Forget Me Not: What Does GH’s Esme Prince Really Remember?

Since the year began when a pregnant Esme Prince appeared wet and freezing on The Haunted Star and woke up claiming she didn’t know who she was or how she got there, General Hospital fans have been debating one thing. Does she really not remember all that she did, or is Esme being Esme and completely faking everything? We have our theories about what has been going on.

Esme Prince Is A Semi Blank General Hospital Slate

During her year and a half of reining terror down on Port Charles, we knew one thing about Esme (Avery Kristen Pohl). Once she was alone, she would smirk, knowing she had pulled the wool over someone’s eyes. We got the opportunity to see Esme alone several times after she seemed to wake with amnesia, and she never smirked. In fact, she seemed genuinely confused about her new set of circumstances, telling us she really did wake with no memories, but does she still have no memories?

Some fans believe it all came back to Esme when she sat on the ground in labor with her sociopathic father Ryan (Jon Lindstrom) on Spoon Island just before giving birth. However, since Esme still doesn’t seem like she is back to her own self, we think she pretty much still has no real clue what her life was like before. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t like the way her life is now, even if some of her new life has been spent in Spring Ridge.

Does Esme Deep Down Want A Fresh Start?

It became clear that the old Esme is still in there somewhere when she instinctively named her baby Ace, the moniker she would call him when he was in utero and she was locked in a tower and only had her baby to talk to. However, we have also seen her alone with Ace telling him that she may not remember much, but she knows she loves him. Esme would have no reason to say that to an infant when they were alone together because it’s not like he is going to tattle on her.

Esme’s reactions to contact from Heather (Alley Mills) also make it clear she doesn’t fully remember her old life. All Esme wanted was to know her mother. If the old Esme didn’t care that Daddy was a serial killer, why would the old Esme care that Mommy is one too? That is the new Esme who is terrified — and it’s the old Esme lurking right below the surface who curiously picked up Heather’s note to see what she might want.

We also saw the old Esme when she immediately jumped down Trina’s (Tabyana Ali) throat, proclaiming Ace is her baby and Spencer wasn’t going to get his hands on him. However, we also saw honesty during that conversation when Esme nonchalantly told Trina she didn’t think her memories would ever return. Perhaps she doesn’t want them to return.

It seems clear Esme doesn’t want to be the person she was before she jumped off the parapet. As she started that Christmas tree fire, she was already telling Ace she would be a soccer mom for him. She wanted her baby, she wanted a new life, and she wanted to forget everything that led her to become a pregnant Rapunzel locked in a tower for months. That’s why her psyche refused to let her remember who she was when 2022 turned into 2023. A new year, a new Esme, and a new life.

Esme Prince Can’t Forget Forever

Except for Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), a character whose memory loss was explained by actual physical brain damage, and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison), his twin brother who had his memories erased in a science experiment, traumatic amnesia is not a permanent condition for soap characters so we know Esme’s memories will come flowing back sooner or later and our bets are on sooner.

Then, Esme being Esme, she will start faking her amnesia, so A-she doesn’t end up in jail, and B-gets to continue her brand-new life as Laura’s new favorite person, or so it seems. Hopefully, she then serves time for her one big crime and becomes the younger version of Ava (Maura West), a character not all good and not all bad. Then, she can forever be the older woman’s worst enemy and make her life a living hell — and vice versa. That’s the Esme we want to see, but we aren’t quite there yet.

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