Will General Hospital's Ric reunite with Elizabeth? Rick Hearst has some answers

Ric Lansing is back on General Hospital, and he's already causing trouble. While he's ostensibly in town to support Molly after baby Irene's death, not everyone is thrilled to see him.

General Hospital's Rick Hearst talks Ric's return

As soon as Rick Hearst and Ric appeared for the first time since 2016, Alexis and Sam were annoyed. At the funeral, Ric chastised Alexis for not being there for Molly and for letting Molly stand outside the church, alone and weeping. Later, Ric and Alexis had it out in her living room as he accused her of caring more about Kristina, and she accused him of being an absentee dad.

Hearst was thrilled when he was asked to reprise the character, something he never expected. He was told why Ric needed to visit Port Charles but admitted there is always more to the story when Sonny's half-brother is around.

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"I'm really back for my daughter," Hearst told ABC Chicago SoapChat hosts Tracy Butler and Diane Pathieu. "I've taken the position that I want to make sure that I don't cause more problems than I do solutions when I come into town. So, I sort of sneak back in pretty quickly. I already let Alexis know that I need to be there because my granddaughter has passed, and it's a very emotional time that I walk into. He's always been there for his daughter, whether you've known that or not. From what I understand, they already have that written into the story quite a bit, that there are communications still."

Ric's past revisited

After the confrontation at Alexis' house, Ric made his way to GH to see his new client Heather Webber. Before he entered Heather's exam room, Ric ran into Carly and Elizabeth—two characters with whom he shares pasts. Elizabeth is Ric's ex-wife, while Carly is the sister-in-law he locked in a panic room while she was pregnant years ago. Carly couldn't find it within herself to be pleasant with Ric—with good reason.

"You can't change history, and I think that's the beauty of bringing a character back that's been off the canvas for so long. The audience gets a chance to see that again and see where they're going to be at this point," Hearst said. "I think from Ric's standpoint, he's thinking about how to revisit those relationships, probably doesn't want to run into Carly if he doesn't have to, but he's not afraid of it. That's kinda how that reaction came about. Instead of getting into an argument, it's really like 'It is what it is, yeah, I know I did that.'"

A Ric and Elizabeth reunion?

The last time Ric and Elizabeth were in each other's orbits, Ric was ready to propose again. Before he could pop the question, Elizabeth learned Ric had paid Hayden Barnes to pose as amnesiac Jake Doe's long-lost wife to keep Liz away from Jake. Armed with the truth, Elizabeth broke things off. It later turned out that Hayden was Elizabeth's half-sister, while Jake was revealed to be Jason Morgan before learning he was really Drew Cain.

When Ric and Elizabeth met up in the hospital halls, she was much kinder than Carly and expressed her condolences over the loss of the baby. Hearst hinted that there's more to come for the former spouses.

"With Elizabeth, there's always that...if there's that small window for him to be able to peek in and say, 'Hi, I'm here.' I think you're going to see a little bit of that, where Ric's going to get the opportunity to see if there's any possibilities there at this point."