General Hospital Recaps: The week of September 16, 2002 on GH

Sonny faked his death. Nikolas helped Luke escape from police custody. Edward publically embarrassed A.J. when A.J. failed to keep up his end of a bargain.

Monday, September 16, 2002

by Joan Mertz

On the docks, the guy Brenda was getting to call Sonny wasn't having much success. Sonny insisted he talk with her, the "stranger" that wanted him to meet at St. Timothy's Church. Brenda took the phone but didn't say anything. Sonny did agree to go to the church.

In his penthouse, Sonny had agreed to meet with the woman. Carly was scared for him but didn't say anything. They were kissing when Jason walked in. They left, and later Liz arrived to see Carly. Liz asked Carly how she did it -- lived with Sonny and tried not to be afraid. Carly said she didn't talk about it. She asked if Liz knew anything about peppers. Liz arrived and helped cut up peppers. They actually talked civilly for a while.

After Liz left, Carly lit some candles and opened a bottle of red wine. She was drinking the wine as the whole scene at the church played out.

Brenda got to the church and was sitting there when the priest walked out. She was talking to him, telling him she had a terminal illness. She said she might not make a lot of sense. She asked how long he had been at that church, and he said three years. She told him she'd almost gotten married there five years before. He told her she could stay until he finished checking everything out and locking up. He had to go downstairs and work his way up.

Brenda had given up on Sonny and was heading toward the front door of the church. In slow motion, Sonny was shown walking toward the church. Roy was watching and waiting to take his shot at Sonny. Sonny walked up the steps toward the church, and as he got there, Brenda walked out, and they locked eyes for a moment before a shot rang out.

Elsewhere, Alcazar was still looking for Brenda.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

by Celeste Brodeur

At St. Timothy's Church, Roy shot Sonny, and Sonny collapsed to the ground in the pouring rain. Brenda rushed to a blood-soaked Sonny. Jason called Carly and notified her to go to the church while Sonny lay in the rain. Brenda wanted to stay with Sonny, but Jason prevented that and whisked her away in Sonny's car. An ambulance was called.

The ambulance arrived while the priest was saying prayers over Sonny. The paramedics declared Sonny dead after unsuccessfully attempting to revive him while a hysterical Carly cried over Sonny's body. The paramedics tried to remove the body, but Carly was too distraught proclaiming her unending love for Sonny and clung to Sonny. While the priest restrained Carly, the paramedics removed Sonny's body.

Taggert arrived at the scene, and Carly told Taggert that Sonny was dead. Taggert was furious that the paramedics had removed Sonny's body without his permission. Taggert questioned Carly as to what had happened, and the priest responded that Carly had arrived as Sonny was dying. The priest said he was the only witness. The priest mentioned a dark-haired mystery woman who had been in the church, but she wasn't a parishioner, and he didn't know her name.

Taggert tried to console Carly for the way she'd had to see Sonny die. Carly cried that Sonny had been lying in the street like a piece of trash. Carly screamed at Taggert that Taggert hated Sonny. He didn't deny it but said he wanted to find Sonny's killer nonetheless. Taggert tried to convince Carly that, for once, they both wanted the same thing. Carly told Taggert that all she knew was that she'd received a call from Jason that Sonny had needed her at the church, and she thought the man who'd murdered Sonny was named Alcazar.

At Roy's apartment, Roy advised Alcazar telephonically that Sonny was dead, and Roy wanted Felicia released immediately. Alcazar told Roy he wanted independent confirmation of the death. Roy hung up and started to trash his own apartment. Felicia appeared at Roy's apartment, and they hugged. She told him she was fine and that she'd already spoken with the girls, and they were fine.

Felicia was concerned that Jason would go after Roy for killing Sonny. After escorting Felicia home, Roy returned to his apartment and found Alcazar waiting for him. He told Alcazar to get out. Alcazar said he needed one more thing and gave Roy a picture of Brenda so Roy could prevent Brenda from getting to Jax. Roy wasn't off the hook yet.

