Katrina's Soap Journal

Alan and Monica are about to break up over her affair with David, but Edward's death forces them to remain together to help Lila through the grieving process. They figure that too much hitting her at once will kill her. As Monica turns to tend to family problems, David bores with her and takes up with... Barbara Jean and they steam up every room in the hospital, nay, Port Charles. THEY are soon married and ironically, Robert, David, Bobbie and Anna get along great and become (dare I say it?) great friends.

So that settles those guys. Jax swears off wimmin and determines to forget about love for as long as it takes. After Miranda was blown up, Brenda went off a cliff and Chloe was brutally murdered, he's had enough. Jax becomes a buddy to Ned, confidant to Alexis and ironically, something of a mentor to AJ who takes over ELQ when Edward dies.

Edward's will actually bequeaths the PC Hotel to Skye, who relishes in running it ala Renee Buchanan. She gets back on her feet after getting over Jax and continues to be fun bed buddies with Coleman, who is her bartender, along with Zander (who works during weekends when Coleman has to run his own bar). She and Jax form a strong friendship with a little flirtation here and there. It's only a matter of time before Skye drops a handful of papers and bends at the same time to pick them up as a dark hair stranger. They knock noggins and eyes meet and it's instant love. Jerry Jacks is back in town. The two deny their attraction on Jax's behalf for a few torturous weeks, but when Jerry confides his feelings to Jax, who has called him on them, Jax gives him his blessings and wishes them well. Jerry goes into active pursuit of Skye, who is a little more of a hard sell, but ultimately, their mutual passion for life and each other, combined with their wild and crazy natures lock together and they are a dynamic, fun couple.

Coleman! Poor Coleman! He is thrilled for Skye to have found true love, touches her on the jaw with his fist (no, not hard like that, but in the chummy way) and wishes her well, wiping a tear as she walks away. "Problems, sailor?" he hears behind him and turns to see Wynona there, smiling broadly. He puts his arm over her shoulders, leads her to the pool table and they live happily ever after, running Coleman's bar together and laughing and loving, etc, etc.

Nice and tidy so far.

Alexis is acquitted of Alcazar's murder when unexpected evidence definitively proves that BENNY actually murdered him to protect Sonny. Since Benny's already dead, the Alcazar case is closed. Unfortunately, Alexis has by this time successfully convinced the whole world she's a true cracker box and Scott labels her a danger to the community for her threats to his life and the lives of others. Alexis ends up committed to Ferncliff with Ned retaining custody of Kristina. She is mortified and Cameron vows to do whatever it takes to free her. Together, between legal and psychological expertise, they manage to get her sprung from da bin. As Cameron moves to have Alexis released, Scott pulls out all the stops to keep her put away, knowing that she is wise to his dirty dealings in office and is eager to put him in his place. At her competency hearing, the judge listens to Cameron's articulate testimony and much to Scott's dismay, agrees to release Alexis...into Cameron's custody with a year of probation. They live together platonically as Alexis works to obtain joint custody of Kristina. Their chemistry is tangible and they are drawn together, soon enjoying a wonderfully romantic relationship. Zander isn't quite sure about seeing his father taking up with his friend, Alexis, but ultimately, he is won over by their closeness.

Ned has his hands full between dealing with his mother's return, raising a daughter and getting to know his half brother, Dillion. Tracy returns to town for Edward's funeral and reading of the will and brings with her a whole host of problems . . . right to Ned's doorstep. The trouble intensifies when she learns quite by accident that Ned is not Kristina's biological father, Sonny is! Eager to get the upper hand over her old rival, she plots to use the information to her best advantage. Jax, Cameron, Alexis and Ned work together to keep Tracy from spilling the beans, including an elaborate seduction of her by Jax. Jax works to distract Tracy from trying to take over Sonny's territory from Jason, but actually becomes impressed by her business savvy. He finds himself developing feelings for the older woman, much to Ned's chagrin, and slowly brings her into his business life. The two find that they genuinely enjoy "watching one another work" and a warm and sexy partnership unfolds.

