General Hospital: The Best and Worst of 2025 from Who Shot Drew to Lucky’s Exit and Nathan’s Return
General Hospital packed a lot of drama into its 2025, as Port Charles was rocked by the passing of Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) and the revelation that Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) shared a son in Gio (Giovanni Mazza), Cyrus’s (Jeff Kober) death at Josslyn’s (Eden McCoy) hands spun her into a new life as a WSB agent, and Drew (Cameron Mathison) barely escaped with his life after pissing off most of the town. Keep reading for Soap Opera Digest‘s perspective on the highlights and lowlights of the GH year.
Biggest Tearjerker: Monica’s Passing
Leslie Charleson had been a mainstay as fiery Dr. Monica Quartermaine since 1977, so the show needed to go all-out to honor its longest-running actress when she passed away in real life — and they did. Monica was found having passed peacefully in her bed by her son Jason, in a stirring performance by Steve Burton, which was fitting as he is the last surviving member of her immediate family (RIP Alan, AJ and Emily). He broke the news to Tracy — shout-out to Jane Elliot (Tracy), who was flawless throughout this arc — and they shared their private grief before word spread to her many loved ones and hospital co-workers. Flashbacks reminded us what a powerhouse Monica was, highlighting her battle with breast cancer and her raucous fights with husband Alan. Monica’s memorial service stretched over multiple episodes with characters including Ned, Elizabeth, Laura, Jason, Michael and Tracy sharing touching stories of the doctor and family matriarch who had touched so many lives. Other highlights included the gathering to hang Monica’s picture on the G.H. memorial wall next to her beloved spouse, and Jason’s less public good-bye to his mom. But the farewell to this memorable character would not have been complete without some final juicy drama; after all, Monica anchored some of the show’s all-time most tantalizing tales. So in came Monica’s previously unknown sister Ronnie (Erika Slezak) to “inherit” the Q mansion. Tracy exposed that for the scheme it was, and, in the end, learned she had been left the cherished house that belonged to Monica. (All together now: Alan gave it to her!)
Worst Vanishing Act: TJ
TJ Ashford met Molly Lansing-Davis as teenagers all the way back in 2012, and they grew into an appealing yet unconventional duo who did what most soap duos don’t: stayed together. While there were some blips in the road, ranging from infidelity (Molly slept with Brando) and infertility (Molly had endometriosis) to occasionally overbearing mothers (Alexis for her, Jordan for him), it seemed like there was nothing they couldn’t overcome — even multiple recasts for both characters. He became a doctor and she became a lawyer, classic soap professions with lots of opportunity for drama. But when the drama came, it left TJ in the dust. Kristina agreed to be Molly and TJ’s surrogate but ultimately, the baby died, and the loss tore the duo apart. At the end of 2024, Molly and TJ, who had been domestic partners since 2021, reached the sad conclusion that their visions for the future were too far apart for them to move forward as a couple and that they needed space. What fans didn’t realize at the time that said space would translate to a full-on disappearance by TJ, who did not make a single on-screen appearance in all of 2025. The character had been on the show for years and was the founding member of the Ashford family, but didn’t even merit an on-air good-bye?! Molly doesn’t seem to remember TJ’s existence as she flirts like a high school girl on a first date with Cody. Heck, Jordan barely mentions her only son! Viewers were invested in the bighearted TJ, most recently played by the talented Tajh Bellow, and the complete erasure of this character is both baffling and unfortunate.