Jax awakened in his bed, looking for Skye, who was standing by an open window, looking out at the rain. She questioned why Jax's body language lately seemed to indicate fear. Skye told Jax she was honored and grateful that he loved her. Jax asked Skye, again, to marry him. Skye said, "Yes," she couldn't wait to be Jax's wife.

In Alcazar's hideout, Felicia mouthed off to Alcazar, pontificating about Sonny's impending murder and about how Michael would be fatherless. Alcazar told Felicia she was a schoolteacher impersonating a private investigator. Alcazar said he had to kill Sonny to ensure the safety of the woman he loved, a greater good in his eyes than the evil of Sonny's death. He claimed to be protecting what was his. He espoused Brenda's strong points in his mind and said he'd never had a life before Brenda.

Alcazar told Felicia that the police would assume Roy had killed Sonny and arrest him. He speculated that Roy should have covered his tracks. Alcazar said that Roy's animosity toward Sonny was common knowledge -- and a motive. Alcazar received a phone call then told Felicia that she was free to go, and she should be grateful that she and her daughters were safe. Felicia threatened Alcazar with Jason going after him.

In Sonny's car, Brenda fumed at Jason for taking her away from Sonny. Jason explained that he'd rather be with Sonny himself, but Sonny's orders had been for Jason to protect Brenda, who was the cause of all of it.

Jason physically carried Brenda into a room at an undisclosed safe house. Jason started to question Brenda about Alcazar. Brenda revealed to Jason that she had her mother's insanity. Jason questioned why Brenda hadn't asked Alcazar what he did for a living. Brenda admitted she had wasted Sonny's time by not calling him because she'd wanted to see him herself. Jason wanted to know the first time Alcazar had mentioned Sonny's name.

Brenda claimed that her disease made her memory and cognizance unreliable and confusing. Brenda confirmed to Jason that Roy DiLucca was supposed to kill Sonny. Jason reiterated that Alcazar had told Sonny he had something that Sonny wanted more than anything in the world, and apparently that was supposed to be Brenda, but Sonny's family was the most important thing to him. Jason advised Brenda that Sonny was married to Carly, and that Sonny loved Carly. Brenda wanted to know about Jax and how Jax was going to be protected.

Jason told Brenda not to presume she understood the relationship Sonny and he had. Jason received a phone call that appeared to require further cooperation to get Carly home safely. Jason hung up and told Brenda that Sonny was being taken to the morgue. Brenda lamented the evening's happenings, and there was a closeup of a wall vent. She said she had always loved Sonny. On the other side of the vent, Sonny, wearing a bulletproof vest, heard Brenda's confession.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

by JUDIE

Ned went to Alexis' penthouse to tell her about Sonny's death then heard it again on a news bulletin.

At the safe house, Brenda slept dreaming that she woke to find Sonny standing in the doorway but then woke to find Jason there instead.

The Port Charles Police entered Roy's penthouse, pointing their guns. Taggert told Roy to put his hands up and said that he wanted to know where Roy had been when Sonny had been killed.

Liz went into Sonny's penthouse to see Carly descending the stairs, telling her that Sonny had been shot and killed.

At the safe house, Brenda told Jason about her dream that Sonny was still alive then said that Sonny was dead because of her. Sonny heard her from the next room. Jason told Brenda that she hadn't killed Sonny, and everything had been set to go way before they had known that she was involved. Brenda regretted not telling Sonny on the phone then said that Sonny would never have to see her sick. Sonny was outside, watching Brenda through the window. Jason walked out, and Sonny thanked him for sitting up with Brenda all night. Jason asked if Sonny was going to tell Brenda that he was alive.

