Is it still Halloween? General Hospital viewers had to ask themselves that very question when at the tail end of the November 6 episode (recapped here), a kidnapped Anna was greeted over loudspeaker by her abductor: the “late” Cesar Faison!

“Be at peace,” intoned a voice with an all-too-familiar accent. “You’re on your way to a new life.” (Shudder!)

How Can Faison Be Alive?

Since 2018, Anna had wanted to believe that her longtime tormentor was dead. Faison had, after all, been shot by Jason and then, in the hospital, had his oxygen cut off by vengeful son Peter.

The trouble is that the villain has always had a real knack for cheating the Grim Reaper. (That’s why Death refuses to play poker with him anymore!)

What Does Faison Want?

Faison’s endgame, so much as a power monger like him can ever have an endgame, is of course total control. Hence, the cold-fusion research that he is using Sidwell to strong-arm Britt into doing. When or if she is successful, not only Port Charles but the world would be forced to bend to the madman’s Will.

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At the same time, it’s clear that Faison is as obsessed as ever with Anna. And unless we miss our mark, what he meant by her starting a new life was something along the lines of “I’m going to brainwash you the same way I did Drew to make him think he was Jason, and turn you into someone who adores me as much as Liesl used to!”

An Alternate Reality

There remains the possibility that General Hospital is snowing us — and someone is faking out Anna, too. “Don’t freak out,” Bonny advised her in the comments following Wednesday’s recap. “The voice is AI,” not real.”

A reader named Gina even had an idea of who that someone might be: “Unpopular opinion,” she acknowledged, “but please let the kidnapper be Peter!”