On recent episodes of General Hospital, acting PCPD Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) was the last to know when his ex-wife Lulu (Alexa Havins), his cop/friend “Nathan,” (Ryan Paevey) and his son, Rocco (Finn Carr) kept in the dark from learning that Rocco actually shot WSB director, Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes) which set off a chain of events leading to Rocco joining Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and going on the run from Port Charles.

However, what led to everyone being so secretive and keeping the truth from Dante stems, in part, to what happened back in 2010. In story, Michael Corinthos (then played by Chad Duell) was brutally assaulted and rape by his prison inmate, Carter (Josh Wingate). Michael went to prison when his brother, Dante, then a PCPD detective, forced Michael to testify in court about killing his stepmother, Claudia Zacchara (Sarah Brown). That testimony resulted in Michael being sentenced to prison for her murder.

In early 2011, Michael admitted out loud to Jason (Steve Burton) for the first time that he was raped. The guilt of that situation has plagued Dante for years, and fast-forward 16 years later, it’s still very much alive in Dante’s character life as explained by Dominic Zamprogna in his recent interview on the Michael Fairman Channel.

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RORY GIBSON RECAST PERFECT TIME TO BRING BACK THE STORY POINT

Zamprogna spoke of Dante’s son current plight, and how it dovetails into the past for the acting police commissioner. “The situation with Rocco is just this awful scenario that this kid is in and wanting to try and do the best for him. The other thing, I liked too was from the other people’s perspectives of Dante in the past, he kind of did right by the law, not by the people, or put too much faith in the law, and expected it to work out for the people he loved, and it didn’t. So, it gave them a reason for keeping things from him as well.”

The five-time Daytime Emmy nominee shared its important to remember things in the history of your character you play and when GH decided to recast the role of Michael Corinthos with Rory Gibson, it was the perfect time to remind viewers of what happened all those years ago.

“The idea that when you’re on a show this long, I do think about those elements because there’s so much story. The scenes that I think of immediately with the Michael situation was with Chad gone, and then Rory came in. They (the writers) chose that moment to kind of literally say in the dialogue when we were at the Quartermaines, “You’ve changed since you came back from Europe and you’re a different guy and you’re darker.’ I think I said all these things. Frank Valentini (executive producer, GH) calls (Rory’s version) ‘Dark Michael.’ It’s true.

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DANTE’S GUILT OVER MICHAEL’S BRUTAL PRISON ASSAULT LINGERS

“That was the first time my character brought that up in what had happened to Michael so long ago. I’d love to play those beats more often. You can’t beat that to death because it was 16 years ago, but you also can’t act like it never happened. Sometimes in the world that we live in, the soap world, you do act like things don’t happen because how could people carry on with that kind of guilt, you know? Every time I looked at Michael, Dante would feel responsible for the atrocity that happened to him. So, there’s a balance. You can’t think about it every time, but you definitely have to acknowledge it. This was the perfect time to acknowledge it with the character of Michael because of the recast.

Now over the last several months, Dante was kept from the truth all stemming back to this moment. Zamprogna recalled, “It was the first kind of domino that fell in bringing back that history. Then you had Britt coming back and that brought back that history of the embryo with Dante and Lulu. It was fun to be able to play pissed-off with these people who I love. So, you got to play the love underneath and the anger on top, and it was all because of his past. So, it all kind of brought things back and it completed something.

CAN LULU AND DANTE FIND ROCCO AND BRITT IN TIME?

At the end of Friday’s June 19 cliffhanger, Dante and Lulu learned from Nathan where Rocco and Britt are hiding out and take off to find their son. How will that go? Can the execs get along for the sake of their son? Stay tuned.

In case you missed our conversation with Dominic Zamprogna you can check it out below.

Do you believe given what happened with Michael Corinthos in the past, everyone had the right to hide what happened to Rocco from Dante? What do you remember from the harrowing story of Michael’s rape in prison by Carter? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

The highly-anticipated return of Daytime Emmy winner, Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) to General Hospital is just around the corner. It’s next week! Anna’s back starting with the Wednesday June 24 episode of the ABC daytime drama series.

Hughes has been off the soap opera on-screen since February. Now, the question becomes, when viewers see Anna, will she be in the same condition she was when we last saw her? Believing Cesar Faison is alive, and traumatized from the hallucinogenic drugs she was served up from Cullum (Andrew Hawkes), Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and company while held captive at Wyndemere?

Anna was last seen in a mental clinic in France, but also left word of her captivity on the wall inside the secret room at Wyndemere where Josslyn (Eden McCoy) and Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) are now being held against their will, too!

