I hope Rick Hearst has jotted down the number for Emmy Submissions; he's going to need it. Rick Hearst could take his scenes this week and easily build a winning Emmy reel. Every moment that Ric was on screen this week was positively electrifying.
Sometimes GH squanders its talent pool - there are actors with incredible range and skill who are far too often relegated to window dressing, sometimes for weeks and months at a time. But then suddenly the writers remember them - "Oh yeah, we have Rick Hearst!" and they write him something worthy of his abilities. Ric Lansing's character has always had that je ne sais quois... He's a bad guy, he's a good guy. He's manipulative and dark, then on the turn of the heel, tender and sympathetic. He wants revenge, and then he craves love. He clings to bitterness, and then he suddenly releases it and we wholeheartedly root for him to break fee of the demons that constantly torment him.
Ric signed the piers over to Trevor to save Snoriana's sorry hide, even knowing she'd been hired to work him by Trevor. He wrote her a check for 20% of the profits to be done with her, but she tore up the check. Pity; she could have used it to pay for some acting lessons. She was clearly the weakest link this week; Ric and Trevor sizzled together. Ric and Sonny have always had intense on-screen chemistry. I even saw a new and delightful spark when Ric went to offer his services to the still bedridden Anthony Zacharra. But the scenes with Marianna were all one-sided. Ric was emoting like crazy and she just couldn't match his level of passion for a single second. Hopefully she's really gone. I'd rather see Ric back with Alexis, or Diane, or working Claudia for info on Trevor, or...pretty much anyone else. Hey, here's an idea - maybe when Kate has her fill of Sonny she can try the other brother? At any rate, I absolutely had to begin my column this week acknowledging Rick Hearst's stellar work,
I was also delighted to see some Quartermaine mansion action - Good to see Edward, Tracy, Alice, Luke and Lulu all sparring in the foyer. One question - wouldn't you be deeply offended if you were "Cook"? The poor woman has worked for the Q's for 30 years making all their meals and slaving away for them, but they apparently haven't bothered to learn her name. I only know she's a female as I hear other people reference her gender like "Cook won't like it if she sees you in her kitchen." Is the poor thing even allowed in the rest of the house?
But I digress... The Q family has been front and center in Port Charles for decades, and when the powers that be systematically began killing them all off, I didn't like it a bit. I still think it was a monumental mistake to kill off Alan, and I continue to be appalled every day that the writers try to shove No Name Nurse down my throat as a suitable replacement for our beloved Emily with Nik. I'm not that easily bamboozled. (Man, I love that word.) But, I have to give credit where credit is due - they threw Q fans a couple of bones this week, with the aforementioned mansion banter, and the reveal that Monica was the hit and run driver in Sam's accident. Sam should actually thank Monica because getting hit by that car probably saved her from being strangled by Diego.
Monica has every reason to drink. She lost her son AJ, she lost Emily, she lost Alan, and all she has left is that giant empty house. She rarely gets to see her grandson Michael. Jason has been lost to her for years, and the irony of Monica becoming a drunk driver isn't lost on us. Grief is an overbearing emotion that cries out to be numbed, and people deal with that pain in many ways. Booze was Monica's way, but it cost her. She has admitted she has a problem and didn't say No, No, No to rehab - she is going to get help, and will most likely find her way back to sanity and wholeness. The real question is will Jason give her a reason to get better by telling her she has another grandson?
In addition to drama this week, we had our share of comedy, too. The writing staff outdid themselves in the comedic arena this week. Between Maxie asking Spinelli to make her look smart, Spinelli coming up with Vixenella as a code name for Claudia, Patrick trying to hold a baby, Robin contemplating putting her baby nursery in a closet, Maxie telling Robin all the things she learned about motherhood while she was faking a pregnancy, Kate's riff to annoy Claudia on what women should never wear - "Never steal your shoes from streetwalkers..." Tracy saying to Luke "Don't quote the Bible to me, you atheist." - I was laughing every day.
Claudia slithered all over town leaving venom everywhere she went in encounters with Luke, Ian, Jerry, Jason, and Kate. She asked Jason to kill Trevor, she asked Ian and Jerry to kill Sonny, she offered to back Kate's new magazine "Crimson" (is that name a tribute to all the bloodshed left in her lover's wake?) and told Johnny she's doing it all for him. Johnny seems a lot more interested in Lulu flirting with Logan than mob wars.
I'm no more interested in mob wars than Johnny, but alas, that is our lot right now. If Sonny and Jason really loved their children, they would get out. Sonny answered Kate truly this week when she asked him why he didn't get out of the mob. He said "I don't know how." And I know he meant it -but it's kind of like O.J. saying he was going to look for the real killer and then playing golf every day... Sonny isn't really trying that hard to find a way out. I do have to give him credit for calling a truce with the Zacharra's this week, but the minute Trevor got his hands on Alcazar's piers, Sonny's first words were "Truce is off."
Okay, remember when I complained about ABC's shameless Campbell's soup promotion? I'm going to get even now with a shameless promotion of my own. If you are thirsty, and I know you are - go to your nearest grocery store and pick up some Metromint Chocolate Mint Water. It's like a drinking a Girl Scout Thin Mint, but no calories and no artificial sweeteners. And no, I do not work for them or make a commission; I just really, really, really like it.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Jax and Carly be able to conceive another baby girl before the pink blankie and new mobile fades? Will Vixenella get her red shoes all muddy as it's Springtime in upstate New York and we all know it's gonna rain? Will Monica get Lucky's old room at the rehab center? Will Lulu ever grow a backbone and get a job on her own that someone in her family isn't connected with? Will Snoriana go back and take over the diner at Martha's Vineyard now that Randy's gone and she's actually a legal citizen? Will Patrick object to his baby living in a re-designed closet?
