The timing of General Hospital’s trial for Ava (Maura West) is really unfortunate, because Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) and her daughters are still struggling with Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) death and their grief is very raw. It’s not really surprising that Alexis lost her cool in the courtroom.
Ric (Rick Hearst) was probably counting on that. It made it easier for him to make Kristina (Kate Mansi) look unstable in front of the jury because her mother also looked unstable. But when Ric confronted Alexis in the empty courtroom after the jury had gone into deliberations he was absolutely right to call her out for favoring Kristina.
I’m glad someone finally said it. Kristina is a loose cannon who can’t regulate her emotions, much like a toddler, because Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Alexis have always catered to her and favored her. They rarely have made her take accountability for her actions. And they constantly try to soothe her extreme emotions by telling her nothing is her fault.
Just days before the trial, Kristina hit Natalia's (Eva LaRue) car because she was so emotional she swerved out of her lane and into Natalia’s car. Kristina is a menace, because her parents didn’t do their jobs and teach her to regulate her emotions like an adult.
Zeroing in on Alexis, I’m not a monster. I understand that Alexis is going through a really tough time right now. Losing Sam suddenly like that wrecked her, and that’s understandable. But her grief is now making her not see the elements of the case clearly. She wants to protect Kristina at all costs because she wasn’t able to protect Sam.
But Ric wasn’t wrong that Kristina initiated the entire incident with Ava. If she hadn’t gone over to confront Ava the tragedy wouldn’t have happened. Kristina does bear some of the blame for the baby’s death. If Kristina had taken five minutes to cool off before racing over to the hotel to confront Ava, she would have realized that for the baby’s sake, she should have let Sonny handle the situation.
Alexis doesn’t want to see the truth because she’s angry. But she’s angry about Sam’s death and she’s projecting that onto the situation with Ava. Alexis is a good lawyer, and she knows how to analyze the facts of a case. If she wasn’t struggling, she would be able to see that Ric was correct in saying that both Kristina and Ava were responsible for the incident. And she would see that it was an accident, not a deliberate attempt by Ava to hurt Kristina or the baby.
I doubt that Alexis will shift too much blame Kristina’s way though, despite how immature Kristina is emotionally. The young Corinthos has a track record of impulsive and immature decisions that end up hurting everyone around her.
For example, take her offer to be a surrogate for Molly (Kristen Vaganos) and TJ (Tajh Bellow). She impulsively decided that she was the perfect person to be a surrogate for them, without thinking through all of the potential problems that might come from the arrangement.
Then, when she got pregnant, she impulsively decided she needed to keep the baby. She only thought about her feelings, and how it would hurt to give up the child. She didn’t care at all how her decision would impact TJ and Molly.
Kristina never considered that Molly and TJ would have to go through the emotional hell of constantly being around their niece knowing that she was their daughter. Like a child, she only thinks about how she feels.
Alexis and Sonny have contributed to Kristina’s emotional immaturity by bailing her out of trouble and constantly helping her avoid responsibility. While Ric and Alexis were having it out in the courtroom, Sonny was placating Kristina. She asked him directly how she did on the stand and she was upset. Instead of telling her the truth, Sonny told her that she did great and the jury would be on her side.
That’s not helping her to grow as a person. If Alexis and Sonny don’t start treating Kristina like an adult and holding her accountable for her actions, then she’s never going to be a functional adult who is capable of real empathy or real relationships with others.
However the trial turns out, Kristina needs to put the entire thing behind her so she moves forward. She could use Sam’s death as an opportunity to grow as a person and be there for Molly and Alexis. The three of them should be bonding in their grief. Hopefully, the end of the trial can be a new start for her.
But it’s probably more likely that Kristina’s fixation on Ava as the source of her problems will grow, especially if Ava is found not guilty. At some point, Alexis and Sonny are going to have to take steps toward holding their daughter accountable.
I hate it when I have to side with Ric, because Ric Lansing is the poster child for ambulance-chasing lawyers. What he did to Kristina on the stand was manipulative, but he made some fair points about her actions. He could have been more diplomatic when telling Alexis the truth about Kristina, but he was right about her and Alexis needed to hear it.
New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.
