General Hospital Review: The End Of "Dream?"

Wowza – was the Drew/Sam scene that closed out Friday's episode a killer or what?

The incredibly emotional and wrenching scene was the epitome of what soaps are all about. Everything from the dialogue to the performances was extraordinary. Even if you don't particularly care for "Dream," I'm not sure how you could possibly remain unmoved by their last scenes of the week!

I was totally engrossed as Sam finally confessed the truth to Drew: that she still loves Jason and had even kissed him on New Year's Eve. It was devastating, heartbreaking, and played to perfection by both Kelly Monaco and Billy Miller.

The best soap performances are the ones that are raw and emotionally realistic. Kelly acted her heart out, but not in an over-the-top way. It truly felt as though I were watching a real-life break-up. She looked like she was in such deep pain.

On the other hand, I'm so glad that Sam finally came clean, for plot reasons.

Ever since Jason dropped through the skylight months ago, everything has been leading up to this very moment. It was clear as day, to anyone watching, that Sam had unresolved feelings for her ex.

Drew did his best to deny it, but even he didn't look particularly surprised when his wife finally told him the truth – he looked more disappointed, sad, and angry than anything else.

Prior to that emotional gut-punch of a breakup, much of the week followed Sam and Elizabeth begrudgingly working together to find Drew and Franco while they were held captive by Jim Harvey.

Like I said in my last General Hospital review, I loved seeing Sam and Liz working together and just generally interacting this much. They have a great, complicated dynamic and so much history between them. It's always great to see them sparring, but even better to see them as reluctant allies.

The two women worked surprisingly well together as they visited Ned for more information and then went back to Jim's place to look for clues about where their men might be.

Of course, Sam did most of the actual detective work. But Liz did a decent job of distracting Jim while Sam was sneaking around in his motel room!

Similarly, it was enjoyable to see the bizarre sort-of camaraderie Franco and Drew wound up developing as they fought to stay alive and escaped through the sewers.

It almost sort of seemed as though the two could be friends one day. Maybe. Far, far off in the future...

In any event, the reunion between Sam and Drew and Liz and Franco at the PCPD was very sweet. Personally, I would never kiss somebody who had just crawled through a sewer, even if I thought they'd been dead, but that's just me!

While the happy reunion feelings didn't last long between Dream, Friz seemed to be on the up and up after Franco's near-death experience with Drew.

Clearly, thinking Franco died put some things in perspective for Liz. The scene between the two, as they spoke privately at the hospital, was very nice, as Franco slowly confessed the truth of his Harvey-induced breakdown to Liz.

You could see it all over Liz's face as she realized the magnitude of what must have happened to Franco in his childhood.

Liz gently tried to encourage Franco to face what he needed to remember, but Franco wasn't ready to do that. Unfortunately for him, it looks like he'll have to, as Liz got a text saying that Betsy was on her way to talk to Franco and finally tell him the truth.

THANK THE LORD for that long overdue development! The sooner Betsy tells Franco what happened to him at Jim's hands, the better.

Obviously, whatever it is will be quite devastating for Franco. But this storyline has been dragging on for quite a while, and it's high time that Franco knows the truth so he can process it and move on (to a better storyline).

On Tuesday's episode, we returned to the extraordinarily creepy Kiki/Dr. Bensch story that began to develop in full force last week. As expected, the writers are going for a #MeToo-inspired plot with these two.

Honestly, I didn't have much faith that the writers could pull this off, but they managed to make the scene where Bensch is massaging Kiki's shoulders adequately disturbing.

That entire exchange was very well done. Kiki was visibly becoming more and more uncomfortable as her much older mentor touched her very inappropriately. The close-ups on her face and her vision zooming in on Bensch's various degrees and accolades was a great, very effective touch.

I'm a little nauseated by the whole storyline, because this is such a realistic occurrence that happens to so many young women all over the world. Technically, Bensch hasn't done anything illegal; he hasn't assaulted Kiki (yet, anyway).

But there's no denying that the older doctor is using his authority to unduly influence Kiki to spend private time with him. Now, I wonder how far this will go. I dread seeing Kiki being put in a situation where she feels she has to allow a sexual encounter to happen between them, at the risk of putting her medical career in jeopardy.

Hopefully, the writers can pull this off tastefully. My fingers are crossed that Kiki will manage to fend Bensch off and he'll get the comeuppance that so many abusers and sexual misconduct perpetrators deserve but never get in real life.

Bonus points if we get a furious Ava laying into him for putting her daughter in this position!

That said, I 100% do NOT want Griffin to "rescue" Kiki in any way. Please, please let Kiki have her own agency in this and rescue herself.

If this #MeToo-inspired storyline winds up just being a vehicle to reinforce Kiki's potential feelings for Griffin, I'll lose it.

