General Hospital’s Ava (Maura West) is like a cat with nine lives. She’s managed to escape criminal prosecution and survive the deadliest of scenarios on more than one occasion.
Most recently, she survived Agent Boyle (Amor Owens) who was sent to eliminate her by John Cates (Adam J. Harrington), and a car accident, thanks to Jason (Steve Burton). To add, Kristina’s (Kate Mansi) plot to exact revenge against Ava was foiled thanks to Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) finding the gun in her daughter’s purse.
With Ava now having another shot at a fresh start, we started to think about her prospects for romance. Loyal General Hospital fans know that trauma has a way of bonding unlikely romantic pairs. So is there a chance that Jason saving Ava from death will spark a romance no one could have predicted? Perhaps.
When news broke that Kelly Monaco was exiting the role of Sam and rumors swirled that Sam would be killed off the soap, it became abundantly clear that the epic love story of Jason and Sam would no longer continue. That means no more bike rides, no more leather jackets and no more must-watch adventures for the legendary #JaSam. We always thought the two would find their way back to each other, but with that not being the case, Jason has an opening for love that Ava could possibly fill.
However, this possible duo faces a lot of uphill battles. For starters, Jason is fully aware of all of Ava’s villainous past. He knows she murdered Connie, switched Morgan’s (Bryan Craig) bipolar meds, tried to isolate Sonny (Maurice Benard), got into some kind of confrontation with Kristina that led to the latter losing her baby and has been an overall nuisance since arriving in Port Charles.
Then there’s Carly (Laura Wright). Jason is Carly’s best friend, and you better believe Carly will do everything in her power to stop Jason and Ava from ending up together. Carly would probably resort to some of her famous hijinks to stop the pair, which from a viewer's perspective could mean we get some great soapy chaos.
Given all the roadblocks for an Ava and Jason relationship though, we think the likelihood of them hooking up is next to none. Which is why we think it’s worth looking at Ava gravitating toward Ric (Rick Hearst).
Since Ric has been back, we haven’t really seen him in any scenes with Ava, but it doesn’t mean we won’t see that in the near future. And for those of you thinking he and Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) are on the path of reconciliation, we don’t feel he'll be so lucky as Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) is headed back to Port Charles soon. Elizabeth and Lucky are the loves of each other’s lives, so that doesn’t leave a lot of room for Ric.
We can picture Ava and Ric bonding over their pariah status in town. Neither one has a line of people ringing their endorsements and they both know what it's like to be in the doghouse with Sonny. Plus, their tendencies to be manipulative may make for an interesting cat-and-mouse dynamic between the pair that sees them play one another while flirting.
The biggest obstacle in their potential love journey may come with Molly (Kristen Vaganos). While Molly ultimately blames Kristina for the loss of baby Corinthos-Lansing-Ashford, Molly might not be able to shake the fact that Kristina suffered her accident while in Ava’s room. Additionally, Ava is the reason Alexis was disbarred, so Molly is not likely to forgive and forget that either.
Yet, Ava’s pathway to romance with Ric is still more viable than the one with Jason. Not for nothing, it’s worth mentioning that Ric more than Jason tends to hook up with "inappropriate" mates, so he isn’t above being with Ava despite protests from Molly.
New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.
