General Hospital Is Doing *What* Exactly With Laura — and ‘the Worst Is Yet to Come’

General Hospital is walking a fine, fine line with Laura. On one hand, she is technically right that Heather’s case deserves to be retried in light of the fact that she was unwittingly suffering from cobalt poisoning when she went on her murder spree. But on the other, this is Heather that we’re talking about. She’s been a dangerous menace to society since the 1970s — and that had to be well before she had a hip replacement!

To the show’s credit, Laura is being written as conflicted over her advocacy for Heather. Genie Francis’ iconic alter ego was even recently allowed to acknowledge that “Heather does invoke a lot of fear and rage in people, rightly so.” Yet the very notion of the mayor of Port Charles leading the charge to free the woman who “hooked” Brando, Britt, Rory and more is a “WTH are you doing?” moment if ever there was one.

As a longtime resident of Port Charles, Laura would know that Heather’s life of crime predates any operation that she might have undergone. Laura would remember Heather dosing Diana with LSD, murdering Ross, drugging Edward, etc., etc. She would know better than to think that, if it weren’t for the metallosis, Heather would be a nice, normal contributing member of society. So maybe the mayor should be breathing a sigh of relief that the troublemaker is in custody and not walking the streets. Heather is even making it easy for Laura to give up her crusade by saying that she doesn’t want to be released.

This storyline also begs the question, were Heather to be sprung, what would General Hospital do with her? She has no family on the canvas. (R.I.P., Franco and Esme.) She’s in an age group that is rarely given a romance. (Right, Scotty?) Is the plan to de-fang her like Bold & Beautiful has its homicidal maniac, Sheila?

Our best guess is that Portia wasn’t just sharing her worries recently, she was offering up a bit of foreshadowing. “I know that you think I’m being paranoid,” she told Curtis, “but I think maybe the lesson over the past few years is that I haven’t been paranoid enough… I didn’t listen to that scared inside voice. I tried to quiet it, and what happened? Trina almost died in France. Spencer did die.

“And that’s why I’m trying to sound the alarm over Laura trying to reopen Heather Webber’s case,” she continued. “I just fear that the worst… Curtis, I know it. The worst is yet to come.”

If Portia is right, the plot fails on two levels: 1. It makes Laura look dumb, which she isn’t. And 2. Heather’s regression would send the dispiriting message that the mentally ill can’t get better. (Plus, it’s a little soon, isn’t it, for yet another murderous rampage.) So we’re not sure what the show is going for here.