Most Inexplicable Soap Opera Murder Of 2021 — General Hospital’s Franco Baldwin
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General Hospital chose to kill off Franco Baldwin in 2021 and we are still scratching our heads as to why. The character was popular, the actor was an uber-popular soap vet, Franco was in a pairing many loved with Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst), and the show wasn’t parting ways with Roger Howarth, who had been with ABC soaps off and on for nearly 30 years.
All they did was create a new character for him, have him reappear to deliver Maxie’s (Kirsten Storms) baby, and then have nobody mention he is the spitting image of Franco. That may be one reason why the character of Austin is falling flat, but what reason was there to kill off Franco?
General Hospital Spoilers – Enraged Fans When Franco Baldwin Died
Although we knew Franco’s brain tumor had returned, we figured a last-minute miracle would happen and he’d be cured. After all, he wasn’t getting any worse. What we did not expect was for him to kidnap Peter August (Wes Ramsey), torture him, and then have Peter turn around and shoot Franco point-blank in the chest. We still hope he somehow had a bulletproof vest on and faked his death, but at this point, that’s probably just wishful thinking. Plus, there was no reason for this to happen.
GH Spoilers Friday, January 3: A New Year, A New Beginning For Carly, Sonny, Drew…And Nina https://t.co/fDF1c6IfJY #GeneralHospital #Spoilers #GeneralHospitalepisode pic.twitter.com/JI0yOQxq1q
— SOS/CTS/HH (@SoapOperaSpy) December 31, 2021
GH Spoilers – Franco Baldwin And Elizabeth Webber
GH had spent years rebuilding this character after he got his start as a crazed serial killer played by James Franco. When Howarth took over the role, the show went to work redeeming Franco and used the infamous brain tumor defense to get him off for all those murders. After some trial and error with love interests, the show had a hit on their hands with Franco and Elizabeth and fans were invested in them. It felt like such a slap in the face to “Friz” fans who had rooted for this pair from the start and then had the rug pulled out from under them when the character had become beloved by so many.
In the end, we have a new character played by Howarth who the writers have no idea what to do with, as well as a floundering Elizabeth, who has absolutely no chemistry with Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton). And we still ask — why was Franco killed? Stay tuned to General Hospital in 2022 to see if they ever tell us.
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Is there any viable reason for any story line on canvas at this time. Killing Franco was unnecessary. When Liz finally found someone to be a father figure to her boys, just kill the character off. Initially felt Franco was not a good match for anyone on canvas, but his total persona was changed once he got together with Liz and contributed much to canvas. Since his return as Austin, he has done almost nothing and had no real story line of his own to develop the character other than fighting with the Q's and delivering Maxie's baby. Maybe Franco needs to have a twin (God forbid) but if this is the only way he can return, to Liz and the kids writers need to go for it. This is GH and anything is possible if writers wish it that way.