Meet the new, improved Tracy Quartermaine on General Hospital

General Hospital
General Hospital's Tracy and Stella talking on a bench.

Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot) has gained a reputation on General Hospital for her irascibility and intolerance of fools. If someone doesn’t get to their point quickly, she’ll either tune them out or walk away. Or worse, she’ll disparage them for not having a point. And that’s just a mild example of Tracy’s acerbity. In a recent episode, Tracy directed her anger toward Stella Henry (Vernee Watson) for arriving a couple of minutes late to their usual meeting spot and was taken aback when Stella successfully identified the underlying cause of her distress.

General Hospital’s Tracy has lost a lot

When Gregory Chase (Gregory Harrison) died, a bench in the Port Charles park was named in his honor. Stella and Tracy, who were friends of his, found themselves visiting there often and became friends themselves, making that a regular meeting spot. But on the September 26 episode, Tracy scolded Stella for being late as if Stella were an employee. Stella immediately saw through Tracy’s walls and realized Tracy was angry about something much deeper. It turned out that Tracy was mad because she felt her friendship with Cody Bell (Josh Kelly) was slipping away. After all, he’s involved with Sasha (Sofia Mattsson) and has a new family with the Scorpios.

Tracy admitted to yelling at Cody and Sasha for putting on a party for his new family on the Quartermaine grounds and realized that she needed to apologize to them. She also apologized to Stella for being curt. Apologies are something that the old Tracy rarely engaged in. After talking further, Stella could see that Tracy was lamenting not only her late friend Gregory but also Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton), who’s in rehab. And then there was Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). Luke and Tracy found love over the years and moved to Amsterdam. But when a cable car accident killed Luke off-screen, a despondent Tracy returned to Port Charles.

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She’s mellowed out over time

Her ire was worse than ever after Luke’s death, but in the past year or two, she’s been mellowing out. It was clear from Tracy and Stella’s conversation that Tracy is starting to realize how short life is. She mentioned that her brother, Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon), and both of her parents are gone. Tracy was feeling lonely, and seeing Cody gravitate to other people made her angry, which only deepened that loneliness. But Stella reminded her that the two of them are now friends, and that was comforting to Tracy.

Tracy was also angry at her granddaughter Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton) on the September 13 episode for wanting to have a child with Chase. At that time, even Lois Cerullo (Rena Sofer) could see that Tracy had grown fond of Brook Lynn, and the thought of her time being occupied by a child saddened Tracy. But this new Tracy is kinder and gentler than the old one, even though she’s still rough around the edges, and if Brook Lynn has a baby, Tracy will certainly be able to cope. It’s nice to see her smile and even laugh at times, and Jane Elliot knocks her performance out of the park in every scene that she’s in.

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Edited by Lisa