GH: Ava On The Warpath
■ Kiki’s shocking murder leaves Port Charles reeling — but no citizen comes more unglued than her estranged mother, Ava.
Ava’s reaction, says Co-head Writer Shelly Altman, “is certainly a combination of horror, grief, anguish and guilt. She doesn’t feel responsible for how Kiki died, but she certainly feels guilt that her last encounter with her was less than pleasant. That’s the memory she is going to be carrying with her forever.”
Fueled by her devastation, an armed Ava goes to the PCPD to confront her ex-lover/kiki’s grieving beau, Griffin, who’s been arrested for her murder. “She is being irrational,” according to Altman. “She wants [the case] settled. She is fixated on Griffin as the enemy. Griffin took her daughter away from her in a way, and because she is so distraught and anguished, it’s not such a leap for her in this moment to equate that with him taking [Kiki] away from her literally.”
As for the doc, “Griffin obviously knows he’s innocent, but he is so numbed by the experience of losing Kiki. This was the start of the first really healthy relationship with a woman of his adult life, someone he could really have loved. He, too, is feeling some guilt, because he feels he should have been with Kiki, and if he’d been with Kiki, this wouldn’t have happened. At the moment, yes, he has to defend himself against the charges, but he is so overcome by grief and shock that that is taking precedence.”
While Ava is preparing to take her revenge on Griffin, the cops are interrogating Sasha, and learn about the stunt Ava pulled to try to split up Kiki and Griffin — which puts Ava under suspicion. Notes Altman, “They now have a couple of victims showing up in very prominent spots on prominent dates, and obviously, this affects Jordan quite personally because it was on her wedding night, in what should have been her wedding bed [where Kiki’s body was discovered]. They have to look at Ava because this is the second time Ava has come under scrutiny, what with Mary Pat’s body being found in her gallery. But it just doesn’t sit right with Jordan. Jordan is smart; [she knows] someone is screwing with them.”
That someone, of course, is Ava’s new lover, Ryan, who is totally caught off-guard by her pain over Kiki. “Here he thought he was doing a good deed, in his own bizarre way. He thought he was giving Ava what she wanted. At the same time, he is stepping up to the plate; Ava needs him now more than ever.” One thing he isn’t concerned about is getting caught. “He is very arrogant and obviously very sick. So at this point, he feels like he can get away with it. As a prominent psychiatrist in town under the guise of his brother Kevin, he really is a person above suspicion.”