General Hospital episodes see Portia Robinson (Brook Kerr) desperate to shut Drew Cain Quartermaine (Cameron Mathison) down and end his blackmail.
So, she’s digging into his medical records to find some dirt to use against him. Portia might hit the jackpot. She may dig up a secret so scary from Drew’s past, it could get him thrown out of office
Portia’s Desperate Measures: Blackmail and Medical Records in General Hospital
Now, Portia is really stressed because Drew is wreaking havoc on her life. And thanks to Brad Cooper (Parry Shen) telling Selina Wu (Lydia Look), who then told Drew, the congressman knows that Portia tampered with Heather Webber’s (Alley Mills) test results.
So, with the blackmail, Portia could lose her medical license. She could potentially go to prison. And she could lose her husband Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner).
Recently, Portia told Ava Jerome (Maura West) she’s looking at Drew’s medical files hoping to find something to use against him. But Ava cautioned against it on General Hospital.
Meanwhile, Drew Cain is getting so out of hand that Portia is desperate. And she’s hoping a solution to her problem is in those medical files. Belynda from Soap Dirt talks about it in the video above.
Drew’s Dark Past: Mind Control and Manchurian Candidate Parallels on General Hospital
Ever since they brought Jason Morgan’s (Steve Burton) twin onto GH, we’ve seen Drew suffer bizarre medical issues.
One of the ongoing issues he’s had, especially since they recast with Cameron Mathison, is the whole mind control thing. It was in two different phases.
But the latter one is more disturbing. It reminds me a lot of that old movie The Manchurian Candidate. I love old movies. The original was from 1962. Then, they remade it in 2004.
And it parallels this Drew plot on General Hospital in a lot of ways. So in the movie, if you’ve not seen it, it’s set in the Korean War.
There was an American soldier who was brainwashed by really bad people — enemy forces. They made him a sleeper soldier they could activate and use to assassinate a presidential candidate.
That was intended to help bad guys overthrow the US government. And the mind-controlled guy was activated by a playing card. I think it was the Queen of Hearts. Anyway, Drew’s past is eerily similar to this movie.
Helena Cassadine, Peter August, and Drew’s Programming History Unveiled on GH
Many General Hospital fans may recall Drew has been mind-controlled in two different ways. First, Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers) implanted a microchip into Drew’s brain that allowed her to control him.
That was back before he first came on the scene as Jake Doe (Billy Miller). And Helena wanted to use him as her personal assassin. She’s the one who sent him to Port Charles.
She initially wanted his twin brother Jason. But he had all this scarring in his brain from the car accident when AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan) was drunk driving back in the day.
So, Helena located his twin Andrew Cain. And she had them put the microchip in him. So, they did that with a physical device and layered this memory mapping thing onto him too.
But Drew later had brain surgery and they removed the microchip. So, that surgery should definitely be in his medical records at General Hospital.
Later, we found out a second layer of Drew’s psychological programming. Cesar Faison’s son, aka Henrik Faison, aka Peter August (Wes Ramsey), used Drew as a secret hitman.
That came out when they recast with Cameron Mathison as Drew. Instead of a playing card like in The Manchurian Candidate movie, it was a tarot card that activated Drew.
Peter kept Drew hostage for two years when everybody thought he died in a plane crash. So, Peter activated him to kill and kidnap people. And Drew didn’t remember any of it afterward.
The Lingering Threat: Is Congressman Drew Still a Mind-Controlled Assassin?
What’s interesting is after Jason sacrificed himself to save Drew, there’s no record of him ever being deprogrammed from this second layer of brainwashing.
As a matter of fact, when he came back to Port Charles after Jason saved him, Drew was worried he could still be activated. On General Hospital, somebody just needed the right tarot card and activation word.
In fact, Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy) tried to activate Drew’s mind control. But they tricked him. He had the wrong tarot card, so it didn’t work. Peter never told him the info.
But Portia’s digging into Drew’s medical records. So, she may bring some of this into the light. The second programming likely wouldn’t be in there.
But the microchip brain surgery should be in his file. Plus, Curtis knows about the second layer because Drew told him about it when he came back from the dead.
Drew told Curtis about all of it. That included the memory mapping, and what Peter and Victor did. So, if Portia mentions the microchip to Curtis, he might tell her about the other programming.
Since he was never deprogrammed on General Hospital, Drew is technically still an active assassin. He’s just waiting to be activated and used for bad deeds.
And that’s not something you want in a US congressman, right
