General Hospital Relationship Timeline: Jason And Sam

To their legions of adoring "General Hospital" fans, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) and Samantha McCall (Kelly Monaco) should still be together. 

She never should have broken things off. He never should have let her. She never should have fallen for Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna). 

He never should have decided he was in love with Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) since the 1990s, prompting him to marry her. She never should have let him. 

And he definitely shouldn't have followed Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) to Crete to help save her mother, or he wouldn't be presumed dead. However, all of that happened in the course of a year to an epic pair who were supposed to be each other's endgame.

From a love story that started as a favor in 2003 to nearly two decades of star-crossed romance and danger, Jason and Sam, known as Jasam in the social media world, remain one of the most popular pairs in "GH" history.

Let's take a look back at their relationship through the years.

Jason Morgan had already spent years as Sonny Corinthos' (Maurice Benard) best friend and mob enforcer and was used to being arrested. That's where he met con-woman Sam McCall when she was hauled down to the police station for her own alleged crimes, and sparks started flying. 

However, Sam began an affair with Sonny and not Jason. But, when Sam became pregnant with Sonny's child, he already wanted to resume his life with Carly, so Jason claimed the baby was his so that Sonny and Carly could be together.

Sam moved into Jason's penthouse, and the pair planned for the arrival of Sam's baby while they fell in love. However, happily-ever-after and baby makes three was not meant to be. 

As Sam approached her due date, Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) learned Sam was the baby she had given up for adoption as a teen and begged Sam to induce labor so her baby's cord stem cells could be used to save Alexis' new young daughter, Kristina, who was suffering from cancer. 

The fight over induction caused Sam to have a placental abruption, and her child was stillborn. Sam was devastated, and Jason was there to comfort her, but it took a long time for them to admit they should be together.

While Jason and Sam finally admitted they were in love with one another, his mob lifestyle kept getting in the way of their happiness while they used other people to hide their feelings for each other. 

Sam ended up sleeping with Alexis' husband, Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst), at one point, and Jason developed a relationship with Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), who became pregnant. For the baby's sake, Jason signed away his rights to Liz's son because he still pined for Sam.

Eventually, Jason and Sam realized they were meant to be and decided to get married. While they planned a large and elaborate wedding, they ended up ditching their guests and taking their vows in the garden of their favorite Chinese restaurant, wearing their signature black T-shirts. 

Then, it was off to the honeymoon, where things went terribly wrong.

Jason and Sam Morgan barely got a chance to enjoy their honeymoon because Franco (then played by James Franco) — the serial killer with a variety of last names who was reformed when a brain tumor was removed from his head — kidnapped Jason and locked him in a room. 

He left Jason with a video screen that showed him attempting to sexually assault Sam in her honeymoon bed, but the camera cut off before Jason could see what Franco really did.

When they returned home and Sam learned she was pregnant, she had a paternity test done immediately, and it revealed that Franco was her baby's father. Jason couldn't handle the news and left Sam. 

After Sam gave birth to Danny, she was told he died. But, months later, Jason found Sam's baby alive, and the two reunited, with Jason ready to raise Franco's child. 

However, the night they brought Danny home, Jason was called away on a mob assignment, shot, kicked into the river, and presumed dead.

Flash forward two years, and Sam now knows that the paternity tests had been switched and Jason was Danny's real father. 

But she goes on with life without him until a mysterious stranger arrives in town. He was in a car accident, couldn't remember who he was, and had plastic surgery so he had a new face. 

There was something about the man that Sam was drawn to, and she struck up a friendship with Jake Doe, as did Carly, Jason's longtime best friend. It was Carly who discovered that this man was really Jason and told him as he was about to marry Elizabeth Webber.

Sam couldn't believe Jason was back but that he couldn't remember her, so they fell in love all over again until his memories returned. That's when they remarried. Sam got pregnant; gave birth to their daughter, Scout; and planned to live a life free of Sonny, Carly, and the mob. 

But whoops! It turned out that Jake Doe was never Jason after all. He was Drew Cain (Billy Miller), Jason's heretofore unheard-of twin brother. The real Jason had been living in a Russian medical clinic for five years and finally made his way back to Port Charles.

Through the magic of fictional memory mapping, an invention all the show's making, Drew had been implanted with Jason's memories, so two men were walking around Port Charles remembering an epic romance with Sam, leaving her not quite knowing what to do for a few months. 

She finally chose the original Jason, and Drew went on without her. He was later presumed dead when his plane went down over Afghanistan. However, it turned out that Sam really did like living the non-mob life with Drew where her children were safer. 

She tearfully broke things off with Jason in 2020, he ended up deciding that he always loved Carly after all, and he married her when Sonny was presumed dead.

Of course, Sonny wasn't dead. Sonny returned just as Jason and Carly were about to consummate their marriage. Jason then left on an adventure to Crete to help Britt, a woman he had a one-night stand with. 

And, of course, Jason was buried underneath rubble after an explosion on Cassadine Island and is presumed dead in 2022. Sam is going on with her life with Dante as her new love and only seems mildly sad about Jason being gone. 

With Jason's death being a sudden storyline change because actor Steve Burton refused to comply with ABC's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, this soap opera death may stick — and the epic love story of Jason and Sam may really be over.