General Hospital fans, this is not a Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) apology piece or an excuse for her actions. Willow is responsible for her own choices, and she’s made some incredibly bad ones. But her past really did make her the perfect victim for Drew (Cameron Mathison), and he knew that.
Now, Drew is more responsible for the current mess because he specifically targeted Willow based on her past. He doesn’t love her, and probably never did. He wants to control her, and her past set her up perfectly to be controlled and manipulated by a strong male figure.
Drew deliberately chose Willow
Why would Drew choose to go after his nephew’s wife? It always seemed a little strange that someone like Drew would pursue his nephew Michael’s (Rory Gibson) wife when, as a good-looking, wealthy, successful man, he would have a lot of dating options. I think Drew picked Willow because she grew up in the Dawn of Day cult, and he knew how easy it would be to manipulate and control her.
Long-time GH fans will remember that Willow was raised in the Dawn of the Day cult after being sold to Harmony Miller (Inga Cadranel) by her maternal grandmother. Willow was trained from childhood to obey a strong male figure. And when Harmony convinced her to sleep with the head of the cult, Hank Archer (Coby Ryan McLaughlin), she learned to associate submission with being loved and accepted.
Drew knew Hank Archer from his time in the military. He knew exactly the kind of man that Archer was, and he knew how Archer manipulated Willow. Because Drew is a terrible human being, he knew that he could manipulate and control Willow the same way that Archer did.
Drew is exploiting Willow’s insecurity and need for protection and peace to make her stay with him. He doesn’t want her to marry him because he loves her; he wants her to marry him so he can have full control over her.
Willow has regressed
After leaving the cult and marrying Michael, it seemed like Willow had been able to leave her past behind. With the help of Nina (Cynthia Watros), and even Carly (Laura Wright), Willow was able to learn to make her own decisions and be her own person. So why did she immediately crumble into a crying waif when she finally slept with Drew? Because Drew’s influence made her regress back to the mental state she was in when she was in the cult.
It makes sense that in a time of trauma, when she feels like everything is falling apart, she would look to a strong male figure to tell her what to do, since she was conditioned from childhood to look to Archer for help, protection and guidance.
Drew knew that he could easily break Willow down and control her, which is exactly what he’s done. Now Willow has lost her marriage and her kids.
Can Willow break free?
Drew knows exactly what he needs to do to keep Willow under his control. By manipulating the conditions around her and telling her what she wants to hear, he can continue to isolate her from everyone who might help her leave him.
It’s not easy to break free from the control of a manipulative person, and Willow may not have the strength to do it. Even though Nina and many others would help her leave Drew, Willow has to see how she’s being manipulated and want to leave herself.
When Willow lost custody of the kids, she had a total mental breakdown. That could have been a turning point for her. She could have realized that she lost her kids because of Drew, left him, and started doing the work to repair all the relationships she’s damaged by supporting him. Eventually, Michael would have let her back into the kids’ lives if she had done that. Instead, Willow decided to marry Drew, because Drew told her they should get married.
Willow is ruining her life. I don’t think right now she can face that she’s responsible for losing her kids because of her choice to be with Drew. So instead, she’s going to marry him and continue to make terrible choices.
Willow has too much invested in her relationship with Drew to admit that she made a huge mistake. And now Drew has convinced her that getting married will help her get custody of the kids again. I don’t think she can break free of him because ultimately, she doesn’t want to. It would be too painful for her to realize that she repeated the mistakes she made in the past by choosing Drew.
They’re both to blame
Willow is responsible for her choices, and she’s not a victim in this. However, Drew is an absolute monster who targeted Willow precisely because he knew how easy it would be to break her down mentally and control her.
The kids definitely deserve better, so even though the judge was bribed to give custody to Michael, I’m glad he has sole custody. There’s a small chance Willow could get it together and break free of Drew, but who knows when that will happen.
New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.
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