Bust a deal, face the wheel

With a fiery explosion rocking the Floating Rib and leaving many in a perilous situation, Port Charles is starting to resemble Thunderdome as people scramble not to pay the piper for the deals they've struck. Buckle up -- it's time to sort out all the lies, secret pacts, and devil's bargains.

The truth shall set you free, but it's clear that it's not what Michael and Willow want. Even if they do try to do the noble thing and give the other an opportunity to walk away, I'm fairly certain that their romp on the nursery room drop cloth will result in a visit from the stork nine months from now.

Here's the problem that I've had with Chase and Sasha's charade from the very beginning. Despite it being for the greater good, it was a betrayal. A lie. Both Chase and Sasha compounded that lie by deeply hurting the ones that they claimed to love.

I hate that Sasha overdosed, but Sasha was a victim of her own choices. She chose to let Michael go, knowing that it would hurt. She also knew that it would only be a matter of time before Willow and Michael fell in love. Breakups are no fun, especially if you are the one losing the one you love, but that's the decision Sasha made.

Call a friend, grab a tub of decadent ice cream, and put on something that makes you laugh -- or cry -- it out. It won't make the hurt go away, but it will be cathartic and allow the healing to begin. In time, the heart finds a way to mend and open itself to new possibilities.

To this day, I really don't get why Sasha turned to cocaine in the first place. It really didn't seem like something that would appeal to her. She rarely drank, she didn't partake in any other kind of drug -- recreational or otherwise -- and she appeared to live a healthy lifestyle. If she loved Michael enough to drown her sorrows in cocaine, why didn't she fight harder for him and let him make his own decisions?

It was never Sasha's responsibility to save Wiley from Nelle; it was Michael's.

I have far less sympathy for Chase because he had even less business being a part of Wiley's custody fight. If he loved Willow, then he wouldn't have manipulated her the way that he did. I wouldn't want to be with someone who took my choice away, so I don't blame Willow for not cutting Chase any slack.

Unfortunately, the soap gods aren't going to make things easy on any of the four souls in this melodrama because things are about to get quite messy. The road to happily ever after is always paved with bad choices, especially in Port Charles. Even if Willow doesn't give Chase a second chance, it's possible that Michael might guilt himself into giving Sasha one.

I hope that I'm wrong, but Michael does tend to have a hero complex when it comes to affairs of the heart. It's how he ended up in Nelle's bed.

Case in point: Michael was infuriated that Carly had kept her secret about Sasha for a week, but he sat there at Sasha's bedside, begging Sasha for forgiveness because he had failed to see that she was in crisis.

That brings me to Cyrus' completely and totally expected request for Julian to do something wretched in exchange for keeping the secret about the incriminating letter that Nelle had sent to Ryan. Julian thought to change the terms of his devil's bargain with the drug lord by revealing that he had information that Cyrus was certain to want -- then Julian proceeded to tell Cyrus exactly what that secret was. I have no idea how Julian managed to run a criminal empire if he's so easily intimidated and short-sighted.

Julian always had better options, starting in the very beginning when he could have gone straight to Lucas with the truth, regardless of Brad's threats. Brad was the one who had lied and plotted with Nelle, and there was nothing to suggest that Julian had known. It would have been Brad's word against Julian's, and under the circumstances my money would have been on Julian because Brad had been a close friend of Nelle's, danced to her tune even when it caused friction in his marriage, and most importantly, had everything to lose if Lucas learned the truth about Wiley.

As much as I love William deVry, I just can't have any sympathy for Julian's plight. Moving forward, whatever misfortune befalls Julian will be exactly what he deserves and more. I just couldn't understand how that man could leave an explosive device where innocent bystanders were certain to pay the price -- let alone his own grandson. Some lines should never ever be crossed in a mob war, and those are two of them.

Does Julian honestly believe he can walk away from Cyrus now? If Julian had been willing to blow up members of his own family -- and Sonny's inner circle -- over a stupid letter from a woman who twisted the truth into a scrambled Rubik's cube, then there really are no limits to the ways in which Cyrus could wield Julian.

Sadly, the worm turned for Julian when he tampered with Brad's brakes. From that point on, he's been making one pea-brained decision after another. In the end, it wasn't outside forces that undermined Julian's redemption; it was completely self-inflicted.

Moving on, I have a confession to make. Please, don't hate me, but I see more chemistry between Jason and Britt these days than I do between Jason and Sam. At least with Britt, he has an actual storyline.

I have little doubt that Jason will survive the blast at the Floating Rib because, well, he's Jason. He'll probably be one of the first people to save a life -- likely his own son's. Jason will be quickly followed by Dante, who will be on a mission to find and rescue Lulu, because there is no way that Dante and Lulu's story will end with Lulu dying in the rubble of a bar.

First, Lulu simply cannot die because she isn't just a legacy character; she's the daughter of Luke Spencer and Laura (Collins) Webber. Characters like Lulu can leave the show, but die? Never. I don't care if she's shown to take her last breath in Dante's arms, because in soap land, that means nothing except someone injected her with something to make her appear dead before Dante found her.

