General Hospital Spoilers: Carlos and Shawn Exit, Follow Senior Cast Departures – GH Going Off Air or Simply Rejuvenating?

General Hospital Spoilers: Carlos and Shawn Exit, Follow Senior Cast Departures - GH Going Off Air or Simply Rejuvenating?

This week, “General Hospital” spoilers report casting news broke that two more men are leaving the show. First, we saw Carlos Rivera (Jeffrey Vincent Parise) get shot to death – in cold blood, essentially – by Anna Devane (Finola Hughes). Not that Carlos didn’t have it coming, but it was pretty brutal and she didn’t stop at one shot – she filled him full of lead! So that puts Parise off the show and I, for one, will miss his scruffy good looks and lusty Latin vibe. Ah well. (Note – if you watched the Mad Men finale, you saw Parise playing a spiritual guru looking all California mellow!)

But now, “General Hospital” spoilers reveal that another Port Charles bad boy has been shown the door. Shawn Butler (Sean Blakemore) finished shooting his last GH scenes as of the last live episode on Monday. However, there are still some of his scenes pre-taped, so we will see Shawn for a little while more. This week, Jordan Ashford (Vinessa Antoine) will come completely clean to Shawn that she’s a cop and has been for a while. Shawn will, naturally, feel totally betrayed. Jordan will try to convince him that her feelings are sincere, but I can’t imagine Shawn will believe her.

The big question is how Shawn’s exit will go. He was arrested for Hayden Barnes’ (Rebecca Budig) shooting, but then it turns out Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher) had an assassin on the scene as well. If the bullet doesn’t match Shawn’s gun, he may be cut loose. “General Hospital” spoilers indicate that Jordan will turn to Scott Baldwin (Kin Shriner) for help. Will she try to use her undercover cop influence to get Shawn released? Or will his departure be because he was sent to Pentonville? Or will there be one last mob death coming to Port Charles?

And what will Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) do without Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan) and Shawn? Prior to the news of Carlos’ death and Shawn’s departure (for whatever reason), we also just lost Duke at Carlos’ murderous hands – compliments of Julian Jerome’s (William deVry) plotting. And, while we haven’t seen this yet, we know that Luke Spencer’s (Anthony Geary) final scenes are coming as Geary retires, leaves the soap for good and moves to Amsterdam. Plus we’re losing Wally Kurth – aka Ned Ashton – as he heads over for a stint on Days of Our Lives – another “older” cast member!

Some “General Hospital” chat boards have fans commenting and concerned that this rash of departing cast members means the soap is scaling down in preparation for going off the air. No!!! This is likely not true. Instead, they are probably moving “older” characters out to make room for new life blood. Realistically, you can’t have a romance-based show continue to be sexy and current when your leading men and ladies are in their 70s.

And if your leading females are menopausal, the accidental pregnancy storylines seem bogus. Admittedly, most of us watch soaps not for settled, happy relationships but the drama, steamy chemistry and bed-hopping that are the norm for most soap storylines. And GH just added young ‘un Brytni Sarpi as Valerie Spencer and there’s a recast going on for another youngish character – “General Hospital” gossip indicates it will be Sarah Webber – Liz Webber’s (Rebecca Herbst) sister.

Other signs that point to infusing more youth into the plot lines are “General Hospital” rumors that Rosalie Martinez (Linda Elena Tovar) will soon have a beefed up storyline – possibly as the long-thought-dead daughter of Sonny and first wife Lily Rivera (Lilly Melgar). Melgar flipped the credits on the May 15 live episode, perhaps as a nod to the future storyline where she shows up to reveal to Sonny that she and their daughter are alive.

While it’s sad to see Parise, Blakemore, Geary, Kurth and Buchanan leave the show, we do have a shakeup in storylines to look forward to – and hopefully the talk about GH going under is just idle chat! Come back to CDL for more General Hospital spoilers, news and updates!

Enjoy the General Hospital sneak peek video for May 19, 2015!