GH: Nina Dodges A Bullet
■ Jax is shot in Nixon Falls — and spies Sonny before he’s rushed to the hospital, jeopardizing the secret Nina is harboring: that Sonny is far from dead, and is in fact living as amnesiac “Mike”.
According to Cynthia Watros (Nina), her alter ego hasn’t been keeping the truth about Sonny under wraps out of spite toward Carly. “It’s not like all of a sudden she was like, ‘I’m going to seek revenge on Carly!’ ” she opines. “It’s more like, ‘Okay, I’m going to sit on this, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ But as the days wear on, she’s gotten more involved in this new life in Nixon Falls, and she’s seeing this freedom in ‘Mike’, this sort of relaxed, happy, carefree man that is enjoying his life. She sees this man who is flourishing in a way that she’s never seen him flourish before and she thinks, ‘Maybe this is what he needs. Maybe this is like a gift for him.’ I think Nina forgets that he’s actually Sonny sometimes! She’s enjoying herself so much that she loses herself a bit. In no way do I think this is coming out of vengeance for Carly. She’s just not sure how to [come clean] now, especially the longer she’s keeping the secret and she’s the only one who knows. It’s getting harder and harder to figure out what to do.”
It’s clear in the aftermath of Jax’s shooting that Nina is not quite ready for anyone else from Port Charles to know the truth. Watros details, “Nina cares about Jax a lot, so she’s not at all flippant like, ‘Oh, you got shot — but did you see Sonny?’ She’s really concerned about his health and whether he’s going to be okay. Once she finds out that he is going to be okay, she’s like, ‘Okay, I think this is really going to be it for me, because he saw Sonny and now I’ve got to tell the truth.’ And then he wakes up in the hospital and his shoulder hurts but he’s otherwise fine and Nina’s like, ‘So, anyway, what did you see?’ And he says, ‘I thought I saw Sonny!’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, really? Why do you say that?’ ‘I don’t know, I just woke up and I saw him.’ ‘Well, Carly’s probably talking to you a lot about Sonny.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably it!’ And then she’s like, ‘So, how’s your shoulder?’ The door is open to tell the truth, but she’s just wrapped up in the situation. She doesn’t know how to get out of this hole she’s dug for herself.”
Before Nina can heave too much of a sigh of relief, “Mike” shows up at the hospital with Phyllis, eager to meet Jax, sending Nina into damage control mode. Beams Watros, “I love playing comedy and I feel like a lot of comedy comes out as she’s trying to keep Jax away from ‘Mike’ because of course, that would be a problem. Nina is trying to play it all cool, and not only is it dramatic, but there’s a lot of comedy that I got to squeeze out of it that I loved playing.”