General Hospital‘s Brook Lynn Quartermaine, played by Amanda Setton, is a living reminder that payback is a bitch!
After Lulu (Alexa Havins) stuck her nose into Brook Lynn and Dante’s (Dominic Zamprogna) secret love child’s origins, Brook Lynn returned the favor and researched the fact that the late (or is that “late”) Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) had birthed Lulu and Dante’s son, Rocco (Finn Carr).
Setton plays Brook Lynn as a woman who can separate her animosity towards Lulu and her not wanting Rocco to get hurt. After all, he’s not to blame for his mom’s actions. So, Brook Lynn decided not to show Rocco the file that contained the information about his complicated birth origins.
Still, when Lulu found out that Brook Lynn had played a big role in Rocco finding out the truth anyway, she hightailed over to the Quartermaine estate to give her a piece of her mind. While Brook Lynn felt badly about Lulu’s son being traumatized, she was in no way going to let Lulu’s perceived hypocrisy pass.
Setton played Brook Lynn as being horrified that Rocco had found out that Britt was the woman who brought him into the world, but she refused to play Lulu’s punching bag.
“I thought you never lied to your children,” Brook Lynn stated, “that you didn’t keep any secrets from Rocco. Yet Rocco made it to high school without ever knowing that you didn’t give birth to him!”
Lulu countered that the details of her particular situation justified her remaining silent whereas she felt Brook Lynn was just a plain old liar. The Quartermaine heiress wasn’t standing for that.
“So, you and Dante deserve to tell your son the truth but I don’t have that same right when it comes to Gio?” Brook Lynn marveled. “Wow. Interesting double standard, you hypocrite!”
Brook Lynn showed that Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) isn’t the only skilled litigator in Port Charles when she countered that there were some distinct differences between her actions and Lulu’s.
“It’s not like I unearthed some big revelation that no one knew about,” Brook Lynn noted. “I looked into a matter of public record, unlike you who committed a crime by breaking into Martin Gray’s [Michael E. Knight] hotel room and his confidential files and spewing information that you had no legal right to know.”
No matter how many times Lulu shot back that what Brook Lynn did was reprehensible and invasive, Setton maintained her character’s point of view that the situations were far from the same. Rocco would have likely learned the truth as it was only a matter of time before some blabbermouth relayed the information to him. On the other hand, Gio’s origins could have remained secret forever.
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
“The difference is that Gio could have and, most likely, would have gone his entire life without ever knowing that he was adopted,” Brook Lynn shouted, “unlike Rocco, who absolutely would have found this out because everyone knows.”
Lulu, understandably, doesn’t see things that way. Again, Setton played Brook Lynn as not backing down because, as far as she’s concerned, Lulu was the one who started all this.
“Face it, Lulu, I didn’t hurt your kid,” Brook Lynn declared. “You did that all on your own by withholding the truth from him.”
Setton dropped Brook Lynn’s assertive stance when Gio appeared and wanted to know what all the yelling was about. She reminded us that Brook Lynn’s goal is not to hurt Lulu or Rocco, but to find a way to connect with her son. Like we said, payback’s a bitch – but Brook Lynn is not!
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC