Ned Quartermaine didn’t do anything to get himself in the doghouse on GH.
Ned Quartermaine is in the doghouse with his wife Olivia on General Hospital when he did absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing Ned says or does seems to do any good because Olivia always wants to see the worst in her husband.
General Hospital: Ned Quartermaine Is Not To Blame
It doesn’t matter how many times Ned (Wally Kurth) insists he is not the one who tipped off the SEC to Carly (Laura Wright) and Drew’s (Cameron Mathison) insider trading debacle, Olivia (Lisa LoCicero) insists that her husband had to have done it and is just lying. After all, sainted Carly who actually did commit a crime is in trouble, and that just cannot be tolerated. Olivia is willing to put her marriage on the line to defend Carly, a woman who really did buy stock with knowledge about a merger that wasn’t supposed to be public, which IS a crime.
The audience knows that Nina is the one who had Martin Grey (Michael E. Knight) call in that tip, something Nina had every right to do, considering that Carly committed an actual crime. But, if Michael and Carly suspect Ned, then it must be Ned, no questions asked. Talk about not having any faith or trust in your spouse just to defend someone who actually did something wrong. Watching Olivia berate Ned despite how much he denies doing the deed is both ingratiating and rage-inducing — partly because this is a feature and not a bug in their relationship.
GH: Olivia Rarely Has Anything Nice To Say
It sometimes feels like Ned is always defending himself to Olivia for one thing or another, including being concerned about their son’s mental health. Yes, Ned can be blamed for his one-night stand with Drunk Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) a few years ago, but he and Olivia had already been fighting, and she had taken off to fight crime with Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers). Ned should have had faith in his wife, but Olivia had already spent weeks berating him over being rightfully frustrated with Brook Lynn’s (Amanda Setton) laziness and entitled attitude. Ned wanted more from his adult daughter and Olivia just wanted her coddled.
When Ned began noticing that young Leo (Easton Rocket Sweda) showed autistic tendencies, Olivia not only blew him off but she took him to task for even suggesting such a thing about their child. She finally came around only after Leo ended up down at the docks, where he could have been in danger.
Then, came the start of the insider trading mess when Ned knew that Drew and Michael (Chad Duell) wanted to shut him out of ELQ. He looked out for himself and conspired with Valentin (James Patrick Stuart) to make sure that didn’t happen, which tanked the merger with Aurora, causing a greedy Carly to lose her hotel and a whole lot of money. Since Carly was the one who was hurt, Olivia was furious. Never mind that her husband was about to be on the receiving end of a dirty deal with Carly’s current favorite two men. Ned had to be blamed and berated despite Carly making her own decisions.
That leaves us where we are now. Olivia is siding with a guilty friend over her own husband, as she has done before. She is just continuing her pattern of believing her husband is wrong about everything and making him feel small for actions of self-preservation. Ned deserves a wife who will not only support him but appreciate and believe in him, and Olivia is just not that wife.