At Sonny's penthouse, Carly explained to Liz what had happened when she'd gotten to Sonny at the church. Liz asked about Jason, and Bobbie told her that he hadn't been there at the scene. Carly assured Liz that Jason was all right and that it was Jason that had called her and told her that Sonny had needed her. Liz was in a panic and wanted to go and find Jason, but Carly told her that she would only be making things worse by going after him. Bobbie agreed with Carly that they needed to stay out of it. Carly told Liz to go over to Jason's and wait for him to return home. Liz agreed and said that if Carly needed anything, she would be across the hall at Jason's then she left.

At Alexis' penthouse, Alexis wanted to think that Sonny's death had just been a mistake, but Ned confirmed that it was all true and that Sonny had been shot five times in the chest and back. Alexis was in shock. Ned worried about Alexis and the baby and how it would affect them.

At Courtney and A.J.'s, Courtney got a visit from Coleman, who told her that her brother had been shot to death the night before. Courtney went into shock.

At Roy's penthouse, Taggert told Roy that Sonny had been shot five times at close range then tried to get a confession from Roy for Sonny's murder. Felicia entered and told Taggert that Roy had been with her all night, so Roy had had nothing to do with it.

At Courtney and A.J.'s, Courtney couldn't understand how Sonny could be killed when he had bodyguards. Coleman told her that he'd heard that Sonny had been alone at the time of the shooting. Mike arrived to see Courtney who had to tell Mike that Sonny was dead.

At Roy's penthouse, Taggert asked Felicia when Roy had taken her home. She replied that it had been a few hours since she and Roy had been together. Felicia told Taggert to find Alcazar for Sonny's murder and that he was the one who had blown up Sonny's warehouse and killed Christine. Felicia told Taggert that Sonny had to have blown up Alcazar's boat then Alcazar had killed Sonny.

Taggert received a call and had to leave but told Roy not to leave town. Felicia told Roy that they should have known better than to accept a million dollars and not have to do something illegal. She said that Sonny would still be alive if Roy hadn't needed to kill him to save her life. Roy told Felicia that it would turn out all right, but Felicia told Roy that she had been planning to leave him. Roy told her to trust him, but Felicia didn't listen and left.

At Sonny's, Carly got a visit from Alexis. Alexis said that she was going to let everyone know that her baby was Sonny's, which made Carly mad.

At the safe house, Sonny asked Jason about Alcazar and Brenda, and Jason told him that because of her disease, she had stayed with Alcazar so that Sonny and Jax wouldn't have to watch her go insane. Jason said that Brenda had been at the church to warn Sonny about Alcazar. Sonny said that it was best that they let Brenda go on thinking that he was dead, and Jason agreed. In the house, Sonny could hear Brenda crying. Roy walked in, and Sonny said that he had done a great job then Roy told him that Alcazar had given him orders to find Brenda and take her to him and to keep surveillance on Jax so that Brenda wouldn't be able to warn him.

Roy told Sonny that Alcazar had gone underground and that he wouldn't resurface until he had Brenda. Sonny told Roy that he had Brenda and that she would be staying there under guard until they dealt with Alcazar. Brenda told Jason that she was going to find Jax, but Jason told her that Alcazar would be waiting for her to show up and then kill Jax. Jason told Brenda to let him handle everything. Brenda didn't like it, but Jason locked her in the room.

At Sonny's penthouse, Carly told Alexis that if she went public about Sonny being the father of her baby, she would be putting herself and the baby in danger. Alexis left when Jason entered. Carly asked Jason who the woman was that Sonny had been going to meet at the church, and Jason said that it didn't matter. Bobbie offered to make funeral arrangements for Sonny, but Jason told her he had taken care of everything. Jason told Carly not to leave without a bodyguard.

At the safe house, Sonny told Roy that they would wait for Alcazar to resurface then said that the only way to stop Alcazar was to force him to make a mistake. Sonny told Roy to continue to go along with Alcazar and to make him think that he was looking for Brenda then Jax would be safe. Sonny assured Roy that Brenda wouldn't get away from him.

At Courtney and A.J.'s, A.J. talked to his attorney about his parental rights to Michael since Sonny was dead.

