By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman
Tony Geary
I screamed at the end of General Hospital on Friday! There, sitting in the old Spencer house basement in the same chair in which “Fluke” had tied the real Luke, was a figure with a dead skeletal face — just like dead Mrs. Bates, Norman’s mom in the classic movie Psycho! This was just another shock in a series of fantastic interwoven plots presented lately on GH. Quel suspense! GH is now Must See TV every day.
Most of the plots are driven by Fluke (as in “fake” Luke, played by Tony Geary) the Luke lookalike who kidnapped the real Luke a year ago, put him in the Miscavage mental institution and then when last seen in the basement held hostage in the old Spencer house. Fluke, the biggest badass in recent soap history, came to town impersonating Luke and launched a campaign of murder and mayhem. He’s nasty! He’s a liar! He’s dangerous to the max!
In his latest scheme, Fluke planted two ticking time bombs, one on tied up Luke in the Spencer basement and the other on the Haunted Star, where all of the real Luke’s loved ones have been invited to a big party. Among the attendees are the real Luke’s daughter Lulu, his wife Tracy and his sister Bobbie. Other townspeople on the boat include Julian Jerome’s son Lucas and Sonny’s son Michael, both objects of Fluke’s murderous grudges.
Tick, tick, tick … will the bombs go off? We MUST tune in Monday and every day after that to find out!
Fluke, the double of Luke, of course is the phenomenon created by Geary and headwriter Ron Carlivati when Geary had to take six months off last year for a back operation. He’s been the best, scariest villain! Geary is so excellent in the double role of Fluke and Luke, he’s guaranteed his eighth Emmy for Best Actor this year. In fact, Geary hasn’t been this good since the early days of Luke and Laura in the late 70s and early 80s.
What is also shocking about this whole year long Fluke plot and General Hospital in general is that none of the advance plot information has been given away in advance. In other words, there have been NO spoilers! I can’t remember the last time that happened in the soap world. So everyone is left guessing! Who is Fluke? Is he really the “late” Bill Eckert, Luke’s lookalike cousin, whose grave was found empty last week when dug up by Shawn, or an alternate personality of Luke’s if indeed he has DID (multiple personality syndrome), or someone else, possibly some character in the cast who has had plastic surgery to look just like Luke? . Why is Fluke so friendly and in criminal cahoots with Helena Cassidine (Constance Towers), Luke Spencer’s decades long enemy? And what part does Patricia, a never before mentioned or seen sister of Luke and Bobbie’s, have to do with this? We’re always left guessing.
The suspense on General Hospital these days is divine. And there’s more, in plots involving characters like Sonny, Ava, Julian, Franco Heather, Nina, Jake and Sam. We’ll discuss them in Part 2 later this week.
Actually, “Patricia” was mentioned in at least one episode in the 70’s. Ron posted a link to the scene on twitter.
Marlena says. I didn’t see it. But thanks for correcting me.
I agree with you – GH is must-see TV these days! I can’t wait to see what happens next!
This show is so off the wall lately ,It is now off my tv.I have seen enough of the GH history re written by re-Ron and he does not even keep me watching.. My GH viewing is OVER. So . The walking Dead, old GH does Ron have an original idea of his own ? I think not.TG is in his glory chewing scenery. Just what he has wanted all along. let him watch it.
Good Lord, Marlena, did Ron Carlivati pay you for this glowing review about GH? The show is utter shit. I thought you had better taste. I’m joking about you getting kickbacks for reviews and of course, you can like and praise whatever you damn well please, but seriously, to me GH STINKS. I think they need to try a new writer.
Happy to hear u r on the mend. While I respect your opinion, I’m solidly with Janet and Tess. This show, IMHO, is a mess. Since when are men and women imprisoned in the same facility? Just a silly plot to put Ava on the run with Sonny and Franco. The Luke/Fluke identity story has gone on for a year! And the longer it goes on, the more of a mess it becomes. As for the skeleton in the chair, Ron used the same gruesome plot on OLTL with Nash’s skeleton sitting in a chair. Ooh, so scary, except it’s not. The story has so many inconsistencies that it’s incredibly dumb. I am sad that GH has come to this. I just can’t put my IQ on hold to watch this soap anymore. I just don’t like any of the characters much anymore and I think Ron Carlivati is a sloppy lazy writer with little originality.
I have to agree with the majority on here, I’m less than thrilled with GH. This Fluke story has so many holes I’m actually watching just to see how Ron ends up concluding the story. First, Julian met the fake Luke back in the Witness Protection Program, then there’s Patricia – which I applaud for the use of history (and wouldn’t it have been more interesting to actually have long lost sister Patricia come to town with all the drama that would entail, which is either a red herring or Tony Geary in drag), then wait it’s Bill Eckert. I don’t think there was ever a definite plan for this story. GH, sadly, has become a cartoon. I think that Ron and Frank did great things, but I just want a lot more depth to my stories, and maybe not to have my intelligence insulted.
Marlena-Welcome back. I was afraid you had suspended your column with the “Nashville” overview.
Anyway, as much as I don’t want to say this, place me alongside Janet, Tess, and Jonie with their assessments as they pertain to this show that I have loved since sitting with my grandma in 1964. At this particular point in time, General Hospital is a sinking ship and it will take a massive commitment from the suits at ABCD and a new headwriter and EP to pull it up before it finally hits bottom….assuming it’s not already there. I finally had to turn the show off last week because of the pitiful “storytelling”, if that is what one chooses to call that which is on my screen. And I truly mourn for what the show has become: One headwriter and executive producers’ personal plaything to be abused and misused under their oddly proclaimed “love for GH” which we’ve heard ad nauseum. So many beloved characters written out of character to the point they are unrecognizable and, in some cases, cast with actors who are miscast or just plainly not having the talent to catch on no matter how they try to train them or dress them up. For those actors like Jane Elliot, Finola Hughes, Dominic Zamprogna, Jason Thompson, and Kely Monaco (et al), it has become painful to watch them slog through their material, trying (and sometimes succeeding), to make sense of the dreck they’ve been given. God bless them for trying with everything they’ve got to make the show watchable and to believe in what they’re doing. They are very much appreciated. Unfortunately as talented as they are, even they can’t save something that was condemmed before it was ever filmed.
OH Marlena all I can say about GH these days is…what happened to love in the afternoon?
I’m glad you’re back, Marlena. But I have to side with the others as well. I just can’t watch this show anymore. It’s become a cartoon mess. I don’t need to see Shakespeare on my TV screen but I do need to like some of the characters and they need to have a little depth. Also, I need the stories to make sense. Nothing makes sense on GH anymore. But I’m glad you are liking the show. I am not.
I agree with you, Marlena. The twists and turns on General Hospital the past 10 days have been fantastic. Dante’s discovery that Fluke has been talking to a corpse all these months — implying that he’s the real Luke and not a fake — was a creepy gothic moment worthy of Dark Shadows.
I love how much time we’ve gotten on old Spencer family history, especially since it gives Bobbie some of her best Spencer family time in years.
I think Patricia, the sister mentioned in the early years and then dropped, will factor into this big time. It was inspired writing for Ron Carlivati to take a weird and obscure bit of GH history — why did Luke and Bobbie talk about their sister Pat years ago and never speak of her again? — and weave it into a story today.
Carlivati has his faults, but he’s the first head writer who is as much of a fan of old GH lore as I am. He had a character recently refer to the Queens Point neighborhood, which was the setting of the short-lived Port Charles spinoff The Young Marrieds.
Marlena says: rcade, haven’t seen you in ages. Good to see you again.
I have been watching GH for 35 years and it is still as great as it ever was!!