NIKOLAS AND EMILY
TYLER | NATALIA

Nikolas Learns The Truth
Soap Opera Weekly
July 13, 2004

Oops! Mary finally trips up this week on General Hospital and accidentally calls Nikolas by this real name.

"They're at home, and Emily has just left," sets up Tyler Christopher, who plays the dark prince. "Nikolas tells EMily he needs to talk to her, and Mary miscontrues that she's going to tell him everything, when in fact she doesn't. Mary attempts suicides again with pills and once she comes to, she just tells all. She can't take it anymore."

"Connor" is shocked to learn that he's really the long-missing Nikolas Cassadine.

"It clicks right away because it makes so much sense," muses the actor. "There is some disbelief, but deep down he knows it's true. He processes it all for a few scenes, and then hightails it out of there."

Instead of being relieved to learn who he really is (and finding out why he is so attracted to Emily when he's "married" to Mary), Nikolas is furious that no one told him the truth.

"He has a few people he needs to confront, starting with Emily," Christopher asserts, "and then Alexis, Alcazar, Lucky." Mary isn't off the hook, either. "He's justifiably upset with her, and isn't open to hearing any explanations. He's basically shutting everybody out right now. He hates them all."

With no friends, no family and still no memory, Nikolas turns inward. "He's very sarcastic, very condescending, and very short," Christopher continues. "Just very deliberate in letting the world know he's angry."

What Nikolas really needs is some more therapy. "He hasn't gone back since he found who he is," responds Christopher. "But that will be part of his furture - trying to remember.

Let's Help Nikolas Remember

1996: Nikolas arrives in Port Charles with his Uncle Stefan to help save his half sister, Lesly Lu, who needs a bone-marrow transplant. He reunites with his mom Laura, who abandoned him as a baby.
1997: Nikolas' romance with Sarah Webber ends when he's shot during a mob attack at Luke's. Nikolas suffers a stroke and is unable to speak.
1998: On the night of the Bacchanalia celebrating Stefan and Katherine's engagement, Nikolas shares his first waltz with a young Emily (then Amber Tamblyn). The night ends tragically when Katherine falls to her "death" off a parapet.
1999: Katherine, who had been whisked away by Helena, resurfaces and drops the bombshell that Stefan is Nikolas' father.
2000: After teaming up with Lucky and Liz to help Emily (was being blackmailed by Gia because she saw Emily leaving a rave with a strange guy), Nikolas falls for Gia. She moves into his cottage and they become lovers.
2001: Nikolas (then Coltin Scott) finally meets his biological father, Stravros, who was cryogenically frozen for years by Helena.
2002: At Nikolas and Gia's engagement party, Stefan announces that Nikolas will take over Cassadine Industries, and he leaves for Milan. Nikolas and Gia move into Wyndemere but then break up.
2003: Emily returns to PC and confides in Nikolas that she has breast cancer. She asks him to help her convince Zander they are in love so Zander won't have to watch her die.
2003: With the Cassadines on the verge of bankruptcy, Stefan returns to town and arranges a marriage between Nikolas and a girl named Lydia, whose grandfather's will stated that if she wed Nikolas, she would inherit a fortune.
2003: Emily reunites with Zander and marries him from her hospital bed, as she and Nikolas fight their feelings for each other. Nikolas files for divorce from Lydia.
2004: Desperate to hold onto Emily, Zander fakes his death in a hotel fire and frames Nikolas for his murder. Zander kidnaps Emily, but realizes her heart belongs to Nikolas. Zander dies in a bloody shootout with the PCPD.
2004: Nikolas proposes to Emily and they plan their furture together. A car accident leaves Nikolas presumed-dead, but he actually climbed out of the drink with amnesia and hooked up with a nutty war widow named Mary.