General Hospital 'What If' For the Week of March 23: Memory-mapping claimed 'Nathan'

General Hospital's memory-mapping story could be making a comeback in the form of Nathan West — or at least the man who claims to be Nathan West. He looks like Nathan, sounds like Nathan, and even (sometimes) acts like Nathan, but there is something amiss here and we think we have figured out what it is. What if 'Nathan' only thinks he is Nathan?

A memory-mapping memory refresher

Anna thought that Peter was her son | Image: JPI

Who can forget the memory-mapping story from about eight years ago when the real Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) returned to Port Charles and the man who had been calling himself Jason Morgan was really his long-lost, never-before-heard-of twin, Drew Cain (then played by the late Billy Miller)? For a few years, Drew lived his life as Jason and was married to Sam (Kelly Monaco). They raised Danny together, welcomed Scout into the world, and then he decided he didn't want to be Sonny's (Maurice Benard) enforcer anymore, so he and Sam founded Aurora Media.

On the night of their launch party at the Metro Court, the real Jason came crashing through the skylight, and Sam wasn't sure which man was her husband. We eventually learned that Susan Moore had given birth to two sons and had given one away to Betsy Frank, who was also raising Heather Webber's son, Bobby (later Franco Baldwin). A memory-mapping procedure developed by the WSB's Dr. Andre Maddox (Anthony Montgomery) had taken Jason's memories and implanted them into Drew.

More memory-mapping madness

Nina could hardly believe that Nathan was alive | Image: ABC

The memory-mapping also took hold of Anna Devane (Finola Hughes), who distinctly remembered giving birth to Cesar Faison's (Anders Hove) child while she was a young woman in WSB training. She believed she had given the child up for adoption, but Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) took him and gave him to Faison to raise. That child grew up to be Peter August (Wes Ramsey), but it turned out that he was Anna's nephew, as her twin sister, Alex, had given birth to Peter. Anna had been implanted with those memories, which is why she believed that Peter was her son.

And what do both of these memory-mapping tales have in common? Cesar Faison and Peter August. It was Faison who shot Jason and kicked him into the river in 2012 and it was Peter who placed him in a Russian clinic and made sure his memories ended up in Drew. Since memory-mapping was the brainchild (so to speak) of Faison, then why wouldn't the technology be used on his own son(s)?

A fourth child for General Hospital's Faison

Did Liesl have two of Faison's sons? | Image: JPI

When Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) quickly mentioned to Josslyn (Eden McCoy) that her father had four children and that his brain was in a jar, it sent the wheels turning in the General Hospital fandom's head. We immediately did a quick count and came up with three kids: Britt, Nathan (Ryan Paevey), and Peter. Who was the fourth? We think that it is Nathan's brother, a twin we have never heard of before.

If Liesl gave birth to two sons (maybe even without knowing), could this man calling himself Nathan be a son she never knew? Could he have ended up as a test subject for his father and brother's insane memory project? Maybe it wasn't Faison's brain in a jar right after he died, but instead it was Nathan's. After all, Nathan and Faison were both killed in the same shootout.

That would explain why 'Nathan' has all of the real Nathan's memories and just some of his feelings. That was one part of the memory-mapping experiment that seemed to be hit or miss. Some of the other person's feelings were awoken by the implanted memories, while some were not. That would also explain why 'Nathan' has fallen for Lulu (Alexa Havins) so easily and seemed to be indifferent to Maxie (Kirsten Storms) and her plight since his return last fall.

That means the real Nathan West is indeed likely dead, and his twin is the man with whom Lulu is now involved. But would that make this man calling himself Nathan one of the good guys...or a danger Lulu should be wary of?

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