Things weren't all that exciting on this week's worth of General Hospital episodes – at least until the literal last minute of Friday! But as a whole, the week did have its moments.

Unfortunately, much of the focus was on a pair of intertwined storylines that I could truly care less about: Franco's big childhood secret, and whatever the hell greaseball Jim Harvey is up to with the Charles Street District.

Oh, also that alternative school dance, which is a great idea in theory but in practice just didn't hit for me. I did appreciate what they're trying to do with the bullying storylines, having Joss and Oscar stand up to the paintball-throwing 1980s bully cliché kid.

Much of this week followed the lead-up to Franco and Liz's wedding. These two are a couple that I really did enjoy at first. Now, however, they're feeling repetitive and stagnant more often than not.

I think a large portion of this is due to the fact that it is so beyond obvious that Franco didn't actually try to harm Drew when they were kids. The writing is all over the wall that it was actually Jim Harvey who hurt little "Andy" (and probably little "Bobby" too).

We already heard Jim lie about the fact that he wasn't there the day Drew fell down the stairs, so it's totally plausible (and likely!) that he's lying about a bunch of other things.

The fact that the show is just dragging this out for what feels like eons is really grating.

I thought we were bound to finally get the big reveal during Franco and Harvey's big confrontation on Friday when Franco should have been at his wedding with Liz. Instead, Liz was prepping to call the wedding off when Franco never showed, and Franco was stuck grilling Harvey and really getting nowhere.

I feel like we've been dealing with weeks, if not months, of Franco giving Liz a hug and looking extremely stressed out over her shoulder. How much longer does this need to go on? Please, let it end already!

At this point, I can't even bring myself to care whether Liz and Franco do stay together, or whether his continued lying (about something that itself may actually be a lie) drives Liz straight into Jason's arms.

Hey, stranger things have happened!

On another note, that hospital staircase scene between Franco and Drew was so bizarre and weirdly scripted. Even the way it was staged felt a little bit off. Did anyone else get that vibe?

And about the actual almost-wedding: Does anyone else find it so sad that Liz has hardly any friends? Maybe I'm still hung up on the Liz-Emily BFF-ship from way back when, but it was just Epiphany and Felix (and Kiki, who was admittedly "just tagging along") in the bridal suite. Yikes.

Speaking of Kiki in the bridal suite, what on earth was with her dress? Hideous!!

Beyond her dress, Kiki is having her own continued problems with her mom, Ava.

While it initially seemed as though Ava was sympathetic to Sonny's plight with his dad's dementia, she quickly pulled a classic Ava move. She agreed to drop the charges against Mike, to help get him released from the PCPD – in exchange for money for the damages and a sleepover with Avery.

If there was any question about whether this move was shady on Ava's part, that was pretty much answered by the fact that she lied to Griffin about what happened.

Not wanting to tarnish Griffin's, rose-colored-glasses view of her, she told the dashing doctor that Sonny granting her an Avery sleepover was his act of gratitude for having dropped the charges.

I understand why Ava would want to preserve Griffin's good view of her – particularly after her "I love you" went unanswered. But clearly, this is not the right way to handle the situation. And Kiki correctly called her out on that. What Ava did was manipulative and simply not right.

Is anyone else concerned for Ava and Griffin's future based on this lie and the fact that he couldn't tell her that he loves her too?

Of course, it's entirely possible that Griffin does love Ava and is just over-analyzing whether that's the case because of his general inexperience with the concent of love. On the other hand, it's possible he can't quite get to that "love" stage with her because, in some way, he still doesn't quite trust her. Which is justified!

To return for a moment to Mike's Alzheimer's story, I just need to once again applaud the wonderful writing and the stellar performances. I suspect I'll be doing so often for the duration of time this storyline continues.

What's so great about Mike's plot is that it is touching so many different people. Just this week, we were able to see Mike interacting with Dante, Michael, Sonny, and Carly. Max Gail has been doing a fantastic job evoking the confusion, fear, and anger of someone going through the harsh reality of an Alzheimer's diagnosis.

Similarly, everyone around Mike has turned in some of their best (and most heartbreaking) performances in years.

Morgan's death wasn't all too long ago, but Laura Wright and Maurice Bernard haven't knocked it out of the park like this since then. And it seems like the best is yet to come if the writers follow through and do this story justice.

I was particularly impressed with Laura's performance when she was forced to tell Rita the truth about Mike, and Rita decided to leave Mike to protect her own gambling addiction recovery.

I can't imagine that Mike will handle that well.

To briefly return to the topic of Morgan's death...

Nelle has gone full Heather Webber on us, and she's full speed ahead plotting a takedown of Carly in a warped attempt to "win back" Michael.

So far, it's not entirely clear what she's intending to do, but it somehow involves head games – and potentially making Carly think that Morgan is alive. That's my guess, at least, based on what Nelle paid the homeless alcoholic to tell Carly, Jason, and Dante near the site where Morgan died in the car explosion.

I keep wanting Nelle to be a better person, and she keeps getting worse and worse. We even found out this week that she stole the now-destroyed dress she gave Josslyn from the Crimson closet – not exactly a shock, but disappointing to hear confirmed.

