‘General Hospital’ Spoilers: Did Sonny Really Kill AJ – Can Michael Forgive Dad After All?

Right now on “General Hospital”, the father-son relationship between Michael Quartermaine (Chad Duell) and Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) is in tatters and it looks like there’s no coming back from this rift. After all, Sonny shot AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan), Michael’s biological father after making no bones about the fact that he wanted the guy dead for a long time.

Sonny and AJ had been mortal enemies since Sonny took Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) and Michael away from AJ. And, let’s face it, AJ was not the greatest guy overall. In payback for his bio-dad’s death, Michael is trying to take baby Avery away from Sonny. Michael thinks it’s justice to take Sonny’s daughter away since he believes Sonny took his father from him. Seems like karma, huh?

But what if that’s not quite how AJ’s death went down? AJ’s ghost told Monica that the truth about what happened with him is long and complicated. “Sonny shot and killed me” is pretty straight forward, but that’s not what he told his mom. AJ survived the shooting and made it to the hospital for treatment, but then he died while still a patient at GH. AJ even woke up long enough to tell Carly that Sonny shot him, but what if he wanted to say more.

But consider this – once AJ woke up enough to start confessing things, it wouldn’t be a stretch that he would also spill the beans that Ava Jerome (Maura West) was the one that actually killed Connie Falconeri/aka Kate Howard, (Kelly Sullivan). We know Ava is both opportunistic and ruthless. Why would Ava run the risk of letting AJ blab her killer secret when it would have been easy for her to slip into his hospital room and finish him off?

Although it wasn’t show on the show, there’s a very good chance that Ava put an air bubble into AJ’s line, stepped on his oxygen line or even slipped a pillow over his face. Heck, she could have used Silas Clay’s (Michael Easton) hospital ID to steal pharmaceutical grade meds to slip into AJ’s IV bag to finish him off.

There’s nothing she wouldn’t have done to protect herself from Sonny, so it’s a distinct possibility. And even if Ava didn’t want to get her own hands dirty, she could have easily had Carlos Rivera (Jeffrey Vincent Parise) or brother Julian Jerome (William deVry) off AJ. Both are ruthless killers that would not have hesitated to finish off AJ to protect the Jerome family.

When AJ said that what happened to him is “complicated”, this would definitely qualify. But here’s the real question, once the truth comes out about how AJ actually died (at the hands of Ava Jerome or on her behalf), will this information heal the rift between Sonny and Michael. Granted, Sonny really did shoot AJ, but he was suffering a PTSD-like episode when he saw AJ’s hands around Ava’s neck.

Remember, he had a flashback to AJ choking out Connie not too long before her death. While Sonny likely wouldn’t have shot to save Ava, he was more shooting at the recollection of AJ’s attack on Connie. That’s 100% understandable and Michael well knows his dad is not the model of stability. And he had been messing with his bi-polar medications around the time of AJ’s shooting.

What’s sad is that Sonny truly believes he killed AJ and is wracked with guilt over breaking his promise to Michael. Sonny has already lost Michael and now, to be faced with losing Avery, is a harsh reality for a man who loves his kids so passionately, even his adopted son. Sonny has always treated Michael as a true Corinthos and he’s definitely the child of his heart. Even Morgan Corinthos (Bryan Craig) is jealous of their bond.

Surely that bond is strong enough to open up Michael’s heart to Sonny once the truth comes out that while Sonny did put AJ in the hospital, Sonny wasn’t the reason AJ died. To be fair, Ava would have kept coming after AJ no matter where he was – home, hospital, on the run – to try and cover up the fact that he knew that she killed Connie.

We know that Ava is still alive because her body hasn’t been found, so when she turns back up looking for Avery, perhaps the truth will come out then. Or maybe Julian knows the truth and may tell it to Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) during the custody battle. Likely only Ava, Julian and Carlos know the truth so one of them will have to tell someone for the truth to come out.

Fingers crossed it will be soon so that Michael and Sonny can be reunited and Sonny can have some peace of mind knowing he didn’t take AJ from Michael and that he won’t, in turn, have to lose Michael and Avery. For all Sonny’s flaws, he’s a great dad who would bleed for his kids (and has). The breach between Michael and Sonny is breaking my heart (and Sonny’s) so I’m hoping for a resolution soon.