At the safe house, Sonny hid from Brenda's view when she tried to open the window.

Thursday, September 19, 2002

by Mary N

Taggert was livid when he arrived at the morgue and found that Sonny's body had been sent to the church without proper clearance from the Port Charles Police Department. He found out that Jason had managed to sign out the body. Meanwhile, Brenda tried to persuade Jason to let her go and warn Jax about Alcazar so he didn't get killed. Jason refused to allow her to leave the safe house and agreed to do what he could about Jax's safety. Jason left Benny to watch over Brenda while he was gone. Sonny overheard Brenda through the vent. He felt bad about hearing her blame herself for his "death."

A.J. dropped Courtney off at the penthouse so she could attend Sonny's funeral with Carly and Mike. He went off to the Quartermaine mansion to ask Monica to loan him a large sum of money so he could fight for custody of Michael again, since Sonny had died. Monica refused to get between A.J and Jason, who she knew was going to fight to protect Carly and Michael regardless of whether Sonny was dead or not. Monica headed over to the funeral home to offer her condolences to Jason for Sonny's death. Jason questioned her actions at first but was touched when she told him she was there for him, since she was his mother.

Bobbie, Lucas, Courtney, Mike, and Carly showed up for the funeral service as well. Courtney blamed herself for not seeing until it was too late that Sonny had only been trying to protect her and that he'd loved her. Carly told her that she couldn't blame herself, that Sonny wouldn't want her to feel bitter about it, and that he loved her. Alexis showed up to pay her respects, but Carly refused to allow her to stay for the service after the way she'd treated Sonny at Kristina's funeral. Alexis left quietly.

At the end of the service, Taggert showed up and insisted on seeing Sonny's body in the casket. Carly got upset with him and told him to leave her and Sonny alone. Taggert refused to leave without seeing the body. He opened the casket and found Sonny lying there peacefully. Jason told him to leave right away. He left. Jason thanked everyone for attending while he comforted Carly. Everyone left them alone. Carly commented to Jason that Taggert would not stop hounding them. Jason left her alone in the room.

Carly opened the casket and talked to Sonny about how much she loved him and would never stop loving him ever. Sonny woke up from a drugged state and got out of the casket to embrace her. Carly told him it was really hard to pretend he was dead and go through the motions of a funeral. Meanwhile, Brenda distracted Benny by faking a migraine and asked Benny to turn the lights down.

While Benny turned his back on her to turn the lights down, Brenda hit him hard on the head with a glass vase and knocked him out cold. She escaped out the window and headed to the church to observe Sonny's funeral. She got there and went over to the room where the service had taken place and approached the door to open it. A.J. made a deal with Edward regarding Michael's future in order to get the financing he needed to fight Carly in court.

Luke visited with Lucky one last time before Luke was to be transferred to prison. He told Lucky to meet Roy on the dock and to follow his instructions, since he was the number one point man for the job. Luke was dismayed when Scott joined him in the prison van to escort him personally to prison. Luke refused to take the blame for what had happened to Laura and pointed his finger at Scott for it. Luke questioned Scott's real motives for putting Luke away in prison and accused him of not being able to accept that Laura had chosen Luke and not Scott to marry and have children with all those years before. He said that Scott couldn't take it that he would always be second best as far as Laura was concerned.

Scott ordered the driver to pull over and park out near the woods. The driver was reluctant to follow his orders until Scott took full responsibility for Luke. They pulled over, and Scott took the handcuffs and ankle locks off of Luke so they could have a fair fist fight once and for all. Luke egged Scott on, and the two started throwing punches. Scott suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious. Luke looked up and said, "Well, it's about time."

Nikolas was looking on with a piece of wood in his hands. Nikolas told Luke that he'd rented a car, and he could take Luke to see Laura right away before the van returned. Luke told Nikolas that it was too risky, and he would take it from there without Nikolas. He thanked Nikolas for his help and asked him to talk to Lucky and tell him Luke was sorry for lying to him. Nikolas said that he knew that Luke was the only one who could help his mother.

