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by Trish Fodor GH’s Mother and Child Reunion is Full of False HopeMother and Child Reunion No I would not give you false hope Or is it the course of GH story lines run over and over again? And yes, GH did give this viewer false hope that the reunion with Alexis and her - ahem - daughter Sam would be something that actually moved me in a good way. How wrong I was. I was wary of the whole “Alexis has a long lost daughter” story from the get go. After all, I loved the struggle and unexpected rush of maternal instinct she experienced after getting pregnant with and delivering Kristina. Alexis Davis moved into another realm of humanity during that time, away from the guarded and mistrusting illegitimate Cassadine to a warm and loving mother, almost childlike at times in her discovery of what it was like to experience unconditional love. Even though I was secretly dying for her to share this miracle with Sonny, (my Carly hatred reached an all time high back in those days because of all the thwarted “reveals”) I was content watching Alexis pull for her baby during Kristina’s premature delivery and ensuing health crisis. Heck, I even embraced Ned on that occasion, which is huge since I was never a big fan of the gatekeepers. (A rather unpopular position, I know!) True to soap format, Alexis would face mountains of obstacles to live her desired life as a single mother. Keeping Kristina’s paternity a secret from Sonny would ultimately cost her a younger sister’s life; she would temporarily lose custody to Ned; fake a dissociative identity disorder (DID) and masquerade as the Quartermaine butler, Dobson, all in the name of love for her first born. No mother struggled more to be with her child than Alexis Davis did. Of course, children are often used as catalysts to push story in daytime and GH used Kristina as the object of Ric Lansing’s plan to stick it to big brother Sonny by romancing Alexis to gain access to his brother’s first born and raise her as his own. (Okay, the usual Ric Lansing adjectives apply: Sick, twisted, scheming, etc.) GH could have made this reprehensible but instead chose a more titillating path. After weeks of coming on to Alexis, Ric began to see that special bond between mother and daughter and it had a profound effect on him. After years of anger towards “Mommy Adella”, Ric saw a loving mother/child relationship and it genuinely moved him. Curses! That wasn’t supposed to be a part of his plan! From the moment at Kelly’s when Ric first tempted the little girl with french fries and then timidly accepted an invitation to accompany mother and daughter to gymnastics class, I was invested in the whole idea of a Lansing family. How far GH has gone in the opposite direction. No I would not give you false hope The decision to give Alexis an older daughter instantly negated all of the wonder she felt after giving birth to Kristina and even her second child with Ric, little Molly. What could have been a continuation of the maternal journey (this time with a husband by her side to experience first-time parenthood and family life with her) would still have had room for the appropriate angst - I guarantee it. Instead it became all about propping a character that GH has been trying to jam into all the wrong places but just can’t seem to fit. Kelly Monaco was salvaged (Get it? Wink, wink!) from the canceled ABC show Port Charles. Reportedly, other shows were interested in Ms. Monaco but she longed to work on General Hospital and was thrilled when they made her an offer. Quite honestly, I thought it was a natural transition and was looking forward to having her join the cast. Arriving in town as a spunky salvage ship operator, Sam McCall was full of attitude, very hot and had the promise of being a force to be reckoned with; a real firecracker, if you will, all wrapped up in that petite body. Her pairing with Jax was the first on screen chemistry test and I liked them. He was a ruthless corporate raider who complimented her adventurous spirit but the viewers didn’t take to their spark. I’m assuming a lot of the Vanessa Marcil faithful refused to accept her as part of Jax’s life. The same lukewarm responses followed after she was paired with crime lord Sonny Corinthos who, coincidentally, was also one of Brenda’s lovers. Monaco has talent and is extremely attractive, even had the buzz worthy notoriety of appearing in Playboy, so what gives? Why couldn’t GH fit this character on the canvas? Enter Jason. Having written Sam as pregnant with Sonny’s baby but suffering the tanking of the Sonny/Sam pairing, GH needed a way out and no one loves a damsel in distress (especially one who happens to be expecting) more than that saintly hit man, Jason Morgan. I have to admit that this was an amazing idea at first. The scenes with Alexis, Sam and Jason in the hospital during Kristina’s crisis and the tragic death of Sam’s stillborn daughter were Emmy worthy performances by all three actors. (Perhaps that’s where GH first hatched the idea of a Alexis/Sam connection). It was what planted the seeds of contempt between the two women, with Sam forever blaming Alexis’s plea for stem cells as being the cause of her baby’s death. The hatred between them mounted cresting just as they discovered they were mother and daughter. It’s brilliant soap opera, really. As I mentioned earlier, I was looking for an amazing story here. There were promising signs in the beginning when the two started to make headway and actually communicate. When Sam was shot, Alexis refused to leave her bedside and both Nancy Lee Grahn and Kelly Monaco turned in some tender performances. The scenes where Alexis introduced Kristina to her “big sister” made me smile but they also made me nervous. It’s a huge deal for this character to welcome someone into her children’s personal lives. That’s what was so monumental about the Kelly’s scene with Ric. But now she was inviting in a troubled young woman who was unsure of her feelings about her newfound mother into her family and her home. It would be a move that would cost Alexis everything. From the minute Sam was beckoned into the Davis-Lansing family fold you could see that Ric felt threatened. He’d