The Women of GH -
Sam McCall; Petty Thief to Needy Bitch
Or How Redeeming a Character Can Sometimes Kill the Character
Sam, not Samantha, is intriguing
as she enters the canvas a feisty woman. She appears confident and very
decided; she is a petty thief whose grandfather is Wild Bill Hitchcock.
I liked Sam the salvage ship captain. Unlike the feisty GH character's
who have lives similar to mine and the people I know, Sam is different,
tough, edgy, can hold her own with the roughest of men, I imagine that
she chews tobacco with the best of them. Sam goes after what she wants
and doesn't take crap - or so I thought.
Sam's rap sheet reads almost like a gangster's - Arson, Murder,
Pick-Pocketing, Grand Theft Auto, Fraud, Bad Debt, Solicitation,
Trespassing, and more. She is the modern day Anna Devane (only on the
wrong side of the law), takes no prisoners - makes people trust her and
then screws 'em to the wall. But GH can't have strong women without men
so she "falls" for Jasper Jax and signs of her neediness begin to
appear. Someone thinks she needed a softer side, a love interest, I
think - not another needy woman.
Flip flopping she shows her tough side again when Sonny takes Sam
hostage. That night interests me. They're hot, sexy, and different. But
this ends with Sam's pregnancy. Sonny pushes her away and into Jason's
penthouse, where Sam is introduced to "family". Jason Morgan opens
Pandora's Box - showing her what a family that loves is like. Sam is
again "softened". Sam begins to believe, perhaps for the first time,
that her dream of a real family, all her own, could be realized. And
then the baby dies. The death of "Baby Girl McCall" is the death of
tough, edgy Sam McCall -and the birth of Sam McCall, needy bitch.
Sam loses her identity, and now she believes that she is nothing without
Jason, the only "family" she has left. She gives up her pride, her
self-respect, and her worth chasing after him. When offered a new
family, Alexis Cassadine, Sam is thrilled - for about two seconds. Sam
believes that she is not worth happiness, that her new family will leave
her too. So instead of grabbing hold of her new family with both hands
and not letting go she clings to Jason - a man who has been pushing her
away from almost a year. He let her go, she already lost him, so how can
she lose him again? Needy.
Recently, her tough side appeared, she wanted revenge on her new family
so began to slowly seduce Ric. But somehow, the feisty Sam, going after
what she wants, turns into self-destructing Sam. She sleeps with Ric to
(sub-consciously) make reconciling with Jason harder and almost
guaranteeing the destruction of her new family. Instead of a strong
woman screaming "screw with me, I'll screw with you" she is screaming
"help me, love me, need me" like a child, a spoiled child. She blames
her mother and Ric for her actions - takes no responsibility of her own.
When faced with her mother's cancer Sam is all about Sam. Someone
realized this so Sam is beginning to show concern for Alexis, an attempt
to "redeem" the character. Sam needs to be one or the other, either the
"petty thief" or the "needy bitch".
I know I preferred the petty thief.
Loving GH,
Elizabeth F.
