Chapter Seven: The AJ & Jason Rivalry
It is perhaps the most natural rivalry to be born and bred on daytime television. The natural born heir of a rich family and the second born child who was born of an illicit affair outside of the marriage and raised by his illegitimate father's wife; it oozes with soapy goodness. The tantalizing twist that General Hospital delivered to the age old tale was to make the illegitimate son of the family the favorite and face him off against the "rightful heir" in a totally modern retelling of that Victorian Morality play.
After Paige’s death, AJ and Jason both rallied to help make their adopted sister feel loved and welcome even as they were at odds over AJ’s interest in Jason’s girl friend Keisha Ward. Monica was jealous that Emily seemed closer to Alan than to her but was pleased that Emily felt comfortable. Monica threw herself in to creating a wellness group at General Hospital but held Alan at arm’s length. Meantime Bobbie began to think of Alan as more than a friend.
Jason was jealous of his new lover Keisha when she went to work for his brother AJ at The Charles Street Foundation. Ned worked hard to win Lois back by trying to win over her large Italian, middle class family. The Quartermaines planned a lavish wedding for Ned and Emily dared to get excited about being in the wedding. Simone tried to divorce Tom for Justus but wound up falling back in love with Tom. Justus was uncomfortably angry at her. Edward tried to force Ned to concentrate on ELQ by stealing L&B Records from him. Lois brought in jasper jacks to help them keep their company. When Ned finally did return to his CEO position at ELQ Lois knew she would never be the kind of people the Quartermaines were and took their infant daughter Brook Lynn away, divorcing Ned.
Monica struggled to get more than her strength back. She had no libido either until she began a flirtation with Dr. Pierce Dorman. The subsequent affair with the young doctor was just what the doctor ordered and seemed to help Monica get back to some semblance of normalcy. Dorman sued when Monica stopped the affair, wanting to put her marriage back together and hired Alexis Davis to defend her. Ned and Alexis became close and she helped him through his divorce from Lois. It was always rocky from the start. First Ned accused Alexis of working to steal ELQ Jakara but he found out that wasn’t true and they tried again. They pretended to be broken up so that she could get the job as General Counsel for ELQ then almost were finished off when Alexis let Helena bully her into defending Tony Jones on his charge of kidnapping Alan & Monica’s grandson Michael and Robin Scorpio.
Ned and Jax became friends after Brenda Barrett’s supposed death in a car accident. Alexis backed Ned’s decision not to return to being Eddie Maine but he was hurt when she wouldn’t allow him to help her take over Cassidine Industries. When Alexis finally agreed to stop trying to gain her share of the Cassidine fortune and inspired by Lila and Edwards old love letters he confessed he loved her and finally washed his hands of ELQ when Edward gave the company to AJ and then tried to force Ned to fight to win it back. There began a lighthearted quadrangle that saw Jax married to Alexis and Ned married to distant cousin Chloe Morgan while Chloe tried to keep an inheritance that her greedy aunt Gert desperately wanted. Chloe lost the money and they divorced their fake loves for their real ones.
Jason had been in the car with AJ while AJ was driving drunk and they wrecked. Jason suffered irreparable brain damage and had no memory of his life or his parents! Alan, Monica. Edward and Lila were crushed by Jason’s inability to remember them or anything about his life but were even more unsettled when Jason spurned any contact with them. He didn’t want to know them and their feelings for him were confusing. Subsequently, he formed an attachment to Sonny Corinthos who had no emotional attachment to him and was not upset that he had no memories. Jason didn’t have any memories. Lois brought Brook Lynn back to town to “meet” her daddy in early 1997. Ned is forced to testify at Monica and Dorman’s trial and admits to his and Monica’s affair just as Lois walks into the court room. Edward and Lila are beside themselves with joy at meeting Brook Lynn. Brenda, Jax, Lois, Brook Lynn and Ned grow closer. Lois talks to Emily about her choice of friends when Lois meets Emily’s drug dealing “friend” Matt, but Emily is a stranger in a strange land and eating drugs like candy. Justus encourages Lois to give Ned another chance. Ned tries to blackmail Justus into taking over ELQ so he can go live with Lois, who has had enough of the Quartermaine family.
