General Hospital spoilers: Michael’s tragedy sets stage for him to become the next big villain of Port Charles?

While we didn’t want General Hospital’s Chad Duell to exit the series’ canvas as Michael with a literal bang, that’s sadly the storyline we got. It’s yet to be determined if Michael will survive the burns he’s sustained, but if our gut is correct, he will live but be carted away from Port Charles to recover at a burn care facility. And if that proves to be the case, we can’t help but think about the possibilities for Michael should he return. The biggest of these possibilities involves a “recovered” Michael unleashing vengeance on Port Charles.

Before we go further into a hypothetical, we should revisit some General Hospital history. The last time Michael was fighting for his life occurred when he was younger and a sniper shot him during an assassination attempt on Sonny (Maurice Benard).

Back then, the incident caused him to be in a coma for roughly a year, and when he woke up, he wasn’t a sweet little boy anymore (soap opera aging helped with that of course). Instead, he was a moody teen who was insistent on following in his father’s footsteps, but his parents and Jason (Steve Burton) put a stop to that.

Also, history has shown that Michael has his parents' thirst for revenge when he feels wronged, and he's actually better at it. He’s more methodical with his thinking and tends to go after what his “enemies” love the most. When Sonny killed A.J. (Sean Kanan), Michael took custody of Avery to get payback on his adoptive father. Even recently, Michael was ready to take away Sonny’s freedom after the Corinthos patriarch broke Carly’s (Laura Wright) heart, and Michael effectively stole Aurora from Drew (Cameron Mathison).

Now looking to the future, let’s imagine that Michael gets physically better at the burn care facility and is ready to return home. However, before that big move back to Port Charles happens, he learns off-screen that Drew and Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) have continued down this twisted path of love, and Uncle Drew is playing stepdad to Michael’s two kids with her (that is if Carly doesn’t take custody).

Furthermore, Michael finds out that Sasha (Sofia Mattsson) had their baby and is raising the child with Jason, as those two have become an official couple (which is starting to seem likely). To top it all off, Michael has developed a colossal-sized chip on his shoulder about all he’s lost due to the explosion and blames Sonny’s lifestyle for it all. These scenarios set Michael up with a few possible grudges.

Michael could come back to town wanting to destroy the love nest between Drew and his ex-wife (again if Carly hasn’t by then) and he could be angry with his favorite uncle and bestie Jason for taking over the father duties of a child he’s never met. Considering Michael knows all the ends and outs of Sonny’s business and once attempted to be involved in it before, could Michael also return with a plan to take it over and rid Sonny of the power he’s known most of his life? Michael may think he can run it better than Sonny, feeling his dad hasn’t done a great job at protecting the family given his plight and that of Morgan’s (Bryan Craig).

It’s worth noting that with the Dimpled Kingpin recently stating he wanted to step down from the business and Jason saying he didn’t want the job, we thought there was a possibility that either Michael or Kristina (Kate Mansi) would step into the role as the new boss of Port Charles.

A Michael in his “villain era” would be rather interesting to see. He could launch a series of mysterious attacks on Drew, Jason and Sonny before arriving, leaving the trio to guess who is after them. Then when he arrives back in town, he could play up his sweet nature, faking the funk just long enough to continue attacking his former mentors in life. It could be a while before it dawns on anyone that Michael is a new tormentor in Port Charles who should be feared.

To be very clear, there has been no word on if/when Michael is returning to the soap after Chad Duell’s exit. However, with daytime TV, almost anything can happen.

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