GH: Luke Has Left the Building

Monday, July 27, 2015 marked the last on air episode of Tony Geary as his longtime character of Luke Spencer. The actor who first appeared on "General Hospital" in 1978 has decided to retire from the show, so the character left Port Charles. Below are my thoughts on his goodbye.

His final episode was extremely underwhelming. It was mainly about characters that had nothing to do with Luke. The character has a daughter, grandson, nieces and nephews on canvas. I wish we could have seen a bit more about their lives on his last day. Luke interacted with his friend Sonny (Maurice Benard) at the pier as he was leaving town. His daughter Lulu (Emme Rylan) stopped by and they chatted. We also saw Lulu bring a letter to her mother Laura (Genie Francis) with the envelope saying "Angel". We didn't hear the contents. There were no flashback clips either on his last day.

Friday, July 24's episode was more of a tribute to the character. We saw him speak to his dead family members, and himself. He also had a few minutes with his sister Bobbie (Jackie Zeman). Luke came back to Port Charles to help his sister. This was the only flashback we got, and while appreciated I wanted more of it. Those scenes seemed more about Jackie and Tony as long time coworkers and friends then the characters. Due to the circumstances that was okay.

Earlier last week, Luke said goodbye to his on and off again wife Tracy (Jane Elliot). She felt that he needed to get well before they could be a couple. He has to integrate all sides of himself and the "new" person may not love her. I felt this was appropriate as Tracy was choosing herself. Due to Luke having some form of DID, though the show didn't express it in those terms, this was acceptable. Luke also had scenes with his great nephew Michael (Chad Duell). They really didn't have much interaction over the years, but Michael and Luke are related. The material with Ethan (Nathan Parsons) and Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) as well as Jake. What happened between Holly (Emma Samms) and Luke was quite minor and the history was incorrect. Holly knew about Lucky, when she got pregnant with Ethan, and Holly and Bill did have a relationship. This was rather frustrating though it was good to see them inhabit the same space. Having Holly, Luke and Laura be "strange bedfellows" could have been a fun story if told differently. There was really no need to recast Frank Smith and have him alive again to kill him off or see a recast Jennifer Smith try to seduce Luke. There are other things that Luke could have done in his last few weeks that would have satisfied me more as a viewer.

I wish Tony Geary well in Europe. If in the future, he wants to visit GH, I wouldn't be against it depending on the story. Luke isn't dead so having him pop up in Port Charles for a major event would be acceptable to me.