General Hospital stuns as Drew Cain Quartermaine (Cameron Mathison) rolls into Monica Quartermaine’s (Leslie Charleson) memorial, setting off shock waves when no one wants him there. Drew seems unrecognizable these days, a far cry from the heroic Navy Seal that we met years ago. He used to be such a great guy.
So, did he just go bad for no reason, or is there more to it? With Cesar Faison‘s (Anders Hove) name dropping right and left, I got to wonder if he’s the one who made these awful changes in Drew happen.
We’re going to talk about whether Faison could have programmed Drew, whether he brainwashed him into being awful. And also when and how he might have done it.
General Hospital’s Drew Cain: A Mystery of Transformation and Potential Faison Influence
So obviously, we’re still waiting, all of us, to see if Faison is back to General Hospital. But there are plenty of red flags that either he is back, or somebody who has been influenced by him or worked with him is doing some sort of twisted experiments and antics. The same kind of things that Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and Nathan West‘s (Ryan Paevey) dad did for years on General Hospital. As for Drew, you know, he was such a good guy for so long. And now he’s like a lump of stinky cheese that nobody wants around.
Do you remember when it was exactly that Jason Morgan‘s (Steve Burton) twin went bad? I do. It happened towards the very end of Drew’s prison stay in Pentonville. It’s been almost exactly two years in September since Drew was beaten nearly to death while behind bars. And it looked at the time like maybe Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober) had set him up. But then he actually was the one who notified the guards to save his life. So that was never 100% confirmed. And that was about seven months after Britt supposedly died. But somebody arranged her death. And that somebody might have been her dad.
General Hospital: Drew’s Drastic Change
So, ever since that beating, Drew changed and he’s done just this night and day personality shift for the worse. He went from being a brave Navy Seal that Monica Quartermaine and others were proud to call family to being the most hated person in Port Charles. And none of the characters really asked why Drew changed. I think that’s because this is just a writing shift. And now they’re like retroactively maybe going to explain it.
I don’t think they put a lot of thought into it when it first happened, though. That’s my two cents. It’s possible that the horrible beating he got in Pentonville resulted in some sort of untreated traumatic brain injury that caused a massive personality shift, taking Drew from hero to less than zero. Or could be something more sinister, a real plot. Like maybe Faison or another villain got their hands on Drew and twisted him into this monster.
Unpacking the Clues: Shiloh’s House and Faison’s History of Manipulation
One flag that nobody’s really talking about is that the house that Drew bought for him and Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) is exactly the same set as the house Hank “Shiloh” Archer (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) was using for Dawn of Day. I mean, you know, if you don’t remember, it’s kind of interesting because Shiloh was involved in the memory mapping experiment that put Jason’s memories into Drew’s head years ago. So, is Drew in that house for a reason? Is that like an Easter egg for fans? Like, oh, look, this is where we’re going.
Faison was another person involved with brainwashing and memory alterations on General Hospital. If you don’t remember, really up until Drew went to prison for insider trading to protect Carly Spencer (Laura Wright), he was great. And fans have been wondering for quite a while how Drew went from that to the sleazeball we have now.
Faison’s Potential Return and His Sons’ Troubling Legacies
With the resurrection of two of Faison’s three kids happening back to back, we got to wonder if Faison is also back on our GH screens soon. We’ve got Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) stunned to see, Jay, that’s her brother James, as she calls Nathan, back from the dead. And he’s got no memory of the last seven years. We’ve also heard somebody, maybe Dalton, was experimenting on Nathan. And if it is Faison who’s back and he was willing to experiment on his own son, then I’ve got no doubt that Faison would tamper with Drew’s brain.
We actually mentioned in a recent video here about the red flags hinting that Faison could be the mystery boss working with Dalton that had Britt doing that research for, especially because of the official spoiler from a writer interview that said that the Faison and Obrecht clan was just getting started. So, if Faison is indeed alive after being presumed dead like Nathan and Britt it makes me wonder if he’s behind Drew’s terrible transformation from good guy to gross villain.
Helena Cassadine, Peter August, and the Echoes of Mind Control
Because if you remember, Faison worked really closely with Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers). And she once had Drew programmed to be her personal assassin. Originally, Helena wanted Jason to do her dirty work. But he had brain scarring, so the memory mapping and mind control wouldn’t work on him. And then Helena found out he had this twin and she used Drew instead.
Memory mapping was also used on Anna Devane (Finola Hughes). And of course, Faison had been obsessed with her for years. Anna thought for a long time she was the mother of Faison’s third kid, Henrik Faison, aka Peter August (Wes Ramsey). But it turned out that his mom is really Anna’s wicked twin, Alex Merrick (also Finola Hughes). So years later, Peter programmed Drew and was controlling him with a tarot card and some activation phrases.
If you remember, Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy) was desperate to control Drew the same way. But it never worked out. So, at one point, the programming that Peter did in Drew had been deactivated or put into remission, put to sleep, something like that. But it might be that Faison was able to get to Drew while he was in General Hospital after the beating.
The Manchurian Candidate Parallel: A Possible Homage in General Hospital’s Plot
Another scary thought with Britt and Nathan back from the dead is maybe Peter is alive too. I know a lot of fans would absolutely hate that. So it could be that Faison did dirty experiments on Drew, or maybe his son Peter, is back at it. But using his dad’s sicko science on the congressman. You know, Peter definitely is his father’s son. So Faison may have wanted Drew to be some sort of, you know, destructive agent of chaos to just wreak havoc on Port Charles. That sounds like something Faison would do.
And if you think about it, when Drew got out of prison, that’s when all this started. He was very different. He was darker. Everybody noticed it. And he’s been on a downhill slide since then. Have you ever seen that old Frank Sinatra movie, The Manchurian Candidate? There was a soldier who had been brainwashed to be an assassin. There were playing cards that were triggers. Just kind of a lot of similarities.
And if General Hospital writers have done this plot as some sort of homage to The Manchurian Candidate, all of it would kind of make sense. It would explain why Drew was hating on Jason even though Drew and Jason got close before the cave-in that happened in Greece. Plus, sacrificed himself to save Drew and Britt. I think Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) and some others with Drew now in Congress is definitely feeling like the stuff from that Manchurian Candidate movie. And if it is, you know, Faison could absolutely be behind it.
