General Hospital Recap: Who Poisoned Maxie Revealed, Ric Is Taken Hostage And Joss Breaks Down!

There was a lot packed into the August 26 episode of General Hospital! As Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), Ava (Maura West), and Kristina (Kate Mansi) worked together to cover up what happened to Ric (Rick Hearst), Molly (Kristen Vaganos) unloaded on Michael (Rory Gibson) regarding Cody (Josh Kelly). Meanwhile, a helpless Josslyn (Eden McCoy) broke down watching Vaughn (Bryce Durfee) being tortured by Pascal (Marc Forget), the person behind Maxie’s (Kirsten Storms) poisoning was revealed, and more!

Zipped Lips

After abducting Josslyn from her suite, Pascal revealed that the jig is up: He knows she is an agent with the WSB, and that Jack Brennan sent her and Vaughn to infiltrate the Five Poppies resort. Hearing that Josslyn hadn’t yet updated Brennan on what they’d seen at the resort — and that Brennan hadn’t shared what he knew with her and Vaughn before their trip — Pascal first declared that made Joss disposable, but then mused that her chances of survival were slightly better if she talked. Standing her ground (or more aptly, sitting her ground, since she was on the floor, bound by zip ties), Joss stated that she’d consider giving Pascal information once she saw with her own eyes that Vaughn was okay.

Meanwhile, across the ocean in Port Charles, Jack was looking through files in his office — specifically Professor Dalton’s and Greta’s — when Anna drunk-dialed him from the Brown Dog Bar, looking for an update on Josslyn. After Brennan chastised her for speaking about a secret mission in public, Anna accused him of not caring about anyone other than himself before hanging up. A moment later, Colette entered his office, reminding Jack that it’s been more than 12 hours since Vaughn or Jacks checked in. Putting Colette in her place, Brennan declared that she’s not the one calling the shots, and he had no intention of pulling the plug on the operation. As he tried to leave, Colette snarkily wondered if he was off for a romantic rendezvous with Agent Jacks’s mother, leading Brennan to warn her yet again that his personal life was none of her concern.

Catch Phrase

Once Brennan left, Colette snuck into his office to search his safe — then phoned Pascal, needing him to “convince” Jacks and Vaughn to provide him with the code for the locked box. Joss was trying to free herself of her restraints when Pascal’s thugs brought Vaughn into the room and tied him to a chair. Horrified, Josslyn watched helplessly as the men tortured Vaughn in an attempt to get them to talk. “What does the WSB know?” Pascal demanded of Vaughn, who responded by spitting in the man’s face. Just as one of the thugs was about to slice Vaughn’s face with a hot iron, Joss offered up that everything the WSB knew about the resort was in a black box in Brennan’s office. They already knew about the box, Pascal countered, so how did they get into it?

Vaughn visibly shook with anger when Joss gave Pascal the combo, and once they were alone, berated her for spilling the classified information. “You’re an agent, not some college kid!” he scolded an upset Josslyn as a satisfied Pascal, out in the hallway, watched their exchange on his phone via a security camera. “Because of you, we have failed. Pascal has won,” Vaughn stated, his expression slowly morphing into a slight smile. “Game. Set. Match.” Acknowledging their secret phrase, Joss nodded her head as she repeated, “Game, set, match.”

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Pour Decisions

Arriving at the Brown Dog, Jack spotted Anna at the bar, drowning her sorrows over her goddaughter being in a coma. As they settled in at a table, Anna shared that she felt helpless about both Maxie and Josslyn and again warned her former colleague that he risked losing Carly if anything happened to her daughter. “By the time I realized what Carly meant to me, it was already too late,” Brennan confessed. Calling Jack out on his B.S. claim that he provided Joss with an opportunity, a tipsy Anna rattled on about her concerns for Carly’s daughter. “The WSB is just going to ruin her life. The same way it ruined mine,” she professed.

