StevieM

For that matter, she doesn't know that Spencer died.

CM's Drew is essentially a brand-new character. There are no references to Drew having Jason's memories as part of him, or that he was once believed to be Jason. He has no relationship with Jake, who was like a son to him. His personality and character are completely different. The only things that have remained the same are his place in the Quartermaine family, having a daughter with Sam named Scout, and having a son named Oscar who died of cancer. This was hammered home by Drew's scenes with Ric, who he used to hate. Rick Lansing hired Hayden to pretend she was Drew's wife. He was determined to keep Drew (Jake Doe) and Elizabeth apart by whatever means necessary. This is what finally helped Elizabeth see that, in many respects, Ric was irredeemable. I still remember her words to him at the Nurses' Ball: "Whatever good there was in you is gone. Or maybe it was never really there. Maybe...you were never good." Actually, I found that scene. It was really good and worth watching.

Drew ran for Congress. The United States House of Representatives. And, yes, elections to the U.S. House are every two years. U.S. Senators are elected to six-year terms. In the state legislatures, the lower house, usually called the Assembly or the state House of Representatives, has elections every two years. The upper House, called the state Senate, varies from state to state. In some, state Senators are elected to four-years terms, while in others, they are elected to two-year terms.

I don't know if anyone else has pointed this out, or even if the topic has been discussed here, but there is something that really should be said about this upcoming surgery: there is no hospital in America that would allow Lucas to operate on Sam. Doctors cannot operate on family members. That includes not allowing them to "sign a waiver." It goes against the most basic standards of medical ethics.

We are definitely in agreement about this. I always thought Kristina was bi. But to be fair, she was questioning her sexuality for a really long time. It feels like PM decided to settle it, and that he did so with very little fanfare. He suddenly had Kristina identify as gay, and people around her began to say it too. I would love for the show to unsettle this matter with a few well-placed words. Kristina has a long enough history of romance and sex with characters of both genders that it would be believable. And I agree that it would open up a lot of possibilities for her stories, including examples like the one you just gave for dark Kristina.

I looked back over the last few pages. This was only the second post of yours that I replied to. That doesn't seem excessive. Also, please note that my reply addressed several different topics you brought up in your post, not just the baby. Never-the-less, your point is taken. I won't continue to engage with you regarding this storyline.

The baby was Kristina's. She was the mother. The baby was her daughter. And I do think that Kristina would have ultimately made the decision to keep her child and tell Molly that the adoption she had been hoping for was not going to take place. That's who Jason is. It's who he has always been. Jason is Sonny's enforcer. He would never abandon Sonny or the business. I am thinking that the Ava we have been watching is actually Olivia Jerome. The real Ava is stashed away somewhere. I picked up on two major hints on the first two days of EK/CVE's material. First, Trina said that something about Ava seemed off. Second, when Ava was talking to Jagger, she referred to Dr. Collins, before quickly correcting herself and saying "Kevin," like she suddenly remembered that he was on the list of people who she was supposed know fairly well and would call by his first name.

Bygones.

Thanks Toups!! I appreciate the kind words. I never actually posted at Dustin's message board, and didn't realize that he had one. But I did read his page, along with Beth's page. The place where I started posting was the Coffeerooms. I think that our page there was called Todays, but we usually just called it the Coffeerooms. I believe you were Jim Reilly Jr. over there. Then there were a couple other sites we were both on, Turtle Run and Soap City. And maybe you occasionally stopped by the Connotator, the Jack and Jen page. Of course, we probably got to know each other originally on Channa's page. That was where you first came of age as a reporter.

I am not a troll. I have posted here, on occasion, for many years. Apparently, I just got moved up to Explorer, whatever that means. I have known Toups since 2001. My opinion sincerely differs from yours. We seem to look at this story--and this issue--from a different perspective. That doesn't make either one of us a troll. As far as I am concerned, the baby was TJ and Kristina's. I regard Kristina as the mother, not as the carrier for Molly. Even if the adoption had happened--which was looking less and less likely--I still would not have regarded Kristina as having been a "carrier." She would have been the expectant mother when pregnant, the new mom after giving birth, and then the birth mother after the adoption papers were signed.

