Dr. Matthew Harmon of Port Charles

"I'm not Eric, I'm Matt."
- Dr. Matthew Harmon -

Synopsis
Page 2 - March 1998

Mike Corbin rushes to Ellen's apartment and sees smoke coming from under the locked door. He breaks the door down, finds Ellen unconscious on her living room floor, and carries her to safety. Ellen is admitted into General Hospital's emergency room under the care of Chris Ramsey, who promises to take special care of her. She is suffering from smoke inhalation and a concussion. Chris tends to Ellen and then leaves, but not before he surreptitiously tapes the intercom button into the "on" position.

Ellen is concerned about Matt, and Mike assures her that Matt is safe for now. They discuss plans to get Matt out of Port Charles, and they decide to enlist the help of Scott Baldwin, whom Ellen trusts. Scotty agrees to fly Matt to Canada and see that he is given a safe haven. Chris overhears the discussion on the intercom and learns where Matt is presently hiding.

Bobby Mancusi, pretending to be a Federal Marshall, comes to the emergency room looking for Ellen. Chris offers to personally take him directly to Matt. When they arrive at the house where Matt and Grace are hiding, Chris offers to go in with Bobby. Grace opens the door and tells them that Matt has gone. They enter the room. Matt emerges from a closet with a gun aimed at Bobby. He orders Bobby to his knees and directs Grace to get Bobby's gun and search him for more weapons - Grace finds a knife strapped to Bobby's ankle.

Matt holds Bobby at gun point, and Bobby tells Matt that he killed the Federal Marshall, and that he was responsible for almost killing Ellen in the fire. Matt decides that the safest thing to do is to call the Port Charles Police. Bobby tells Matt that one of his henchmen has kidnapped Ellen and her mother and are holding them hostage in Ellen's apartment, where they went after Ellen was released from the hospital. Bobby says that he will release Ellen and Alice only if Matt gives himself up. Matt agrees to exchange his life for Ellen's, but only on his own terms. The exchange must take place in a neutral place. They both agree that Bobby will arrange for the exchange and let Matt know the time and the place. Matt allows Bobby to leave. Bobby calls back and says that the exchange will take place at Westside Warehouse on the wharf. Matt agrees, but after he hangs up, thinking to keep her from putting herself in harm's way, he tells Grace that the place for the exchange is the Consolidated Warehouse, and he sends Grace to inform Scott Baldwin.

Grace arrives at Ellen's house and finds Scott and Alice there; Bobby's henchman has taken Ellen away. Grace tells Scott about the meeting at Consolidated Warehouse, but Alice says that she distinctly heard the henchman talking on the phone about Westside Warehouse. Scott and Grace quickly figure out that Matt lied in order to protect them from getting into danger, and they leave for the Westside Warehouse.

In the meantime, Matt and Chris are left at the house where Matt is hiding. Matt tells Chris that he will have to help him with the exchange and warns Chris only to do what he tells him to. Matt states that his brother only thinks he knows him and only remembers him as the 16-year-old that Bobby shot. Matt feels that he has an advantage over Bobby because he knows how Bobby thinks, but Bobby, not knowing the man that Matt has become, doesn't have a clue as to how Matt thinks. Chris appears to be terrified over the turn of events and readily agrees to help Matt. Matt sends Chris out to the hardware store and Chris returns a while later with apparatus that Matt says he will use to make a pipe bomb. Chris is shocked into silence, and Matt proceeds to make the bomb.

When Matt and Chris arrive at the Westside Warehouse, Matt sends Chris in first. Bobby is already there. Chris demands that Bobby let him see Ellen to assure that she is unharmed. A terrified Ellen steps out into the light. Bobby's henchman is seen hiding in the warehouse loft with a gun; he tells Bobby through an earphone that he will just wait on Bobby's instruction to shoot. Just as Ellen steps outs, Matt comes into the warehouse from outside. Bobby and Matt face one another. Bobby taunts Matt by calling him "Ironsides," and he tells Matt that he can do nothing from the wheelchair that he's in. He calls Matt "Eric". Matt replies, "I am Matt." Bobby tells Matt to come closer and that the exchange will begin. Matt, not trusting Bobby, suspects that Bobby has brought backup help with him. He tells Bobby to call off his henchman. Bobby motions Matt to come closer. Matt tells him, "You didn't think I'd come here without a backup, did you?"

As Matt moves closer, he unbutton his jacket and reveals the pipe bomb strapped to his chest. He tells Bobby that he has enough explosives to blow the warehouse and everyone in it. He has a detonator in his hand and his thumb hovers over the button. Ellen pleads with Matt not to do this. Bobby dares Matt to make a move; Chris begs him to please not taunt Matt, because Matt is capable of carrying out his threat. The scene is tense as the two brothers face each other.

