General Hospital 52nd Anniversary Episode Recap – Luke’s story revealed!
Luke returns to the house on Elm Street, where it all started.. and opens the front door with a key. At Oak Hill, Patricia tells Bobbie Luke will be alright… he needs help, not the cops. Bobbie wants to know what really happened in the old house.
The Past
At the house, Luke flashes back to his young self coming home.. his mom Lena looks exactly like Carly! He notices a bruise on her arm, she claims it’s from the vacuum cleaner. She tells Pat to change out of pants into a dress, or their father will be upset and a young Bobbie jumps out from behind the curtain, surprising everyone with April Fools. They laugh and play.. a loving family.. until Tim Spencer arrives home.
It’s April 1, 1963 – the night their mom died, and their daddy ran out on them.
Luke watches his father arrives home demanding his dinner, then starts drinking and ranting about politics. He shows Luke his tattoo from the war, and tells him his generation never had to make sacrifices. Luke compliments his mother on dinner, but his father says it takes like dog meat.. and she apologizes for overcooking the roast. He criticizes Luke for losing his baseball game, and continues to berate him. Patricia calls him an old drunk and he SLAPS her.. her mother steps in, and they try to talk him down, but he turns ALL his anger on her.. we see Lena knocked out, on the floor.
Patricia leans over her mother and says they need to take her to the hospital, but she eventually stands up. Pat insists they are going to the doctor, Luke wants to go with them, but they insist he stay home to take care of Barbara Jean. Pat grabs the car keys while Luke tells him to let them go. While recalling the story, Pat tells them their father was an abusive pig.. they get in the car and Pat drives mama to General Hospital!
Nurse Jessie Brewer and the intern Phil Brewer are there to assist when Lena passes out – Dr Hardy knows her, and doesn’t want Jessie to call her husband, he suggests they call her brother Fred Eckert. Pat waits alone.. and when Dr Hardy returns, he sadly tells Pat her mother is gone!! She breaks down and wants to see her one more time.. Jessie offers to help. Pat leans over her mother, gives her one last kiss and promises to take care of Bobbie and Luke.
[Lucas calls Bobbie – someone has used a key to get into the Elm Street house! Tracy and Bobbie decide to go there to find Luke, they get a wheelchair so Patricia can go with them – she believe Luke is at the house trying to remember].Young Luke clears the table when the phone rings.. he paces and says Tim can’t treat her like that anymore. His father returns and tells Luke his mamma is dead, she died in the emergency room. He yells that he is lying, she IS alive and going to be fine. His father yells back “your mother is dead!”
Dr Hardy returns to sit with Patricia and says he will listen if she wants to ell him what really happened. Jessie tells him the Eckerts arrive – Pat has never met any of them – when Bill taps her on the shoulder, she realizes he looks just like Luke..
Back the house, Luke wants to put flowers by his mama’s bedside, but his dad tells them he can put them on her grave! Bobbie comes downstairs, and he sends her back up saying mom and Patricia will be home soon, they just went for a walk. Tim grabs Luke by the scruff of the neck and tells him she ain’t coming home.. Luke yells it’s all his fault, beating them day after day until he broke them. He tosses the bottle at him and asks if he’s happy now?? Tim drunkenly says he loved Lena, and after he pays his respects to her, the state can take care of the three of them. Luke calls him a monster and picks up his baseball bat!
Recalling 1963, she was shocked to see Bill Eckert.. he looked exactly like Luke. He tells Pat they all tried to get her mom away from her dad, they knew he was hitting her. Patricia wants to go back to the house, but he insists on coming with her.. they are family. She hopes they can stay with the Eckerts, and warns Bill it might be difficult. Pat and Bill arrive back at the Elm Street house to see Luke hunched on the floor.. and Tim dead on the floor!
The Present
Back in the present, Luke sees the bat in the house, picks it up and says out out.. “I did it.. I killed my father”. He struggles to remember what happened next.
Tracy arrives at the Elm Street house with the others and turns on the lights! They are back to get him out of there.. he says he killed the old man, but they already know. Patricia told them everything. He doesn’t remember anything after picking up the bat, but he hated him and would do it again. Tracy reminds him Tim Spencer was a coward who beat women, Luke is nothing like him.
Pat tells him they stuffed Tim’s body in the broken wall in the basement and sealed it up. She signed the house over to Bill Eckert so no one would know the truth. Luke suddenly remembers Bill Eckert before he dies telling him something.. Luke tries to remember, Tracy gently pushes him, and Bobbie tells him to let himself remember. Pat needs him to face it so it can be over.
Luke now remembers Bill telling him needs to forgive himself for what he did to his mother!
The Past revisited once more
Back in 1963, he picks up the bat… but Tim says he’s not the one who killed his mother.. HE did!!!
At the dinner table, Tim tells Lena she is always undermining his authority and shows his fist.. Luke picks up his bat, and when Lena tries to stop him from swinging, he turns around and accidentally hits her, knocking her down!! Tim yells at him that they are the same.. HE killed his wife.. HE is the monster.. a young Luke swings his bat and hits his father. And red blood trickles…
In the present, Luke cries that HE killed both his mama and daddy… and cries he is so sorry.
The family gathers around him..