Best Reveal: Gio’s Parentage
In 2024, when GH started dropping the not-so-subtle anvils that Gio was the retcon son of Brook Lynn and Dante, we weren’t sold on the idea of yet another surprise offspring in the Corinthos/Quartermaine sphere. But boy, did the show pay it off when it came time for the truth to finally come tumbling out. The big reveal was set up for maximum dramatic impact, affecting not only Gio, Brook Lynn and Dante, but their extended families. The spark was Lulu putting the pieces together that her longtime rival Brook Lynn had secretly given birth to Dante’s baby as a teenager, ultimately leading to her discovering — before Brook Lynn — that said baby grew up to be Gio. She confronted Lois, who had placed her grandson with family friends behind Brook Lynn’s back, at the Nurses’ Ball — and Gio overheard. In a star-making performance by Giovanni Mazza, he took to the stage and sarcastically dedicated his performance to his parents, Brook Lynn and Dante: “Two people who didn’t want me. Who didn’t claim me. They gave me away and have been lying to me my entire life!” He then smashed his violin on the floor and stormed off, leaving Dante staring at Brook Lynn like wha-a-at? as a single tear ran down her face. In the rich aftermath, so many dynamics changed — Brook Lynn found out Lois had lied to her, Dante found out Brook Lynn had lied to him, and Gio found out just how much he could count on Emma. GH really stuck the landing here, and the results were mesmerizing.
Best Recast: Rory Gibson as Michael
Replacing a core character is hard, especially when the actor has been in a role as long as Chad Duell had, and getting fans to immediately accept a new actor is even harder. But the seemingly impossible happened when Young and Restless alum Rory Gibson (ex-Noah) stepped into Michael’s designer (if slightly bloody) shoes. It helped that GH rested the character in between portrayers, injuring Michael with a bomb meant for Sonny and sending him to Europe to recuperate. Michael’s wife Willow carried on with his Uncle Drew while he was gone, which added rooting value to the cuckolded character while he was off screen, and a subsequent custody battle pitting Willow against Michael’s family built to his anticipated comeback — which did not disappoint. The music literally swelled when Gibson’s smoldering new Michael strode into the Nurses’ Ball sporting a tuxedo and a smile to scoop Wiley up and announce they were going home (take that, Willow!). Since then, his comeback has been filled with a fury that works on all levels for this major character reset. He’s clicked with critical screen partners, from TV parents Maurice Benard (Sonny) and Laura Wright (Carly) to potential leading ladies Sofia Mattsson (ex-Sasha) and Paige Herschell (Jacinda) to sparring partner Cameron Mathison (Drew), and can persuasively be both tender and tenacious. All in all, Gibson perfectly embodies Michael’s broody straddling of the Corinthos and Quartermaine worlds, fitting in seamlessly as the golden child of both families whose life has been anything but golden.
Best Umbrella Story: Who Shot Drew?
GH treated us to masterful, old-school soap plotting by making Drew so odious it gave half the canvas good reason to want him dead. Sonny and Carly both had motive after Drew broke up Michael’s family and helped Willow try to take his kids. Ditto Michael for the same reason, plus the general aggravation of having to listen to your wife have sex with your uncle in your children’s playroom. Curtis had a 40-watt fallout with Drew at Aurora and he also knew the baddie was blackmailing Portia and had turned in Aunt Stella for insurance fraud. Martin hates Drew (despite being his lawyer) and was also peeved about Stella’s arrest. Portia resented being blackmailed by Drew and was in hot water for paying Jacinda to drug and seduce him — and she possibly got pregnant the night of the shooting when she slept with Isaiah. Portia’s co-conspirator Nina told Drew she would see him dead if he hurt Willow (worse than Nina herself had done, anyway, by sleeping with Drew on the floor of her office). Willow, who is the one standing trial for the crime, had been paying a huge penalty for inviting Drew into her life (e.g., losing custody of her kids). Clues have continued since the September shooting to keep the story front-burner, like Tracy confiding she saw Michael outside Drew’s house that night and Curtis telling Jordan he offered Selina Wu a million dollars to off Drew. The tale also has ripple effects onto characters we know for a fact didn’t do it, like Trina and Kai, who were in Drew’s house and heard the gunshots, and Chase, who is risking his job and possibly his marriage in his quest to prove that Willow is falsely accused. Between the long list of suspects, those investigating or prosecuting the crime, and the characters trying to expose and/or protect them, this still-ongoing story successfully looped in practically the entire canvas in a way that has become lamentably rare on daytime.
