We totally get General Hospital writing in how medical complications from the hip replacement that Heather Webber, played by Daytime Emmy-winner Alley Mills, underwent led to her mental imbalance. This isn’t the first time someone’s criminal record is, in part, explained away by a medical issue. Remember Franco’s brain tumor? But just how much did Heather’s surgery change her?
Mental Therapy
In 1978, Mary O’Brien was playing the role of Heather. The character had had second thoughts about giving her son, Steven Lars, up for adoption. Upon learning that her baby boy was adopted by Peter (Craig Huebing) and Diana Taylor (Brooke Bundy), the manipulative Heather set out to get her baby back, hoping to secure her marriage to Dr. Jeff Webber.
Laura (Genie Francis) was technically related to Heather back then — her adoptive father Rick’s (Chris Robinson) brother Jeff (Richard Dean Anderson; more recently, William Moses, ex-Cole, Falcon Crest.) was married to Heather. However, despite this familial connection, the two women didn’t interact all that much. Heather was occupied with her machinations and lies; Laura was busy dodging attacks from Bobbie (Jacklyn Zeman) as the two women were both in love with Scotty (Kin Shriner).
Heather wasn’t just up to mischief. She broke the law on several occasions. She enlisted her ex-husband Larry Joe (Hunter von Leer) to stalk Annie Logan (Susan Pratt) and kept secret that Steven Lars’s (Scott Reeves) was living as P.J. (AKA Peter Taylor, Jr.). In an attempt to get rid of Diana after poor Peter’s heart attack and untimely death, Heather laced Diana’s iced tea with LSD. Toddler Steven Lars spun the drugged iced tea around on a carousel so that Heather — not Diana — ended up drinking the potentially lethal toxin, sending her to a sanitarium.
Heather didn’t know what effect the LSD would have on Diana so that made what she did attempted murder. Years later, Heather snuck out of the sanitarium and confronted Diana. The next thing we knew, Heather was writing in “Anne” with dead Diana’s blood on her apartment floor. Sure, it turned out that Heather didn’t technically kill Diana — her mother Alice Grant (Lieux Dressler) did when the women were struggling over the gun, and it went off.
But there’s no denying that if Heather hadn’t gone to Diana’s that night, she might still be alive today. Heather’s hip surgery can’t be blamed on these actions. (Ironically, Mills stepped in for Mattson in the role after Mattson had undergone a real-life hip surgery.) If she’d never tried to drug Diana (who knows if Diana even would have survived the LSD drugging?), Heather never would have ingested the drug herself.
Heather’s other crimes included impersonating a medical professional (Nurse Shelley Vernon) and breaking out of Pine Circle Sanitarium. While that’s not committing murder, it’s a bit more than mischief.
Lawwoman Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) recently admitted she’s given mobster Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) a break because he was there for her daughter Robin (Kimberly McCullough) when she couldn’t be. So we appreciate General Hospital writers delving into characters’ psyches to explain certain behaviors and we’re all for more Mills on our screens. But even if Heather killing Oz Haggerty (Max Faugno), Dr. Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud), and PC Police Officer Rory Cabrera (Michael Blake Kruse) was caused by cobalt poisoning, she is still responsible for the crimes and misdemeanors she committed from before she went under the knife.
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