Drew Cain’s (Cameron Mathison) actions finally caught up with him on General Hospital.
On the Sept. 2 episode of the soap opera, Drew was shot in the back at his house. Unbeknownst to him, Kai (Jens Austin Astrup) and Trina (Tabyana Ali) were also inside the home to look for evidence the congressman was using to blackmail Trina’s mother Portia (Brook Kerr).
After arriving home and pouring himself a drink, Drew looked at the engagement ring he had given Willow (Katelyn McMullen) and a framed photo of the pair. “It’s all gonna work out, Willow, you’ll see,” he said.
As he finished the drink, Drew was shot in the back and collapsed to the ground. With a shadowy figure standing above him, he was shot again and his eyes closed as he was lying on the ground.
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
Over the last few months, Drew has left the citizens of Port Charles reeling after blackmailing Portia, using his position as a congressman to spearhead the an attempted destruction of the Quartermaine family crypt and begin an insurance fraud investigation against Stella (Vernee Johnson), the aunt of his best friend-turned-nemesis Curtis (Donnell Turner), who is married to Portia.
Mathison, 56, told Soap Opera Digest his character’s villainous turn was leading to the shocking moment.
“Obviously, everybody hates me like crazy, but at the same time, they had to do that for the last four or five months,” he explained in an interview with the outlet published Tuesday, Sept. 2. “They can’t just have people not like me. They have to have people want to kill me!”
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
“You know, I watched Dallas back in the day, and in many ways, it’s very in line with the ‘Who Shot JR?’ story,” he told Soap Opera Digest, referring to the infamous 1980 Dallas plotline.
“I don’t care if you are the punching bag for all of Port Charles, you’re still the center of the story and that feels really cool,” he added.
It’s not the first time Mathison has played a troublemaker onscreen. Appearing on Live with Kelly and Mark in April, he said, “You know what, you guys? The only time I have ever played a character that’s been disliked this severely on soap operas in my life — and it’s been a stretch, almost 30 years — was when my character Ryan tried to break up Hayley and Mateo,” he said, pointing to the hosts.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos played the two characters — who became one of the show’s most popular couples — on All My Children. Mathison, meanwhile, played Ryan Lavery, and when he joined the soap in 1998, he ended up in a love triangle with the pair.
“Do you remember back in the day?” Mathison asked. Ripa jokingly flirted with Mathison and said, “Yeah, I remember that. Tell me what you remember.”
“I had a bus pull over on Columbus Avenue, and the bus driver got off yelling at me saying, ‘Stay away from Hayley!’ ” Mathison remembered. “I had people hating me! I’m like, ‘I’m a good guy!’ ” Consuelos defended him, adding, “I have to say the words! I have to say the script!”
Tommaso Boddi/Getty for Project Angel Food’s Lead with Love 6
But as for the reaction to Drew, Mathison said, “Now I get apples thrown at me in the supermarket.”
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General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC (check local listings).