Worst Return: Nathan
Don’t get us wrong — we’re certainly happy to have Ryan Paevey back in the Port Charles mix after a seven-year absence. But thus far, the comeback of Nathan has yielded very little in terms of storyline fireworks. Expectations were high when the actor returned, especially when (in an interview with TV Insider) he promised, “We’ve got some fun stuff planned. We’re going to stir the pot,” and professed, “I wouldn’t come back for something vanilla.” Three months into his stint, vanilla is, sadly, exactly what viewers have gotten. Nathan has no explanation for where he was, and has shared no visits with his (off-screen) comatose wife, Maxie. He’s had precious little to do since reuniting with his loved ones outside of reclaiming his PCPD badge and sparking a connection with Lulu that so far hasn’t amounted to much. The writing surrounding the possible mystery of whether Nathan is truly even Nathan has been spotty, and no logical tie has been established with his sister Britt who also returned from the dead this year without explanation. (Is Helena’s cryonic suspension machine still a thing in the hospital basement?) If this arc is building up to some kind of big twist, it’s not doing so with any great momentum.
Worst Exit: Lucky
The show was dealt a bad hand here when, after a much anticipated comeback by Daytime Emmy-winner Jonathan Jackson in the summer of 2024, the actor asked for (and received) an early release from his contract this spring, forcing the show to write a hasty exit for Lucky. Liz and Lucky’s romantic reunion never got off the ground (we’re talking a few kisses, one of which was played by a temporarily recast Lucky) — and then one day, out of the blue, he was proposing. Lucky insisted that all he wanted to do was spend the rest of his days with Elizabeth and her boy, but she gently turned him down, noting the incompatibility of their lifestyles (he’s a wanderer, she’s a homebody). In short order, Lucky was making plans to leave town, and after some heartfelt good-byes with Laura, Lulu and Liz, he hopped a plane with his and Liz’s son, Aiden, who would be joining him “for the summer” (and yet still hasn’t come home!). With that, Lucky was gone, once again — and his abrupt departure left Liz stranded, once again, in storyline Siberia. In the many months since Jackson’s final air date, the show has made little effort to figure out a meaningful Plan B for Rebecca Herbst (Liz), who remains sadly underused. We’re fervently hoping that in 2026, the actress will be given a story worthy of her popularity and talent — something far more substantive than educating viewers about eye mites.
Worst Story Payoff: Joss Kills Cyrus
Admirers of Josslyn Jacks and/or Dex Heller got to see Carly’s headstrong daughter avenge the death of her police officer by shooting his killer just as she got proof that he was going around murdering people with Derisifol, and Brennan “helpfully” got the crime scene cleaned up, kicking off her new Alias-inspired arc as a college student by day, WSB agent by night. But, with all due respect to the amiable Dex, it was not his demise that fans were clamoring to see avenged — not when Cyrus killed freakin’ Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), one of the show’s longest-running and most popular heroines, whose ties to the canvas were far deeper and more plentiful. When Sam was so brutally murdered in 2024 by the devious Renault, she left behind two grieving children (Scout and Danny), a mother (Alexis), siblings (Kristina, Lucas and Molly), a fiancé (Dante), a former partner in supercoupledom (Jason) and a legion of outraged and upset fans. How Cyrus got his comeuppance — which is to say, without Alexis, Dante and/or Jason’s direct involvement — robbed fans of seeing moments that would have brought a better measure of emotional satisfaction and closure. Because Brennan disposed of the body, Cyrus is technically only still “missing” in the eyes of most of Sam’s loved ones, so they don’t even get the benefit of knowing that he met a violent end at the hands of someone who had also suffered a great loss via his murderous actions. Elsewhere, Laura and Martin skate over the fact that their lunatic brother just disappeared when they should be scared he might resurface and hurt someone else. Our dream 2026 story? Trina finds the hospital wristbands (that had belonged to Cyrus’s victims) in Joss’s drawer and innocently takes them to the police, blowing Joss and Brennan’s involvement in Cyrus’s death wide open.
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