Ever since it was announced that Rebecca Budig was coming to “General Hospital,” everyone has been wondering whether she’ll play an old character revived or an all-new vixen. There were some GH rumors that Rebecca would take on Robin Scorpio-Drake since Kimberly McCullough is hella busy directing Pretty Little Liars. But now spoilers have leaked that Budig will play a new character designed to throw a wrench in the budding romance between Liz Webber (Rebecca Herbst) and Jake Doe (Billy Miller).
Of course we all know that Jake has a wife – Sam Morgan (Kelly Monaco) – but since neither Jake nor Sam know that, he’s available at the moment. Liz has made it clear to Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) that she’s all about sexy amnesiac Jake but, as we all know, Ric is never one to take rejection lying down. Ric has kidnapped, cheated and lied to get what he wants or just to punish those who have hurt him or gotten in his way. And now Jake is in his way. And that’s where Rebecca Budig comes in. According to Soap Opera Spy Ric will hire her character, named Bailey, to roll into Port Charles and play wifey to Jake.
Of course, Jake won’t be able to deny that Bailey is his wife since he has no memory. Since she’s a brunette, she’ll look enough like the woman Jake been seeing in his hazy flashbacks. Ric will give her marching orders to convince Jake that she’s his wife and that she’s been looking for him and is thrilled to have her beloved husband back. Ric will tell Bailey to get Jake into bed pronto. Unfortunately, Jake won’t be immediately entranced with her like they had counted on. But no worries, Ric and Bailey will just roofie Jake and Bailey will get naked with him so Liz will think they hooked up.
Ric doesn’t know about the bargain between Jake and Commissioner Sloane (Grayson McCouch). So even though Ric has directed Bailey to take Jake and leave town, Jake won’t be able to go. That means Bailey will have to stick around for a while. But, here’s the other thing. Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher) will know from the get-go that Bailey isn’t who she says she is since he knows that Jake is Jason and that Sam is his real life. Nikolas will confront Bailey but this is tricky because he’ll need to warn her off without revealing Jake’s true identity.
As this storyline progresses, Jake will turn to Sam because he’s confused and frustrated. Sam will put her PI skills to work and figure out that Bailey is lying at Ric’s behest. Once this comes out, Liz will tear into Ric and he’ll lose any shot he had with her. A desperate Ric will scramble for another angle to get rid of Jake and get back with Liz. Bailey will tell Ric about Nikolas’ threats. From there, Ric will dig into why Nikolas has inserted himself into this and find out who Jake really is.
Ric will also discover that Nikolas has known Jake’s true identity for quite a while but was keeping it to himself. Ric will try to leverage this information to get something out of Nikolas but you know Cassadines are next-level when it comes to playing dirty. “General Hospital” rumors indicate that Ric will be murdered over the whole Jake/Jason fiasco and it won’t be a fake death that gets him into Witness Protection – but a for real good and dead, toes up, body bag sort of killing.
The question is, who will be the one to off Ric? He’s got a long list of enemies. Here are some possible scenarios to consider:
• Jake kills Ric because he ruined his shot with Liz.
• Nikolas has Ric killed to keep his Jason secret quiet.
• Helena has Ric killed because he annoyed her precious Prince.
• Sonny kills Ric because he’s just tired of Ric’s crap.
• Liz kills Ric because she wants him out of her life for good.
• Julian kills Ric then frames Sonny for the crime.
Really the possibilities are endless. “General Hospital” gossip indicates that Rebecca Budig will make her first appearance as Bailey on Friday’s show on March 20.
Stay tuned to CDL every day for lots more “General Hospital” news, spoilers and gossip.