Medical Error: How General Hospital Blew Their Molly Lansing-Davis Story Potential
What we might have had on GH instead.
One of the benefits to having a show called General Hospital is that it gives the writers plenty of opportunities to tell medical stories. We had BJ’s heart transplant, Monica’s breast cancer, Robin’s HIV diagnosis, and now Willow’s never-ending bone marrow transplant. Molly Lansing-Davis having endometriosis could have been a great chance to educate viewers, as well as create organic conflict for her and TJ. Instead, we got a plot point that will likely lead to a rather predictable storyline moving forward.
General Hospital: Through the Years
Getting an endometriosis diagnosis can take some women literally years. The pain is either dismissed as being normal or all in the patient’s head. They can be accused of being attention-seeking, weak, or just plain old nuts.
We could have had a storyline of Molly (Holiday Mia Kriegel), raised to believe that she could do and handle anything, first going to a doctor with her symptoms and being told there was nothing wrong. She could have pushed and been called a troublemaker. She turns to TJ (Tajh Bellow), who, as a doctor himself, is torn between supporting his partner and the traditional God Complex of believing the medical professional knows best.
Molly Lansing-Davis: General Hospital Leveling Down
We could have watched Molly slowly getting demoralized, starting to question her own certainty, being made to wonder if the problem wasn’t medical but psychological — maybe she imagined that sex with TJ hurt because she didn’t really love him, or she didn’t really want to have children?
We watched Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) getting sicker and weaker on the air even as she hid her condition and refused to get treatment. Wouldn’t it have been interesting to see the same thing happening to Molly as she took the opposite track, went from specialist to specialist, felt worse and worse, and tried to find a solution but only kept hitting brick walls?
GH: Hand Wave
Instead, we got a five-minute diagnosis, a few tears…and the suspicion that it’s all just a setup to ask Kristina (Kate Mansi) to be Molly and TJ’s surrogate when it could have been so much more.