And you know, it's not summer without an awesome young love story, so we get to see the heart melting reunion between Emily and Zander. Of course, it starts out rocky, but as Emily comes to realize that she was judging Zander based on AJ's lies, her anger shifts from Zander to AJ. She takes her brother to task for lying to her and doesn't accept the "it was for your own good" reasoning. Of course, sister-in-law, Courtney, comes to the rescue and talks to Emily, pointing out all of the ways that AJ has changed and asking her to forgive the choices he made at a really bad time in his life, even going so far as to point out that SOMEONE we know has also made some choices they lived to regret. She shows Emily that she's really going to screw up their good life if AJ gets all bummy about Emily disowning him, so Emily melts and forgives AJ. She still makes Zander woo her back, but isn't too hard of a sell and they are cute and happy and lovey-dovey.

Tony instantly clashes with arrogant newcomer, David Hayward and is constantly running into conflict with him. Interestingly enough, Tony learns that David has nearly perfected an incredible serum for diabetics that provides long term management of sugar:insulin levels. When Lucas begins to have severe complications from his own diabetes as a result of his alcohol problem, Tony is force to ask his rival for advice and assistance. Since the serum is still experimental, David is reluctant to try it on Lucas and Bobbie flat out refuses to allow it. This creates conflict between Tony, Bobbie and David, as well as from Lucas, who wants the treatment. Tony, alas, will be without love for a little while yet, but he will be featured prominently in hospital scenes.

With Dillion in town, Georgie's heart doesn't stand a chance and her attention is quickly turned from Lucas to the hip new guy in town. Dillion is a troublemaker and ends up getting Georgie in over her head. Ironically, it's Zander who takes an interest in the newcomer and ultimately gets him on a better path... how? By following in his big brother's footsteps and picking up the microphone. Ned's interest in music is rekindled by Dillion's talent and L&B comes back into focus again.

Their love sickly revived by her affair with David Hayward, Monica and Alan do passionately reunite. After moving past Edward's death, they revel in the return of Emily and the success of AJ with ELQ. They celebrate ___ years of marriage (soras it how you want) and become the Steve and Audrey of GH, matriarch and patriarch and run the hospital together... yes, that's right. We're going to show the hospital. With Bobbie, David, Monica, Alan and Tony all having stories, the focus is going to shift back to the actual hospital, cases that are NOT mob related and the old 7th floor nurses station is relocated and put into the spotlight. ABC is forced to unass some buckage for real medical consultants on the show, returning to the roots of GH from long ago, the show that Frank and Doris Hursley envisioned when they created the show in 1963, blended with the technology, acting talent and dynamic storytelling of today.

Liz enters into a very guarded relationship with Ric, drawn to him out of her own loneliness and his raw sexuality. She holds back because it becomes obvious that he is a man of secrets and she's had enough of men who don't give 100%. Eventually, she learns that, as we suspected, Ric is FBI. His obsession with being Sonny's chief legal counsel was an elaborate scheme to get Sonny up on charges, get Ric as his lawyer, then have Ric throw the case to land Sonny, finally, in prison. The birth of the Corinthos baby and Sonny's subsequent drop out from "the life" thwart his plan and he's forced to table the project for the time being. He then returns home to his wife and children in Detroit, leaving Liz looking puzzled and thanking her lucky stars that she didn't give him her heart.

Swearing off of men for a while, Liz becomes friendly with Lucky once again and one day she accidentally walks in on him coloring his hair. She's shocked and asks him if he's ever tried leaving the hair dark. He admits he'd never considered it and she talks him into buying some dark brown Nice and Easy. As she towels his hair dry after the coloring session, she is shocked to find how hot he really is with darker hair. I mean, it's almost like he's a different person. They lock eyes and baby, it's ON. All is forgiven but Liz makes it clear she's not going to talk any of that "permanent lock" hokey crap and that she's ready for adult love. Lucky happily agrees.

Luke and Summer never quite click again after the whole father-son mess and she ends up going back to college on the West coast. She's a good actor, but hey, with her, Felicia and Faith gone (Faith was killed before Sonny left, by the way, forgot to tell you. She tried to take the mob boss out herself and in a moment of irony, Taggert ended up shooting her down just as she unloaded her gun in return fire, killing Tags graveyard dead). It was absolutely glorious), we've gotten the blinding peroxide down to a minimum. Luke reopens "Luke's," decides he misses ol' Helena's portrait and goes to look for the artist to recreate his masterpiece. This becomes something of an obsession, of course, and when he ultimately does find the painter, he learns that there is actually a series of the paintings, all of which are owned by a reclusive widow who no one has ever seen. Of course, this turns out to be Helena, who has been moving from location to location on her yacht. He steals one of her paintings, their sexy love-hate is reignited and she ends up following him back to Port Charles.

