Austin, we hardly knew ya

Austin Gatlin-Holt (Roger Howarth) never showed up for Thanksgiving at the Quartermaines last year because he was shot dead. And that was it. Nobody even mentioned him again until last week, and Maxie (Kirsten Storms) wouldn’t even say his name. She only told Lulu (Alexa Havins) that she was with another man between Peter (Wes Ramsey) and Spinelli (Bradford Anderson), but she never bothered telling her who it was.

The fact that Austin was found dead was mentioned in passing about two weeks after his murder, but nobody seems to care to find out who actually pulled the trigger on the gun that shot him. Or, if they did, the writers decided the audience didn’t need to know.

Austin’s story finally seemed so promising before his fateful end arrived. We had just learned that his mother had an affair with Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober), and Cyrus had paid for all of Austin’s schooling. However, this left him indebted to Cyrus, who demanded he do his dirty work. Both Austin and his cousin Mason (Nathanael Grey) worked for Cyrus for years, and we thought we would eventually learn that Austin was Cyrus’ son.

The next thing we knew, Austin arrived home to his little house in the woods, walked into the living room, and was promptly shot dead. We have no idea who shot him, why he was shot, and why nobody at all cared that he was dead. It’s like Austin Gatlin-Holt never existed, and an entire storyline vanished into thin air. Hmmm…

General Hospital misplaced Scotty

Then there’s Scott Baldwin, who comes and goes like the wind. When the wind took Scotty away from us last summer, we never expected that he would be gone so long.

Jagger (Adam Harrington) ordered Scott to bring the pharmacist who switched Sonny’s meds to Spoon Island, but he had to get some snacks first. When Jason (Steve Burton) got to the warehouse where the pharmacist was being held first, all we saw were the contents of Scotty’s snack bag spread all over the floor, but Scott was nowhere to be found.

A week or so later, Ric (Rick Hearst) told Heather (Alley Mills) that Scott was called away on business and he’d now be her lawyer. However, nobody has even mentioned poor Scott since. He doesn’t even seem like an afterthought. Ava (Maura West) is not concerned. Lucy (Lynn Herring) is not concerned. Laura (Genie Francis) doesn’t care. But we care.

It’s one thing to pretend that an ill-conceived character with no real ties to the canvas, like Austin, never existed, but doing that to Scotty Baldwin is blasphemy. Scott has been a GH character for nearly half a century. The character was first introduced as a child in 1965. By the late 70s, he was a young leading man played by Kin Shriner and became Laura’s first real love.

Shriner has played Scott off and on since 1977 and is one of the most enduring and beloved stars in GH’s history. We are sure we will learn what happened to Scott eventually, but we hope there’s a good explanation and story that comes with his mysterious disappearance.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.