History Repeats Itself

Anna Recalls Her Long-Ago Connection To Valentin on GH.

- Mara Levinsky

Since returning to Port Charles in October 2016, Valentin has been harboring a multitude of secrets about his hidden history with Anna — and he’s gotten a perverse kick out of toying with her about them. As for Anna, well, she knows that where there is smoke — the Latin WSB motto he dropped in her presence, the tune Charlotte hummed that Anna found strangely familiar, Valentin claiming a memory from her training academy days as his own, the decades-old photograph of Anna in his possession that Emma smuggled out of Wyndemere — there is most certainly fire. And this week, when both she and Valentin least expect it, Anna experiences a Valentin-centric recall that fills in some major blanks about their past.

While Co-Head Writers Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante did not invent the character of Valentin (he was name dropped by Helena in 2009, but never shown), they did essentially have a blank slate to work with when making the decision to introduce him to the canvas last summer — and Valentin’s history with Anna was a key component of their character development. “It was early on that we knew that we wanted to do that,” Altman says. “He had been alluded to in the past and he was a Cassadine, which we knew, but we thought the twist would be the connection with Anna. So, in bringing on the character, that was always in our minds to be the surprise.”