It’s hard to argue that General Hospital’s Nina Reeves didn’t make the greatest life choices when she decided to keep news of Sonny Corinthos being alive from his family back in Port Charles but that doesn’t mean that this character didn’t have compelling reasons for doing what she did. In fact, it could be seen as a compassionate choice.
What many (especially Carly Corinthos herself) refuse to acknowledge is this goes back to an incredibly selfish choice made by Carly (Laura Wright) months and months ago when she and Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) decided to play God with Nina’s (Cynthia Watros) life and hide the fact that Nelle Benson (Chloe Lanier) was the daughter taken from her all those years ago.
That set off a chain of events in which Carly was essentially stealing from Nina the opportunity (if she’d had her way — forever!) to at least get to know her grandson, Wiley. Carly has conveniently forgotten she was prepared to do that to Nina — so what Nina did didn’t happen in a vacuum. She had every right to want revenge for that (never mind she wasn’t quite sure that Carly was telling the truth about Nelle’s cause of death either).
Instead, Nina was prepared to tell Carly that her husband was still alive except Carly was her usual wretched self (and her own worst enemy, of course) and ripped into Nina, not letting her get a word in edgewise. Who could blame Nina for hanging up instead of telling Carly the truth? Sure, she should have simmered down and tried again but something happened — she realized Sonny (Maurice Benard) was happy as Mike.
To Nina’s mind, people weren’t in as much danger now that the head of the mob wasn’t there. In his new life, he was being a good guy (despite what some General Hospital fans think, a mobster shouldn’t be considered a good guy), helping her friend Phyllis Caulfield (Joyce Guy) and her husband, Lenny Caulfield (Rif Hutton). He was lighter, enjoying life. Sure, she knew it wasn’t real but she did ask him if he wanted to find out about his past life — he said no.
Sonny needs to take some responsibility for what happened. He didn’t lift a finger to find out about the life he left behind. He wanted to move forward with Nina. To her credit, she refused to take things further (having sex), until he did find out. And, deep down Sonny knows all of this and it’s probably why he’s been protecting her from Carly’s wrath.
Even deeper down, General Hospital reveals Sonny is moved by the fact that Nina saw the good in him and that’s who she fell in love with — not the powerful man that most of the other women who have fallen for him saw. Sonny has questioned whether or not to leave the mob in the past. This push/pull between his legal/illegal desires isn’t new but examining it this way is — and it’s been fascinating to watch.
The two women in his life reflect this dichotomy. Now that Sonny knows Carly was ready to make a life with BFF Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), that has to have his mind reeling. This could be a fascinating triangle or even a quadrangle. Here’s hoping GH will pursue that and keep showing us Nina as an equal part of this complicated story.
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.
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