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General Hospital Promo- Vote

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage

Vote was a special stand-alone episode of General Hospital which aired on Monday, November 2, 2020. This special election themed-episode featured an ode to Port Charles women and highlighted the importance of elections, voting and women's voices.

In what is believed to be a first for the series, Josslyn Jacks and Trina Robinson are sent back in time Back to the Future style to experience the suffragette movement firsthand.

This historical episode celebrates the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage and the aftermath of the 19th Amendment. Thus, it featured an all-female cast and was written, directed and edited exclusively by women.

Storyline[]

Votes Suffragist 1920 2020

Port Charles Suffragists, 1920

The episode begins at Greystone Manor on Josslyn Jacks' 18th birthday. Her mother, Carly Spencer and grandmother, Bobbie Spencer wish her a happy birthday and are excited that she will finally be able to vote in the upcoming election. Carly and Bobbie are both shocked when Josslyn replies that she will vote 'if' she has time as she doesn't believe that her one-vote will really matter in the long run.

Bobbie tells Josslyn the story of her great-great-grandmother, Beatrice Eckert who was a part of Port Charles' suffragist movement. Beatrice played a huge role in securing and keeping the right to vote for women and she would want Josslyn to exercise that right. After hearing about Beatrice, Josslyn promises to find the time to vote.

Across town at the Jerome Gallery, Trina is working and visited by her mother, Dr. Portia Robinson. Portia helped the Port Charles Historical Society create a display on the women's suffragist movement and wanted to see how everything was coming together. Dr. Monica Quartermaine and Lucy Coe are also helping the historical society with the display. Lucy wants to make one change and feature real and historically accurate candles instead of fake ones.

Josslyn arrives at the gallery to see her best friend Trina who wishes her a happy birthday. Josslyn tells Trina about Beatrice Eckert and is surprised when Trina is able to find a photo of Beatrice in one of the history books. Both notice that Carly bears a striking resemblance to Beatrice. Trina and Josslyn decide to check out the inside of an old voting booth. They pull the lever in the booth, just as Lucy lights one of the old candles and soon both young women find themselves transported back in time.

Trina and Josslyn are shocked to find themselves back in time and dressed in old clothing. They are soon approached by Beatrice Eckert (Laura Wright) who asks them if they are lost. Josslyn wants to know where they are and Beatrice replies that they are in Wellington Square in Port Charles. They notice a poster on the wall and are shocked to see the date is November 2, 1920. A woman bearing a striking resemblance to Trina's mother Portia arrives and introduces herself as Dr. Priscilla Johnson (Brook Kerr).

Beatrice asks Dr. Johnson to take a look at Josslyn and Trina because they seem to be in shock. Dr. Johnson notes that their pulses are elevated but nothing is out of the ordinary. Trina comes to realize that they are really back in time and will have to move carefully so they don't mess up events in the future. Trina asks Dr. Johnson if she is excited to be voting for the first time. Dr. Johnson tells Trina that New York gave women the right to vote in 1917 and this is her third election. Trina says she thought there might be problems for African-Americans. Dr. Johnson isn't familiar with that term and Trina realizes they were called "Negroes" back then.

Trina is impressed that she is a doctor. Dr. Johnson thanks her and says she was inspired by her mother and was one of only a few women who went to Howard Medical School. Her sister helped form the Negro Suffragist Movement in her sorority in Chicago. Dr. Johnson asks if Trina is going to college and Trina says absolutely. Trina mentions how it must have been difficult.

Dr. Johnson says that society and the suffragist movement didn't always embrace them. She asks if Trina knows about the march in Washington, D.C. a few years ago. The police sat by and many people were injured or jailed but they marched forward anyway. The two discuss struggles with being black and voter suppression. Dr. Johnson says she is headed to the women's voting booth. Trina is surprised to hear there is a separate booth for women and Dr. Johnson says the town council believes it is more seemly if women vote separately from men.

Alice (Finola Hughes) arrives to celebrate with her American friends and help them open up the women's polling station. The group are stopped in their tracks when two of their colleagues, Eliza (Rebecca Herbst) and Josephine (Briana Nicole Henry) arrive and announce that there is a problem - the women's polling place has been locked. Bertha Halifax (Kelly Thiebaud) is responsible for locking the women's polling place as the building owners are behind on their mortgage. Josslyn and Trina begin to worry because they know from the future that these women are supposed to vote today.

Ada Hooke (Maura West) arrives and is glad to see the polling place closed. She opposes the women's suffragist movement because she thinks it demeans good women everywhere. Beatrice accuses Ada of being against the movement only because she is stuck in a loveless marriage and they get into a physical altercation. Ada warns that Beatrice will regret her actions and Beatrice ends up arrested and locked up in jail overseen by Mrs. Oberle (Kathleen Gati), the warden.

Back at Wellington Square, Lexy Brighton (Nancy Lee Grahn), the local leader of the Christian temperance movement, finds Trina and Josslyn and they tell her about Beatrice's troubles. Lexy assures them that she can help and leads them to assembly woman, Mary Butler (Leslie Charleson). Trina and Josslyn fill Mary in and want to know if she can help Beatrice. Mary is friends with the commissioner and heads off to speak with him on Beatrice's behalf. Mary is successful and Josslyn heads off to the jail to let Beatrice know that she will soon be free.

Ada shows back up at Wellington Square and Trina confronts her. She can't believe that a strong woman like Ada would be willing to give up her right to vote. After Beatrice is released from jail, she tells Josslyn that they need to hurry and get to the polling place. They arrive back at the square and Trina and Ada approach them. Ada tells Beatrice that Trina helped her see the light and there are more important things than their petty rivalry.

At the polling center, Bertha posts another notice that the polling place is closed and tells everyone to go home. Beatrice gets on a crate and gives an impassioned speech to the ladies gathered in the square about the importance of women voting for the next president. Ada arrives just as Josephine grabs a hammer and breaks the lock to get into the women's polling place. Trina is happy to see Ada who shares that she has decided to vote. Josslyn also shares with Beatrice that she now understands just how important exercising her right to vote is.

Trina and Josslyn decide they should try and return to their time. As they are getting ready to leave, they cross paths with Mrs. Oberle who warns them not to find themselves in her jail again. Trina and Josslyn make their way into a voting booth to try and return to their time in the same way they arrived in 1920. They pull the lever in the booth and are successfully transported back to 2020.

Back at the gallery, Lucy realizes that she accidentally lit the candle marked "time." She asks Josslyn and Trina if they are okay and shares that the time candle is special and once belonged to the Barrington family. The candle is said to hold supernatural properties and can open up one's inner eye. Josslyn and Trina surmise that they must have taken some sort of psychedelic trip due to Lucy's candle and then they head out to vote. At the polling place, all of the women of Port Charles are gathered to exercise their right to vote. They applaud Trina and Josslyn for being first-time voters.

The episode ends by showing a historical photo of the Port Charles Women's Suffragist Movement. Trina and Josslyn now appear in the photo alongside Beatrice, Priscilla, Alice, Eliza, Josephine, Ada, Lexy, Mary and other women in the movement.

Cast[]

This episode stars actors as different characters with similar names to their regular characters:

Trivia[]

  • The "time" candle that sent Josslyn and Trina back in time was first featured in the supernatural spin-off show "Port Charles".

Gallery[]

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