General Hospital Explainer: Elizabeth's Convoluted Reunion With Her Parents

For years, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) has been considered one of the pillars of the Port Charles community on "General Hospital." But that wasn't always the case. Ever since her first appearance in 1997, fans have been wondering where her parents were. Liz has been in so many situations through the years where her parents could have been there to comfort her, but they didn't seem to care. Her litany of life experiences includes being raped as a teenager, her five weddings, the birth of her three sons — Cameron, Jake, and Aiden — the supposed death of Jake, the death of her husband Franco Baldwin (Roger Howarth), and much more. These were all important events in which neither parent showed any interest.

Her parents are Dr. Jeff Webber (then Richard Dean Anderson), who left town in 1981 and married her mother, Carolyn Webber, off-screen. They went to help sick people around the world for Doctors Without Borders and had Liz and her sister Sarah Webber were dumped on their grandmother's doorstep in Port Charles as teenagers. Liz acted out at first but eventually found her purpose in life when she became a nurse and began working at General Hospital. She's finally reached the top as she recently became head nurse, but before that could happen, she had to deal with some issues from her past that she didn't know existed.

After Franco Baldwin was murdered by the evil Peter August (Wes Ramsey), Elizabeth Webber discovered that Dr. Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton) had shoved the villain down a flight of stairs, seemingly killing him. She immediately assisted in hiding Peter's body, only to later find out he was still alive — though he was eventually killed for real by Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner). Because they kept the secret, Finn and Liz started falling for each other. But strange things began happening to Liz, including her wedding ring turning up in random places, someone setting fire to Franco's art studio, and a picture he painted of her mysteriously appearing in her living room, among others. She even experienced periods of missing time and became concerned.

When Finn encountered Liz in a trance, he was able to get her to snap out of it, and she realized she was responsible for all the weird things that were happening. She went to the Shadybrook Sanitarium but soon left, believing she was fine. However, memories from her past started to surface, where she recalled seeing a woman falling down a flight of stairs in front of her after an argument. Liz got help from psychiatrist Dr. Kevin Collins (John Lindstrom) and drew a picture of the woman who turned out to be Finn's deceased wife, Reiko Finn (Mele Ihara).
Liz realized there was a connection to her parents, so she went to their house in California to see what she could find.

Elizabeth Webber snuck into her parents' house, unsure exactly what she was looking for. The two came home unexpectedly, and we saw that William Moses was portraying Jeff Webber, and the never-before-seen Carolyn Webber was cast with Denise Crosby. Angry, Liz demanded to know why they had sent her to Port Charles 25 years prior and hadn't spoken to her since. Jeff confessed that when he and Carolyn worked at Doctors Without Borders in the Mariana Islands, Finn and Reiko were also there, and he had an affair with Reiko. Liz then recalled seeing them together when she was 15, which resulted in an argument with Reiko at the top of the stairs. Jeff further explained that Liz shoved Reiko down the stairs. Rushed to the hospital, Reiko contracted Blackwood's syndrome while there and later died.

Carolyn, a psychiatrist, explained that she coached Liz on how to repress those memories, and they sent her away to avoid triggering them for her. Liz and Finn had been on the outs at this point, but when she returned, she told him the whole story of how she inadvertently caused Reiko's death years prior. Finn walked away from her to sort everything out while Jeff and Carolyn each went to Port Charles to continue to mend fences with Liz.

Elizabeth and Finn have since slowly gotten past their complicated history and begun dating again, with an unknown path ahead of them.