General Hospital Performer of the Week: Rick Hearst as Ric Lansing

General Hospital fans have been missing Rick Hearst over the last month as Ric has been off-screen in Alexis' basement, spending his time drugged and on a gurney. Or at least we thought he was drugged, as did Ava and Alexis. However, Ric was putting on quite a performance, just as his portrayer did, earning him this week's Soap Central Performer of the Week honors.

Poor, poor Ric

Ric has been having a rough time of it on General Hospital | Image: ABC

It's not nice to keep a man taped to a gurney in a basement for weeks while plying him with sleeping pills. We even almost felt bad for Ric as Hearst made his predicament look so dire. But it turned out that Ric was never actually taking those sleeping pills. Instead, he did the ol' under-the-tongue trick and stashed them under the very hard and flimsy mattress he's been forced to lie on for weeks on end.

Hearst did such a great job at playing loopy Ric that we bought it hook, line, and sinker, just as his captors did. As soon as Ava (Maura West) was gone, we learned the truth because Hearst's face told us the truth, and that's all we needed. Ric was furious and exasperated, but he had a plan.

General Hospital's angry Ric

That rage came pouring out as Ric held a dagger to Alexis' (Nancy Lee Grahn) throat, which is a habit of Alexis' ex-husbands. Hearst put on a tour-de-force performance as a man who has been wronged by three women, after also wronging them. Ric thought he had the upper hand, but his desperation was also on full display.

Ava put a stop to his antics in her typical Ava way, before she and Alexis dragged Ric down to the basement once more, but this time they used handcuffs for the gurney.

When Ric woke and saw he was right back where he started, the look on Hearst's face and the panic in his voice made us laugh out loud. We could see the fury and resignation in Ric's eyes as he was forced to swallow that pill this time. Now, Ric would really sleep, with a ball gag in his mouth, of course. We can't wait to see what Hearst does with this story next week, now that he's back in the thick of things.

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