General Hospital
From Hero to Diabolical Baddie! All the Reasons Why GH Took Drew Cain from Lovable to Loathable!
GH’s writers explain why Drew Cain went from Navy SEAL hero to Port Charles villain, and the Quartermaine reason behind the switch.
DREW CAIN BECAME GH’S VILLAIN ON PURPOSE, SAY THE WRITERS
TL;DR: Chris Van Etten and Elizabeth Korte, the minds steering GH’s writers’ room, explain how a decorated Navy SEAL turned into Drew Cain, Port Charles’ resident menace, in an exclusive for Soap Opera Digest.
The Quartermaines Were Short One Black Sheep
Every great soap dynasty needs someone to set the dinner table on fire, and the Quartermaines of General Hospital had run out of volunteers. Edward Quartermaine and A.J. Quartermaine once supplied the sparks, and with both gone and Tracy Quartermaine now running the household, head writer Chris Van Etten says the family had gone suspiciously peaceful.
Enter Drew Cain. Cameron Mathison’s character did not learn of his Quartermaine blood until 2017, which made him a blank-slate outsider sitting at the family table, and the ideal enemy hiding in plain sight. Fittingly, he is also the real son of Alan Quartermaine. Elizabeth Korte sums it up with one blunt line: “The Quartermaines needed an A.J.”
Was Drew always a villain waiting for the right spark? Email your theories to amber@soapoperamagazine.com, because we want every single one.
Willow Was The Point Of No Return
The affair is where Port Charles stopped rooting for him. Korte credits Drew Cain’s fling with Willow Tait, then wed to Drew’s own nephew, Michael Corinthos, at the time, with sealing his villain status and leaving him an outcast with his relatives.
Van Etten says the writers did not invent a new man so much as sharpen the old one. Drew has always had a heroic streak, and he also adores seeing himself as the good guy, so he treated Willow’s adoration as proof that he was one. Korte adds that his downfall grew out of qualities he had all along.
In the writers’ telling, Willow eventually saw through the shine. She shot him, injected a paralytic that left him locked in for months, and has since divorced him, keeping both her liberty and his seat in Congress in exchange for silence about his shady money moves.
Port Charles’ Most Loathable Schemer Is Nowhere Near Done
Do not wait for a redemption arc. Drew Cain recently pinned the disappearance of Jack Brennan on Willow’s own mother, Nina Reeves, and teamed up with Ava Jerome to pin the Pentonville attack on Sonny Corinthos. Lulu Spencer’s explosive article about Willow has him fuming, he has already settled on his own angle for handling it, and he is waving boarding school over his daughter Scout Cain’s head whenever the family meddles.
Here is the delicious part. The Quartermaines wanted an A.J., and A.J. fell to a shot fired by Sonny. Now Drew is busy framing the very man who fired it. If the writers are following the black sheep playbook to the letter, how long before Sonny’s trouble boomerangs back to Drew’s door?
Which Drew moment made you stop rooting for him? Tell us in the comments below, we are dying to hear it!
Long Live The Loathable
Port Charles may despise him, but a great villain keeps the whole canvas spinning, and Drew is spinning it fast.
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