On Monday, November 12, 2018 General Hospital aired a special episode devoted to Michael “Sonny” Corinthos Jr. which asked the question: How would Sonny’s life been different if he hadn’t followed Joe Scully’s orders involving attorney Vincent Marino?
This article contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the Monday, November 12, 2018 episode of General Hospital, please do not continue reading.
Sonny’s current life is based on a series of choices he made as a young man climbing up the mob ladder for power, respect and success. It started when he was in Brooklyn working for a mobster named Joe Scully and was asked to shoot and kill Scully’s lawyer Vincent Marino. Sonny carried out the hit and is now dealing with the ramifications of his actions. But what if he’d chosen a different path? The entire episode featured an alternate universe for the character of Sonny as viewers got to see him not take his murderous destiny.
The special episode was a well written and acted hour featuring tour de force performances by Maurice Benard, Dominic Zamprogna, William deVry, Maura West, Laura Wright, Steve Burton, Kelly Monaco, Lisa Locicero, Finola Hughes, Nancy Grahan, Max Gail, Briana Henry and let’s not forget Benard’s son Joshua playing the Young Sonny.
It starts in Brooklyn in 1985 where Vincent Marino begs a Young Sonny not to shoot him. We see Sonny awaken in a home in Brooklyn where he is now married to Olivia and an NYPD police sergeant with three children; two girls (photos shown of Maurice Benard’s real life daughters) and son Dante (the returning Zamprogna), who works for the Jerome organization for Julian and Ava. Dante is married to Sam, Jason is the Jerome’s enforcer, Anna is the NYPD Police Commissioner, Alexis is the District Attorney, Jordan is a DEA agent and Carly is Mrs. AJ Quartermaine. Each of these actors played variations of their characters without skipping a beat.
One of the best things about this episode was the themes of the parallel lives of son and father (Mike and Sonny/Sonny and Dante) and “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Yes, Sonny is not in the mob, but he still has ties to it as he tries to stop his son Dante for continuing his criminal life style. Sonny is a cop, an excellent choice on the part of the writers. We got to see him connect with Alexis, Anna and especially Carly. I loved that even though Carly and Sonny weren’t married in this universe, we could see an undeniably attraction between the two. More parallels between Sonny’s real life and dream life were explored by showing Sam wanting out of the mob world (just like she did in the real world with Jason). There was a spark between she and “Jason Smith,” demonstrating that in any universe Sam and Jason will always seem to find their way to each other. When Sonny tries to stop Dante from killing Jason, he accidentally shoots his own son as he did in 2008. Finally, dream Sonny keeps Mike from stopping his younger self from killing Marino, telling his father it’s “his” (Young Sonny) choice. What a powerful scene to cap off a powerful episode.
Every one involved in this special General Hospital deserves the highest kudos. This was an excellent piece of television. I hope the episode will be acknowledged and receive an Emmy nomination!
Photos Courtesy of ABC and General Hospital
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