Fifty-Two Years

     The truth about Luke is finally out and it took a trip in the Port Chuckles Wayback Machine to 1963.  April 1, 1963 to be exact.   Young Patricia was a rebellious teen who wasn't wearing no stinkin' dress.   Young Luke, around age 15, had just struck out to lose a baseball game.   Young Bobbie, age 10, was an adorable redhead playing April Fool's jokes.   Laura Wright played mom Lena Eckert Spencer and Tony Geary himself played Luke's abusive alcoholic father Tim.   In the hospital scenes, we were treated to Jason Thompson as Dr. Steve Hardy, Ryan Carnes as Dr. Phil Brewer and Rebecca Herbst as Nurse Jessie Brewer, a nod to the original 1963 cast and the very first broadcast 52 years ago today. 

       When Luke escaped Oak Hill yesterday, he made his way back to The Chuckles and the abandoned house I thought had been obliterated by the bomb in the basement.   Meanwhile, Patricia tells the story of what happened on the night of 4/1/63:  The Spencer clan was getting ready for dinner.  Lena was aghast at Patricia wearing pants instead of a dress (Around the house!  How the world has changed...).   Luke was bemoaning swinging at some bad pitches to strike out and lose the game for his baseball team.  Bobbie was being a cute kid.  Tim was swilling booze and spewing venom at his family.  Patricia was giving it right back to her father, who insulted his wife's cooking and his son's baseball skills.  Lena, who lived in an age where women were expected to be submissive and defer to their husbands, apologized for overcooking the meat and Patricia wasn't having any of it, standing up for her mother and brother.

         Dinner was never finished, left to get cold on the table while Patricia continued to get her words in with Daddy Tim, to the point that Tim slapped his daughter good and hard.  Lena sent Patricia away and confronted Tim herself.  Tim threatened to hit Lena and Luke, baseball bat in hand, got in-between his parents.  The next thing we see is Lena on the floor, bleeding from a blow to the side of her head.  She came to and Patricia told her she needed to go to the hospital and agreed to drive her there in Tim's car, over Tim's drunken objections.

         While at the hospital, the very first scene of GH was re-enacted by Jason Thompson, Ryan Carnes and Rebecca Herbst as Steve Hardy, Phil Brewer and Jessie Brewer.   Patricia approached Dr. Brewer to help her with her mom Lena, who insisted her injury came from a fall.  Patricia tried to tell the doctor that it was her father who hit Lena and Dr. Hardy seemed to suspect the same, given town gossip about Tim Spencer, abusive drunkard.   Lena passed out and was taken to an emergency room cubicle as Patricia was left to wait and worry.   Dr. Hardy delivered the tragic news to Patricia that Lena Spencer had died in the ER cubicle as a result of brain swelling brought on by her injury.   Lena's family, the Eckerts, were called and a teenage Bill Eckert, played by the same young actor who played Luke, came to the hospital, meeting Patricia for the first time.   Because of Tim's alcoholism and abusiveness, the Eckerts and the Spencers had become estranged.  

         At home, the phone rang and Tim answered.   He told Luke that Lena had passed away and Luke accused his father of lying.   When it finally sunk in that his mother had died, he accused his father of killing her.   Luke took a baseball bat and the next thing we saw was Tim Spencer dead under the family dinner table.   In the present day, Luke believes that he killed his father.   Back at Oak Hill, Bobbie answers a call from Lucas about a break-in at the abandoned Elm Street house.  Bobbie immediately realizes that it was Luke who broke in and tells Patricia, Lulu, and Tracy.   Patricia insists on coming along to help Luke and is helped into her wheelchair.  

         When Patricia, Bobbie and Tracy arrive at the house, they find Luke, who is still confused about what happened that night and not quite sure whether or not he killed his father.  Patricia fills him in on the rest of the story, including the part about her and Bill Eckert returning to the house to find Tim dead and a traumatized Luke with tears in his eyes.   Patricia and Bill take Tim's body down to the basement.  Luke is skeptical, insisting that he met Bill decades later when he came to Port Charles.  Patricia gently corrects him and tells him that Bill was there that night.  Luke remembers that Bill might have said something to him as he was dying of a bullet meant for Luke.   He can't remember what exactly Bill said, but at the gentle encouragement of his family, he remembers that Bill said that he needs to forgive himself for what he did to his mother.   It is then he realizes, with the help of Patricia, that he, not his father, was the one who killed his mother.   When he stepping in between his parents during their argument, he had a baseball bat in his hand, ready to defend his mother against his father when he spun around to tell his mother to stop cowering to his father and his bat struck Lena in the head.   A horrified Luke breaks down into tears, realizing that he killed his mother, and he remembers his father tormenting him about what happened and saying that one day, he will wake up and see his father's face in the mirror and realize he is exactly like his father.   Tracy, Bobbie and Patricia comfort Luke as he faces his long-repressed memory of accidentally killing his mother and then killing his father in the heat of an argument.   It was a beautifully acted scene by Dee Wallace, Jackie Zeman, Jane Elliot, and Tony Geary and it was the first time in a long time that GH made me cry. 

          What's next for Luke as he deals with this horrible memory?   How do Tracy, Bobbie, Patricia, and the rest of the Spencers help him through this and keep the Fluke personality which, from today's episode bears a strong resemblance to Tim Spencer, at bay?   Kudos to all the actors who took part in this episode who brought 1963 Port Chuckles to life.   Happy 52nd, General Hospital!  

          The blog will return to its regular format tomorrow.