When 12-year-old Michael Corinthos III was shot on General Hospital earlier this month, fans were stunned. Head writer Bob Guza Jr. faced considerable scrutiny.

Earlier this week, Entertainment Weekly checked in with the scribe to see how things have played out in the four weeks since that controversial episode aired.

Entertainment Weekly: Many fans were concerned that the epiphanies the central characters [Carly, Sonny, and Jason] experienced when Michael was shot would be short lived.
Bob Guza Jr.: You will see professional and personal changes that will last for these people. Sonny is going to have to make a very, very painful professional decision, which will make Jason then have to make a painful professional decision.

Carly will then have to deal with the reality of that and make a choice in terms of her friendship with the two of them. It's very, very big both professionally and personally. The shooting of Michael, the incapacitating of Michael, was the biggest thing we could do to these three people.

EW: Do you think that skeptics are seeing the lasting changes already?
Bob Guza Jr.: I really hope so. We're starting to have people coming back and saying, ''At least Sonny and Jason are now seeing what they've wrought. And they're seeing the consequences of this.'' Which is exactly what we want them to feel. We want them to empathize but we want them to feel that these people made choices that are causing consequences.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.