Soap Hub Performer of the Week For General Hospital: Nancy Lee Grahn

Alexis Davis needs to stop finding Byrne Brothers dead bodies — which means that Harmony Miller would have to stop killing Byrne Brothers — but at least she didn’t find this second one in her bed after a night of passion. No, this time Alexis just wanted to take the launch out to Wyndemere for the second time in one day to talk to Nikolas Cassadine and ended up seeing a body floating in the river. As Alexis’ shock and horror crept onto her unsuspecting face, we felt the same shock and horror. For that reason, and so many others during an exceptional few episodes, Nancy Lee Grahn is General Hospital’s Soap Hub Performer of the Week.

Nancy Lee Grahn: Performer of the Week

After so many months of Alexis being a ‘talk to’ in the rec room in her hotel-level jail, it’s a relief to see her involved with a hot story again, and a story that should have and could have been wrapped up two years ago. Still, better late than never and Grahn is certainly delivering. The shock on her face when she found Brendan’s (Josh Coxx) body was enough, but the stunned look Alexis gave Harmony (Inga Cadranel) when Harmony suggested she have a drink knowing she was an alcoholic was all of us.

The audience knew Harmony had been coming unglued for weeks, with Cadranel getting Performer of the Week honors from Soap Hub when her downward spiral hit full force, but that line at the Metro Court bar was Alexis’ tip-off that things with her new roomie might be reaching a whole other level and Grahn told us exactly what Alexis was thinking without saying a word. It was a combination of surprise at Harmony’s suggestion and longing because after finding a body, a drink sounded good, despite Alexis knowing how bad it really was.

Before Alexis even came across Brendan’s body doing the dead man’s float in the river, she shared a glorious scene with her once-brother/now-cousin Valentin Cassadine, proving Grahn’s easy and witty rapport with James Patrick Stuart is as fresh as ever. Seeing that relaxation around Valentin turned into the angst of finding a dead body, as soap characters often do, was a genius way to devolve Alexis’ day. Taking a hot mess Harmony home as Alexis’ bewilderment turned to slight fear was the cap on it.

Friday brought us the next day in Port Charles time with Harmony unspooling faster than thread and Grahn’s Alexis determined to find out why. However, Grahn easily showed us that Alexis is also a bit apprehensive because the realization that her taste in friends is as bad as her taste in men was apparent in every expression.

The full reality of the situation Alexis has gotten herself into with Harmony was apparent as Harmony ordered Alexis around and told her that she owes her. Grahn portrayed her character’s horror perfectly — from the dead man in the water to the hotter-mess-than-her that she invited into her home.

General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.