I did end up watching Kimberlin Brown's arrival. Rachel's introduction was intended as a Friday cliffhanger for Friday, July 23, 1999, but a preemption left it as the Monday, July 26, 1999, cliffhanger with her more in-depth scenes on Tuesday. Rachel is brash and a bit abrassive having been lured by Chris Ramsey to take over Julie Devlin's case from Kevin Collins. During Rachel's consultation with her, Julie is evasive leading Rachel to bluntly ask what it was like to walk in on her brother Buddy after he had blown his brains out. Maybe Rachel wasn't that crass, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I had forgotten that little detail of the Devlin family history (Rachel finding Buddy). In the aftermath, Rachel tells Chris she'll take the case and Julie makes it clear that she doesn't trust Rachel (comparing her to the sharks she saw at the aquarium when she was younger).
The Devlin family history was very twisted and I could imagine the Bennett / Buddy / Allison (Buddy's fiancee) situation playing out as a sorta darker take on the Alan / AJ / Nikki Langton story. Maybe its a superficial comparison, but it seems that the Devlins seemed to have the foundation to be "Port Charles'" answer to the Quartermaines. I think Chris and Nicole Devlin also had had an affair so the whole Julie - Chris dynamic was twisted as well. No wonder Julie was a mess.
In the other main story of interest (to me at least) in these episodes was Frank's renovation of a bar (maybe the Recovery Room? Whatever it is it sounds like Mary owns it), which leads to a celebration and lots of accolades being made about Frank in front of Karen and Joe. Joe, who apparently has held on telling their mother about Frank's deception leading to Karen and Joe's breakup, finally lets the cat out of the bag and informs Mary of what her eldest son has done. Initially, Mary rejects Joe's claims, but as the conversation goes on, Mary starts to turn. Pat Crowley does a decent job in this sequence with her loyalty shifting from one son to another with an unnerved Courtney fluttering in the background (afraid Frank will be a turncoat and reveal her role in the breakup).
The resulting spiral of confrontations with Frank is fascinating with Frank desperately trying to regain control of the situation before turning on Mary saying she has always sided with Joe (even though moments earlier she cannot believe what Joe said) and then leans into the Scanlons' own twisted family history reminding Joe how many beating Frank took from Pops Scanlon to protect Joe. It's all a well done mirror to the dsyfunctional family history on display in Julie's story.
I think there were also some bits of the psychic spy crap with Victor, previously presumed dead, now alive and helping Eve in a mock up of Jasmine Island or something. It's all not very compelling to me, but, at times, I get what they are trying to do (a psychological adventure story with a more modern twist), but like a lot of the GH stories from the early 1990s, it's not my cup of tea.
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dc11786 ·
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