Esme's Storyline on 'General Hospital' Just Got Even More Complicated

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the Jan. 31, 2024, episode of General Hospital.

After years of watching General Hospital, we still hadn’t ever met a character like Esme Prince. Portrayed by the wonderful Avery Pohl, Esme changed the world of General Hospital from the moment she stepped into it in 2021. She made her debut on Aug. 16, 2021, as an eavesdropping nurse who later introduced herself as Spencer Cassadine's (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) girlfriend.

Throughout the past two and a half years, Esme has become a fixture of General Hospital’s drama, complete with multiple fake deaths, an amnesia episode, and a villain to hero to villain arc. Now, it seems like Esme might really be gone for good as General Hospital confirmed Avery’s exit from the soap. But what happened to Esme?

Ever since Esme’s entrance, she has been bad news for many of General Hospital’s main players. She and Trina (Tabyana Ali) have been at odds since Day One, and while Trina may have won the guy, Esme found a semblance of happiness in her son, Ace, before he was taken away.

Esme first masquerades as a helping hand for Spencer, but she often goes too far, edging closer to evil than to good. She eventually gets a job at Spring Ridge, where she bonds with patient Ryan Chamberlain, who we later learn is Esme’s birth father. Throughout this time, Esme drugs Trina and frames her for releasing a sex tape of Cameron and Josslyn while also trying to split up Nikolas and Ava for Ryan.

As she gets closer to Nikolas, Spencer grows suspicious of Esme as his relationship with Trina blossoms. Esme and Nikolas sleep together, which leads to Esme’s surprise pregnancy. Two times, Esme disappears and is presumed dead or missing, but she reappears both times. The second time, however, she wakes up with no memory of her past life and is even surprised that she’s pregnant.

Before her second disappearance, Nikolas had Esme locked up for her and the baby’s safety, but when she returns, she has no recollection of this. She’s admitted to Spring Ridge and after escaping, she moves in with Laura, Kevin, and Spencer. Spencer sees Esme’s reformed ways and tries to help her raise Ace, but when Esme’s memories come flooding back, Spencer makes sure that Ace is safe with his father.

This obviously upsets Esme, who’s now love-spurn and childless. To get revenge, she hijacks Spencer and Trina’s yacht vacation, tying Trina up while using Spencer as bait to get her son back. Instead, when Esme threatens to drug Trina after already drugging Spencer, he jumps in between them and ends up going overboard with Esme. Both of them are presumed dead.

Sadly, the Jan. 31 episode of General Hospital in which Esme goes overboard may have been her last. According to Soap Opera Digest, Avery exited the show after her character’s presumed death. However, that could just be a ruse. After all, Esme does have a way of showing up again just when we think she’s gone for good. Plus, it seems like Spencer will return to the show, so why wouldn’t Esme?

But if it really was her last episode, Avery knew who her character was. When she first took on the role, she told Digest, “At the end of the day, my job is to help tell a story and to entertain people, and if people are entertained by the fact that they love to loathe me, then I guess my job is done!”

Because it was confirmed that Avery signed a three-year contract to continue working with General Hospital in 2022, fans suspect that Esme’s exit may have been a plot necessity to temporarily write off Spencer. At a certain point, soap opera characters’ storylines get as fleshed out as possible, and it may have just been time for Esme’s story to end.

Avery has yet to speak about her exit, but her onset bestie, Tabyana, told Digest, “We talk and hang out frequently, but I hate that I’m not going to see her at work. I’ll still call her every day but I am going to miss seeing her at work. The day that Avery left was a very tearful day. We all gave her hugs and flowers and gifts. It was a bittersweet thing.” Perhaps if it was “bittersweet,” Avery has something even more exciting on the horizon!