Dion

I'll preface this by saying that I don't know how close Marlena and Maggie were back in the 70s and 80s before Marlena was presumed dead. But I do seem to recall that they didn't have much to do with each other in the 90s. By 2001, Maggie had been supporting role for the past decade since her affair storyline with Neil Curtis had pretty much flopped back in '91. Meanwhile, Marlena's previous confidants, Laura and Kim were no longer around. Kate (who'd been close with Marlena back when Deborah Adair was in the role) was too busy warring with Sami for a close friendship with Marlena to remain plausible, while Hope and Marlena's friendship were severely strained because of the whole Princess Gina/sub sex/baby paternity drama. And of course Lexie was too preoccupied with Isaac and being tempted over to the dark side to be friends with Marlena. So you end up with Marlena and Maggie as best friends by default, although I assume they did have some sort of friendship back in the day so its not as if it came entirely out of nowhere.

I'm not even sure Libby's return has aired yet. Does anyone else know her first airdate? It's been spoiled for so long now, likely due to the new filming schedule where they finish up the year in June and then go dark for much longer due to there only being 3 episodes a week produced.

https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/celebrity/madeleine-mccarthy-shortland-street-co-star-romance/ Exit interview for Madeleine McCarthy Also as a side note the author of this article is Elisabeth Easther - who played Carla. I also just noticed that she did the Nicole story I posted back in September.

Nicole was axed (I mean with the reduction, I think we could have guessed that but this confirms it) https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/celebrity/sally-martin-life-after-shortland-street/

Patsy was pregnant when Kimberly had the miscarriage but that wasn't the story she refused to play. But Patsy did feel uncomfortable enough about it that when she got pregnant again in early 1990 (and Kim got pregnant, but didn't know if it was Shane's or Cal's) she refused to play out a stillbirth. So they replaced her with Anne Howard who lasted a few months and in the end Kim ended up not having a stillbirth but rather gave birth to Jeannie Theresa off-screen in LA (though Shane did go and visit Jeannie just after she was born but I think Kim wasn't seen). Patsy then returned either around the end of the year or early 1991. https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/07/wls-interview-patsy-pease-part-three.html

In 2020, Obrecht was having some doctor at a WSB facility brainwash Dante to kill Peter, then Scott and Franco went to the same facility to get help for Franco's tumor recurrence. Scott ended up saving Obrecht after the doctor attempted to sexually assault her and pushed him into a knife, killing him. Nobody ever found out about that and eventually they fell in love and started a relationship. They were together for more than two years but broke up in 2023 after Scott continued to stand by Liz after the whole thing concerning Liz helping Nikolas hold Esme captive came out. Obrecht blamed Liz's actions in that for indirectly leading to Britt's death.

I fell behind GH so am only up to March 10 but have enjoyed March so far, so thought I'd do a quick post before this monthly thread heads off to the archives. I like Emma getting involved in the crypt drama and that someone on the writing team remembered that during the poisoned water thing, Edward gave up the cure Tracy stole for him in order to save Emma, which gives Emma a plausible reason to actually care about what happens to the Q remains. Portia changing Heather's test results came back and Drew is dangling it over her head. I'm glad she immediately went to Ava for help and is now getting legal advice from Ric. I am slowly warming to the idea of Gio being Dante and Brook-Lyn's even though I don't like the compound SORASing and retcons that it creates. Lulu and Brook had an interesting confrontation after Lulu found out about Brook's baby. I also like the respect that Tracy has developed for Gio too. Sidwell finding the knife Helena used to kill Alexis' mother and that whole thing was weird but interesting. Joss and her spy training...meh Charlotte coming back to Port Charles...meh Looking forward to binging the rest of the month! (I did have a sneak peek at a recap so I know about Kristina causing Ric and Liz to have a car accident and Emma chaining herself to the crypt etc)

Yes, you're right they do actually, but I liked the backdrop of the art gallery.

I did have the same thought actually lol

I did appreciate that Selina took a moment out from all the threats to give her deluded nephew some advice about Lucas and finding another man who would accept him for who he is lol. Will Drew screw Jason over the alibi? Probably not, but maybe they'll drag it out for a dozen 20 second long scenes tomorrow with both of them doing their best "smell the farts" faces. The only way I see this Joss the spy thing working is if Emma is in actuality undercover for some reason, having already been recruited for the WSB, and they make them bickering partners. And I liked the scenes with Lucas and Alexis, Portia and Jordan, Kai and Trina, and Nina and Maxie.

Ah yes, this was the episode that was on WOST back in 2004. And Ben Andrews is playing Bob Chandler, the sleazy professor who basically told Polly he was some sort of polyamorist in an open marriage, but Polly later found out his wife knew nothing of this arrangement. As a result, Polly ended up leaving to go to art school in Chicago in March but came back in June after her father's health took another turn for the worse. Presumably this is when the recast to Jennifer Billingsley happened.

