General Hospital’s Drew is officially the most infuriating character in recent memory! But is the character redeemable?

Let’s be frank and talk about one of the humungous elephants in the General Hospital room. Drew (Cameron Mathison) has gone from a hero and even the golden boy of Port Charles to becoming public enemy number one. Not only that, but his fan club has dwindled tremendously, with many General Hospital viewers growing to detest him, as evidenced by some of the more tame comments I found on social media.

From my perspective, the fans aren’t wrong. I’ve grown to despise Drew for a number of reasons (to be clear I mean the character, not the actor). He decided to get entangled with his nephew’s wife. Then once the truth came out, Drew pretended to feel remorseful for his actions, yet continually inserted himself between Michael (Chad Duell) and Willow (Katelyn MacMullen), becoming more of a stumbling block in Michael’s way as he hoped to patch things up with Willow.

Even with him doing all of that, my strong disdain for Drew came in the wake of Michael being caught in the explosion at Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) apartment. First, he bashed Carly (Laura Wright), pretty much calling her a bad mother for raising Michael with Sonny (a point some viewers have argued). There’s something to be said about the right time and place, and as Carly was waiting to learn if Michael would survive in a hospital chapel was neither.

The cherry on top occurred in the General Hospital episode that aired on January 13. He fueled Willow into using Michael’s medical proxy as blackmail to keep Sonny and Carly away from Michael until Carly returned Wylie (Viron Weaver) and Amelia (Sequoia & Serenity Mork Macko). Then as Carly, Sonny and Willow tried to hash out a compromise, Drew kept butting in the conversation. Drew wouldn’t let Willow formulate her own thoughts or opinions, which was downright intrusive and manipulative. It was infuriating to watch.

Drew truly thinks he’s some kind of hero in the present day. Yes, he served in the military, went to prison to protect Carly and helped to save Willow’s life. But his recent actions lead me to believe he’s not a selfless person at all, but rather a narcissist in need of all the applause and hero worship that comes along with people seeing him as some kind of Superman.

Having said all of that, I’m left naming Drew the most infuriating General Hospital character in recent memory. Do you know how much of a feat that is for Drew? I’m someone who remembers show villains like Faith Rosco (Cynthia Preston), Anthony (Bruce Weitz) and Claudia Zacchara (Sarah Brown), Stavros Cassadine (Robert Kelker-Kelly), Ric (Rick Hearst) in his heyday and Carter (Josh Wingate), the latter was highly deplorable.

Drew technically committed no crimes in the way the villains I mentioned have, but Drew’s smugness and self-assurance that he is the good guy in every scenario is too much for me, and clearly many others, to stand. So where does Drew go from here? Is the character redeemable at all?

I won’t completely write him off, but in order for him to bounce back, he needs to stop his current trajectory and be served a healthy portion of humble pie. Let’s say there’s a scenario in which Carly and Sonny work together and make him lose everything, and he comes to realize that his actions have made him a town pariah where no one likes him outside of his daughter (Willow may join his list of foes when she learns he slept with her mother). If Drew were to reevaluate his life and get back on track, maybe I could learn to despise him less.

Or let’s say Drew soon faces a medical crisis and it’s discovered he’s been suffering from some ongoing ailment that has caused his personality shift. To make it General Hospital’s brand of soapy, I’ll throw in the possibility that a Cassadine has been mentally manipulating Drew again, causing him to act differently. If either scenario plays out, then I may excuse his bad behavior as long as he makes some changes thereafter.

While I can’t predict what will happen to Drew in the near future, I can only hope he goes through another metamorphosis, as this villain era doesn’t really suit him. If he’s not careful, he might find himself at the center of a whodunnit murder plot. Although, with all the murders on the show lately, I’m not sure viewers want to see one more person killed. I know I don't.

New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.