Jolu @ soapcentral.com

Going into Logan’s death I knew 3 things and I was excited.  He was going to be murdered, it was going to be a mystery and it was going to be a gain for my favorite couple: JoLu.  A week into this storyline and here’s what I know:  it wasn’t murder, it’s not a mystery and there has been nothing shown so far or rumored to be happening down the pike that tells me any of this will be a gain for Lulu or Johnny because she’s going to go bonkers and he’ll have to rethink having her in his life.  My excitement turned into boredom, irritation and dread in the space of a day. 

     And then I remembered watching A Beautiful Mind and the mind-blowing twist where the viewer finds out that most of what they’ve been watching so far was part of John Nash’s delusion.  What if Lulu’s mind told her she stabbed Logan, but she really witnessed someone else killing him and the writers showed us her mental cover-up to trick us?  His ghost haunting her would be her mind trying to keep the truth from her, but Laura would be her real memories breaking through so she can remember who really did it.  I'd say Trevor (to give him what little credit he's due) saved Lulu from Logan then realized it would create a link between him and the guy I think who has been selling the fake meds for him.  He would frame Lulu to get her out of Johnny's life and to cover his own tracks.  After all he was very antsy to get her away from Anthony on Monday, he could be trying to keep her from remembering what she saw.

     Or at least that’s how it should go.  I have to say so far I’m deeply disappointed with this storyline.  If a Spencer is going on the run it should be dangerous and funny, not dangerous, plagued by love sick teens and the gateway to madness and a downer of a storyline.  About the only spoiler I’m hoping is true is Jason helping JoLu run and Sonny refusing to help Claudia drag them back because it would be Lulu’s mob family stepping in against the denizens of darkness.  Lulu should have gone to Jason about this from the start instead of relying on Claudia’s love of Johnny.

     Did anyone else notice Lulu was treated to the “family” lecture from Anthony on how to handle the cover-up instead of the outsider being threatened version Maxie got?  They made it seem like Maxie is dealing better, but she already blabbed to someone.  She's dealing better in public because she doesn't have guilt issues, but she is scared.  I don't like her involvement in this story, but I think it will serve 3 purposes for her:  pushing her towards Spinelli, proving she really doesn't belong in the mob stuff (she's always been down on Sonny's impact on Kate's career and Johnny has the same stigma) and to move her towards Matt who I think is an agent. Lulu’s only real issue is Johnny getting in trouble for her and her guilt over killing Logan which Johnny is ignoring.  I do have to say I’m sick of her guilt already.  Not that she should shrug her shoulders at it, but the guy was a serious whack job and deserved what he got.  I really don’t want weeks of her crying and whining that he shouldn’t be dead.  He shouldn’t have tried to rape or kill her and then he’d be alive. 

 

Clever, clever GH, you’re giving us exactly what we want while you’re pissing us off.  I take back every vile thought I’ve recently had about Robert Guza.  I wonder how many other people have cleared their outrage over Johnny’s 180 and JoLu’s “destruction” to realize it’s not over; it’s just getting started.  You see folks, there’s a new triangle in Port Charles and it’s different from anything they’ve done before.  Don’t believe me?  The proof has been there almost since the day Johnny set foot…um…wheels in PC.  And yes, analyzing this stuff is about the only thing my Lit. degree is good for.

 

The new triangle is good vs. evil in a fight for Johnny Zacharra’s soul.  Lulu is the angel, which explains why she spent most of her outdoor scenes with him this winter in that white coat with the fur trim, it’s as close to wings as they could get her outside of a costume party.  She represents his better half, his future and his music.  Claudia is the devil in red shoes and black clothes, GH’s version of a pitchfork and horns.  She represents Johnny’s past, his darker side and the path to his father’s madness.  The symbols are literally black and white.

 

When everyone was wondering if Johnny was unhinged in the fall, he attended a black and white ball.  He started out in a black tux, but by the end of the evening when true natures were shown, he was out of the jacket and literally half and half; which is where I think his character will always be.  We saw Johnny move towards goodness under Lulu’s influence, but just when he was ready to step fully away from the dark, two goons in all black drug him away from it.  That’s why they used unnamed thugs to grab him and not Max and Milo, these were demons taking him into hell.  The white room Sonny put him in represented the light Johnny was in, that’s why he channeled Lulu, but then he was again torn from his muse and slapped into the dark.  Literally put in a black room.

