THE END IS NEAR FOR GH’S WILLOW
■ Michael and Willow’s wedding night takes a tragic turn when the leukemia-stricken bride winds up in the hospital. There, TJ delivers the grim news that her immune system is too compromised to fight off infection — so not only does she need to remain in the hospital, but she’ll need to go into isolation.
“It’s not good news,” begins Katelyn Macmullen (Willow). “Willow just wants to go home to be with Michael and her kids, but Michael basically says to her, ‘TJ suggests that you stay here in the hospital, because in case anything else happens, they’ll be able to respond immediately.’ She knows she would be taking a big chance if she were to go home because at this point, they don’t know if or when the bone marrow transplant is going to happen; Liesl is missing and Willow is just getting weaker and weaker. Willow is told, ‘The only way to set your body up for this procedure is for you to be placed in a sterile environment,’ where she’s physically isolated, separated by a plastic shield that goes from the ceiling to the floor. It’s certainly hard for Willow because she is undergoing chemo and she can only talk to her family and friends on the phone, she can’t touch them or be with them. Especially right now, being separated from the man she just married and from her kids is so difficult for Willow. It takes so much strength.”
The seriousness of the situation prompts Willow
“She knows she would be taking a big chance if she were to go home.”
to reevaluate her priorities, including the fractured state of her relationship with Nina. “I think at this point, the needle has shifted a little bit for Willow,” Macmullen offers. “Willow is getting sicker and sicker and first of all, she’s kind of like, ‘Okay, I don’t have the energy to hate someone.’ Not that I would describe [her feelings for Nina as] hate, but it’s pretty close! And how I look at it is that Willow feels, ‘Wow, it’s sad to think about what could have been.’ It’s too late to rebuild the relationship. Willow doesn’t have the energy and now she doesn’t have the time. So in the scenes that I have with Cynthia [Watros, Nina], I feel like Willow is more sad than she is [insistent] that, ‘I will have nothing to do with you!’ Willow is kind of opening up to the idea of Nina being in her life. It’s just still such tender ground because they don’t know each other, really, and to find out that you’re mother and daughter after you’ve had such a crazy relationship — and to find it out when you’re knocking at death’s door? I just don’t know how you reconcile with that.”