What Happened to Holly on GENERAL HOSPITAL
Holly Sutton Scorpio hasn’t been on GENERAL HOSPITAL for years so it’s understandable if viewers might need a refresher on who she is and what happened to her. And that’s where we come in! The character made her debut back in July of 1982 and has always been played by Emma Samms. Her first stint ran from 1982-85, then she came back for another from 1992-93, and made brief appearances on GH in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2015. And despite being believed dead, she made a surprise return to the screen in September 2020! However, because she had been suffering from Long COVID, it wasn’t until October 2022 that Samms was finally able to bring Holly back to Port Charles properly. Sadly, she could only manage a short visit, but returned again in April 2023 for another brief stint, so who knows what the future might hold?
Holly met Luke Spencer when he caught her skinny dipping and they had a one-night stand. But she was setting him up as part of an oil scam to bilk Port Charles citizens out of millions of dollars. When Holly was kidnapped, Luke and Robert Scorpio went to Vancouver to rescue her and recover the stolen money. Luke was furious with Holly and left to go to the mountains where he was presumed dead in an avalanche. Holly discovered she was pregnant with Luke’s baby, and Robert married her so she wouldn’t be deported. Tragically, shortly after their wedding, Holly suffered a miscarriage.
Robert and Holly were stunned when Luke returned very much alive and upset that his best friend had married his ex-lover. Holly found herself torn between the two men for a while before finally realizing that she truly loved Robert. But their marriage was tested when Robert’s ex-wife, Anna Devane, came to town. They managed to get through it and moved to Australia together in 1985, though Robert returned to Port Charles in 1987 to reveal Holly had perished in a plane crash.
In 1992, Holly returned to reveal that she had been in a car accident and fell into a coma for years. When she awoke and found Robert had moved on with his life, she chose to stay away from him, but he eventually learned the truth and was relieved. He even left his daughter, Robin Scorpio, in the care of Holly and Mac Scorpio while he went to find a kidnapped Anna. Holly was devastated when Robert and Anna were presumed dead and continued to help Mac raise Robin. Later, she briefly dated Luke’s look-alike cousin, Bill Eckert, before leaving Port Charles again in 1993.
Holly resurfaced again in 2006 when Robert turned up alive and well and she demanded a fortune for the antidote to a mutant strain of encephalitis running rampant through Port Charles. In 2009, she showed up again to confirm that she was Ethan Lovett‘s mother. Although she initially claimed Robert was his father, she eventually confessed he was Luke’s son. When Ethan’s life was threatened by Helena Cassadine in 2012, Holly returned to lie that Robert was his father to protect him. The following year, it was revealed that Holly and Robert had reconciled, and she was caring for him after he was drugged and fell into a coma. She joined Luke to track down Jerry Jacks to find a cure to save Robert’s life.
In 2015, Holly ran into Luke and Laura Spencer searching for a kidnapped Lucky, and revealed Ethan had been abducted as well. They joined forces to rescue their kids from Frank Smith, and after making peace with Luke, Holly left for Australia with Ethan. But in April of 2020, Robert was stunned to receive a phone call that Holly had died!
While it seemed likely reports of Holly’s death were greatly exaggerated and just part of Peter August‘s plan to distract Robert, the guy was seen placing an angry call to his men to chide them for going too far. And when reports came in detailing that Holly’s boat had sunk while she was on WSB business, Robert remained suspicious and tried to investigate to find out what really happened to her. Coming up with nothing, Robert eventually attended Holly’s memorial where he was stunned to get a phone call that sounded like Holly begging him to come help her!
Robert went to Monaco with Olivia Falconeri to investigate, and when the WSB discovered the charred remains of a body that appeared to be Holly and with her ring, he accepted her death. But in reality, Holly was being held captive by someone monitoring her via a security camera! It was over two years before she showed up in Port Charles dragging herself out of the water with no memories of where she had been for all that time. Holly was stunned to learn that Luke had died and Victor Cassadine was believed responsible. However, while she was happy to reconnect with her friends in Port Charles, Holly was clearly keeping a big secret!
It was soon revealed that Holly was in fact working for Victor, as he had killed her twin sister, Paloma, and was holding her son, Ethan, hostage to force her to do his bidding. She was the one who had disguised herself in a mask to frame Anna for Lucy Coe‘s murder (she wasn’t really dead but in Victor’s clutches). Under the Cassadine’s orders, Holly drugged Robert so she could get her hands on the necklace containing the Ice Princess diamonds. After the cabin where she had been hiding out exploded, Holly was badly burned and taken out of town to recover… but it was all a sham! Her friends had actually helped make it look as though she’d been badly burned in the fire so she could be freed of Victor’s control. After returning the necklace to Robert, Holly left Port Charles to go rescue Ethan.
In April 2023, Holly was surprised to see Felicia Scorpio in Venezuela offering to team up with her to help save Ethan. They worked their way into Victor’s private auction where Ethan’s life was being sold to the highest bidder and nearly won but were outbid by a woman who turned out to be Tracy Quartermaine! They managed to escape the guards and returned to Port Charles. Rejoining Robert and Anna, Holly and her friends realized that Victor’s evil plan centered around biological warfare. Holly traveled to Greenland along with everyone else to stop the Cassadine from destroying the world. Holly intercepted Victor trying to escape with Obrecht and the pathogen, but he managed to give her the slip. However, both he and the pathogen were destroyed when the WSB called in a drone strike on The Haunted Star.
Holly returned to Port Charles with everyone and attempted to reconnect with Robert. Things got awkward when she planted a kiss on him and Diane Miller walked in on them! Holly was initially ready to fight for her love, but soon came to realize that she and Robert were in very different places and decided to leave Port Charles once again to help Ethan settle his debts.
Stay tuned to see if she ever comes back again!