 

Everyone wanted Lulu to go Spencer and save Johnny, but it was Claudia who went to get him.  See Johnny’s free from Sonny’s clutches, but he wasn’t saved, not yet.  Had he stayed outside with Lulu and waited for Claudia, he would have been ok, but he left his goodness to save the devil and his path for now has been set. 

 

Brandan Barash played Johnny’s fall brilliantly and so delicately that anger over his turn will keep most fans from catching on that there is a purpose.  They made the switch that abrupt to blindside us, they wanted our anger to cloud the truth so we don’t guess what’s coming. Watch his face when Claudia (who light up like a Christmas tree when he went off at gh) praises his behavior, it says it all.  See Johnny “cheated” on Lulu by betraying the future she gave him and stepping into the mob life.  He screwed up and he knew it.  We were all too busy cheering his revenge on bullying Sonny to realize it was a bad move for Johnny personally. 

 

That scene at the Zacharra house wasn’t about what was being said, they played it like Lulu was confronting Johnny about an “affair” because she caught him with the other woman and being a good guy at heart he didn’t deny it.  He didn’t fight losing her because he thought he deserved to lose her. When he told Claudia he mislead Lulu he believed he was a bad guy through and through.  Lulu made the right choice in walking away.  Had she stayed she would have been too corrupted to pull him from the darkness.  By taking herself away, she is giving him the only punishment she can, but it will take time for him to realize it.  He did reach for her, but the devil walked in reminding him he was "bad" and he let her go.  This time when Claudia praised his cold-bloodedness, he grinned. 

 

And Claudia is playing Johnny beautifully.  She made him her puppet with love and motherly affection.  Far more dangerous than Trevor who told Johnny he was a puppet.  She tells Johnny he’s the head, but she twists him into going with her plan.  Remember the hitman scene?  There were 3 things at work there.  She was keeping him “clean”, at least by her standards, by not letting him take a step like that, she was making it seem like she was there to serve him “sure let me make the call, you’re too important to do that stuff” and she was letting it be known she has the power since the order came from her.  She is reeling him in, the devil whispering in his ear.

 

Lulu is Laura here.  She will have to forgive Johnny’s betrayal, which like Luke, he won’t think he deserves (and unlike Logan who thought he deserved forgiveness the second he climbed off Maxie).   They even showed us the parallels with Luke and his new version on the GH roof and Scott and his clone discussing waiting for someone who doesn’t love you back. Luke told Tracy Lulu has to learn who to forgive and it will be Johnny.

 

Given all this, here is what I think we will see in the coming weeks until sweeps in May: 

1. Johnny will stay bad, but it will never go as planned, he’s on the wrong path.  He will be tempted by Lulu.

2. Lulu will end up working at the Metro Court since bad Johnny won’t seek her out at Kelly’s and will stick to upscale places.  That’s how they’ll see each other.

3. Lulu will not go back to Logan.  That she stays by the door and looked back at him over her shoulder when she left the room were signs he’s of the past.  This is also Luke/Laura/Scott and Logan is going to be Scott waiting and waiting. They may have run ins, but no sex or dates.

4. Lulu’s spying for Carly will lead her to see something bad going down for Johnny and she’ll team up with Luke to save him.  This will have to be done before Geary’s vacation absence starts in August. 

5. Lulu and Johnny will have to flee on the Haunted Star.  You don’t put a boat with that history, have them discuss it and make it a part of their story and not have it leave the dock.

 

What we should also see is that instead of getting jealous of any time Johnny sees Lulu spending with Logan, he should be bothered by seeing her with Sonny or anything that represents Sonny (except for maybe Jason).  He’s going to see it as Sonny costing him Lulu and maybe as Lulu picking Sonny over him.  If Lulu is working for Carly, that would bring her in closer contact with Sonny, Michael (who started this mess) and Milo & Max (who held him captive).  He may not go off on Lulu, but we’ll see his temper flare after seeing her with them.