My guess is that Nelle might lose her baby in the earthquake, or whatever took place during the final moments of Friday's episode, and that will send her truly off the rails. She'll likely continue to fake a pregnancy if that happens.

I'm nervous she'll try to steal Maxie's baby, but that also seems likely – it's been a good long while since we've gotten a classic baby-stolen-to-replace-dead-baby story.

Speaking of Maxie and her baby: Is anyone else totally loving where they're going with Maxie and Peter/Henrik?

It's a little soon to be delving into full-blown romance territory (Nathan died like a minute ago). But it seems like the writers are laying great groundwork for a nice, slow-burn Maxie/Peter romance down the line. 

The writers are building up their friendship – which was nonexistent before – and having Peter establish himself as (1) someone who truly does care about Maxie and (2) a confidant for his grieving, pregnant, widowed secret sister-in-law. Also, I'm a fan of the chemistry between Kirsten Storms and Wes Ramsey.

I'm looking forward to the juicy fallout when Maxie eventually finds out the truth about Peter's identity, especially if she's in love with him by that point.

While the writers are clearly setting up for a Maxie/Peter romance, the majority of romance on General Hospital involves the older set. Specifically, the "love sextet" going on between Anna, Finn, Andre, Alexis, Julian, and Kim.

This is getting more and more complicated, especially with the recent return of Andre.

Don't get me wrong; I've always like Andre, and his chemistry with Anna is great. It was just so comical that the writers brought him back in such a random, under-explained way. One minute, Anna was visiting him in jail to confide in him about her secret child with Faison.

The next, he was showing up in an alleyway with a throwaway line about Anna getting him released from jail by suggesting that the WSB restart their memory map program. Because it's definitely that easy to have someone released from jail!

Anyway, we already know that there are unresolved feelings between Finn and Anna. One glance at their brief scenes together this week could tell you that. Finn constantly looks like a blushing teenage boy whenever he runs into Anna. It's actually really sweet.

Of course, the #Fanna ship was complicated by Finn and Alexis's one night stand. I've already said, in previous reviews, that I preferred Finn and Alexis as friends. The two of them have a great rapport, but in my opinion, work better platonically than romantically.

And there's always the matter of Alexis still being in love with Julian, who is becoming more and more involved with Kim as days go by.

See? Complicated!

I actually like Kim and Julian (or "Charlie") together, and I think they have a lot of chemistry. Logically, if Julian wants a fresh start, it makes more sense for him to stick with Kim, who has no experience with his complicated, mob-involved former life. Instead, Kim is consistently willing to give Julian the benefit of the doubt.

But Julian is about as over Alexis as Alexis is over him. That is to say, not at all. I expect that something as big as the earthquake may be just what it takes to drive Julexis back together.

When we left off on Friday, the earthquake left many of Port Charles' residents in precarious situations in what will likely be drawn out all throughout next week.

Jason and Sam were together in the Quartermaine Mansion, with Danny and Annabelle the dog asleep upstairs. Odds are, the two of them becoming trapped together – especially if one of the two is injured! – will cause old and not-so-buried feelings to reignite.

Kim and Drew were with the kids at the alternative dance, while Oscar and Josslyn inexplicably went into the freezer (!) to make-out. Obviously, the teens will wind up being trapped in the freezer, and Kim and Drew will need to work together to save them.

Will that cause a few of Drew's old memories to shake loose? Probably.

Meanwhile, Franco and Jim Harvey were trapped together in Jim's office, where I'm hoping against hope that the truth about who pushed Drew down the stairs will finally come out.

We didn't see the rest of the cast precisely when the earthquake hit. But last we saw Carly, she was confronting Nelle over Josslyn's dress at Ava's gallery. If those two get trapped together, I'm imagining they'll somehow need to work together to save Nelle's baby.

And, of course, Liz and the rest of the wedding guests were still at the church, last we saw. I'm sure there will be some emergency for Griffin and the nurses in attendance to handle.

Stray thoughts:

• That gratuitous shot of Curtis shirtless while working out in PCPD lock-up was very much appreciated. Thanks, GH!

• Poor Oscar. That kid has absolutely no game if he thought going into a freezer to make out was a good option.

• I'm really sick of Lulu and her journalism career. I've already mentioned that I'm not a particular fan of this version of Lulu, but I find her sudden dedication to writing (and how easily it came about for her!) so annoying and unengaging.
  
  I don't at all blame Maxie for wanting to keep her distance. That also handily leaves an opening for Maxie's new closest confidante (Peter).

• While it certainly seemed like Friday's major event was an earthquake, did it maybe have something to do with whatever Jim is up to with his construction beneath Charles Street? I'm definitely intrigued to find out what Jim is looking for under there.
  
  Part of me is hoping that it's some sort of silly, over-the-top thing, like the Ice Princess of the 1980s.

• Baby Scout's 1st birthday party was so sweet! I particularly always love seeing Monica being a mom to Drew.

• The conversation between Scott and Kevin before Liz and Franco's almost-wedding was hilarious.
  
  Kevin snapping that Scott had slept with his then-wife (Lucy), Scott retorting that Kevin had done the same, and Kevin correctly pointing out that he had actually married Laura himself, long after Scott and Laura were married? It was all so good!

Caralynn Lippo is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.