Kristina absolutely was the baby's mother. Any custody battle would have been initiated by TJ and Molly. They would have been wrong to do so. Instead, they should have accepted the fact that the adoption they hoped for didn't work out. And then they should have sat down with Kristina and worked out a plan for joint parenting and joint custody.

Kristina would not have been keeping her sister's baby. She would have been keeping her own baby, rather than following through with an adoption plan. That would have been her right, both legally and morally. Willow had the right to change her mind about the adoption she had originally agreed to for her baby. She did nothing wrong when she vacated the adoption within the agreed upon window for her to rescind. The only bad guys were Julian, for illegally learning her identity and approaching her (which was inherently coercive), and Brad&Lucas for trying the challenge her right to rescind by falsely asserting that it would be damaging to the baby if he was returned to his mother, when in reality they just wanted the kid for themselves. Molly, through her actions, showed herself to be no better than Julian Jerome. Ironic, given how much she used to hate him.

It's not about being a legal expert, it is about knowing the basics. Your parental rights cannot be terminated until the child is born. And no court will issue an involuntary TPR based on your past promises while you were pregnant. I disagree that being pregnant through insemination, with a plan to surrender the baby, is that different from planning to give a baby up for adoption. The mother's feelings are the issue and in both cases it is highly possible that the expectant mother will not be able to give up her child like she thought she could. Of course other people had rights. TJ could petition the court for a paternity test. When it showed that he is the father, he would have been named the father on the birth certificate. He could have then gotten shared custody or visitation. He also could have fought hard and asked the court for sole custody. But even if he had won, Kristina would have remained the mother and had liberal visitation rights. Other people with rights are Alexis, Sonny, and Jordan. They are grandparents and, in many states, may have the right to visit with their grandchildren. Molly, on the other hand, had no rights other than those that she received from TJ and Kristina. The baby was never hers.

Apparently, I saw what happened on screen very differently than you did. It doesn't really matter to me, though. My point is that in real life Kristina would not have been seen as having issued a voluntary TPR (termination of parental rights), nor would her actions, agreements and promises have been legitimate grounds for a court to issue an involuntary TPR. I am not a lawyer or a legal expert, nor am I pretending to be. I just know a little something about the basics of adoption. The laws are set up to favor the adoptive parents when there is a conflict. But even still, there are limits. Molly couldn't benefit from a system set up to benefit adoptive parents because she never was one. She was a prospective adoptive parent, nothing more. The baby was never hers. Kristina was the mother.

I reject the moral premise of your argument. Kristina could not have known how she would feel before she got pregnant, let alone before she gave birth. And the fact that she didn't want a baby is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that she wanted the particular baby she was pregnant with--she wanted HER baby. The pain that Molly feels over her infertility, as well as the pain of a failed adoption plan, pales in comparison to the devastation that Kristina would have suffered had Molly succeeded in her goal to facilitate a coerced adoption. Molly fully understood that the adoption she had hoped for was falling apart. She understood that Kristina wanted to keep her baby. Once she recognized that, she should have let it go. She should have allowed TJ and Kristina to work out their situation pertaining to their daughter. Instead, Molly used Kristina's love for her as a weapon with which to bully her into giving up her child.

The contract was not legally binding, and that was also spoken of multiple times. Kristina was acknowledged as having the right to keep her baby. Molly could not have gone to court and forced an adoption. That is what the show said about how it works in their fictional universe. In real life, it also works that way. Kristina carried the baby, and it was biologically hers. She could only terminate her rights after the baby was born. That is how it works in most states, certainly including New York. Many states also have a waiting period and require the adoption to take place in a courtroom. And Kristina absolutely had the legal right to back out of her initially stated plan to allow Molly to adopt HER baby. In both real life and the GH universe, Kristina most definitely would have been within her rights to walk out of the hospital with her baby. Even TJ would not have been the legal father until he established his paternity, either by petitioning the court to order a paternity test, or by prevailing upon Kristina to allow him to sign the birth certificate.

