Jason learns about the attempt to take out Sonny, but keeps the news to himself. Carly stonewalls Jax when he wonders why she's determined to attend the Black and White Ball at Wyndemere. Despite Jax's prying, Carly doesn't reveal her plans to draw out the killer during the festivities. However, Jason figures out that Carly is up to something when she insists that he accompany her to the ball.
Johnny pulls a gun on Trevor, demanding to be let out of the house in order to protect Lulu from his father. Meanwhile, the deranged Zacchara spies on Lulu at Kelly's. Ric puts the screws to Logan, as Luke and Scott argue about Lulu and Logan's relationship. Later, Luke breaks into Ric's office and finds his damaging file on Logan. But before Luke can make off with the goods, Ric catches him in his office.
Lucky asks Sam to be his date for the ball. Georgie is crushed when she hears Nadine agree to be Spinelli's date for the gala. When Liz inadvertently provokes Nikolas into a fit of rage, Emily has to step in.
Zacchara proves the depths of his insanity when he kills two of his handlers in cold blood. Johnny correctly fears that his demented father is after Lulu. Failing to convince Trevor to release him, Johnny knocks him out in order to get to Lulu.
Nikolas and Emily try to put on a brave face, but both know that something is seriously wrong with Nikolas. As the day of the Black and White Ball approaches, Zacchara spies on the two of them at Wyndemere.
Ric wants to do business with Skye, and bring down Sonny and Trevor in the process. Cementing their alliance, Skye agrees to be Ric's date for the ball. Jax decides to take Carly to the gala after all, and after things start to heat up for them, they make love.
Liz comes clean with Lulu, and the two women mend fences. Meanwhile, Carly continues on her dangerous course, as Lulu and Logan look forward to going to the ball together. After initially refusing Patrick's invite to the ball, Leyla changes her mind and agrees to go with him.
Wyndemere -- 5:00 AM
Nikolas says, "People say that I love you more than life. I never knew what that meant until tonight. Would you die for love?"
Next, Nikolas is shown lying on the ground with a bloody hand. He opens his eyes and looks around. He sees a mask on the ground and screams, "NO!!!"
11 hours earlier:
Nikolas knocks on the door and Emily welcomes him in. He tells her how beautiful she looks. She tells him he is even more handsome than the night of the last ball. He tells her he didn't show her the proper attention that night and he will make up for it. He just wants to make her happy. They both get emotional, as he tells her that he's afraid that whatever is wrong with him is going to kill him. He doesn't know how many days he has left with her, but he wants to spend them all with her. Will she marry him? Emily says yes. She would be honored to be his wife. She will help him raise Spencer and their own children. They will have a long and happy life together. He puts the ring on her finger and they kiss.
At the pier, Jason approaches Spinelli and asks him what's wrong. Spinelli is very freaked out and thinks he can't do anything without Jason's assistance and guidance. Jason reassures him that everything will be fine. He can't go to the ball, because he's got other stuff going on right now. Nadine walks down the steps towards the pier and compliments Spinelli by telling him he looks dashing. That's all Spinelli needed to boost his confidence. Spinelli introduces Jason and Nadine before Nadine and Spinelli head towards the launch.
While Alexis waits for the launch, Jerry walks over and tells her she looks lovely. She warns him not to crash the party, and he says he wishes he could go if he were invited. He just wants to make sure Nikolas doesn't hurt anyone he cares about. He would like to dance with her, also, though. Ric and Skye show up, and Ric tells Alexis to stay away from Jerry. Jerry says that the wind is shifting. This night could get a little messy.
Patrick and Leyla show up at the launch and see Robin waiting there as well. She is polite and says hi before she leaves. Leyla thinks that Patrick should go and talk to Robin, but Patrick explains that he invited Leyla so the night is for her.