Photo: ABC

ANNA ON HER WAY BACK TO PORT CHARLES?

Even though Finola Hughes has not been on the canvas for months, Anna has certainly been talked about. In fact, super spy Anna, nearly escaped and made it as far as Switzerland before being recaptured. Since that time she is said to be housed at a high-security institution. We were then told that Congresswoman Willow Cain (Katelyn MacMullen) went to bat for Anna with the authorities overseas, and had her transferred to a more comfortable facility.

How will Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) play into saving Anna? We know he flipped out after learning what was happening and tried to phone the facility as Dr. Kevin Collins, but that backfired making him public enemy number one with the WSB.

Here’s what to look for on episodes featuring Finola Hughes on her first week back below:

On Wednesday, June 24 official General Hospital spoilers share: Anna meets with her doctor. Carly makes a stunning confession. Britt extracts a promise. Cullum pulls a fast one. Gio and Emma hit the pool.

Then, when we next see Anna on the Friday, June 26 episode, official GH spoilers add: Anna takes a huge risk. Britt is in grave danger. Willow is in disbelief. Danny must act fast. Curtis jumps to the wrong conclusion.

ANNA/VALENTIN/CARLY

In addition, General Hospital co-head writers, Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten teased summer story to Soap Opera Digest, including some intel on Anna’s return to Port Charles. The scribes shared that Anna’s presence doesn’t mean that Rocco (Finn Carr) is out of the woods for shooting Cullum, and that Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) would face some hard questions from the super spy as well, plus a major decision made by Jason (Steve Burton) is said to have big implications for Anna.

There is also the fact that while Anna was in a mental facility in France, Carly (Laura Wright) and Valentin have become lovers and developed feelings for one another while in Port Charles. Will a triangle ensue? Stay tuned.

So, what do you think will be Anna’s mental state when viewers see her next week on GH? Will she be OK? Suffer from PTSD? Be faking it at this point, or be a changed woman? Weigh-in via the comment section below.

On the Thursday, June 18 episode of General Hospital, Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) makes his shocking return right in Port Charles, after fleeing (thanks to Cassius) to supposedly parts unknown to escape capture for trying to kill Dr. Lucas Jones (Van Hansis).

How does he show up in town? First, Ezra (Daniel Cosgrove) gets a text from Jacinda (Paige Herschell) to meet in his hotel room. Ezra thinks the two are going to have a sexcapade so he puts champagne on ice for his favorite escort.

Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. Ezra’s excitement turns towards fear as instead of Jacinda, Sidwell is standing in front of him. Next, Sidwell blackmails Boyle telling him he has plenty of leverage he can use against him. Sidwell wants to use Ezra to help him takedown, Sonny (Maurice Benard), Lucas, Laura (Genie Francis) and Cullum.

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ARE SIDWELL’S DAYS NUMBERED?

Meanwhile, Sonny confides in his brother, Ric (Rick Hearst). He says he knows who killed Marco an he is going to use that intel to lure Sidwell out of hiding.  Sonny also shares he is going to kill Sidwell, and handle this by himself. He gave the PCPD a chance, but they failed to nab Sidwell for good and lock him up.

Sonny also has been tracking the whereabouts of Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) and Rocco (Finn Carr) through Brick, and learned they took a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then boarded a fairy to take them somewhere off the island.

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BRITT’S ‘SYMPTOMS’ RETURN

Turns out, Britt and Rocco are hiding out in the British Virgin Islands. Britt set up Rocco with a burner phone and a VPN on her tablet, that is not traceable. Rocco reads on the tablet about Lucas’ shooting. Britt starts to have the shakes and passes out. When she comes to, Britt won’t let Rocco call a doctor, but he uses his phone to step on the balcony and call Charlotte (Bluesy Burke) and ask for help. Charlotte looks shocked to hear from her brother as Danny (Asher Antonyzyn) looks on!

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However, Joe (Jonathan Bennett) could be the one to put two and two together! While at General Hospital and after questioning Lucas about a syringe he found that was in someone’s possession. the toxicology report showed traces of saline solution, not actual medication. He asks Dr. Jones, why someone would inject themselves with saline? Lucas responds saline is harmless and would have no effect on someone.

So, does this mean that this entire time, Britt has been led to believe that the medication she was taking to treat her Huntington’s disease was placebo? Has Britt been lied to into believing she is dying? Is something else wrong with her instead?

Share your thoughts and theories via the comment section below, and if you are ready for Sidwell to finally get his comeuppance from Sonny! But first, watch the scenes where Sidwell comes out of hiding and blackmails Ezra Boyle.