this is GH. Either A) Maura West's contract is up and Ava is going to die, or B) some miracle cure plastic surgeon will arrive in town with an experimental procedure for burn victims, and Ava will be good as new by fall. Maybe he can turn her into Denise DeMuccio. Those are my guesses. What are yours?

Of course if Ava is cured, Sonny will be waiting by the hospital door on her release date to kill her. Carly is normally the voice of reason in these matters, but she wants vengeance as much as Sonny does this time around.

Carly and Sonny are finding their way back together, and Josslyn, whose father is still banned from entering the U.S. because of Sonny, isn't very happy about it. Joss is pretty wise for a teenager. She told her mother that the only reason Carly keeps going back to Sonny is because she doesn't think she deserves anyone better. That's not a bad assessment. Carly is faced with two clear options: Jax, who is pretty near perfect except for that whole buying a kidney for his dying daughter thing, and Sonny, who is a thug. She keeps choosing the thug.

I know she loves him, but she has had her kids shot, kidnapped, and now murdered by Sonny's mob rivals. If she had stayed with Jax and moved to Australia, Michael wouldn't have a bullet wound in his head, and Morgan would probably still be alive. I guess that's not a fair assessment, since Morgan met Ava via dating Kiki and not from Sonny, but we were never clear on whether or not Ava was the one who targeted Morgan in the online gambling incident back when the Jerome girls first arrived on the scene, calling Morgan "Captain."

A storyline I am finding very compelling right now is the tale of Amy and Chet Driscoll. At first, the whole "Ask Man Landers" storyline just irritated me, that Amy would steal Nathan's photo for her dumb advice column. But this week, when the backstory was unraveled, I found myself liking Amy and feeling sympathy for her situation. If you've ever had a family member with any sort of long-term illness, you would definitely relate to her giant folder full of hospital bills. I'm anxious to see where this goes.

I hope we get to meet Chet and that GH tackles PTSD and injured war veterans. He was at war for over a decade, and there are so many men and women like Chet out there. I live in a military town, and my son-in-law is in the Navy (as was my daughter before they had kids), and the impact of 16 years at war has taken its toll on a generation of military families. Please, GH, explore this topic for real.

Side note, I want to say how happy I am to hear that Kirsten Storms will be back soon. I was so moved by her post about suffering from depression. I hope this next season of her life helps her to find a way to manage it. I know many people who battle depression, and it's a continual struggle that they face. I am thankful that the fine folks at ABC have allowed her to take time off to get better. We sure do miss her, and I'm anxious to see her beautiful face back on-screen.

Another new storyline this week that I'm less enthralled with is Aunt Stella coming to town. If I were Jordan, I would just say, "Hey, Aunt Stella, you're not even related to T.J. He's Shawn's kid. Go back to Baltimore." We have neither seen nor heard of Aunt Stella before, so I doubt it would impact T.J. that much if she left town again.

However, I was very happy to see Vernee Watson on-screen. I am old enough to have watched her on Welcome Back Kotter and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. My disinterest in this storyline has nothing to do with her acting. I love her! It's just that I wouldn't willingly endure judgment and abuse from someone who wasn't even related to me and tiptoe around her the way Jordan and Curtis are doing.

I understand Curtis respects Aunt Stella and wants her to give Jordan a chance, but it seems unlikely that she will bend. I hope I'm wrong, though, because it would be nice for T.J. to have another family member in town, blood-related or not. Let's put it this way, I have nine kids who call me Grandma, but I've never had a kid, so I am all about blended families!

What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Liz and Hayden continue their sisterly bonding and go get pedicures together? Will Alexis defend Julian in his custody case for Leo (even though she swore she wouldn't) and alienate all the other Davis girls? Will Grandma Laura get weary of trying to wrangle Spencer into submission and send him to live with Uncle Sonny for a while? (Close your eyes and imagine Spencer in the mob, I dare you!) Will we find out that Andre is the one brainwashing everyone in town into doing Helena's bidding?

Is the Chimera incident truly over, or was Anna brainwashed into thinking it was destroyed when it really wasn't? Will Maxie come home to find Nathan on a book tour with Amy? Will Valentin come back to Port Charles soon? (And I swear I'm not asking that just because I'm already Jonesing for him...) Will Charlotte try on the dress Nina bought her because it was gorgeous and I want to see it on her? Will Julie Marie Berman fill in for Emme Rylan when she goes on maternity leave, or will we be Lulu-less? Will GH be preempted twelve more times for congressional hearings? (Please, God, no.)

Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.Tamilu

What are your thoughts on General Hospital? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.