Chapter Eight: The Quartermaine Family Today

The Q's reign in Port Charles has been a plethora of plots, plans, paybacks and panache. They are inarguably a General Hospital corner stone family around which much of what we have seen in the last 31 years has revolved. General Hospital is intertwined with ELQ as the Quartermaines have become entangled with the other integral families on the canvas.

Jason hires Justice to work for him but this causes conflict with Justice maybe-girl, dara Jensen. Sarah Webber tells the Q’s she is worried about Emily helping Nicholas with his recovery because if Stefan finds out she could be in danger. Emily tells AJ he should hand over his son to Jason and forget about him. Nicholas gives Monica a huge endowment for General Hospital. Emily meets Juan, her first, first true love. Sonny gets Carly pregnant while she is married to AJ and still in “love” with Jason. Sonny’s DNA came back as the bio-daddy of unborn Carly-spawn and Sonny walks out of the Quartermaine mansion with AJ’s wife and son. AJ begins a friendship with ex-FBI agent Hannah who is being romanced by police man Taggert also. Finding out that Hannah loves football, AJ buys an NFL team and hires Hannah to help him run it. A desperate Zander “Smith” kidnaps Emily and Emily’s second, first true love is ultimately the result. Monica encourages Gia Campbells mother to apply for an administration job with General Hospital.

The crushing news that Monica was experiencing menopause and was not pregnant really took the wind out of their sails. Their relationship continued to be a rocky one. Skye Chandler showed up and showed them proof that she was Alan’s daughter with one time college flame Rae Cummings, which put Monica in a very foul mood. Her trademark “Get out of MY HOUSE” really go a work out as she demanded that Rae and Skye, Alan and Skye or all three get out of her house regularly. Although Monica finally managed to be rid of Rae, she couldn’t shake Skye as Skye and Alan grew closer together. Things didn’t go any better between Alan’s two girls when Skye informed them that AJ showed signs of drinking again.

Monica would not see it because that would make Skye correct. The constant strain on their marriage was quickly becoming the norm. Perhaps it was his unsatisfied longing for true love to be real that allowed Alan to believe that AJ was really in love with Courtney. He helped them escape from Sonny then later found out that AJ was using Courtney to get near Michael, who had been stolen from him and was responsible for his return to drinking. When AJ moved in to the mansion with his new bride, Courtney, his father were sickened to see how he was playing the wide eyed innocent who was raised in a casino by a hootchie-momma mother. Monica tried to believe in AJ.

AJ played to Courtney’s youth and romantic nature to seduce and marry her, trying on their wedding day to get Sonny to trade Michael for Courtney. Sonny refused. AJ refuses to admit that he is falling for Courtney, but as he is falling in love with her the truth is looming and Jason shows back up in town, sealing AJ’s doom the minute Courtney lays eyes on Jason. Skye is crushed when Jax leaves her on their wedding day because Brenda returned. Courtney’s full out throwing herself at Jason’s feet is delayed by Jason marriage of convenience to Brenda. Ned agrees to claim Alexis’ baby as his own to protect the baby from Sonny’s life of crime even though Ned is no longer together with Alexis but has fallen “in love” with her younger sister Kristina.

It all became too much for Monica (again) when Rae Cummings returned to town to talk with Alan, so Monica served Alan with divorce papers. The divorce was stopped when Monica was convinced by Jason of AJ’s motives vis-à-vis Courtney. She and Alan had been fighting over her support of AJ’s getting Michael back. When she told AJ he had to stop manipulating Courtney or move it saved their shaky marriage. Their reconciliation was brief. Rick Webber came back to town and Monica reveled in his attention and in the jealousy it aroused in Alan. With Rick’s murder, they might have had some peace except that Tracy returned to town with the news that Skye was not really Alan’s biological child. Alan was distraught, but Monica was elated. This may have strained their marriage to its limits, especially when Alan promised Skye that she would always be his daughter and that biology could be damned.

Jason berates Sonny for kissing Brenda which led to Jax refusing to marry Brenda in the middle of the ceremony and caused Carly to run off from Sonny. Jason reminds Sonny that Jason “gave” him Carly and Michael to love and that Sonny owes them more than that. Faith Roscoe tries to warn Courtney that life with Jason will be a risk because all reigns eventually come to an end and Sonny and Jason’s reign will be no different except that innocent people will no doubt pay. Skye and Coleman have an awkward but not altogether un-hot, brief relationship while Skye is off the wagon that ends after they (apparently) are responsible for murdering Ida, a key witness in the killing of Luis Alcazar. Ned offers Jason an “out” from the mob so that Jason can be with Courtney but is rebuffed as usual.

