The one and only Genie Francis (Laura Collins) has made her first public statement on the upcoming arrival of her television son, Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer) back to General Hospital. Jackson has been away from the show since 2011 and made a return in 2015 for a limited-run.

Now, both Jonathan and Genie have made no bones about the fact that they are so looking forward to reuniting on-screen. Taking to her account on X on Tuesday, following last week’s excitement of the news of Jackson’s return, Francis expressed, “Dear sweet Jonathan Jackson, this show is so lucky to have you back. I am overjoyed! Can’t wait to work with you again.”

Previously, Genie has mentioned that one of the happiest of times during her enduring run on GH was when she was in 30’s and working with a young Jonathan Jackson. Francis shared, “I loved working with Jonathan Jackson. When it was just the three of us, that was so fun, because it wasn’t just Luke (Tony Geary) and Laura. It was Luke, Laura and Lucky, and he was every bit as strong as we were. It was great. I loved that.”

Photo: ABC

Jackson first played Genie’s on-screen son at 11-years-old. He also attributes one of the reasons he chose to return to the ABC daytime drama series was getting the opportunity to work with Francis again. Jonathan shared those sentiments when he took to social media and expressed that he was “excited to see Genie Francis, obviously.”

However, Jackson and Francis have not worked together for almost 25 years, making this all the more sweet for the two beloved longtime GH favorites. When Jonathan returned to GH for his last major run from 2009-2011, Genie was not part of the cast. In 2015, during his short run, the two briefly intersected. Look for Lucky’s on-screen return to happen later this summer.

So, are you excited to see Genie and Jonathan in scenes together again? Do you hope Lucky is involved in a major story with Laura? Comment below.

Dear sweet Jonathan Jackson, this show is so lucky to have you back. I am overjoyed! Can’t wait to work with you again ❤️❤️❤️ #GH https://t.co/0HRB8VOyCj

— Genie Francis (@GenieFrancis) July 2, 2024

The list of Ava Jerome’s (Maura West) enemies is growing and growing. Now, she sprung into action in her revenge plot against Sonny (Maurice Benard) for kicking her to the curb and out of his penthouse, and threatening to take their daughter, Avery away from her.

On the Monday, July 1st episode of General Hospital, After Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) quits her job with Nina (Cynthia Watros) at The Invader to go back to practicing law, Nina on the rebound promotes Adrien, to the editor-in-chief position.  Next, Adrien is summoned to Ava’s hotel room. She has a recording she wants to leak to him with the the promise he will keep her name out of the press as the source.

The said recording has Natalia (Eva LaRue) making anti-gay remarks illustrating her conservative values, while outing her daughter and her relationship with Kristina (Kate Mansi). Ava tells Adrien that Natalia is the mother of burgeoning pop star, Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez). Then, Ava calls Natalia controlling, manipulative, and very politically incorrect.

Courtesy/ABC

Ava tells Adrien he can use the audio as he sees fit. Adrian gets all excited at the prospect of printing this controversial buzzworthy story now that Blaze is the face of Deception, which prides itself on being environmentally friendly and socially aware. He gloats that now that Alexis is out at The Invader, he has free rein to call the shots.

After delivering that bombshell, next stop for Ava is to confront Sonny at the Metro Court pool. Sonny is there with their daughter, Avery. When Sonny sees Ava, he is very dismissive of her. Ava tells him not to forget just who she is, and what she is capable of, and how she’ll do everything in her power to make sure Avery stays in her custody.

The end of the episodes finds Maxie (Kirsten Storms) leading a meeting for Deception with Blaze, Natalia, Lucy (Lynn Herring) and Lois (Rena Sofer) present. Maxie’s phone keeps blowing up with messages, She finally looks down and see the article on Natalia, which includes the damaging audio file.  The article says, “In the recording, Ms. Ramirez outs her daughter as gay by naming Blaze’s girlfriend Kristina Corinthos-Davis. Furthermore, Ms. Ramirez appears to disparage Ms. Corinthos-Davis as well as the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly.” Maxie is stunned as everyone looks around not knowing that they are about to be blindsided from Ava giving the recording to Adrien and Natalia’s disparaging remarks.

What do you think of Ava’s actions? What do you think about Natalia’s anti-gay sentiments? Will Blaze be out as the face of deception? Will the stress of the situation cause issues for Kristina’s pregnancy? Will Sonny go after Ava for her latest deceitful move? Comment below.

Soap operas tend to give actors and the characters they play, a meaty story right before they write them off, leaving the audience wondering, why didn’t they do something sooner? In the case of Michael Easton, his run as Hamilton Finn came to its conclusion when General Hospital decided to have Finn enter rehab after his old addiction reared its head and he couldn’t stop himself from drinking.

Last week in his final scenes, Michael along with Jophielle Love (Violet) delivered Michael Fairman TV’s Power Performances of the Week, but as Easton told Soap Opera Digest, getting to the place of where he had to go in Finn’s psyche was a challenge and to try to wrap it up in a neat package before his exit.

Finn’s exit story, at first, featured him taking a sip of booze seemingly out of nowhere at Brook Lynn and Chase’s wedding reception. That was followed by the death of his father, Gregory, which then escalated to Finn drinking heavily. From there, he gets in a fight with Elizabeth and for all intent and purposes breaks up with her, gets upset that the hospital is coming down on him, when he saved GH from going under and then has his Tracy take photos of him, after he cuts himself by accident and passes out drunk, so that she along with Brook Lynn and Chase, can get a restraining order against Finn from seeing his daughter, Violet and more.

Photo: ABC

In his final episode, Finn must say goodbye to his daughter which was a massive tearjerker, before his brother, Chase drives him to rehab. Now, Easton is sharing his reactions, and sentiments on leaving GH and how he had to portray, and the choices he made, to tell his exit storyline.

Michael expressed, “You get hurt a little bit and you get wounded a little bit, and part of your head’s going, ‘Well, just do it (i.e., do the work without putting much effort into it)’ — and then I ended up investing more ) in my performance), to make it even better for them. I really wanted to make it work, so my thinking was, (Finn’s descent) had to go beyond alcoholism. Addiction and things like that, I kind of know a lot about that, but to get where I needed to go (with the character), it had to be almost a complete emotional break.”

Courtesy/ABC

He added,  “You just get down to the raw forms of your emotions, you know? Everything has to be the truth, all the words had to be truthful. It just became about committing to it; you had to cleanse yourself of any feelings you had and just invest and commit yourself. So it was raw for me, and it was humbling, but it also felt good. I felt like I left everything out there.”

Easton also revealed that it took a few days for him to shake-off the emotional toll it took for him after he was finished taping, but when he went home, he received hugs from his children, Lilah Bell and Jack, and that the hugs were something he needed.

So, what did you think about Finn’s exit storyline?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.