General Hospital's Avery Pohl Has The Inside Scoop On Ryan As Esme's Dad

"General Hospital" fans had suspected that crazed serial killer Ryan Chamberlain (Jon Lindstrom) might be Esme Prince's (Avery Pohl) father the first time she showed any interest in him at the Spring Ridge prison. But it was still an absolutely shocking and flooring scene the first time (and only time so far, as of this writing) an allegedly catatonic Ryan stood up out of his wheelchair, put his hand on Esme's cheek, and called her his daughter. The scene had already been filled with creepiness, especially when Esme called Ryan "Daddy" and then looked at him lovingly and said, "You like when I call you that, don't you?" He replied, "You know I do." (via YouTube)

Ryan started terrorizing women on "GH" back in 1992 when he was fixated on Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner), and she thought he was just a mild-mannered pediatrician treating her daughter, Maxie Jones. She eventually learned he was a sociopathic serial killer who went on to kidnap her other daughter, Georgie Jones, before being presumed dead for decades (via Soaps In Depth).

In 2018, the audience learned that Ryan Chamberlain had been alive since the 1990s when Port Charles thought it was free of him and his serial-killing ways. He was also walking around freely posing as his twin brother, actual mild-mannered psychiatrist Kevin Collins, also played by Jon Lindstrom. And Kevin was locked up in Ferncliff, a high-security mental hospital for the criminally insane. After Ryan terrorized the town some, becoming obsessed with Ava Jerome (Maura West) and killing her young adult daughter, Kiki Jerome (Hayley Erin), he was put back in prison and eventually developed a condition called Locked In Syndrome that rendered him unable to walk or speak (via Soaps In Depth).

"General Hospital" fans wouldn't see Ryan for months, but he eventually popped up at Spring Ridge Correctional Center where many began to suspect he was faking his illness, especially when newcomer Esme Prince began visiting him there and fans wondered if Esme and Ryan could be related (via Soaps In-Depth). Actress Avery Pohl wondered the exact same thing.

Avery Pohl had only been playing Spencer Cassadine's (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) mean girl girlfriend Esme Prince for a handful of episodes when she first shared scenes with Jon Lindstrom's Ryan, who sat in a wheelchair while only communicating via blinking for months with the help of Harmony Miller (Inga Cadranel), according to Soaps.com. She immediately suspected that Ryan might be Esme's father, so she simply asked if that was true.

"I remember reading those scripts — and I had no context for anything, this was within my first 10 episodes of the show and going, 'I kind of feel like this guy is my dad!'" Pohl told Soap Opera Digest. "I believe it was Gary [Tomlin] who was directing that day, and when we were blocking, I was like, 'Hey, is he my dad?' And he said, 'I don't know, I'll get back to you on that.' So, he tried to find me before rehearsal but it didn't work out, so literally right before taping, he goes, 'Oh, Avery, by the way, yeah, that is your dad.'"

Of course, those scenes first scenes in which the audience finally finds out Esme's relationship to Ryan took on a whole new level, making fans wonder what kind of relationship the father and daughter had. Pohl said that she and Lindstrom played it that way on purpose to show just how twisted their characters really are.

Jaws were dropped the day "General Hospital" fans got confirmation that Ryan Chamberlain apparently had a child during the years we all thought he was dead. That child also seems just as unbalanced as Ryan now that she is in her college years and secretly recorded Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) and Cameron Webber (Will Lipton) having sex, blasting it all over the web (via Daytime Confidential). Apparently, the disturbing undertones in the scene were placed there on purpose to keep fans guessing.

"The biggest thing Jon and I wanted to do was make the audience second-guess everything — and I think we're doing okay with that! I did end up watching them, and I was like, 'Oh. Wow.' Jon was fantastic, and before [we shot them] we got some information on what our characters' history was because I felt it was beneficial for us to be on the same page," Avery Pohl told Soap Opera Digest. "On set...I heard the director go, 'Avery, can you, like, caress his hand a little more?' And I was like, 'Yeah, sure,' and at one point, Jon and I were like, 'Okay, everybody, we need to get it out of the way, so on 3, we're going to say, '1, 2, 3. Ewwww.'"

That's what many at home were also saying, as the scenes were both riveting and cringe-worthy at the same time. As of this writing, Esme and Ryan have not had scenes together since March, but there are surely more surprises to come from this demented father-daughter dastardly soap duo.