No. The law is absolutely clear about this. The baby was Kristina's. She was the mother. She was never actually TJ and Molly's surrogate. That was just the term they chose to use. Kristina, like all pregnant women, including those planning an adoption, was an expectant mother. And when a pregnant woman, like Kristina, gives birth, she is the new mom. That includes women who have previously said that they are inclined to agree to an adoption. TJ was the baby's father. But Molly was not the mother. She was never the adoptive mother because there was never an adoption. Molly was the prospective adoptive parent. That means that she had reason to believe she would become a parent at a later date, but certainly not a guarantee. Even if she did ultimately adopt the baby, that still wasn't her baby that Kristina was carrying or that she gave birth to. Kristina was carrying her and TJ's baby, and she gave birth to her and TJ's baby. If the adoption had moved forward, after the child was born, then a termination of parental rights would have been issued. At that point Molly would become an adoptive mother and Kristina would become a birth mother/first mother/natural mother, or whichever term you prefer to use.

I had actually considered that possibility. Maybe she is Olivia. That would explain why she had some familiarity with people, as well as mannerisms that could allow her to pass for Ava, along with considerable effort on her part. This idea would allow that new writing team to abandon the direction that PM took the character, at least in part. It could allow for a partial "redemption" of Ava, just enough to keep her out of jail, and sharing custody of Avery. Come to think of it, Olivia being the replacement could explain why she was so determined to fight for Avery, since they could claim that she was determined to have a family of her own by raising her niece as her daughter.

I am starting to wonder if Ava has been switched out. EK and CVE's material began airing yesterday. Maybe their first big change is that Ava isn't really Ava, that she was kidnapped, is being held somewhere, and somebody else took her place. Trina said something yesterday about how "something about Ava seems off." And today, Ava had to correct herself midsentence when talking to Jagger. She said "Dr. Collins," only to stop and change it to "Kevin." Does anyone remember when GH did something similar with Helena back in 2002. She was supposed to be in prison, but she swapped places with her cousin, who was dying anyway. Luke ultimately figured it out.

Austin's murder may wind up being a little like Nikolas's attempt to kill Hayden. It was dropped for years, Nikolas never had to answer for what he did, and Shawn was put away in prison. Many years later, Shawn was released from prison and people close to Nikolas, like Spencer, knew what he had done. Elizabeth, Hayden's sister, turning states evidence against Nikolas, admittedly on an unrelated issue, also felt like a degree of vindication. Obviously, this analogy is imperfect. We all knew who put out the hit on Hayden, whereas we don't know who killed Austin. My point is that I could see this story being dropped for some time before suddenly coming up again in a prominent and significant way a few years down the line.

I think Higley was far worse. Her material in early 2003, when she wrote the show for about 5 months before JER returned, was by far the worst writing I have ever seen on a soap opera. To be fair, I think there are some people who to this day would still insist that Tom Langan was the worst ever.

Who is EB?

I think Sam was supposed to be 25-26 at the time. I believe that is what they said. Kelly Monaco would have been about 29-30.

Today's show reminded me of why I am glad that Patrick Mulcahey is leaving. He took another gratuitous shot at Hayden, implying that she just took off on her family. He did that last week too. I didn't like the way they separated Hayden and Violet to begin with, but at least previous HWs always made it clear that something was very wrong, and that Hayden did not want to be away from her daughter. I hope that whatever brings down the people running Pikeman will somehow tie into Hayden's departure and finally allow her to return to Port Charles.

I also wondered about that. The name that popped into my head was Patrick Drake. I am not sure if they ever labeled him an addict, but he was abusing pills for a little while when he thought Robin had died. After he stopped, we would still see him drinking from time to time.