When it was first clear that Esme Prince had no memory of who she was and all the terrible things she did last year on General Hospital, it seemed like the perfect vehicle to redeem the character — if the story was done right.
Esme Prince Is Still A Menace
As Soap Hub pointed out months ago, Esme (Avery Kristen Pohl) was a redeemable character, but amnesia wasn’t the only thing needed to make her palatable. Her crimes were too serious to just be brushed aside as she drugged one girl, made a sex video of the other and blasted it onto the Internet, and then framed the drugged girl for the crime, among other things.
In fact, GH may not have even known it went too far with Esme when the writers had her do those horrific things, and that is probably why she has been walking around with amnesia for the last six months. The powers that be realized their mistake after the fact and rushed to fix it, but amnesia doesn’t fix everything.
Esme has not only not paid for her crimes, she has seemingly been rewarded for them. She has a baby, a job she didn’t earn, and a free luxury place to live. She seems to show zero remorse for what her former self did, and all she can do is shrug these crimes off, saying she isn’t that person anymore.
And, while Esme might not be drugging people, setting fires to cars, locking pregnant women in storage closets, and sleeping with her boyfriend’s father, she is still the same spoiled girl she always was — just with no memories. Well, it’s time for that to end.
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Amnesia Can’t Go On Forever
Unless you are Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), have a permanent brain injury, and forge another identity, amnesia is supposed to be a temporary soap trope. It’s used to move the story forward and show a character in a new light, but Esme is still in the old light. She may adore her baby and want to be a good mother, but that manipulative streak and entitled attitude are still there. While many have believed Esme has been faking her amnesia all along, we do not believe that is the case. What we do believe is this needs to end.
Since Esme hasn’t paid in any way whatsoever for what she’s done, amnesia as part of her redemption arc isn’t working. It’s time to either bring the old Esme back in full force so we can stop pretending lost memories redeem her or have her actually feel remorse when she remembers in full what she has done. Until then, the character is stalled, and Avery Kristen Pohl’s talents are wasted.
Let Esme have a reckoning and come to terms with her genealogy and actions. Then, she needs to face some actual consequences as the real Esme and not this nonchalant character who goes about life thinking her crimes were erased with her memories. They weren’t; although Esme doesn’t remember (as of now), the audience does. That will continue to be a problem unless this character’s amnesia ends and her reckoning begins.
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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