Emily returned to Port Charles with secret breast cancer and Alan and Monica rallied behind their daughter, seeing that she got the best treatments available. They were besides themselves with anguish when, no matter what medical science offered, Emily slipped closer and closer to death. She marries Zander but has already picked out her third, first true love, Nicholas. The family is thrilled when a magic love dream saved Emily, even though she ended up breaking Zander’s heart and inadvertently causing his death by police/suicide. The entire family was shocked when AJ, fresh from losing his wife to Jason, after having paid Coleman to stalk her so that he could be her savior, cleaned out their bank accounts and left town leaving them broke.

Tracy involves Dillon in her quest for The Dead Man’s Hand. Jason and Courtney’s great love affair hits a few snags; Courtney just can’t keep out of harms way and insists on running to South America to “find” Carly and ends up miscarrying her and Jason’s baby. Courtney takes Michael and new baby Morgan and moves to another town to try to remove them from the violence of the mob life as Carly is recuperating from being shot in the head. Ned ends up with custody of baby Kristina when Alexis is found to have killed Luis Alcazar. Skye, desperately wanting a baby, falls in love with Kristina and tries to fall in love with Ned as well in order to be the momma. Alexis pretends to be Dobson in order to be near Kristina-the baby, posing as the butler and breaking a restraining order. Ned refuses to prosecute Alexis. Skye turns to Luke to help her destroy the Quartermaines who have let her down. Justus comes back to town: for Sonny and Jason. Michael is used as a pawn between Carly and Sonny as is new baby Morgan. Again, Edward fakes a heart attack to test Tracy and Tracy again stands by and watches him collapse and supposedly “die”.

Buried treasure would save them, though and Emily’s new husband Nikolas Cassidine (also recently bankrupted) knew where a Quartermaine ship had sunk in the harbor hundreds of years ago. They planned to salvage the treasure and refill their coffers. Things did not go smoothly as the treasure was stolen twice before the families could auction it off and the Port Charles Hotel burned down on the night of the auction. Those trapped on the roof drew lots to see who would be helicopter-ed out first and Monica persuaded Alan to go. They eventually all escaped.

Georgie Jones and Dillon becomes a couple but Sage Alcazar wants Dillon as well and causes trouble for the brainiac and her film maker. Jason tries to pay Sam McCall to leave town, hoping to clam things down between Carly and Sonny. Jason’s marriage to Courtney bites the dust as she gains a fortune from saving some old ladies dog, blames Zander for shooting a cop in the back and decides to move on. Brook Lynn comes to stay with Ned and becomes a part of the Georgie/Dillon/Sage dynamic. They form a girl group and Dillon does drag, and not all that well. Jason takes in a pregnant Sam when Carly and Sonny reunite. Emily makes some BAD decisions when Nic is locked up for killing Helena and she befriends his look alike, Connor. Sam and Sonny’s baby is born dead, but the baby saves Kristina with an organ donation. Jason and Sam have fallen in love. Skye falls in love with Luke. Emily is viscously raped by Nic look alike Connor when they team up to try and clear Nic of the murder charge.

Lila dies, leaving the family devastated and further divided by a “contest” to see who would be the most “virtuous” to earn her money. Justus won. Alan and Monica were both disqualified on the first day for conspiring to make one of the others look bad.

Sage is murdered at the Quartermaine mansion, the entire soap watching world is ecstatic when Jason has a brain operation that promises to give him back his memories. Robin returns to town with research that could give him back his right mind. Tracy can’t get rid of Luke and to her dismay Luke moves Lulu into the mansion as well. Dillon goes to college along with Brook Lynn and Diego Alcazar and Maxie and the girls are stalked by someone drugging them and taking nude pictures of them. It turns out to be Diego although that didn’t make any sense then and really still doesn’t. Emily divorces Nicholas and falls in love with MUCH older man Sonny as she takes care of his children while Carly is in the sanitarium.

The Q’s had to band together against Heather Webber, who swooped in and married Edward in an effort to get close to Luke, who would end up married to Tracy. Alan started drinking heavily after Justus told him that AJ had been killed in an altercation after having kidnapped Michael. When A.J. showed up with Michael, Alan gave him sanctuary. Alan finally turned his back on A.J., causing his son to shoot him in the back. That night, as both father and son (A.J. fell over the banister) recuperated in the hospital, someone murdered AJ. Alan blamed Jason for AJ’s death and was very angry in his grief. Monica was determined to divorce Alan as AJ’s death drove them farther apart than they had ever been. Alan teamed up with Michael’s psychiatrist to try to wrest his grandson away from Sonny and return AJ’s son to his real family, but as always Sonny won. The shrink was found to be the murderer.

