Dion

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

I thought today was mostly enjoyable...Sonny and Natalia were mainly a snore though. As were Curtis, Jordan and Sidwell. I'm interested in how it will play out with Sasha and Jason now that he has agreed to let everyone believe that he is the father of the baby. I'm also glad that Jason specifically wants Danny to know that he is not the father even though they won;t be telling Danny that Michael is. I liked the scenes with the Kai/Trina/Gio/Emma quad, same with Kristina and Lucky, Liz and Isaiah at Charlie's Can't wait to see what will happen tomorrow with Danny, Jason and Cyrus at Charlie's and glad they have a crowd of the above mentioned and Martin. Oh I knew it was coming when Cyrus was in the frame when Emma and Kai took their selfie but I did like that it was their selfie that tipped off Danny as to Cyrus' whereabouts. However it was also a bit weird that Danny was right in the middle of a somewhat tense conversation with Rocco and yet conveniently took the time to immediately look at Kai's post when the text notification came through and announce that he was going to Charlie's. I think it would have worked better if Danny had seen the post after he finished talking with Rocco and taken off unannounced, with Rocco later seeing it on his own phone and realising where Danny had gone so he could tell Jason and Sasha. I'm glad that Felicia appeared to be giving Cody a new perspective so hopefully his dark turn won't last much longer. And I wonder what will happen tomorrow to stop Nina from telling Willow that she was sleeping with Drew lol.

I enjoyed today, some interesting moments with Ric and Liz (he seems to be realising that they're not meant to be), Carly and Nina (teaming up at last), Jason and Tracy (they work together so well), Joss and Cyrus (she totally unsettled him by acting nice lol), Kai and Trina (they're sweet together), Liz and Kristina (with Liz seemingly realising that Kristina is quite unhinged lol) and Carly and Tracy. Cody's unfortunately become a total jerk which is a shame after all the good work over the past two years making him likeable. And then there was Ric and Ava - definitely felt some heat there.

Well there was Jessie of course, whom Lee was dating when she fell pregnant after being raped by Phil and offered to raise the child (Nancy) as his own but they had already broken up by the time Nancy died (after struggling in the hospital for three months). Then Meg of course. And while married to Meg, there was Iris, Meg's old school friend who was an alcoholic, ran away from town several times and almost married Lee's brother Tom but jilted him by not showing up at the wedding. I don't think Lee and Iris ever had a full-blown affair or even a ONS and Iris seems to have abruptly been written out after three years when Lee and Meg reconciled following Scotty's kidney transplant. Brooke, Meg's stepdaughter tried to come onto Lee when she returned following her divorce from Noel Clinton, Meg's ex-fiance. Brooke was later murdered. Then there was Mary, a nurse Lee dated while Meg was institutionalised. She had an abusive ex-husband. and then finally Carolyn, the adoption agent Lee married. Her son Bobby was college-aged and had been misdiagnosed with a fatal illness. Bobby eventually married his girlfriend and they were expecting a baby when they were all written out with Lee and Carolyn in a happy ending. Only for that happy ending to end in tragedy when both Bobby and Carolyn were killed off in a boating accident when Lee was brought back to the show. Happily, the wife and child were left alive (I don't think they were in the accident), bucking early GH's trend of killing babies off left right and centre. Which reminds me that Lee was also apparently married in backstory and had a son Chuck who died onscreen in 1965 just as Lee and Jessie were starting to date.

Are you sure you don't mean 1968? Audrey was gone from March 1968 to January 1969, having been written out to help war orphans in Vietnam. She was on nearly all of 1969. Actually that explains why they never picked up with Phil and Audrey, as she left only a couple of episodes after Phil returned. It probably was an attempt to return Steve to being the lead "eligible bachelor married to medicine" archetype that he was originally intended as. So he got a series of relationships and flirtations that didn't last long while Audrey got punished with misery marriages. Tbh they probably did marry them off too soon the first time round (after only a year). Once that was well and truly exhausted they put them back together.

Once Phil came back in 1968 after almost a year away, they seemed to have never picked it up again as Phil remarried Jessie and became entangled with Polly's problems and later got involved with Diana Taylor (nee Maynard) etc while Audrey ended up married to Tom Baldwin and later Jim Hobart.

Yes, they were really interesting to read. A fair amount more short term patient storylines than I expected. No worries, I often check this thread anyway.

Not only pregnant but actually in the middle of a self-induced abortion gone wrong - Phil was rushing her to General Hospital. I (and others here) only found that particular part of the story due to Depboy's summaries.

Leticia was the first victim of the text message killer (Diego).

Gee that makes them look like illicit lovers rather than mother and son

Oh @DRW50 I remember once you saying that you wished more actors did exit interviews when they left the show. Ria Vandervis actually did one: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/shortland-street-star-ria-vandervis-on-total-burnout-and-new-beginnings/7IJUOSAYWNHF3A3CLRBIZ2PU3Y/

I see everybody has already mentioned the 20 second long scenes but gee, the ones with Brad at the gym were especially bad yesterday with how short they were. I also had to go back and check the Drew and Jordan scenes because Brad and his friend were there at the gym at the same time as Drew and Jordan (Brad must've left to go to the hospital before Curtus turned up) but there was very little crossover so initially it looked to me like somebody had made an oopsie with editing/continuity and placed two sets of characters on the same set at the same time. But on second look it turned out Brad and his friend were in the background of Drew and Jordan's scenes. It's just that Brad's scenes were soooo short, it looked like Drew and Jordan weren't there at all (and it wouldn't surprise me if there actors actually weren't lol and Brad's scenes were inserted later).

Ugh, as others have said, the writing for Tracy today was awful. I did enjoy some of the Q scenes however. And I actually liked the ending of the episode with Jack and Valentin.