When the first group arrives at Wyndemere, Alfred welcomes them in. He hesitates to let Jerry in, but Alexis gets him in anyway. Carly and Jax wonder what Alexis is up to. They are interrupted when Kate approaches them to talk about the magazine. Carly mentions how it was all her idea and Jax tries to change the subject. Kate mentions how she is worried about Sonny because she hasn't heard from him in a while. Carly tells her to get used to it. Meanwhile, Skye scans the group for Monica. She finds out that Monica won't be there because of an emergency surgery. Edward is also not going to come to the party.
Jerry talks to Trevor and asks if he will be in Port Charles for very long. Trevor says that he will due to business and his desire to be close to his granddaughter. Trevor takes a call where he finds out that Johnny and Anthony are missing. He is told that Lulu is probably going to be at the party and Anthony will be coming after her. When Trevor hangs up the phone, he turns around to see Lulu.
Back on the docks, Scott gets knocked out by Johnny. He takes Scott's invitation and mask. Scott recovers and shows up at the ball just as Luke is arriving. He tells Alfred that Luke knocked him out and took his invitation. Scott and Luke start to fight, and Luke ends up paying a man to make sure Scott doesn't get into the ball.
Georgie and Coop arrive at the ball, where she thanks him for being her date. She didn't want to go by herself. She tries to convince him to give Maxie one dance, but Maxie walks past Coop on Johnny's arm.
Alfred ushers all the guests that have arrived into the ballroom, where Nikolas and Emily come down to greet their guests. Nikolas announces that he is giving an endowment to General Hospital in the name of Alan Quartermaine. He wishes he could be there tonight so he could hear the announcement of his engagement to Emily. Everyone applauds while they kiss. Luke shakes Nikolas' hand in congratulations and Liz hugs Emily. Lulu comes over and also hugs Emily. Alexis congratulates Nikolas, and he asks why Jerry is there. She tells him he was going to come anyway, so at least he's there with her to watch him. She leaves, and Lucky comes over to congratulate Nikolas. Outside, Liz watches as Nikolas and Emily begin the first dance. Lucky comes outside and the two reminisce from the past parties at Wyndemere. The memory of the two of them dancing in jeans and tennis shoes helped both of them through some tough times. They thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, just like Emily and Nikolas think now. She thought their love would get them through anything. Neither one of them regret one moment they had together, though. Lucky asks Liz to dance, for old time's sake. Sam watches them from the shadows. They finish dancing and she says this was how they were supposed to end. They went full circle. They started dancing in the courtyard at Wyndemere, and that's where they are ending. Lucky leaves without seeing Sam. Sam comes out and tells Liz that she just played Lucky like a real pro. The two girls continue yelling at each other over Jake being Jason's child and Sam's inability to deal with it. Liz slaps Sam, and Sam returns with a punch. They start yelling and screaming while they fight until Lucky comes out and breaks them up. He asks what they were fighting about, and Sam tells Liz to come clean.
More people join in with dancing. Logan and Lulu start to dance, but Luke cuts in. Robin watches and Patrick and Leyla are together. When the dance is over, Scott comes over to Logan, Luke, and Lulu after Nikolas finally allowed him in. Luke says he had nothing to do with it. Scott mentions what a good couple Logan and Lulu make, but Logan isn't interested in talking to his dad about his relationship. Lulu and Luke leave. Scott tells Logan that girls like Lulu and her mother only come around once in a lifetime. Logan thanks him for his help with his second chance with Lulu.
As Lulu goes up the steps, Spinelli runs into her and tells her that he is there to protect his true love, fair Lulu. She turns around, stunned. He says he won't ruin her evening. They talk about Nadine, and Spinelli admits that she is wonderful. She's not the same as Lulu, though. They dance and swirl back into the party.
Logan is told that is date is in the study. When he goes to the study, Luke is in there. He tells Logan that Lulu may have come to the party with him, but she won't be leaving with him. Lulu walks in and asks what is going on. Meanwhile, Johnny asks Trevor if he has seen his father. Johnny knows he is there somewhere. Trevor thinks that if Johnny goes home, his father will follow him. Johnny says that his father is there to kill Lulu.
Carly texts "Where R U?", but Jax walks over and asks her who she's texting. She lies to him and says she is just checking on the kids. After she dances with Patrick, she gets another text that says, "I need to see u."