Lucky died in a fire, but he returned. I can't count the number of times both Luke and Laura were reported to be "dead," only to pop back up in Port Charles, and then there's Lulu's brother Nikolas, who only recently returned to the land of the living after a nearly four-year absence. Now that I think about it, it's kind of a family tradition.

Second, Lulu is a mother to two children. Killing off someone like Nelle, who isn't fit to care for a pet rock, or Julian, whose adult children have disowned him -- and who's fallen as deep down the rabbit hole as he has -- is one thing, but Lulu is loved by her children, and frankly, that would be a crummy thing to have viewers deal with as a Thanksgiving without extended family looms for most.

Finally, as I said before, Dante and Lulu can't end like that. They need to ride off into the sunset as a happy family. Dustin's proposal was sweet, but it was a desperate move by a man who sees the writing on the wall as clear as day. He's trying to sweep Lulu off her feet and lock her into a promise before Dante beats him to the punch, because deep down inside, Dustin knows that Lulu won't hesitate to say yes -- as she did with Dustin -- to Dante.

I'm also fairly certain that Danny won't die, nor will Cameron, because they, too, are legacy characters with endless potential. They might suffer injuries, but both boys will pull through. However, Dev might not be so lucky, mainly because he has no real connections to Port Charles or much of a backstory, despite having been on canvas long enough that we should know more about him than the vaguest of things. Additionally, Dev has been quite the jerk lately to both Josslyn and Trina, and he's been a backstabbing friend to Cameron. That generally happens when the writers don't want us to have much sympathy for a character being written out.

I can't wait to see what Monday has in store for us.

Folks, I have to confess that I got very excited when Liz mentioned Patrick Drake's name. I know that he can't return to GH because he is living in marital bliss with Robin and their two children all the way in California, but it would be nice if he popped in for a visit to address Franco's brain tumor and perhaps give Britt a hard time.

That's right, I still haven't forgotten how Britt tried to use poor Rocco to trap Patrick into marriage.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Britt, especially now that she's seen the light about Cyrus. I'm just a little surprised that it took her this long, given who her parents are. You'd think Britt could easily see through the veneer of civility to a dark beating heart. I'll blame it on 2020. It's messed with all of us.

With Liesl on the cusp of freedom, thanks to Dante providing evidence that she had been framed, I expect mother and daughter to team up to take Cyrus down -- or at the very least make his life miserable. Liesl and Britt can be quite the team when they put their grievances aside. Although not too much. I love their banter.

The last character that I despised to the degree that I loathe Cyrus was Levi Dunkleman. My hope is that they will share the same fate.

To my surprise, a character that I've steadily grown to appreciate is Valentin. Even though I hate how he went after ELQ, I absolutely love that he's there for Alexis when he really doesn't need to be, since they don't actually share the same father. I would never want to see them as a romantic pairing, but I do enjoy their friendship quite a bit.

My newfound admiration for Valentin is one of the reasons that I'm completely bummed that Brook Lynn left town with her little baby secret. I love the idea of Valentin being faced with an obvious attraction to a woman carrying his child versus the continual rejection of his obsession. Brook Lynn and Nina are such opposites, and I think Brook Lynn could challenge Valentin in a way that Nina never could. Instead, we will have to wait until BLQ makes her move to find out if that pregnancy test was positive.

Until then, I hope the writers decide to explore Valentin's relationship with Anna, because I really don't think Anna and Finn will last much longer.

Given what we learned about Finn and Jackie's past, and the recent arrival of Gregory, my soapy senses tell me that we are headed for more explosive secrets (Chase's paternity) on the eve of Finn's nuptials to Anna -- or perhaps even during the wedding. Anna's lie to Finn about Peter's maternity sealed their fate.

Did Cyrus think that turning off a ventilator wouldn't be noticed? Sasha was hooked up to a heart monitor and other sensors, which would have gone off as soon as her breathing stopped.

I'm not sure what look they were going for with Brad and Sasha's hospital rooms, but they screamed family doctor's office, circa 2010.

What is wrong with Taggert? He faked his death to hide from Cyrus, so he goes to the one place where Cyrus is most likely to appear to watch over Portia? Wouldn't parking in an unassuming car across the street from the hospital be a better plan?

After Laura's chat with Scott, I'm more certain than ever that Cyrus has been digging into the death of David Hamilton.

I'm sorry to say it, but Drunk Alexis is FANTASTIC. If they could keep this Alexis once she sobers up, that would be great. -- Andrew

Well Britt sure lit up when Jason entered the Floating Rib. I don't usually jump to conclusions about chem testing because all characters should interact more on a soap. But maybe the writers will see what I saw. Who knows? -- Eileen

I don't want to see Finn and Chase become anything more than what they already are now. I love their bromance and he doesn't need another kid. The man just found out last year that he's a father and is still settling into the role. I don't understand what exactly being a father for the second time going to do for him. The writers need to give him a better storyline than this. -- Nona

I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to leave a comment below or email me. Take care and happy viewing,Liz Masters

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