Meanwhile, the love sextet was up to its usually wacky hijinks this week.

I've gotta admit, I like Finn and Anna together, but all of this romcom-type misunderstanding, miscommunication, and bad timing that's keeping them apart is getting a bit stale. Don't you think?

How many more times are we going to have to suffer through Alexis barging in at exactly the wrong moment, seconds before Anna was about to confess her love? Come on now!

Luckily, there's been a bit more movement on the Alexis/Julian/Kim love triangle side of this polygon of romance.

That's right, y'all: Julian planted a big ol' smooch on Kim. And it was kind of hot!

It was a very good idea on the writers' part to put Julian and Kim together. I certainly don't see them as endgame at all, but Julian redeeming himself goes over a lot better when he's around someone brand new to town who isn't familiar with all of his past misdeeds.

You see, Kim has only heard tell of Julian's previous wickedness from people around town. She never experienced it firsthand. It never affected her or her family in any way. For that reason, she's more than willing to accept that he's changed.

After all, she's only ever known him as "Charlie," a small business owner who's bending over backwards to help local teens and be nice to her.

It makes perfect sense that Kim would allow herself to fall for Julian, a convenient distraction from her feelings for Drew. Though whether she'll have Drew as an option in due time is now a very real possibility.

Meanwhile, over in crazytown (Population: Nelle Benson)...

I continue to love Chloe Lanier's portrayal, but as each week goes by, it becomes clearer and clearer that she won't be around much longer.

We finally saw Nelle put the next phase of her Carly takedown plan into motion, as she planted her tattered, bloody, and dirty version of Morgan's old scarf for her nemesis to find. Then, she pulled the fire alarm in order to retrieve the scarf before anyone else could see it.

Before, I thought Nelle's plan was all about making Carly think Morgan was somehow still alive. An incredibly cruel plan, to be sure.

But now, it seems as though Nelle's idea is even worse: convincing Carly (and others) that she's losing her grip on reality and imagining that Morgan is alive.

Getting Carly committed to an asylum is a nefarious, old school General Hospital kind of plan. I can't imagine Nelle will get very far with it, though – she's totally underestimated Carly's connection to Jason.

Jason would never let Carly get carted off to an asylum. (And yes, I do recall that Carly did have a brief stint at Ferncliff circa the late 1990s or early 2000s.)

I also imagine that Nelle will be quite distracted by Michael's burgeoning romance with Francesca.

To be honest, I didn't feel much chemistry between those two on their date. But it doesn't really matter, because Francesca is totally going to die.

My thoughts on Francesca can best be summed up by that one Whoopi Goldberg line from the movie Ghost: "You in danger, girl!"

(Seriously, though, get far away from this Michael/Nelle mess or crazy pregnant lady is gonna kill the heck out of you!)

Michael naively thought that being clear with Nelle and initiating a move out of the Quartermaine Mansion would make clear to his ex/babymama that he wants to keep things strictly non-romantic between them.

Unfortunately, Nelle is set on the idea of Michael being her happily ever after, and I doubt she'll let anyone get in her way. Also, Michael inexplicably has amnesia when it comes to what Nelle is actually capable of doing to get her way.

Other Stuff:

Griffin moved in with Ava after confessing that his apartment was wrecked in the earthquake. That will either bring them closer than ever or really tear them apart, especially when Ava's semi-involvement with Nelle's plot to bring down Carly comes to light.

This week was pretty light on Peter/Maxie, but they did manage to squeeze in yet another hug when the grieving widow confessed why she couldn't quite manage to move back into her apartment yet. Those two sure hug a lot for platonic friends/a boss and his employee!

Speaking of Peter: Griffin hasn't received the DNA test results proving Peter is Faison's son yet. I AM IMPATIENTLY WAITING, BRAD.

It looks like Andre will finally have an actual reason for being in Port Charles (outside of being Anna's #1 pal). Based on his Friday interaction with Sonny, I'm guessing Port Charles' resident mobster is about to ask Dr. Maddox to use his memory mapping procedure on Mike. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me earlier that the writers would do this, but it seems so obvious now! Fingers crossed nothing goes horribly wrong with that... (JK, of course it will. This is a soap!)

Carly trying to convince Kim that Drew would be single soon because Sam belongs with Jason was truly disgusting. Seriously, it was Carly at her most unbearably obnoxious and inappropriate. I cringed so hard watching that scene! Why can't former Carly and current Carly just be regular friends? Oh, that's right – because Carly as a character is incapable of maintaining female friendships.

What's Olivia got in mind to save Port Charles, now that Ned is at risk of appearing to be in collusion with Jim Harvey? I've gotta say, if this whole thing ends up with Olivia somehow being the mayor, I won't be mad.