One of Trevor's goons talks on the phone and says they need to find Mr. Zacchara and bring him home. Jason comes from behind and puts a gun to his head. He wants information on Anthony Zacchara. The man tells Jason that Anthony is in Port Charles and the men that were supposed to go after him are now dead. Anthony killed them. He will kill anyone who stands in his way. Jason wants to know what Anthony wants.
At the Black and White Ball at Wyndemere everyone dances with their perspective dates. Lulu finds Logan talking with Luke alone in the living room and asks them what is going on. Robin watches Patrick dancing with Leyla. Sam and Liz start a brawl out on the terrace. Lucky gets between the two women who trade insults at each other. Emily comes out to see what the commotion is. Lucky takes Sam's side in the fight after Liz calls Sam a lying slut. Sam hints to Lucky that Liz is the liar and that they are the victims in all this since Jason and Liz betrayed them both. Emily takes Liz's side and yells at Lucky for not appreciating the fact that Liz stuck up for him in the mediation the other day. Nikolas shows up and surprises everyone when he gets in Emily's face and yells at her for how she was talking about his brother. Emily realizes he is having one of his episodes again and backs down and takes Liz over to one of the bedrooms to help her fix her hair and her torn dress strap. Later, Sam apologizes to Nikolas for what happened earlier with Liz and fills him in on what he did when he yelled at Emily for yelling at Lucky. Nikolas doesn't remember this episode like he doesn't remember any of his other psychotic episodes and thinks he is getting worse. Sam tries to reassure him that Emily seemed to be o.k. and probably knows he didn't mean what he said. Nikolas apologizes to Liz and Emily later on after Emily fixes Liz's dress and hair and tells her about how Nikolas has gotten some tests done at the hospital to find out about what is causing his violent episodes. Nikolas isn't sure he likes the idea of Liz knowing about his problems but they point out to him that he should tell Lucky about them also. Later, Lucky and Sam talk after the fight. Sam asks him why they are even trying to be in a relationship when love dies eventually.
Meanwhile, Anthony Zacchara roams around Wyndemere and sets out to kill Lulu, who he believes will hurt his son, Johnny. Johnny runs into Trevor at the ball while he is looking for Lulu. Trevor tries to persuade him to go home and wait for his father to come home. Johnny points a gun at Trevor and tells him to let him do what he needs to do which is find his father and stop him from killing Lulu at the ball. Trevor also has a run-in with Ric. Ric confronts his father about what Sonny told him, Trevor is running the business for Anthony because Anthony is too crazy to do anything. Trevor denies it and tells him he is trying to protect Johnny and help him. Ric doesn't believe him and tells him that two of Anthony's men were killed. Meanwhile Carly goes out onto the balcony to text message the killer to meet her at the ball. Jax follows her out there and asks her why she is outside. She tells him some lie about how she went out to enjoy the beautiful view. Kate waits around anxiously, hoping that Sonny shows up so she knows he is alive. Jax offers to dance with her but Carly cuts in on those plans. Kate ends up going out onto one of the balconies and Trevor finds her there. He warns her to go home and claims to still care about her happiness and safety. Kate tells him she is waiting for Sonny to show up. Trevor tells her that it isn't a good place for her to hang around and that is trouble is expected tonight. Kate tells him she isn't going anywhere. Someone watches Kate from afar. It ends up being Sonny after all. He tells her he was admiring the view which means her. They kiss. Meanwhile, Diane is in Sonny's office talking on the phone when Jason finds her. He asks her if she heard from Sonny at all. She tells him she hasn't but seems very much on edge. She ends up spilling her guts about her conversation with Carly even though it goes against attorney-client privilege in most cases. She tells him that Carly got some more text-messages which led her to believe that Leticia's killer is going to be at the ball and wants to meet her there. She warns Jason that Carly brought a gun with her. Later, Carly ends up showing up in the living room to meet the killer with her gun and hides when she hears raised voices. It ends up being Ric and Alexis fighting after Ric watched her dance with Jerry at the ball. Ric threatens to get custody of their daughter back if she doesn't stop seeing Jerry or spending time with him. Alexis dares him to do that and warns him she is a lot stronger now and will fight him and win in court this time. Ric storms off. Alexis tries to use her cell-phone but it doesn't work so she tries to call on Nikolas' phone but the line is dead. The power goes out and then Nikolas gets word that there is a storm coming their way and that the harbor patrol will be closing down the harbor. He tells all the guests that they will have to spend the night there at Wyndemere but assures them there are plenty of rooms for them to sleep in. Cooper gets a text message and excuses himself to Georgie, his date that he has to go take care of some business. He heads to the living room to talk privately on his phone and finds Carly there. Carly points her gun at him, thinking he is Leticia's killer. Alexis comes into one of the rooms and starts to scream at what she finds there. Anthony
Zacchara starts to mutter to his dead wife that he must protect their son from falling in love and getting hurt by Lulu so he will have to kill her. Johnny keeps running into Nadine, the nurse who is wearing the same white gown that Lulu is wearing and grabs her to dance with him. Johnny ends up finding Lulu and drags her outside to warn her that his father is somewhere at the ball and will try to kill her.
