Ava, Morgan & Kiki, Who Killed Silas?
What happened: Silas (Michael Easton) was murdered (7/31) before he could tell Kiki (Hayley Erin) that her mother, Ava (Maura West), was alive, disguising herself as a long-lost aunt (Denise Demuccio) and sleeping with her boyfriend, Morgan (Bryan Craig). Scotty grilled Ava as a suspect during the subsequent trial and she blew her cover (8/24). Madeline Reeves turned out to be the real killer; she wanted to forge Silas' signature to have access to Nina's (Slias' ex-wife) money (8/31). Kiki swore Morgan and Ava off once she learned the whole truth from Franco (Roger Howarth; 9/1). Scotty became Ava's lawyer and got her off for killing Connie, having the 1 shred of evidence in his possession: a recorded confession (9/16). The recording was stolen by new district attorney Paul Hornsby (Richard Burgi), who wanted to use Ava as the face of his mob ring while he tries to dismantle Sonny's organization (9/22). Ava finally regained custody of her daughter, Avery, by goading Sonny into threatening her and taping it for the judge to hear (11/10). Nina and Franco moved into Silas' apartment to look after an alcoholic Kiki, who later ran Carly off the road in a druken stupor (11/3); Carly dropped the charges (11/24). Michael and Carly had an intervention with Morgan (11/23) to get him treatment for bipolar disorder, of which he showed signs starting on 9/2. 
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​My commentary: I love a good "who dun it?" murder mystery and a Friday cliffhanger! The clues were well-placed and properly misleading (Morgan, Ava and Nina were all at scene and had motive; the Madeline factor was introduced later), and the investigation and trial didn't go on for too long. 1 of the stand-out moments was when Nina (Michelle Stafford) left for Silas' apartment in a rage after learning he let her stand accused of kidnapping Avery to keep up Ava's 'Denise' rouse. "Once again, he's chosen Ava over me!," she yelled (7/31). The lines were great and I enjoy watching Stafford's 'heat to an exploding boil' anger work. Hell must have frozen over on 8/4, because I felt sorry for Franco when got pegged as the killer in trying to protect Nina. Around this time, there was a lot of excellent dialogue about Ava's flaws and desires (ex. when Silas' ghost haunted her on 8/12); character psychology is a rarity. West rocks everything given to her; she's so emotionally animalistic and convincing. It's awful and ridiculous, for example, that a grown woman would weep like a teenager over her daughter's boyfriend (8/28), but West will break your heart, make you sympathize and...get hot and bothered over it. Ava was speaking to Morgan from behind jail bars, but fogged up the place reminding him of their chemistry (8/27): "...the way I touched you, my breath on your neck, the way I bit your lip when we kissed...you know my body blindfolded and I know yours just the same." Which writer was responsible for that erotica, haha? Kiki finding out that her mom wasn't dead should've been stimulating, but it was underwhelming. The Denise thing was fun at first, but I was glad when it was over. I like that Ava's in a position to be a mob queen again and has a new love interest, but I don't like that it's all at the mercy of a man who's stepping on her neck. I want her to finally be in complete control. It's backwards to me that she sleeping with Paul. It was fun to see her back in action at the 5 families meeting on 9/28 and put little Michael, who's always trying to sit at the big boy table, in his place. As for this custody business, I'm sick of Avery being bounced around and fought over. I'm also sick of it being painted like Sonny is Ava's victim and she's uncompromising, as if the baby wasn't literally ripped and kept from her since birth. I love Carly, but I clapped when she called herself Avery's mother and Ava snapped " You're not her mother...bitch (9/24)."

Jay-Z & Beyonce` made a faux trailer for their song "Part II (On the Run)," so I made my own version starring "General Hospital" super-couple, Jason & Sam (AKA 'JaSam'). Enjoy :) VERY special thanks to JasamUnited & CastleHeatFan41319 on Twitter. NOTE: song has explicit content. Due to copyright issues, I had to remove the video from both Facebook and YouTube (total bummer). Let me know if you guys have any issues with the embed from SendVid below  :)

...Because everyone spills their guts, literally & figuratively, at Pier 52.