Meanwhile, Lucky showed up at the docks to meet Roy. When Roy didn't show up, Lucky called him and left him a message to meet him on the docks. Lucky ended up showing up at the police station to find out if Luke had already left for prison. Taggert wouldn't tell him anything useful, but he received the call that Luke had escaped from the prison van and that Scott had been knocked out. Taggert looked at Lucky accusingly and asked him what he knew about Luke's escape. Lucky realized his father had escaped without him.

Friday, September 20, 2002

by JULIA

Carly and Sonny were startled by a noise outside the room they were in, and Carly wanted to make sure that everything was okay, but Sonny convinced her that Jason would take care of it. They talked for a while, and Carly explained that the reason that she had been so convincing to the police was because she'd thought something had gone wrong and that he really had been dead. Unfortunately, Carly realized that she wasn't going to be able to spend time with or even talk to Sonny until Alcazar returned from the underground and could be caught. That meant that she was going to have to spend an even longer time playing the grieving widow. Later, after Sonny had left, Bobbie entered the room and found Carly crying over Sonny's coffin.

Brenda tried to get into the room where Sonny's funeral had been, but at the last minute, Jason was able to stop her. On the limo ride back to the safe house, they cut through the hotel parking lot to get by traffic, and as they were stopped there, Brenda saw Jax giving Skye a rose and kissing her. She then screamed for him and tried to get out of the limo, but Jason held her back. He took her back to the safe house where the window had been nailed shut.

Liz and Zander talked in Sonny and Carly's penthouse, and Zander said that it wasn't safe for them to stay with Jason any longer after Sonny had been killed. He wanted to leave, but Liz changed his mind, and he stayed because she wanted him to.

Taggert questioned Lucky about his father's sudden disappearance, but Scott put the questioning on hold. Scott wanted to do it himself. When he showed up, Alexis and Nikolas had arrived as well. They had created an alibi for Lucky, saying that he had been at a meeting with them about Deception. Later, when talking to Alexis and Nikolas in private, Alexis lit into Lucky about getting in trouble so that she'd had to lie for him. At that time, Nikolas stepped in and informed her that he was the one that she was really lying for; he was the one that had helped Luke escape.

Courtney and A.J. went to Skye's family gathering at the Port Charles hotel, where they found that Skye and Jax had a very big announcement that they were delaying the sharing of. A.J. decided to make his own announcement and confessed to Courtney about how he had called a lawyer after he'd heard that Sonny was dead, and he'd begun the process of trying to get custody of Michael. He also admitted that he had gone to Monica for money, which she had refused, and that he had then turned to Edward, who wanted to make a nasty deal with him. Edward then announced that Courtney had covered up for her husband by becoming a stripper.

Roy sat in the background, watching Skye and Jax's get-together and received a phone call from Alcazar checking in about how everything was going with watching Jax. Later, he met up with Lucky and Nikolas, and Lucky discovered that Nikolas was the one that had helped Luke escape.

Carly and Bobbie returned to the penthouse and found Liz there, cleaning up for when Carly arrived home. Carly said that it didn't feel like a home without Sonny there. Later, after she was alone, Carly called Jason and left a message saying that she really needed to finish her conversation with "Benny." After that, there was a guest at the door. It happened to be two people from other branches of the mob, offering their condolences and giving her flowers. They then informed her that they wished to talk business and offered her a check for two million dollars from the "families" for Sonny's territory. Carly then took the check and ripped it up, saying that Sonny would never "settle for the likes of them" and said that she wouldn't either.

Taggert tried to convince Scott that he would be better off going after Sonny's murderer than chasing Luke.

At the safe house, Jason went into Brenda's room as she began to scream as if she had just woken up from a nightmare. He then comforted her as Sonny watched from outside the window.