Robin and Jason begin to get closer as Jason turns his back on the Quartermaines. Robin encourages Jason to take care of the Quartermaines because they were his family. He doesn’t understand why he should. AJ and Jason both try to help Monica out of her problem with Dorman. AJ tries to give him a suitcase full of cash and Jason searches Dorman’s apartment for evidence to help his estranged mother. Alexis and Ned are bonding as the “gatekeepers” of their respective, dysfunctional families; Emily over doses on heroin, AJ has a relationship with Keisha after Jason breaks off with them all but AJ’s drinking breaks Keisha and AJ up. AJ chose the booze over the babe. Carly sleeps with AJ at Jakes after going there hoping to hook up with Jason again, then immediately begins to panic that AJ will tell some one and it will ruin things for her with Tony. Carly finds out that AJ has no memory of their one night stand but does not trust that he will not remember. AJ is forbidden to see Emily because he isn’t in much better shape than she is and this prompts him to join Lee Baldwin at an AA meeting immediately. Tony got AJ a job as the manager of a gym and an apartment in his building.
When Monica snapped and kidnapped Pierce, holding him in a sleazy motel on the edge of town she intended to force him to admit on tape that he was selling drugs to children, but he would not and she found herself holding a hostage and not knowing what to do with him. Jason came to her rescue and used his mob affiliation to make charges against her go away.
Tony questions AJ about seeing Carly at an attorneys office and AJ replies that she was there, which confirms for Tony that Carly had stolen and sent papers important to Tony’s custody battle over Lucas to Bobbie. When Carly confesses to Tony he leaves her. Emily runs interference with the Quartermaines on AJ’s behalf saying they can’t give her another chance after her addiction if they won’t give AJ a chance as well.
Monica began to try to get close to Alan again but Alan was the one who was out of touch. He had become addicted to pain killers. The family tried to help Alan but his addiction had reached junkie status and they could not reach him. Monica took over as Chief of Staff and kicked Alan out of the house.
AJ and Carly spill their guts to each other about their fears and childhoods and growing up feeling unloved while locked in a closet and AJ tells Carly that he never wants Tony and her baby to go through what he and his father have because of a question of paternity. They seem to form a bond of friendship. However Carly is being blackmailed by the nurse at Mercy Hospital and can’t put a halt to the lies catapulting toward disaster. Pizza delivery men dressed as pilgrims rob the mansion on Thanksgiving and are upset to find the wealthy family all together only has $67.00 on them. They are overheard saying that they “can not” leave without more to show for this robbery and the family bizarrely tries to help them by giving them valuable items that they want to get rid of anyway. In a hilarious quasi-traditional holiday episode Jason frightens off the thieves by arriving with a turkey. Jason saves Nicholas Cassidine’s life with an emergency tracheotomy Jason is in the hot seat because Sonny has left the business and left town. Terrified that AJ will remember their one night stand Carly lashes out and sets him up to look like he has fallen off the wagon. Carly asks Jason to let her tell everyone it is his baby and he says ok if you’ll leave me alone.
Even in the depths of his addiction, Alan stepped in and saved Mac Scorpio’s life. That seemed to be a turning point for Alan, who was finally able to get professional help and kick his addiction.
Robin finds out that AJ is Michael’s father and tells him. Jason blamed the Q’s for Carly’s freaking out and having a breakdown and shooting Tony in open court. AJ tries to seduce Carly, at first. He wants her to marry him and be a real family with Michael. Sonny comes out of retirement and walks into a seat on ELQ board.
Alan and Monica were thrilled to find out that AJ was Michael’s biological father and although they mistrusted Carly, tried to welcome her in to the family when she married AJ even though she betrayed Jason and framed him for kidnapping Michael. During this crisis, Monica and Alan solidified their relationship and seemed to be more in love than ever and were thrilled when Monica suspected she was pregnant. They thought they might have another chance to be the kind of parents they had always wanted to be, having been too self-centered to be the first time around. They dreamed of being parents to another child like they were for Emily. The couple regretted how they had parented their sons.
As the second generation of Quartermaines begins to squirm over the next generation we get to the point where the show begins to veer away from the hospital more consistently and focus in on Sonny Corinthos and Jason Quartermaine-Morgan.
