General Hospital could have utilized the character of Alexis Davis, played by three-time Daytime Emmy-winner Nancy Lee Grahn, solely as a lawyer as she defended Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) for the shooting of her husband, Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison). But the show, and Drew, gave Alexis some serious stakes in the case – get Willow exonerated or else kiss ever seeing your granddaughter Scout (Cosette Abinante) goodbye.
This may or may not have been a case that Alexis would have taken otherwise, but it was clear that the legal eagle was motivated to clear Willow not for just justice (especially as she’s guilty – but Alexis doesn’t know that) but to continue to play a role in the life of her motherless granddaughter.
Grahn balanced these two dynamics brilliantly in this storyline.
It was clear that Alexis didn’t care to expose Dr. Portia Robinson (Brook Kerr) as an adulteress or Jacinda (Paige Herschell) as a working girl or get her pal Tracy (Jane Elliot) to betray her late sister-in-law Monica’s (Leslie Charleson) grandson Michael (Rory Gibson), but Ms. Davis understood the assignment.
Once Alexis made her point, like when she got Jacinda to say that she was with Ezra Boyle (Daniel Cosgrove) and not Michael, she simply said, “No further questions, your honor.”
ABC
Just as Grahn’s an effective actress, so is Alexis an effective attorney. She’s not a doctor (and she doesn’t play one on TV), but Alexis questioned her witnesses with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.
Alexis held up a folder that read, “PERSONAL HOME SECURITY FOOTAGE CRESTVIEW LANE,” so that Tracy, while on the stand, could see it, tricking the Quartermaine matriarch into revealing that she did indeed see Michael the night Drew was shot. Very few people are able to bluff Tracy and get away with it like her late father, Edward (David Lewis), could, but Alexis is also on that short list of individuals.
In nearly every scene, Grahn continued to play Alexis as a woman who didn’t want to be doing any of this while at the same time still being the brilliant attorney that she is and getting the job done.
Once she had Michael on the stand, Alexis’s questioning was almost like shooting fish in a barrel. She knew Michael didn’t want Drew anywhere near his kids (can you blame him?). Once he admitted to that, Alexis simply asked, “And you’d do anything to protect your kids, wouldn’t you?”
With that, reasonable doubt was established. While Alexis kept her professional composure when questioning witnesses, she was clearly a woman whose last nerve was being worked by Drew, who insisted on testifying against Alexis’s better judgment.
Part of her wanted to let Drew hang himself on the stand, but that wasn’t going to get Willow exonerated and it wasn’t going to let Alexis see Scout. So, Alexis kept her demeanor professional while questioning Drew just as she did her other witnesses.
When Alexis questioned Willow on the stand, Grahn dropped the intensity that she had played when Alexis was examining others in the witness box. She softened her voice; Alexis spoke to Willow as if she were 100% innocent. If Alexis believes her client is not guilty, then the jury is more likely to feel the same way.
GH threw a curveball when viewers saw in flashbacks that Willow actually did shoot Drew. (How’s that for a twist? The young heroine on trial actually is guilty!)
Grahn gave viewers standout performances as Alexis both in the courtroom and in private moments as she grappled with doing Drew’s bidding so she could continue see Scout. Willow and Grahn have something in common: Willow’s guilty of shooting Drew while Grahn is “guilty” of commanding both the courtroom and our attention. Case closed!
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