Robin talks to Maxie and Georgie about how much she misses Patrick and how hard it is to watch him dance with Leyla. Maxie and Georgie try to cheer her up and encourage her to enjoy herself and dance with all the cute guys she can find. Later, Maxie can't help herself when she sees Leyla standing near the refreshment table alone. She approaches her and makes some snide remark about how she stole Robin's man from her with her flirtations at the hospital. Leyla asks her why she cares. Maxie tells her she is Robin's cousin. Leyla tries to dismiss her and walk away. Maxie grabs her arm and tells her she isn't done talking to her yet. Leyla tries walk away again but Maxie grabs Leyla's pearl necklace around her neck and pulls it hard and breaks it. Maxie takes off as Patrick comes to Leyla's rescue. Leyla is devastated by what Maxie did and ends up crying over it. Patrick confronts Robin about what Maxie did and blames her for taking their break-up out on Leyla again. Robin doesn't know what he is talking about and lashes out at him for being so selfish. Later, Nikolas asks Robin to dance with him. They share a dance. Robin surprises him by asking him if he would consider fathering her baby for her. Later, Nikolas finds Leyla crying alone on one of the couches and approaches her. He thinks she is crying about being stranded there overnight because of the storm. He reassures her everything will be alright and that tomorrow morning she will be able to go home. Leyla tells him she isn't worried about the storm or about what could happen since she is a nurse. She hands him her broken pearl necklace and tells him that is why she is crying.
Wyndemere 9 hours earlier:
Sonny and Kate notice the power has gone off. They don't mind and Kate says it's overrated anyway. Sonny mentions how he almost didn't get back. Kate is very thankful that he's there and says she's right where she wants to be when he talks about the other people there for the ball. Kate reminds him that while she doesn't need to know about his business, it would have been nice if he would have called her to let her know he was ok. Sonny reveals that someone tried to kill him by blowing up his car. He had to lay low until Jason could come down to help him. He couldn't call because he was busy trying to play dead. She is stunned to learn that he was running for his life in Puerto Rico. She is even more stunned to learn that Trevor was the one that was trying to kill him.
Meanwhile, Carly holds a gun on Coop. She wants to know why he killed Leticia. She tells him that she got a text message from the killer asking her to meet here and here he shows up. He says he was working a text message he got while he was at the station. She doesn't believe him. Maxie comes in and asks what is going on. She tells Carly that there's no way Coop killed Leticia. Carly wants to know why she has such faith in Coop. Maxie says she has faith in Coop because she knows who he really is. She walks over and stands in front of him and says if he's really guilty then he can use her as a hostage to escape.
