General Hospital’s rivalry between Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) is really heating up. Now that Sonny kidnapped Sidwell’s son Marco (Adrian Anchondo), Sidwell is out for blood. He wants to take Sonny’s property, business and family. But Sidwell’s plan to alienate Sonny from his family is not going to work, in my opinion.
Slap an AirTag on that plan
We learned earlier in the summer that Sidwell was the one who paid off Judge Heran (Tessa Auberjonois) to give Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) full custody of his children. But that seemed like a bizarre move, and many people were confused about why Sidwell would care about the Corinthos’ custody battle.
Now, Sidwell has revealed that his master plan is to get Michael to turn on Sonny by making it seem like Sonny paid off the judge so that Michael would get custody. Once it comes out that Judge Heran took a bribe, Michael could lose custody of his kids to Willow (Katelyn MacMullen). Furthermore, if Sidwell frames Sonny so that it looks like Sonny paid off the judge, Michael may become so upset that he’d turn on Sonny and cut him out of his life. That would make Sonny lose the thing he values most, his family.
If you’re having trouble understanding that, you’re not alone. That plan is so convoluted that Sidwell should have put a GPS on it to just keep track of it. Sidwell says he’s playing the long game, but that’s not a long game, it’s a cry for help.
Judge Heran
There are a lot of flaws in Sidwell’s plan, but the first and biggest flaw is that Judge Heran knows Sidwell paid her. She met with him at Wyndemere to tell him that she had done as he wanted and given Michael full custody. Sidwell told her that she would receive her final payment. How would Sidwell set up Sonny for making the bribe when the judge knows it was Sidwell?
Theoretically, he could have the judge killed and make it look like the deposits to the judge came from Sonny’s bank accounts or business accounts that were tied to Sonny. But without the judge, there would be no way to prove that she gave custody to Michael solely because of a bribe. So he needs the judge alive, and she needs to tell the police that she made her decision based only on the bribe. But if she talks to the police, will she also tell them that Sidwell was the one who paid her?
Frame Sonny
It’s safe to assume Sidwell knows a lot about laundering money. But he can’t just drop a random payment in the judge’s account and make it look like it came from an account tied to Sonny Corinthos. In order for Sonny to get charged for bribing the judge, there would need to be proof that the money received by Judge Heran came from Sonny directly or from one of his business accounts that he has direct access to.
Anyone who knows Sonny knows that he would never be careless enough to drop a bribe in someone’s account using an account that could be traced to him. Even if Sidwell could somehow find a way to tie Sonny to the bribe money, it would be a big stretch for anyone who knows Sonny, including Anna (Finola Hughes) and the PCPD, to believe that Sonny would be that sloppy.
Michael’s loyalty
Another reason why this plan is destined to fail is that if Michael lost custody of his kids, he wouldn’t blame Sonny, and he wouldn’t take it lying down. At this point, Michael is never going to hand those kids over to Willow. If the custody order was reversed because the bribe came to light, Michael would take those kids and flee the country. And Sonny would put them on his personal jet to do it.
Sonny has built a rock-solid relationship with Michael. Michael isn’t going to turn on his dad just because Sidwell tried to frame him. Even if he lost custody, Michael would never believe that Sonny bribed the judge because he knows that family is everything to Sonny. Michael would never believe that his father would risk Michael losing custody by doing something stupid like bribing the judge. It’s not going to happen.
Is this all Sidwell’s got?
Sidwell is supposed to be a huge global power player, but since he’s settled in Port Charles, he’s been more of a cartoon villain than an international crime boss. This plan of his to get rid of Sonny is laughable. Frankly, if this is the best he can come up with, Sonny is going to end up driving Sidwell out of town easily. So far, it seems like Sonny has been able to get the upper hand in every interaction he’s had with Sidwell.
Sonny really struck a hard blow when he kidnapped Marco and showed Sidwell that his family isn’t safe. Understandably, Sidwell wants to make Sonny feel the same way, but this plan of his isn’t very scary. There are too many variables that Sidwell can’t control, and I don’t think it will work.
Sidwell needs to go back to the drawing board or let Marco come up with a plan if he really wants to succeed in getting rid of Sonny Corinthos.
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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