 

What I hope we see are Spencer-style antics when it comes time for Johnny to be literally and figuratively saved.  Lulu has talked about stealing cars enough for them to let her actually steal one.  And if the genius that wrote that scene at the ball where Jerry beat up Scott and stole his invite is still around, I’d love for that car to belong to Baldwin.  That would give us not only Scott’s reaction to it being gone and having to report it to Lucky, but if Luke is helping his Cupcake, he’d get the joy of dumping the car in the river with that grin of his.

 

Yes, things are going to get better on GH, have faith fellow fans.  This madness has method.

 

Speaking of Luke, am I the only one wondering if I missed something?  Various soap mags said he would hear Scott confess to framing Laura and go murderous.  Soap Opera Digest even wrote it up as having happened in their weekly synopsis, but I didn’t see it.  Lucky came upon Scott and Lulu, but she covered and he believed her.  Was it postponed due to Anthony Geary’s knee surgery?  I understand why Lulu kept it a secret, Luke will go after Scott, but why keep bringing it up if they’re not going to handle it?  There was no point in Lulu’s quest for the info if it was never going to be used. 

 

If I hadn’t been around for Brenda and the wire, I would say JoLu’s end was the saddest, most senseless break-up possible.  That’s how this blog began last night after re-watching JoLu’s breakup about 4 times.  But then I had 2 epiphanies. 

 

Before I share, I want all the Lulu haters to know that Johnny picked vengeance over her.  She practically begged him to give her a reason to stay and he wouldn’t.  Yes, Lulu hangs with Sonny’s boys, but they hide the brutality from her.  Johnny wouldn’t do that, which makes him more noble, and more cruel because Lulu will always know that she chose to be with someone like that – no delusions. He said it was her choice, and I think he was playing the same card as Logan (only with less manipulation), he was letting her go knowing what he was and hoping she’d come back anyway because then she’d be his.

 

I felt bad for him, but she was just as hurt.  The last time they truly spoke face to face he told her he was out of the business, now he’s back in and gunning for the father of her young cousins, a man who has occasionally stood in for her own father in her life.  She could not stand by Johnny in that situation and even though the beating was deserved, even Claudia thinks Johnny is going too far.  And I think Johnny is uncertain of himself too.  His face literally fell at the hospital when Claudia said he was still the John she remembered.  Like Lulu, I think he thought that side of himself was gone too.

 

In real life it would be as over as I thought JoLu was yesterday.  But…..

 

Then I realized something: You don’t tell a story where the heart is overruled by the head using Luke and Laura’s daughter.  Once I realized that, it was easy to see what comments were red herrings and what ones held meaning. 

 

Fake outs

 

Logan’s faith Lulu will come back to him

Johnny certainty he was destined to lose her

Lulu’s assurance she and Johnny were over

Lulu’s insistence that she will not let her heart rule

 

Truths

 

Scott’s warning about loving a girl that doesn’t love you back.  This was a prophecy.

Scott saying Logan was like him and I think he will be once Lulu returns to Johnny.

Luke’s reactions to his dad to suitor talks.  Logan = player, Johnny = truthful.

Lulu said Logan wasn’t the love of her life.

Lucky said Lulu didn’t love Logan.

Lulu is very scared that following her heart will lead to loss of self or discovery that she is like Luke (drawn to darkness since she liked crazy Johnny).

 

And the most truthful comment of the day, that had one wrong word in it to throw us off: Johnny said his meeting with Lulu was an accident.  Luke calls it magic.  Most people call it fate, but when watching a scripted show, it’s part of the writers’ purpose in storytelling (which is hopefully not to anger us all as we fear). It was his fate to meet her on the road instead of turning back.  It was her fate to find him in the warehouse when his men and Sonny’s failed to when he was hurt.  It is Logan’s fate to play his father’s role as the jilted man.  It is Lulu’s fate to find you can’t run from love.  It is Johnny’s fate to learn to have faith.

 

See if the writers are as clever as I hope, they are retelling Luke and Laura to get it right this time.  This is the phase where after months of dancing around each other Luke raped Laura, but since that so wouldn’t fly these days, the violence that scares off Lulu is Johnny’s temper.  Lulu’s path wasn’t to clear Laura’s name of murder, it was to clear it of making what many see as the wrong choice in love.  Lulu is supposed to finally understand why Laura chose Luke, something that has haunted her and Lucky since they learned the truth.

