We’ve gotta hand it to General Hospital: It is managing to surprise us. Never in a million years did we imagine that we’d be so opposed to the reunion of Dante and Lulu, who were torn apart just before getting back together by the explosion at the Floating Rib that left her in a years-long coma. But yeah, no. Now a second chance for “Lante” is the last thing that we’d want.
Why? Simple. Despite being played by charmers Dominic Zamprogna and Alexa Havins, the characters have been transformed into patently unlikable people. Dante, once the level-headed yin to dad Sonny’s mercurial yang, seems to have made it his mission to antagonize Gio for, in essence, being a kid who did a dumb thing thinking it was the right thing. Dante is spending a whole lot more time going on and on about what a dangerous mistake Gio made than the dangerous mistake that Rocco made.
And Lulu… Where to begin? We were all in on Havins as a recast when the show turned Luke and Laura’s daughter into someone we don’t even recognize. Is she so lacking in empathy that she’d have no compassion whatsoever for what she is putting Brook Lynn through? Obviously, they’re not fans of one another. But is the new Lulu completely incapable of putting herself in someone else’s shoes? Through a byzantine set of circumstances, she herself has a kid with Valentin, for Pete’s sake! If that doesn’t give her some perspective, what would?
Plus, Lulu seems to have no regard for the impact that the big reveal will have on Gio. His whole life is going to be turned upside-down. But she’s all “The truth has to come out, it’s just gotta.” Does it, though? Shouldn’t she be at least a little bit torn? Maybe she assumes that down the line the dust will settle, and it will all prove to have been worth it. But we don’t see her doing that math. She’s laser-focused on what she thinks is right: The truth must be found out and revealed, and to hell with whom it hurts!
So at this point, the idea of Dante and Lulu — suddenly toxic characters — getting back together is pretty much the last thing we want. And we never in a million years expected to feel that way. We were rooting for those two crazy kids, at least after poor Sam was killed off. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the soap will continue to play Lulu with Cody, who’s taken two steps back since he was mystifyingly made girlfriend Sasha’s cousin. And maybe we’ll find out that somewhere out there Sam has a lookalike… Pam maybe?
