Here Comes Trouble

GHs Genie Francis Is Back But Thanks To Ryan, Lauras Homecoming Is Fraught With Peril.

- Mara Levinsky

Laura touches down in Port Charles this week, marking Genie Francis’s return to the iconic role she began playing in 1976 (she was last seen on-screen in January).

“Laura is extremely excited to be home, to be with her husband,” sets up Co-Head Writer Shelly Altman. “She expects her homecoming to be the start of the next chapter in her relationship with Kevin, where they will finally be able to be together without interruption. But Laura’s homecoming is not what she expected it to be.”

That’s because, very much unbeknownst to Laura, there was a major shift on her home front while she was off in France tending to grandson Spencer and his two broken legs: Her husband’s life was taken over by his back-from-the-dead, serial killer brother, Ryan.

According to Altman, that high-octane dramatic scenario was inspired both by the show’s interest in resurrecting Ryan and in its desire to give Francis a major storyline upon her return. “We wanted to bring Laura back in an exciting way, and [Co-Head Writer] Christopher Van Etten realized that it had been 25 years since Ryan Chamberlain was reigning in terror, and it was out of that that this started to percolate. We are both aware of the extreme popularity, particularly among women, of true crime shows, and one thing led to another, and it wonderfully dovetailed into Laura’s return.”

Wonderful for fans, maybe, but certainly not for Ryan, who is planning to murder Lucy on the same night Laura shows up. Points out Altman, “He is in a sticky situation because if anybody is going to be able to out him, it would be the person closest to him, and that is Laura. He would have been perfectly happy if she had stayed in Paris much, much longer.” Ryan’s portrayer, Jon Lindstrom, elaborates,