Lulu apparently went to the Deception office after getting an after hours call from the supplier and called Brook-Lyn away from her Valentines Day date. Lulu was actually wearing the same clothes she had on in the previous episode. But you're right about the editing/writing. There was no set-up for these changes (i.e Lulu getting a phone call at the Q mansion or Brooklyn at the club calling her away from Chase) so it all felt very abrupt.

No worries. There was also this whole thing where Ava thought that she'd killed Nikolas by smashing him over the head (after the whole Esme pregnancy drama), but Austin had saved Nikolas' life and Cyrus had had Mason take Nikolas away where he was on life support for months while Austin was cozying up to Ava. Cyrus may also have been the one to kill Austin.

in 2023 it was revealed that Cyrus was an old family friend of Austin's (and may have been involved with Austin's mother); that Cyrus paid Austin's way through medical school and both Austin and Austin's cousin Mason worked for Cyrus (TJ ended up recognising Mason as one of his kidnappers from when Cyrus had him kidnapped in 2020). Cyrus blackmailed Austin into testifying that he was fit to be paroled.

Though to be fair, in this situation the "annoying bald friend" is basically a warlord who tried to kill the police commissioner, the deputy mayor's new love interest, and the mayor's son. It's a case of better the devil you know.

That felt really weird considering how back in the late nineties and much of the noughties the show was fairly sexless.

I'm pretty much happy with the explanation as to why Cyrus started (this round of) killing. I'd already believed that he'd become so deluded that he believed he was doing God's work by killing patients that he believed were suffering and the explanations for Sam and Dex made some sense too. The scenes with Liz and Cyrus - while not quite reaching those heights - felt fairly reminiscent of Audrey and Ryan back in '93, which I liked.

I enjoyed today's episode...nothing too earth shattering happened but I enjoyed the moment at the police station when Mac turned around while discussing the Cyrus case with Anna and saw Sasha kissing Jason for Willow's benefit. Liz being so dramatic and enigmatic about the bag was a bit silly, it was already obvious Liz was being a bit too naive thinking that the evidence she had in it was enough to bring down Cyrus. Oh and from a few days ago, I appreciated that Sasha's due date of July 23 is consistent with her and Michael hooking up in the early hours on the morning of Halloween. I reckon somebody must have actually bothered to look up a conception calculator lol, because it is right smack bang in the middle of the conception window. And from an in-universe point of view, I'm also not pleased that Sonny's piers that Drew wants will mean the esplanade is far away from the city center and established transportation options. Guaranteed white elephant lol.

Yeah, that makes sense too

I did like the outdoors scenes today with Lucas and Isaiah and Natalia and Sidwell (well in their case that it was outdoors not really the scene itself) although as pointed out they did contradict Molly and Cody apparently close to freezing to death on the GH balcony lol. I guess you could make sense of it by just assuming Molly and Cody were facing north out of the sun and the Deception/Metrocourt parking lot was on the south in the sun and a bit later in the day when it was warmer.

Speaking of Isaiah, they seem to be chem testing him with Kristina now too

There was a plot on GH around 1971 - 72 where Phil Brewer was impotent after an accident. Of course, infamously he suddenly realised he was...ahem *potent* again while visiting Diana Taylor and their son Tracy and that led to him raping her ick!! And Diana of course fell pregnant with his child again. Both children eventually died in separate circumstances.

I think they've now settled on Cody and Molly for the time being, the Lulu thing has gone absolutely nowhere. I'm expecting to hear Jordan say "TJ decided to transfer to a hospital overseas" or something like that any day now. Which would be a shame as a TJ and Isaiah friendship could've been interesting i.e Isaiah, a fellow doctor, being not that much older than TJ and also dating his mom etc.

That actually reminds me of a friend of a friend who back in 2002 was convinced that they were about to write Toni out of Shortland Street since she'd just given birth to Harry...only for Toni to stay for another 6 years and Harry to grow up into a teenager with a kid of his own before departing (of course as you know they brought him back and made him a killer). No you're absolutely right, it was once a year from 2001 - 2006 (Thorne 2001, Whip 2002, Ridge 2003, Ridge 2004, Eric 2005 and Jack 2006) and then slightly less often after that. Regarding Tom, they did have a college-aged Tom who was the peer of Blackie in 1982. But for whatever reason it seems they weren't that interested in developing the character at that time. And actually I've had the thought that Jack Wagner would have been good as Tom instead of the unattached to anyone Frisco, by that I mean he's Tom but still has all of Frisco's storylines. But then again, that would mean Tony wouldn't have been his brother...though in that alternate universe I suppose you could then put Brad Maule in as a recast Jeff.

OMG, that ending lmao