Longtime General Hospital viewers have watched sisters Molly Lansing-Davis (Kristen Vaganos) and Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi) grow up before their eyes, but this has been a year of big changes for the sisters -- not just on the show, but behind the scenes, as well. Both characters have been recast in 2023 -- in Molly's case, multiple times -- during which time Molly and Kristina went through a rocky period that put their once close relationship on shaky ground.
Molly struggled to come to terms with the realization that she would not be able to carry a child of her own or even have her own biological child, while Kristina undertook the monumental task of launching a nonprofit charity and overseeing the construction of an LGBTQ youth center. When Kristina offered to be Molly's surrogate, Molly balked. Not only was Molly not in a place to make that decision, but she suspected that Kristina had made the offer for all the wrong reasons.
Surrogacy is not new to GH. Charlotte Cassadine (Scarlett Fernandez) is the biological daughter of Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) and Lulu Falconeri (ex-Emme Rylan), but Claudette Beaulieu (ex-Bree Williamson) had been the surrogate. In another storyline involving Lulu's son, Rocco Falconeri (Finn Francis Carr), we learned that Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) had stolen Lulu and Dante Falconeri's (Dominic Zamprogna) embryo and had it implanted in her womb with the intention of passing the child off as hers and another man's. Both storylines were quite controversial. Lulu hadn't even been aware that her stolen eggs had been used to create a child until Charlotte was in grade school.
In the case of Britt Westbourne, she grew attached to the child that she had carried, and it led to desperate lies and manipulations in order for her to hold on to a child that she had effectively kidnapped. It's a safe bet that Molly and T.J.'s path to parenthood will be equally fraught with angst and challenges. Already, there are questions about the circumstances of their surrogate Andrea Gates's (Lily Anne Harrison) miscarriage, which happened off-screen when she went to nearby Mercy Hospital to have it confirmed that she had lost Molly and T.J.'s baby.
Things have changed in the months since Kristina first made the offer to carry Molly and T.J.'s baby. Molly has a clearer picture of what it would take for her to become a mother, and Kristina's life seems more stable these days. She has a new apartment, her youth center is on the verge of opening, and she's even found romance with a beautiful young singer named Alison Rogers Ramirez, a.k.a. Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez), who doesn't seem to have any of the red flags and baggage that Kristina's previous lovers had. Now that T.J. is on board with Kristina as their surrogate, there's nothing to stop the trio from going through with their plans.
In a recent interview with Soap Opera Digest, Vaganos acknowledged that it's a delicate situation. "It's not a sure thing that surrogacy would even work out -- and in this case, if it doesn't work out, it'll be much more catastrophic than it was with a stranger, (referring to Andrea) and even that was heartbreaking, because they formed a connection with her. So the stakes are definitely really high because this would be a way bigger loss if this were to go badly," the actress said.
Were Molly's initial fears well-founded? Is Kristina truly prepared to step back and be an aunt to a child that is biologically hers and that she carried? How will Blaze react to the news that Kristina intends to donate an egg and carry a child for her sister? Viewers will have to stay tuned, but those questions and more will likely be explored.
Will Molly and T.J. regret accepting Kristina's offer to be her surrogate? Do you like when the soaps do fertility stories? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
