Is Luke Spencer Really and Truly Gone Forever on General Hospital?

General Hospital promised to bring big drama this year and the show wasted no time in delivering on that statement. Tracy Quartermaine showed up on Laura and Kevin Collins’s home in the first new episode of 2022 with some tragic news. “It’s Luke,” Tracy said. “He’s…he’s gone.”

What Does This Mean For General Hospital?

In the teaser for the following day’s episode, Bobbie Spencer (Jacklyn Zeman), Luke’s sister, is seen asking Laura (Genie Francis) if something terrible has happened. The look on Laura’s face indicates something surely has. There’s a lot to unpack with this information so let’s start with what most people are surmising – that Lucas (Luke) Lorenzo Spencer, played on and off since 1978 by eight-time Daytime Emmy winner Anthony Geary, has been killed off.

GH was careful to have Tracy say “gone” and not “dead” so that viewers will want to tune in to find out exactly what she means. Fans are going to want to know how and when Luke met his maker! It was clear in Elliot’s delivery that Tracy wasn’t saying Luke had gone out for a loaf of bread and never returned. Laura’s reaction indicated that Tracy was pretty much saying Luke was no longer among the living.

Soap Opera Dead Or ‘Dead’ Dead

However, as soap opera fans know, even when someone dies onscreen (let alone off), it doesn’t mean that they’re gone for good. General Hospital is no stranger to bringing folks back from the dead whether or not a character’s been considered gone for a few days, a few years, or is first introduced as someone who is believed to be dead but actually isn’t.

Examples from the last year or so alone include: Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), who was thought dead after falling off a bridge during a battle with Julian Jerome (William deVry), and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) was thought to have died in a plane crash but was being kept prisoner by Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy) and Peter August (Wes Ramsey).

Speaking of Peter, he pulled the Lazarus bit himself after falling down some stairs at General Hospital. Liz Webber Baldwin (Rebecca Herbst) and Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton) thought for sure he was “really most sincerely dead,” however, Peter lived to menace another day.

Oh, and Victor, too, was presumed dead in an explosion from years ago. And, yep, he’s alive! Additionally, Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) was telling Portia Robinson (Brook Kerr) about his late father who just disappeared one day and was dead. Who showed up almost immediately thereafter? Yep, Marshall Ashford (Robert Gossett), much to Curtis’s surprise, is not dead at all!

Many Die, Few Are Buried

GH isn’t the only soap that brings characters back from the dead but the show certainly has employed this device quite a bit. Who’s to say that Luke – if he is dead – is really gone? Veteran GH viewers recall that Luke more or less faked his death on at least one other occasion.

In 1983, he’d gone hiking and was presumed dead in an avalanche. Temporarily paralyzed, Luke didn’t come home until he regained the ability to walk. And boy, was he surprised to find out that his girlfriend Holly Sutton (Emma Samms) had gotten married to his pal Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers).

Will We See Anthony Geary Back on General Hospital?

Geary left GH back in 2015. He reprised Luke in a cameo in 2017 when pal Jane Elliot exited the canvas and Tracy Quartermaine moved to Europe. Otherwise, Luke hasn’t been seen on GH. While it’s conceivable that GH would kill the character off if the actor had no plans to return, it’s curious that the show wouldn’t first make sure the canvas was populated with more of Luke’s loved ones in addition to Laura and Bobbie. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have his children Lulu Spencer Falconeri and Lucky Spencer, whom Luke affectionately referred to as ‘Gumdrop’ and ‘Cowboy,’ on the show for maximum impact?

Time will tell whether Luke is truly dead or not and if so, how his passing will affect the citizens of Port Charles. It’s not just Laura, Bobbie, and Tracy who will be impacted by his passing but also the characters of Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner), Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring), Sonny, and, of course, Robert. We can imagine Luke’s longtime nemesis Scotty Baldwin (Kin Shriner) will react to the news, too.

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.