The GH Quartermaine we could have had.
Austin Gatlin-Holt spent his first few weeks on General Hospital just basically lurking — after he delivered Maxie’s baby, that is. Then he dropped his big bombshell: He was actually the son of Jimmy Lee Holt, and his wife, Charity Gatlin. Jimmy Lee was Edward Quartermaine’s illegitimate son, which made Austin a Quartermaine — one of the few remaining on the canvas. Fans were excited. Think of the story possibilities! We did. Shame the writers didn’t.
Austin Gatlin-Holt: Connect Four
As a Quartermaine, Austin (Roger Howarth) was Tracy (Jane Elliot) and Monica’s (Leslie Charleson) nephew, Ned (Wally Kurth) and Drew’s (Cameron Mathison) cousin, and a potential spoiler for every ELQ business story.
Was Austin here to take over the family company? Did he want revenge for how the high and mighty Quartermaines looked down their noses at down-home, good old boy Jimmy Lee (Steve Bond)? Was his helping Ava (Maura West) get rid of Nikolas’s body connected to that plan? What did Austin want? We still don’t know.
Because Cousins
There was also the whole super-secret dealings with cousin Mason, which somehow connected to Cyrus (Jeff Kober), which somehow connected to Drew, which, once again, brings us back to the Quartermaines. But nothing happened there. Nothing happened anywhere.
What Could Have Been
What if Austin had been a part of Tracy’s plot with Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton)? What if he was involved with Carly (Laura Wright) and her inside trading, not to mention her conviction that Michael (Chad Duell) was the ideal person to run ELQ? Much better than that silly Ned, who only has experience on his side.
Austin could have played one side of his family against the other. He could have been in cahoots with his dad, who wasn’t really dead like he claimed, or even his mom, who had plenty of reasons to want revenge. Instead, we got a legacy character…who mattered so little that his getting shot and left to bleed out wasn’t even worth a follow-up episode the next day.