 

The next phase for L/L/S was a period where Scott was understanding and gave his injured wife time, while Laura and Luke were plagued by thoughts of each other.  Laura saved Luke’s life by preventing the hit and they wound up on the run.  Well Logan is giving Lulu time (though I think he has an angle) and with all the mob stuff going on, Johnny is probably going to be in need of a rescue from someone’s plot (even if it’s from his own to kill Sonny).  With May sweeps approaching, the save could be sooner than expected and they could spend the summer on the run and falling in love.  Neither one has said the “L” word yet.

 

So I’m content to wait and see if the writers are willing to stay with this.  The only thing that looms as a potential dark day is if Lulu has to learn the miseries of being with someone she doesn’t love by falling back in Logan’s bed.  I hope they leave her single until she’s back with Johnny.  She needs to grow up and Johnny doesn’t need the hurt of her being with another guy.

 

Sweetest moment of the week:  Johnny and Lulu’s hug at the cannery when he literally sighed with relief to be back in her arms.

 

Saddest moment of the week:  The look on Johnny’s face when Claudia asked him who else he had to listen to him and he realized that person was gone. 

 

Don’t forget to remind the writers we do expect compensation for Thursday’s pain.  Go to www.blanksheetmusic.net , print off some sheet music and send it to GH with a pro-JoLu note at:

General Hospital

C/o ABC-TV

4151 Prospect Ave.

Hollywood, CA 90027

 

P.S. – I never got the simian-one nickname until I saw Logan with that bandage sticking his ears out.  He looks like a chimp this week.

Ok, I’m fed up with Guza wrecking all the couples. Bring back the scabs that gave us JoLu and let Liason have their moments at the cabin.  And if you don’t know why I’m ranting about, see my previous post or the spoilers for this week on Soap Central. Other soaps booted their head writers and kept the scabs, GH should have done the same. Why does he or Farren Phelps think it keeps viewers watching to deny them what they want instead of just giving it to them (so they want to watch every day)?  All the denial does is make me want to stop watching again and I only came back (after all the poor couples and Liason’s nixing in 2000) in October for Johnny and Lulu. 

 

Sonny /Brenda, and Robin/Jason lasted for over a year each as intact couples before they were broken up and then (in the B/S) case gotten back together after another successful pairing of Brenda/Jax.  What a waste of months of build up to JoLu to end them like that before they get a chance to really be a couple.  They are basically turning them into a ONS because of “danger” (I’m assuming mob related, but it could also be Johnny’s dark side is coming back and he scares Lulu, I hope it’s a mob thing I like him too much to see him become his dad). Why make all the men so dangerous the women can’t have them? Soaps are built on couples, that’s what draws female viewers in, not to see a PG version of the Sopranos.

 

In the past I’d say this was just a stumbling block (stupid to do right after months of saddling her to Logan for no good reason) and keep faith, but GH has had a bad track record for years of ignoring chemistry and keeping people apart with silly reasons.  I hope I’m wrong and Lulu gets pulled into the mob thing and in saving her, she and Johnny decide to go for it, but the fact that GH has no couples right now except a back-burnered Carly/Jax and the lame Ric/Marianna doesn’t bode well. 

 

Here’s my plan, we need to bombard GH with demands for JoLu and JoLu right now.  Maybe writing to ABC direct and letting them know how to boost sagging ratings instead of just writing to the idiots at GH would help too. Below is a link to a site that lets you print off free sheet music and addresses for ABC and GH.  I’m going to start sending them a piece of sheet music with calls for JoLu to stay together and the scabs (or the Labines who created Sonny and Brenda) to return.  If enough of us do this they have to listen….Don’t they? 

 

http://www.blanksheetmusic.net

 

ABC, Inc.

500 S. Buena Vista Street

Burbank, CA 91521-4551

 

Brian Frons

President, ABC Daytime

2300 Riverside Dr.

Burbank, CA 91506

 

Jill Farren Phelps

Executive Producer, General Hospital

c/o ABC

4151 Prospect Ave.

Hollywood, CA 90027

(Take off the first 2 lines if you just want to write to GH in general)

 

Spread the word!  And if this works maybe we can send them wrenches as a sign to get rid of Logan.