seen Alexis’s maternal strengths and I think understood and even admired them, but as soon as Alexis started assuming control the way she tends to, the dark clouds started rolling in the form of Alexis versus the couple; Sam and Jason. Drawing from her own personal experience, Alexis tried to dissuade her new, adult daughter from having a relationship with a known mobster; “Do as I say, not what I did.” It’s a familiar line that parents commonly lay on their kids and it may work on children but on grown women in love? Fat chance. Ric saw it. He warned his wife. He also saw the familiar signs of Jason Morgan (and Sam) driving a wedge between him and his family, first with Sonny, now with Alexis and Kristina. (Was Molly far behind?) But Alexis was determined to control the situation and ended up alienating her own family instead. This is where the story went south for me. And see? Not a sign of cancer yet. From here on out the writing made me shake my head starting with the first glance Ric stole of Sam posing provocatively in the moonlight. Here the man was, one minute with his arm around his wife enjoying a glass of red wine on the sofa, and the next -- BAM! You had to be an idiot not to know what was coming and I could swear I heard the song “Hungry Eyes” from Dirty Dancing echoing throughout the set. So Sam, ticked at mommy dearest for her particular form of controlling love and pissed at Jason for going along with it, put “Operation Nail Stepdaddy” into high gear and damned if Ric didn’t go along with it! Problem is, when the deed was done it was no longer Sam’s idea but retooled to be the lustful act of a neglected, scorned husband. What? Who flipped the switch? There are those who speculate that Monaco was not happy with her character playing the villain in destroying her mother’s marriage but I’m not sure Rick Hearst was so pleased at his character taking the heat either. In my opinion, the ONS was a poor, plot driven choice and one that really killed the mother/daughter momentum that was building. I recently read a section on nancyleegrahn.com where the actress answered viewer questions. One of them was asking her opinion about the relationship between mother and daughter. In her answer, Nancy said (Taken directly from her site): “I actually like this story line very much. I’ve read a lot of negative comments from some fans, but I actually find the relationship between Alexis and Sam to be a very believable relationship emotionally. I mean, these are two people who didn’t especially like one another, who were thrown into a family situation. How do you reconcile the love you inherently feel for a child or a parent with the animosity you have for that person, having known them? That’s very complex, and lately, I think we’re getting a chance to see that. Alexis has been honest about how she feels and what she can and can’t get past, but she’s also clearly shown wanting to protect and care for her daughter – no matter what underlies that. I think it rings very true in terms of who these characters are. We’ll see where it all goes, but from an acting standpoint, it’s actually been one of my favorite stories.” I respect Nancy’s opinion but I can’t help but feel that the character’s blinding attention to the long lost daughter unduly jeopardized the rest of her family and I don’t see a lot of remorse for it from either mother or daughter, which makes me sad indeed. When asked if Ric and Alexis ever loved each other or simply loved the ‘idea’ of each other, Grahn’s response seemed to reflect some of the viewer confusion surrounding Ric Lansing’s recent shift in character: She responded, “Well, I think Alexis really loved him…and, a month ago, I’d have said Ric loved her – but I caught a few episodes of the show lately <laughs>, and apparently I was wrong!” My only conclusion is that show, including Ric Lansing’s motivation, has been rewritten professing his never-ending love for Elizabeth in order to give them a convenient “out” of the marriage and gloss over Sam’s culpability in the ONS to exonerate her in her mother’s eyes. Sure, Alexis proclaimed that she couldn’t forgive Sam, but her behavior toward her has been more or less relenting. Meanwhile, she can’t be bothered to accept a lousy ride home from Ric after a round of chemo when she could barely walk? What’s wrong with this picture? He is, after all, the father of her youngest daughter. Instead, Alexis chose to throw the offer back in his face defensively accusing him of using it as a ploy to use against her in family court. Now, I have sympathy for cancer patients but in this case, the “shady” DA may have a point. Alexis is in no shape to care for her children and no amount of Sam/Spinelli pot therapy will change that for the time being. Don’t her younger children deserve a little more consideration than that? Is newfound daughter Sam the one who now gets to decide her youngest sister’s welfare over her own father? Never mind the fact that Sam was an eager and willing participant in the mind-searing sex on the lake house living room floor. It certainly is not the way I’d envisioned things and it really has turned me off on any future relationship between Alexis and her eldest daughter. Would it kill that selfish girl to recognize that her mother did have feelings for Ric and that at one time, they were in love enough to conceive a child together? Would she have the decency to at least feel badly about what she did to destroy an entire family where her sisters felt safe and loved? Hell no. It’s all about Sam and her wants and her needs and her precious future with Jason. I guess Alexis is willing to let her get away with all of it in order to absolve her own guilt about giving her eldest up so many years ago. So, the mother and child reunion was based on false hope for me. Unless GH can find another angle or resolution to this story that actually entertains me and mercifully opts to skip another freakin’ custody battle, my time in Port Charles will remain limited to a minimum for a while. Until next time, pop in a good CD, kick back and enjoy the music! Trish J But I would not give you false hope Words & Music by Paul Simon
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