With Helena and Andreas back in town, it's only a matter of time before Stefan returns from following his bliss, ready to regain his title once again. It turns out that his father left a puzzling map in the family crypt and he needs Helena to provide the missing piece. Intent on winning his mother's cooperation, he decides to go after the two things she wants most: Luke Spencer and the Ice Princess (which he pocketed during the madness of "Endgame.") Returning to his dark roots (so to speak), Stefan learns of Laura's condition at the London clinic and decides to use it to his advantage. With a carefully staged and elaborate plan, he poses as a doctor who is brought in to consult on Laura's case. Slowly, he begins to draw her out of her catatonia, but finds that his own buried feelings for her are resurfacing. Over a period of weeks, Laura begins to make incredible progress, much to the amazement of the staff of the clinic. When Laura's regular physician reports to Nikolas of her incredible recovery under the care of this new doctor, he is startled since the real specialist of Nikolas' choice who was to treat her never reported back to him and was refusing his calls. Still, he is elated that his mother is recovering and asks the doctor not to mention their conversation to anyone. He confronts Luke, angry that Luke has usurped his power of attorney and sent in a specialist to treat Laura without his consent. When Luke obviously doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, Nik boards a plane for London and is stunned to find (Friday moment), his uncle laughing and chatting with Laura in her room.

Nikolas wars with a mass of confusion, coupled with the joy of seeing his uncle again. The two are reunited and Nikolas skeptically accepts that impersonating a doctor was the only way Stefan could see Laura and that he had been correct in believing he could go into her mind and find her again. Nikolas agrees to continue Stefan's ruse and checks in on them from time to time, but at Stefan's urging, he doesn't tell the people back in Port Charles either about Stefan's involvement or Laura's improvement. He points out that Laura has blossomed under his "care" and retreated at the mere sight of Luke. Laura continues to recover and when Jonathan Frakes finishes filming Thunderbirds in London, Laura returns to Port Charles with Stefan. She moves into Wyndemere with him and Nikolas and Luke is stunned when he runs into them where? On the docks. Laura wants nothing to do with him (as a result of Stefan's careful programming) and Luke is furious. He goes after Stefan, who tells him that he will be happy to put in a good word for him with Laura if Luke will return the favor for Stefan by getting the map piece from Helena. The Cassadine-Spencer feud is in full swing as the two must work together, even as enemies, to get what they both want and it's fueled further as word comes out that Nikolas knew all along of Stefan's presence in Laura's life and recovery when Luke was banned from the facility.

Meanwhile, Helena (Karen, I stole your picture, broad . . . sue me or ask me to take it down) has been busy trying to establish legitimate business holdings in PC in underhanded ways, working to unseat both ELQ and the holdings of Jax and Tracy. Wait until you see Helena and Tracy go toe to toe!

Helena is amused that her old adversary, Luke Spencer, has a sudden interest in what she's doing and the two toy with one another endlessly. Helena's greed over reclaiming the Ice Princess (which she thought Nikolas had) and taking over business in Port Charles keeps her at the top of her game. I'm even cool with her kidnapping Kristina as long as the kid comes back OK.

Lastly, our local yokel, the cop that's top, the fuzz with the buzz, Mac Scorpio, will be hanging up his badge and letting big bro take over again. Remember the scene where Bubba took off his jacket and let out a whoop as shed the skin of John Law? Look for him to find his liberation yet again. He'll be faced with raising teenaged daughters after Felicia's death and that will ground him down from his vigilante tear to avenge her death. He puts that in the hands of Robert, who has years of torture and imprisonment to repay to Faison.

Mac reopens his private investigator business and works it into his real career as Mr Mom. Watch him deal with the hormones, the angst and the drama of two young ladies and the memories of "8 Rules for Dating My Daughters" from his days of raising Robin. When the girls decide that Mac might be a little less retentive if he found a love interest, look out Port Charles! Cupid has two helpers who are determined to find a woman for their handsome stepdad!

I figure we can knock this out in 3-4 months of taping and have this show turned around in no time. I say we put the "Love" back "in the afternoon." Who's with me?