Mayor Laura Collins is perhaps one of the most enduring and beloved heroines in General Hospital and soap opera history. But, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made some pretty questionable moves and choices throughout her life. Her current choice to champion Esme Prince above everyone else in her life is puzzling at best.
Laura Has A Forgiving Heart, But…
Clearly, few soap characters believe in redemption more than Laura (Genie Francis). After all, she was married to a man who raped her for 20 years and raised a family with him. Yes, the rape was rewritten as a ‘seduction’ for a good 18 years until the show finally acknowledged the incident for what it was. More recently, she forgave Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) for killing her son, but many of us forgave him because Nikolas is really alive and Valentin can be so charming.
Laura is even in the process of trying to believe her criminal brother Cyrus (Jeff Kober) has changed thanks to finding some strange sense of religion, but she’s still on the fence as to whether he is really reformed and deserves her forgiveness.
Still, even with Laura’s forgiving heart, her near-obsession with Esme (Avery Kristen Pohl) and making sure she lives this little charmed life is beyond exasperating.
Why Can’t Laura See Through Esme?
It took years for Laura to forge any kind of tepid friendship with Valentin and understandably so after their first meeting nearly eight years ago in which he also shot her then-boyfriend/now-husband, Kevin. And as mentioned, Laura is still not sure what to think of Cyrus. But Esme? She gets the royal treatment without a thought.
When an Esme full of memories lived with Laura after first arriving in town, Laura was able to see through her immediately. She tried to be kind to her through gritted teeth but pretty much gave up on her after taking her to lunch and seeing how shallow she really was.
But apparently, all you need is no memories and you become Laura’s favorite person. It made a little bit of sense when Laura tried to be nice to Esme when she first woke with amnesia surprised to see she was pregnant, but at this point her kindness seems to borderline on obsession.
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Laura’s Eyes Are Wide Shut
Being kind to a girl because she is carrying your grandchild and has no memories is one thing, but a year later to constantly call Esme “Sweetheart” when she’s never done anything particularly sweet except bond with her own baby is a bit much.
When Laura fought for Esme’s freedom after the girl broke into Wyndemere before ever paying for the crimes she forgot for a year, this kindness pretty much jumped the shark. As Ava (Maura West) said, even with no memories, Esme is still the same girl who drugged a young college student and recorded Laura’s grandson losing his virginity so she could blast it out onto the internet and frame the girl she drugged.
Heck, not even Spencer (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) got this much support when he went on a petty crime spree courtesy of Esme’s influence. Laura insisted he take accountability for his actions and didn’t fight for his freedom at all.
It doesn’t look like it will be long before Laura learns that Esme has all her memories back and is now faking amnesia, so can Laura get her own mini-redemption arc by turning the tables on two serial killers’ spawn? Perhaps not if a memory-filled Esme is crying for the baby Spencer just gave away. Uh-oh…
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