Brennan shot back that Anna only had herself to blame for her choice to work with Cesar Faison and become a double agent. Anna revealed that she related to Josslyn being in over her head — even if she doesn’t realize it yet — and begged Brennan to stop thinking like an agent and bring Carly’s daughter home. Although he was conflicted about recruiting Josslyn, Jack maintained that he had faith in her. When Anna again threatened to tell Carly, he argued that she knew she would be endangering the entire mission by doing so. Anna hated that Brennan put her in an awkward position, but he responded that she put herself there by sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. “And now that you know about Josslyn,” he coolly stated, “that’s a burden we both have to carry.”

Tell Me About It

Distracted by thoughts of Maxie while on a date with Sidwell at the Port Charles Grill, Lucy recapped how horrific it had been to watch Maxie collapse. Sidwell lent a sympathetic ear as Lucy lamented how suddenly the unthinkable could happen. She was grateful for Sidwell’s support but turned down his invitation to spend the night at Wyndemere since she wanted to check on Mac and Felicia.

Michael met Molly at the restaurant and she filled him in on Drew’s latest round of misdeeds and the restraining orders he is issuing to the Davis family. For the second time that day, Michael was able to rein Molly in as her emotions and thoughts began to spiral, and she thanked him for again working his magic in calming her down. At the mention of their earlier conversation, Michael wondered if she’d taken his advice about Cody. Molly confided that she’d walked in on Cody practically seducing Ava, and how Kristina had paid him to break up Ric and Ava for her sake. Although Molly felt betrayed by her sister, Michael suggested that perhaps Kristina and Cody had good intentions, and she should give Cody the benefit of the doubt. Molly realized that she was angrier on her father’s behalf than she was for herself and needed to tell Ric what happened.

Sentimental Feelings

Cody entered the tack house to find Dante waiting for him with a six-pack. Even though they hadn’t spoken much since the truth about Gio came out, Dante figured he could use a friend with everything Cody’s family was going through. Over beers, Dante imparted advice about what worked for him with Rocco and how Cody could approach Maxie’s long-term hospitalization with James. Feeling down on himself, Cody reflected upon the many wrong choices he’d made in his life — most recently, how Kristina paid him to lure Ava away from Ric. He honestly thought he was helping Molly by doing so, he told his friend, but it turned into “a complete and utter disaster.” Dante wondered if there was more to Cody’s friendship with Molly, and Cody eventually conceded that he really likes her. “Too bad it’s all over now that she knows I’m a world-class jerk,” he said.

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No Body, No Crime

Just as Ava and Kristina were about to check to see if Ric was still alive, Alexis arrived home to see her ex-husband, unconscious and bleeding on her living room the floor. “Don’t let me stop you,” she quipped. After Kristina detected a pulse, she and Ava briefed Alexis on what had happened. Alexis wanted to call the police, but Ava threatened to take down Kristina with her and warned that they were all in too deep to involve the authorities. Stepping over Ric’s body, Kristina agreed, noting that she’d be on the hook for attempted murder, Alexis would be on the line for embezzlement, and Ava would go down for attempted murder, embezzlement and extortion. As Kristina and Ava continued to bicker, Alexis huffed that they needed to find a solution before Molly arrived home.

While cleaning up the evidence inside the house with Alexis, Ava put the antique paperweight in her purse, not trusting to leave it behind with her and Kristina. Meanwhile, Kristina moved Ric’s car to the garden shed. “Now, as far as the outside world is concerned, Ric was never here,” Kristina declared.

Ric came to in a dark basement. Realizing that he was gagged, his feet duct-taped together and his hands taped to the rails of a cot, he tried to scream for help.

Strange Bedfellows

Following his dinner with Lucy, Sidwell returned home to find Colette waiting for him. She wanted an update for Pascal and their associate. “You can tell them both that I will soon have a controlling interest in Deception, and then we can use the company as we previously discussed,” he told Colette. And, he added, the compound had worked perfectly in silencing Maxie Jones!

Were you surprised that Sidwell was behind Maxie’s poisoning? Should Molly give Cody a second chance? Is Ric doomed? Share your GH theories and thoughts in the comments below!