Monica was further disgusted by Alan when she found out that Alan had stopped AJ from killing Jason back right after his brain injury. She felt that Alan should have had AJ put away for that attempted murder and that every subsequent bad thing that ever happened to AJ and Jason since then was Alan’s fault. When Jason suffered an aneurism and had to have brain surgery that left him once again with no memories, Alan saw it as a chance to get his son back. He wanted to make Jason believe that things had been very different for them all, but Monica told Jason the truth, that he hated them. It crushed Alan.

The mob wars take Justus out and he is buried with no memorial. Luke returns from one of his mysterious trips with a monkey that has a virus that begins to kill people. Tracy stands aside and allows Georgie and a critically ill Dillon to get married. Jason and Carly go off to try and find the anti-dote to the virus. Robert Scorpio comes back to town stunning everyone that he is alive and helping to find out where the man made virus has come from. Turns out it was Holly. As the crisis comes to an end a mysterious package is delivered to the Quartermaines home. Tracy’s love for Luke is tested when Robin finds a temporary cure for Luke’s beloved first wife, Laura’s catatonic condition and sets her feelings aside, watching as Luke fake-marries Laura again even while still legally wed to Tracy. Jason is presumed dead after more mob crap (blah, blah, blah) but Elizabeth finds him and nurses him back to health. She doesn’t tell him she is pregnant with his child and remarries Lucky. Tracy and Luke become even stronger when Laura’s condition reverses and she lapses back into her vegetative state.

In the final years before Alan’s death, the Quartermaines stayed together, helping Edward through Justus’ death. They banded together against Luke once he was Mr. Tracy Quartermaine and they shared some hot times when Alan discovered Viagra. Jason brought Michael over several times to allow him to visit with his grandparents. Monica glorified Jason, setting him up on a pedestal after AJ’s death while Alan was hopeful that he could once again have a relationship with his remaining son. Monica and Skye continued to butt heads, but Monica was not as resentful of Skye as she once was. The intrepid doctors weathered the virus outbreak that took the life of their good friend, Tony Jones, and lived through the inappropriate romance of Emily and Sonny Corinthos, although it almost killed them.

Alan was killed February 26, 2007 while being held captive at the Metro Court Hotel by terrorist James Craig. The murder was particularly gruesome because it played out on television. As a horrified and hysterical Monica looked on Alan was forced to walk through a hail of bullets while suffering massive coronary. He survived long enough to make it to General Hospital and hold one last conversation with Monica. The couple admitted their love for each other and finally as Alan’s last breath left him, the war between the quarrelling Quartermaine’s ended. He died waiting to talk to Jason to tell him that he loved him.

Skye falls for Lorenzo Alcazar and is stunned to find out she is pregnant. The romance is short lived though as his mob ties come between them. The baby, named Lila Rae almost brings them back together but after Lorenzo tries to keep the baby from her Skye arranges to get Jason into the house to murder Lorenzo. With no body the authorities try Jason for the death but fail as always. Jason’s one night stand with Elizabeth is exposed though and Elizabeth does eventually tell Jason that Jacob Martin is his baby. Alan’s ghost keeps appearing to Tracy, who is locked up in the sanitarium for awhile over it, until Edward needs her for something. Dillon and Georgie divorced after Lulu lies and connives to sleep with Dillon. Lulu ended up pregnant and decided to have an abortion which traumatizes Dillon into becoming very “Q” like. He goes away. Jason and Sam break up and Jason and Liz declare that they are in love. Emily gets herself blackmailed by the terrorist James Craig who had been drugging Nic. Craig forced Nic and Robin to pretend to be a couple but Emily never bought it.

As we go to press with this history Monica is secretly drinking away her pain after Emily is murdered. Skye has taken Lila Rae and left town. Jason and Liz are meeting in secret but publicly Lucky has agreed to pretend to be Jake’s daddy to protect him from the mob life. Sam is out for revenge on Jason and Liz. Emily’s murderer has killed Georgie and attacked Alexis. Edward hasn’t been seen onscreen for months.

The prospect for the Quartermaines to return to their former daytime glory is looming large with Monica’s newly seen closet drinking and a new heir for Edward to obsess over, should he ever find out that Liz Spencer’s son is a Quartermaine. Hopefully, there will be many more chapters to be added to this history in the future.

Together and individually the Quartermaines have defined more than one generation of viewers. I was pregnant with my oldest son at the same time Monica carried AJ. I had relatives fighting cancer at the same time she did. The Quartermaines had loved ones who fought addictions, threw their marriages away on cheap booze, man whores, and cheaper women and some how my waxy yellow build up and PTA meetings didn't seem like such a bore. That is the essence of a soap family and the Quartermaines are the epitome of the genre.