Lulu can't understand why Johnny thinks his father is trying to kill her. He finally gets an opportunity to reveal that his father killed his mother when he was just a little boy. One night years ago, Johnny and his mother had plans. His father wanted to do something with his mother that night and he was mad when she wouldn't change her plans to be with him. He was jealous of Johnny. He pulled a gun out and was going to shoot Johnny, but his mother ran in front of him and was shot instead. When Trevor got there, he told the police that there was a home intruder. Johnny is all Anthony has left of his wife now. He thinks Johnny and Lulu are dating and he thinks that Lulu will take Johnny away from him.
Alexis screams when she finds Ric, who has been stabbed by a sword. Johnny and Lulu come in and Lulu offers to go get help.
Sam goes off to try to find the generator. Lucky offers to help, but she tells him it's not necessary. He asks what is bothering her, and she tells him that she doesn't like the way Liz treats him. Liz interrupts them and needs to talk to Lucky. When they are alone, she tells him about Nikolas' rage and his outbursts. Liz goes off to try to find some flashlights. While she's wandering around Wyndemere alone, Anthony follows her. Meanwhile, Sam catches back up with Lucky and tells him that someone took an axe to the generator. Luke finds them and tells them about Ric being stabbed. He tells them there's safety in numbers.
Nikolas talks to Leyla about her broken necklace. He learns that it is a family heirloom and that is why she's so upset that someone intentionally broke it. Nikolas asks if Patrick defended her, but Leyla says that Patrick doesn't know. Nikolas gets upset and walks away. Emily follows him. Nikolas overhears Robin and Patrick fighting. He goes into a rage until Emily walks in and tells him to stop. When he does, Emily tells Robin and Patrick about the rage Nikolas has been experiencing and the black-outs. Nikolas was going to meet with another neurologist, but he wanted to throw her this ball so he put it off. Patrick mentions that he needs to get this taken care of, before charges start getting pressed against him. Nikolas comes out of his blackout and asks what happened. The last thing he remembered was talking to Leyla about the necklace. They are interrupted when Leyla comes in and tells them that Ric has been stabbed.
Logan tells Spinelli to back off. Lulu is missing and he needs to find her. Nadine tells them about the guy who thought she was Lulu. They danced together and switched dance partners so he could dance with Lulu. Logan is mad that she would do this, but she tells him it's a masquerade ball and she didn't see the harm in it.
Jason asks Max if the boat is ready. Max tells him that the coast guard has shut down the harbor, but Jason doesn't care. Carly has a gun and she's either going to hurt someone or she's going to hurt herself. He needs a boat to be able to get to the island right away. Later, Jason is speeding towards the island in the boat not realizing the boat has a bomb on it that is quickly counting down. Meanwhile, Jax finds Carly in the study with a gun on Coop and Maxie. He gets the gun away from her and asks her what she was doing. He tells her that there was a killer there tonight, but it wasn't Coop. He tells her about Ric being stabbed. Robin and Patrick are doing their best to try to get him to a hospital. She tells him about the text messages she's been receiving from the killer. He asks if that's why she wanted Jason there so badly. She says yes. And she still wishes he was there. Meanwhile, Luke tries to keep everyone calm in the ball room. Coop, Lucky, and Nikolas are going to go look for Liz and Luke is going to try to keep everyone safe and away from the killer. He doesn't realize that Anthony is standing right behind Lulu in the shadows. Meanwhile, Trevor tells Skye that he's going to do whatever he can to help his son. Patrick says it's not safe to do too much, though. Robin mentions that it's not looking good for Ric. He's lost a lot of blood. She faints into Patrick's arms, while Leyla watches from behind. Trevor tells Johnny that this is his entire fault. If he had gone home, his father wouldn't be here doing this. Johnny says that it is Trevor's fault. He should have had Anthony locked up years ago, but he knew he would lose his father. Trevor says he thought he could manage Anthony. Johnny says there's no way to manage his father. Johnny tries to walk away, but Logan comes up and approaches him for taking Lulu away. Johnny says he just danced with her, that's all. Logan says he grabbed her and then tried to kill Ric for his father. Back in the ballroom, Spinelli tells Georgie that he should have done something. Jason would have saved the day. He needs to be more like Jason. She asks him to stay with her and keep her safe and he agrees.
