Once upon a time, General Hospital’s Willow Tait was a feisty schoolteacher who’d managed to escape a cult leader, as well as a mother who pimped her out to the cult leader. She’d created an independent life for herself away from her toxic upbringing, fell in love with a man who respected her and didn’t try to control her and was what a true soap heroine should be. Then, she married Michael.
Willow Transforms Under Michael’s Influence
When Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) first married Michael (Chad Duell), it was so he could obtain custody of his son Wiley and get the baby’s sociopathic mother out of his life. Willow spent more than a year believing Wiley was the baby she gave up for adoption, so she’d forged a bond with the little boy and wanted to keep him safe.
With Michael married, they both thought he had a better chance at winning in court and they were right. Their marriage of convenience coupled with Nina’s (Cynthia Watros) testimony against Nelle helped them gain custody but, as expected, they fell for one another. They didn’t admit this until after the marriage was over and Willow tried to reunite with Chase (Josh Swickard). Willow even spent a brief time married to a paralyzed Chase while sleeping with Michael on the side.
Being with Michael seemed to make Willow a less independent woman, as well as one who loved the finer things. Her entire existence seemed to be to please him and her identity felt like it was wrapped up in him. Every time she’d show a bit of rebellion, Michael would patronize her, tell her why she was wrong, and she’d agree.
The only time Willow did anything without Michael’s approval was when she made the foolish move to delay cancer treatment after finding out she was pregnant. That might have been the only time she should have consulted Michael and taken his advice. Instead, she ended up on death’s door and is only alive today through the miracle of Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) and bone marrow — as well as finding her biological mother.
Willow Bounces Back While In The Dark
Willow’s near-death experience thanks to ignoring her cancer for months at least seemed to give her back a bit of her backbone, as well as a new lease on life with a determination to do better. She went back to work as a nurse on her terms despite Michael wanting her to be a stay-at-home mom. She rightfully chastised him when she learned he spent a year trying to put his own father behind bars. And, she finally decided to embrace Nina being her mother despite a previously tumultuous relationship with her.
However, she had no idea that both her newfound mother and her husband were keeping more secrets from her. At this point, Willow should be sick of everyone doing things behind her back under the guise of Willow being a delicate flower who can’t handle reality.
But, so far, when learning that both Michael and Carly (Laura Wright) have hidden things from her, she’s let it go. She quickly got over Michael planting Dex (Evan Hofer) in Sonny’s organization to bring his dad down, but nothing could match the speed at which she forgave Carly for not telling her that Nina was her bio mom until she learned Willow needed bone marrow.
Willow Needs To Take Back Control
When Michael hid the truth about Dex from Willow, it was because he didn’t think she needed to know. When Carly hid the truth about Nina from Willow, she claimed she did it to protect her from the lady who was mean to her when she was a third-grade teacher. Yes, Willow said she didn’t want to know who her bio mom was, but she changed her mind. Carly didn’t care and paid someone to tell Willow her real mother was dead. Still, Willow forgave her that indiscretion.
While it is true that Willow asked Nina to stop the tit-for-tat with Carly and Nina agreed, that was already after Nina had Marty (Michael E. Knight) make the SEC call. Nina tried to stop Marty, but it was too late. Since impulsive Nina can be her own worst enemy, she made a major mess of things as she tried to keep her informant role a secret. However, it’s really no better than what Carly did in trying to keep the truth about Nina’s children a secret.
Now, she is about to learn that when Michael discovered that Nina was the SEC informant, he chose to emotionally blackmail Nina rather than just telling the truth. Michael decided he needed to control whether Willow forged a relationship with Nina or not and warned Nina she could only see Willow on his say-so.
Can Willow Show Grace To Her Mother?
Willow has already shown she has an enormous capacity to forgive. She forgave the woman who lied to her about her parentage her entire life while pretending to be her parent and offering her up to be raped by a cult leader. She forgave Michael for hiding the truth about Dex, and she forgave Carly for hiding the truth about Nina. In short, she forgives people trying to control her life behind her back.
Maybe she should stop doing that. and break free of all this control — and listen to the one person who has NOT tried to control her. Nobody can deny that Willow and Nina were adversaries who had even called a truce by 2020 but one thing Nina never did was try to control Willow’s life.
If Willow can forgive all these people who did something to her directly and tried to play God with her very existence, can she forgive the woman she was stolen from while that woman lay in a coma for 20 years? Can Willow forgive someone who spent the last 10 years searching for the child (not knowing it was two children) she was pregnant with when her grandmother put Nina in that coma and kidnapped her babies?
And, can she finally tell Michael she can live her life on her terms away from his misogynistic faux protection? Now that she knows how manipulative he is, that would be the full circle Willow Tait needs to return to her former feisty self.
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