Paula's Soapbox

Ever since Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo's highly anticipated return to GH, viewers have been hearing about this mysterious Balkan character who was out to hurt Brenda. For a while I assumed the Balkan was Franco because of the scene below where he is on a plane looking at Brenda's photo and talking to someone on the phone about wanting to work with her. [no copyright infringement intended] Of course that assumption was proven wrong once it was revealed that the Balkan was out to get Brenda for killing his son. And even with all the inconsistencies on GH I'm assuming they know that even their viewers can't suspend the reality of disbelief enough to buy that Franco could have a son old enough to date Brenda. The reveal that Theo Hoffman is actually the Balkan should come as no surprise, at least it didn't to me for a couple of reasons. First of all my expectations were already low going into this storyline because of the huge disappointment that was CO77X. I had...

Brenda has been back on General Hospital for a while now and I have yet to say much of her return. This is primarily because I was waiting to see how everything would play out. In addition, a theory has been swirling around in my mind about the people in her life and I thought it necessary to watch a little more of the show to see if this theory would take shape. The first day I saw Murphy's interaction with Brenda I thought "what if this guy isn't the nice guy he appears to be?" "what if he were responsible for the attempts on Brenda's life?" It would certainly add dimension to this character and provide an excuse for Brenda to leave him for good; but as I continued to watch the show I also thought "what if Murphy wasn't acting alone in placing Brenda in danger?" "what if Suzanne were somehow involved?" Both Murphy and Suzanne seem almost obsessive about Brenda's safety to the point of controlling her more than protecting h...

General Hospital fans have spent several weeks searching the Internet for clues about the mysterious CO77X tag that was introduced as part of the Franco storyline. This tag even made it into Google's top 10 searches on October 21st, as viewers tried to find some insight into its meaning. In fact there were numerous theories about what it might mean and what impact it might have on the show, but on Monday's General Hospital all of those theories were quickly dismissed, revealing a simplistic explanation for the tag. As it turned out CO77X was Franco's booking number from a past arrest, and something he now uses as a tool with which to taunt police. I must say, as one of the many viewers who spent hours playing amateur detective in an attempt to solve this mystery, I was very disappointed by this revelation. These days soap operas rarely have storylines that capture the attention of viewers the way this one element has, and it is even rarer for a movie star to request a role ...

In the weeks leading up to the introduction of the Franco character on General Hospital, viewers were treated to countless montages featuring the mysterious CO77X graffiti. Since then there has been non-stop speculation about the meaning behind this tag and how it may affect the course of the show. Recently there have been fewer CO77X sightings, but there have been several episodes featuring Franco so I thought it would be a good time to revisit CO77X in an effort to unlock this mystery. This week Jason received a painting from Franco listing the seven deadly sins of vanity, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, greed, and sloth. Seeing this made me wonder if one of the "7's" in CO77X represents these seven deadly sins. This may seem a bit obvious, but looking back on the scene where Franco is shooting red paint balls at the pictures of people close to Jason, there are seven people on the canvas besides Jason. Taking this one step further it seems logical to assume that Franco...

As the Claudia storyline comes to a close, viewers are being introduced to an unquestionably more mysterious one, with repeated glimpses of the "CO77X" graffiti. Viewers have seen this code-like tag in countless scenes this week. And it is usually accompanied by crime scene photos in a presumably abandoned office of some sort. The mystery surrounding "CO77X" only became more intriguing on Friday when it was seen among newspaper clippings depicting the arrest of Jason Morgan. This particular scene also contained multiple inscriptions of Jason's name written in chalk, as if to signify an obsession. This leads me to believe that someone may be fixated on putting Jason behind bars. And since I can pretty much guarantee that this does not involve Mac, this can only mean one thing, the introduction of James Franco's character. James Franco makes his daytime debut in less than a month, so it stands to reason that GH would already be laying the groundwork for his st...

On Wednesday's General Hospital, Sonny and Claudia arrived in Puerto Rico as part of a "power move" to maintain lucrative business arrangements in spite of Anthony's takeover attempt during the carnival. Meanwhile Jason and Sam were back in Port Charles, still looking for evidence that could tie Claudia to Michael's shooting. They seem to be getting closer to finding that evidence too, as they search through Ian Devlin's patient files with Patrick and Robin. I just do not understand why it has taken everyone so long to realize that there could be clues to Michael's shooting at the hospital. Considering that Devlin was a doctor, I can think of no place more appropriate or more secure for hiding incriminating evidence. Elsewhere in Port Charles, Michael was continuing to struggle with confusion over his memories. And as he was confiding in Carly about the possibility of more than one person being involved in his shooting, Jax walked in and interrupted. Unfor...