On Thursday, April 28, General Hospital staged an intervention for the character of Luke Spencer (Tony Geary). The character had hit rock bottom due to his alcohol use. During the 3 PM eastern broadcast of the program, there was a pre-emption for a Presidential speech, so I watched the episode in full on the same day SoapNet airing.
Luke was drugged to get to the intervention, which is really something that shouldn’t be done. They were assembled in one of Sonny’s warehouses with an interventionist. Luke was surrounded by Lulu, Lucky, Ethan, Tracy, Sonny, Carly and Nikolas. They each had to tell Luke what they meant to him and why they felt the drinking was out of control.
The show used older scenes during this process. Lulu spoke about how Luke was there for her when she had an abortion. Ethan’s flashback scenes had to do with the drunken wedding in Las Vegas, which if anything shows that Luke does have a problem. There are other episodes they could have shown with Ethan and Luke interacting like when they were at the PCPD after Ethan was accused of hurting Sonny’s daughter Kristina. Nikolas talked about Luke being there for him after he was shot. Considering the thorny history between Luke and Nikolas, I was amazed he was there. Of course, he could have been used to talk about Laura (Luke’s former wife and Nik’s mom, but that may have muddied the waters.
Sonny spoke about the love he saw between Luke and Lucky and it included a clip of a camping trip he took with them. He wanted to have kids and the kind of relationship Luke and Lucky had. Carly spoke of her uncle too. It is too bad, that in her time she didn’t mention Luke’s sister Bobbie as their father had been an abusive alcoholic.
Tracy talked about loving Luke and how their relationship started with drinking. She only knew he really loved her when they were held hostage and he was sober. That’s why it was so important that when they legally wed it happened when he was dry. Luke fought back to her remarks how when he married her that she wanted him to change and he wouldn’t want to do the same to her.
Lucky really laid into his father as he is also an addict. He sees Luke as his hero and if anything he needs his father more than anything. Yes, Luke ran down Jake who Lucky was raising, but that doesn’t change the love. Lucky wants his father, the guy who has been there for him even if at times they fought. The truth though to Luke sees Lucky as a much better man that he was. Even when Lucky was younger, he wanted to be like his son.
The episode ended with everyone coming together to keep Luke out of their life. No more children, no more free food, drinks, or a place to stay. He would be on his own, which was fine by Luke. Of course, the others were scared by his proclamation, but need to stand firm. This is tough love, and I will be curious to see who cracks first Luke or one of the people at the intervention.
General Hospital gave its actors an opportunity to shine with this episode. It wasn’t about special effects, but the relationships between each of the characters and Luke. They used some character history to bring this story to life. Hopefully, the character of Luke will have a breakthrough and no longer be a shadow of what he once was. Luke’s drinking is part of who he is, but it isn’t the only thing. And this episode served to remind the audience of this fact.
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