General Hospital (GH) spoilers reveal that Ava Jerome (Maura West) has a mystery on her hands since someone took out Austin Gatlin-Holt (Roger Howarth) and sent her a disturbing memento. Ava received a picture of deceased Austin in the mail along with a chilling message that simply said, “You’re welcome.”
GH fans still don’t know who showed up at the house in Pautuck and fired at Austin, so that leaves the door open for plenty of speculation.
It’s possible the writers are just leaning into Nikolas Cassadine’s (Adam Huss) wicked Cassadine side, especially since he had a serious head injury that could’ve affected his personality and made him even more menacing.
Nikolas was already the kind of person who’d threaten to kidnap Avery Corinthos (Ava and Grace Scarola) and keep her from her mother, so it wouldn’t all that surprising if he got rid of Austin just to manipulate her.
However, we should also consider the possibility that someone else connected to Ava was responsible. Ryan Chamberlain (Jon Lindstrom) was one crafty character, so what if he managed to pull off the ultimate trick and is actually still alive?
It’s possible Ryan duped all the right people and somehow faked his demise. Ryan has come back to life before, so maybe he’s back to spook Ava once again.
There’s no denying that sending Ava an eerie photo and note would be right up Ryan’s alley.
Ryan was possessive of Ava, so he wouldn’t have liked the idea of her sleeping with Austin – nor would he have liked the kidnapping drama that Ava got caught up in. As far as Ryan was concerned, nobody could kidnap Ava and torment her but him!
Ryan might’ve decided to take Austin out and assumed she’d be grateful since her last interaction with him was one of loathing.
When you consider Austin’s reaction to the shooter, that bolsters the case for Ryan potentially being responsible. Since Ryan is Kevin Collins’ (Jon Lindstrom) twin, Austin might’ve thought he was looking at his colleague from the hospital when he walked in.
Austin had a rather quizzical response to the perpetrator and seemed more puzzled than scared, so that would be a reasonable reaction if he believed Kevin was there. If Ryan concealed the fact that he was missing a hand, he easily could’ve been mistaken for Kevin.
Regardless, the show sometimes likes to dive a little deeper in mysteries like this and deliver a surprise culprit, so there’s a chance Ryan has returned to mess with Ava once more!
General Hospital spoilers say Ava could get more clues now that she’s burned the note and photo, so stay tuned for updates as more news emerges on the case.