In the meantime Grace and Scott arrive at the warehouse. Scott climbs up to the loft and he sees the henchman crouching there with a gun. Grace makes her way into the room where the others are and heads for the electric main switch, intending to cut off the electricity. The henchman sees a movement out of the corner of his eye and warns Bobby, just as Scott knocks him out and disarms him. Bobby sees Grace, and he starts shooting. Grace and Ellen are both screaming, and Bobby is shouting, "Die, Die." Matt ducks behind a dumpster of mannequin parts, all the while shooting in Bobby's direction. Suddenly all is quiet - Bobby and Matt come out into the open and face each other. Bobby fires at Matt and misses. Matt slowly raises his gun and fires at Bobby; the bullet hits Bobby in the neck, almost severing his carotid artery.

In a most moving scene, Matt, overcome with shock and remorse, unstraps the pipe bomb from his chest, and he gets out of his wheelchair and moves to where his brother lies mortally wounded, all the while saying "I've killed my brother; I've killed Bobby." Ellen has run over to Bobby, and she and Matt begin emergency steps to save Bobby. Ellen is all the while trying to comfort a distraught Matt. Matt is further distressed when he learns that Grace has taken one of Bobby's bullets in her chest. Chris is attending to Grace, and Ellen pulls Matt back to the task at hand, that of trying to save Bobby. They start CPR as EMS and the police arrive.



MATT IS DEVASTATED BY HIS BROTHER'S DEATH ... and his father places the blame for Bobby's demise squarely on his doctor son -- and Chris

Matt's life unravels as Grace and Bobby, his brother, are rushed to General Hospital after a shootout. Searching for answers about the "whys" of their relationship, Matt confronts Bobby as he lies critically wounded in a hospital bed. An angry Bobby says that their battle isn't about to end there -- and then his heart stops. Destroyed by the death of his brother, Matt attempts to set aside his feud with his father and informs him of Bobby's death.

His parents arrive in Port Charles, but the reunion turns out to be anything but a family united in the face of tragedy. His father lays into Matt with force, citing him as the cause of Bobby's death. Their argument builds -- and Ellen gets drawn right in to its center. In a fit of rage, Matt's dad drops the bomb on Matt: Chris set him up.

From Soap Opera News, March 31, 1998



Bobby dies during an emotional beside confrontation with his brother. Matt is next seen at the hospital chapel. He questions God, saying, "You're full of surprises, aren't you; I thought that the worse thing that could happen to me had already happened -- now this." Ellen finds him in the chapel and she sits with him and comforts him. Matt decides that he has to take on the unpleasant task of informing their father of Bobby's death. He calls his father and tells him that he, Matt, is alive, and that Bobby has been killed.

Matt visits Grace in her hospital room and he tells her that he has to confront his father. Grace wants to go with Matt, but he tells her no. She is still recuperating from the bullet wound that she received in the warehouse. Matt feels responsibility for this, and he states that he never wants to put any of his friends and loved ones in danger again.

Matt arrives at the funeral home and, while at Bobby's casket, he reminisces about their young life together and how he idolized his older brother, Bobby. He questions why Bobby had to cross the line and turn into a murderer. Matt's mother enters the room. They haven't seen each other since Matt was 16. Matt wonders why she allowed their father to bring up him and Bobby in the ways of the mob, and she admits to being controlled by her husband. She says that she should have taken the boys and left, but that she was afraid to; now she is left with one son dead, and one son in a wheelchair. She hints to Matt that his father has come to kill him.

Matt's father, Salvatore Mancusi, enters the room, walks up to Matt, and hits him hard across his face, saying, "You murderer!" Matt is unafraid of his father and confronts him with his past and asks him why his father had him shot by Bobby. Salvatore informs him that he considered Matt a traitor to the family. Ellen comes into the room and confronts Salvatore with the fact that Matt is now a talented surgeon and has turned his life around. When Salvatore pushes Ellen aside, Matt pulls a gun on his father. Holding his father at gunpoint, Matt tells him that he is tired of running and that he has made a life for himself in Port Charles. Salvatore makes a move towards Matt and Matt shoots towards his father's feet. Two of Salvatore's henchmen come into the room with guns drawn. Matt doesn't back down and continues to hold his father at gunpoint. "What's it going to be Pops," he says, "are we all going to die in a hail of bullets?" Matt's mother rushes to her husband's side, pleading for their lives. Slowly, Salvatore motions his henchmen to put down their guns.

As Salvatore Mancusi and his wife leave the room, he tells Matt that he is sparing him for a worse fate than death - betrayal by those he thought were his friends. He then tells Matt that Chris Ramsey sent him the picture of Matt and informed him that Matt was in Port Charles.


Continue to April 1998


Back to Title Page, Dr. Harmon


Copyright 1998 by Barbara Allen & Becky Miro

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