I planned on doing a “Pier 52” with my commentary on some postings from GHsecrets.tumblr.com about JaSam (the coupling of Jason Morgan & Samantha McCall), but now that SiAm (Dr. Silas Clay & Sam) has been initiated (they kissed on 9/5), I decided that in addition to my original idea, I’d give my thoughts on the new pairing & the writing of Sam’s post-Jason life (if some portions of this article look familiar, it’s because I pulled some lines I thought were important from previous pieces where I mentioned Sam’s storyline). As a Sam fan, I’m only partially happy with what I’ve been seeing currently. 2013 has been the year of familial bonds and friendships for Sam McCall-Morgan (portrayed by Kelly Monaco) as she’s been coping with the loss of her husband (Jason), gained an adoptive son (Rafe Kovich), faced the man who’s tormented her (Franco) and watched her infant son (Danny) battle cancer. As if things couldn’t be any tenser, she doesn’t know that her biological father is mobster Julian Jerome, who’s planning to take-over the territory of Sonny Corinthos, a dear friend of hers, and that her potential new love is linked to his sister, Ava. I love that family is now at the center of Sam’s arch and that her father is a part of “General Hospital” history, but there’s a massive elephant in the room that the writers have momentously neglected to thoroughly address and that elephant is Jason.

Yes, we saw Sam be in denial, shed a few tears and feverishly hunt for her husband, but there was so much surrounding Jason’s death, from how he died to the aftermath, that was not worthy of a 20-year veteran character and a decade long romance. Doing justice and paying respect to the magnitude of Jason & Sam’s union is going to be elemental in creating a “moving forward” trajectory that key viewers (i.e. the core fan-base, which in Sam’s case, are mostly JaSammers) will be content with and want to watch. Constantly in a place of individual emotional isolation and internalized pain, Jason and Sam understood each other (it never seemed right to me that Carly would sometimes get Jason right before Sam did). The gun-toting, butt-kicking and motorcycle riding JaSam were an outlawed version of Anna and Duke, to a degree, and were a major super-couple in the 2000's. As Ryan White-Nobles of TVSourceMagazine.com tweeted, “People come into your life for a season, a reason and a lifetime. Jason is Sam’s lifetime.” Unlike most characters, all of Sam’s other romantic connections were superficially based (she was a con-artist in her beginnings). Jason (Steve Burton) was the only person whom she found a place and a sense of belonging.

Turmoil is part of super-couple territory, but it seemed to find JaSam at an alarming rate. Most soap-lovers get married, divorced, remarried and have a couple of kids; JaSam could never quite get there. Then, in 2011, fans thought they were finally going to have their way when Sam and Jason wed, but it wasn’t a month before the honeymoon was literally over. Franco (then played by James Franco) kidnapped Jason and made him watch as he led Jason to believe he raped Sam (it was later re-written that Sam wasn’t raped and the scene was staged). When Sam turned up pregnant, a DVD left by Franco and a manipulated paternity test left the couple to conclude that Sam was having Franco’s child. Being that Sam had previous miscarriages, abortion or adoption wasn’t an option for her. The script had Jason rejecting the unborn child, becoming an insensitive butthole and leaving Sam to fend for herself. This series of events was a colossal mistake inherited by the upcoming writing team (“One Life to Live’s” Ron Carlivati became head-writer in 2012) that would cause a whole domino effect of mistakes. JaSam’s problems were exacerbated by Sam’s bubbling feelings for John McBain (an OLTL carry-on), who would help deliver her son. Another crazy string of events resulted in other OLTL carry-ons raising Sam’s son while she thought he was dead and she and Jason remained estranged. Feeling guilty, Jason teamed up with his rival, McBain (Michael Easton), to find the truth about Sam’s son and bring him home. Eventually, Jason asked for Sam’s forgiveness and embraced Danny. Viewers got just a glimpse of the Morgan family reunion and JaSammer jubilance was again short-lived. As crafty of a hit-man Jason was, he was unsuspectingly shot in the back by Cesar Faison (disguised as Duke Lavery) and kicked over into the harbor like a dog. Although his body being in the harbor and never found by police left an opportunity for the character to resurface at least, Jason’s exit was harsh and hurried. It was like being in a car where the driver suddenly slams on the brakes and you crash into a wall.