Editor's Choice

"And So It Begins..."

Those four ominous words scrawled on the screen as the town of Port Charles was about to enter one of its darkest hours.  Despite the doom and gloom that soon descended upon it's citizens, we were, and still are, giddy with delight.

GH has a habit of kicking off sweeps periods with event stories, where something cataclysmic, like a train wreck or a hotel fire, pits characters against seemingly insurmountable odds and either pulls them together or tears them apart.  The encephalitis virus that hit certainly fits the bill, but this story not only has action and adventure, it is full of humor, heart and surprisingly, nostalgia, ushering in returning super spy Robert Scorpio.

It began innocently enough with world-traveler Luke bringing home a banana daiquiri-swilling chimp as a present for his estranged daughter, Lulu.  What the man who saved the world more than two decades ago didn't realize is that he had another traveling companion as well - a man-made illness capable of wiping out entire populations.  As PC folk went about their daily lives - bickering, making love, scarfing down pie at Kelly's - members of the populace began dropping like flies.  The under-equipped hospital soon resembled a wartime-like triage center.  Fear and panic sunk in, as no one knew what was going on.  With one exception...

"Hello, sweetheart," uttered long-resumed-dead Scorpio to his stunned daughter, Robin.  This was no happy, sappy hugfest.  Orphaned by her crime-fighting parents after they were "killed" in a boat explosion, Robin could barely keep up with Scorpio's explanation.  Meanwhile, we couldn't take our eyes off fan favorite Tristan Rogers in the flesh: he's as sharp-tongued as ever and looks none the worse for wear.  "My father would've come back for me," Robin shouted, unwilling to accept her dad's explanation that his presence would've endangered her life.  "That Robert Scorpio, he was a better man than I am," he sighed, acknowledging the lost years.  "That's the father you deserved."

Now a containment specialist for the Medical Rescue Agency, a.k.a. "a disease cop," Scorpio's back in business and his next reunion was a happier one.  "I'm dead and gone to hell," warbled a wide-eyed, feverish Luke to the ghost hovering at his hospital bed.  "No," smiled his one-time best friend.  "But they're looking for you."  Any GH viewer from 1981 sported a smile a mile wide at that exchange.

As the severity of the situation escalated, so too, did the drama.  Luke, who barely acknowledged his daughter, Lulu, six months ago, risked his life to save hers.  Tracy's wicked persona crumbled when her son, Dillon, contracted the illness.  Emily found her confidence as a doctor, but lost her impartiality caring for the two infected men she loves, Sonny and Nikolas.  Lucas came out to his dad.  Elizabeth feared for her missing husband, Lucky.  Alcazar guiltily schemed to ensure the health of his ailing lover, Skye.  Paroled killer Manny menaced Sam and Alexis.  Carly and Jason escaped the quarantine just in time to search for a cause, and possible a cure, for the raging epidemic.  The list of dynamic doings goes on and on, and this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

And so it begins...

Pictures Captions (one of Noah, Robert, and Patrick, and one of Carly and Jason).  "As a deadly virus brought Robert back from the dead, the doctors Drake, Noah and Patrick, battled its effects inside the quarantined hospital.  Carly and Jason searched for answers on the outside."

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