Did General Hospital Just Kill Off Austin? We're Not Buying It!

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. That's how it feels with the shooting of Dr. Austin Gatlin-Holt (Roger Howarth) on "General Hospital." On the November 16 episode, he had confessed to Ava Jerome (Maura West) that the evil Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober) had been pulling his strings, and that he lied about several things to protect her. Ava didn't believe a word he said, and West deserves an Emmy for her icy takedown of Austin. After she unleashed her rage on him, he went to detective Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) to finally flip on Cyrus, who had previously ordered Ava to be kidnapped so Austin would testify on his behalf and get him out of jail. After securing a plea deal that would prevent him from being prosecuted, Austin went to get hard evidence that Cyrus was the big bad. However, moments after he walked into his house, he saw someone familiar, and he was then gunned down mercilessly. 

Is this the end of Austin? We don't think so, and it's possible the sudser is trying to pull a fast one on us. Howarth has played three roles on "GH":  Todd Manning, Franco Baldwin, and Austin. Now that it seems he's received fatal gunshot wounds, we're supposed to believe that he's most likely dead, and the actor will become a new character yet again. But with Howarth reemerging like the phoenix twice now, it would seem that's what the sudser wants us to believe.

On November 18, a "General Hospital" fan posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which Roger Howarth discussed that he was grateful to have been part of the Franco Baldwin and Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) storyline when he played Franco. The poster later stated that it came from a Cameo video that was made by Howarth for a friend. The video hit the panic button for fans who interpreted it as him saying goodbye to Austin Gatlin-Holt. Fans went into a tizzy discussing whether or not he was leaving the show, and naturally assumed that since he's done it before, he'll come back again as another character. But we're not going to fall for that, although it might be what the powers that be want us to believe.

Killing Austin off would be a seriously missed opportunity, as his past has yet to be fully explored. His father was Jimmy Lee Holt (Steve Bond), who was the illegitimate son of the wealthy Edward Quartermaine (then David Lewis), so there's a lot of character history to be delved into. Also, his connection with Cyrus Renault, who paid Austin's way through medical school, still needs to be revealed in depth. And his great chemistry with Maura West has us believing that he and Ava Jerome have a fun relationship to explore. So, we're not buying that Austin is dead at all.