After a six-year absence, Nathan Dean is back in Port Charles. The actor, known to GH fans for the better part of two decades as Nathan Parsons, returned to ABC’s “General Hospital” on April 17, slipping back into the boots of con-man-with-a-conscience Ethan Lovett for the first time since September 2020.
Dean originated the role in January 2009, when Ethan strolled into Port Charles as an Australian drifter caught trying to pilfer cash from Luke Spencer’s Haunted Star casino. Rather than turning the kid in, Luke (the late Anthony Geary) saw a younger version of himself in the wisecracking grifter, and the show soon revealed Ethan was the secret son of Luke and longtime love Holly Sutton (Emma Samms).
Executive producer Frank Valentini told TV insider he has “a great story planned — with, of course, a few twists along the way,” and the writers wasted no time delivering. Ethan rolled into town leaving cryptic voicemails for a mystery partner named Delilah — who, viewers quickly realized, was the same pregnant stranger (Lily Cardone) that Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton) and Detective Harrison Chase (Josh Swickard) had found dying on a roadside weeks earlier. Delilah didn’t survive childbirth. Her newborn daughter, Phoebe, did.
Nathan Dean Teases New Storylines for Ethan After His Return to GH
Brook Lynn and Chase have been fostering baby Phoebe with hopes of adoption, but a May 5 scene in which Ethan met the baby at the Quartermaine mansion — watch him try to keep a poker face when Brook Lynn casually dropped the birth mother’s name — has fans bracing for a paternity bombshell. In a May 13 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Dean shed some light on what we can expect from his character.
“This is a stronger relationship than we’ve seen Ethan have or he wouldn’t be burning her photo and doing all of these things,” Dean said about Ethan’s relationship with Delilah. “Obviously, there is a lot more to this relationship than we know about or that Ethan is willing to talk about.”
Ethan is also looking to work for Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), a slight surprise considering their history. The mob boss once put a hit on Ethan over a misunderstanding involving Sonny’s daughter Kristina and her abusive boyfriend, but the two men have since shared an uneasy fondness rooted in Sonny’s old friendship with Luke.
“He came into Port Charles with the mentality of, ‘I’m going to keep you safe, Delilah,’ and then he immediately goes to work for the mob boss in town? I think that was very deliberate,” Dean told SOD. “That’s about needing protection from someone. He’s establishing a built-in army because he knows Sonny will go to war if someone comes at him. Ethan’s thinking, ‘Let me put myself behind that fence, because that’s the safest place I can be.’”
Will There Be a Reunion for Etna & Kristina?
Speaking of Kristina: the long-simmering “Ethanina” chemistry that fueled fan-fic for years without ever going official is back on the burner. A rekindled flirtation could complicate everyone’s lives — particularly her father’s — so expect some fireworks in the future.
In the show’s April 23 episode, Ethan turned up at the Corinthos compound floating the idea of steady work now that Jason is out of the picture. Sonny declined to put him directly on the payroll but offered an alternative arrangement, and the writers have since planted seeds that Ethan may be angling to get close to the organization for reasons all his own — perhaps revenge on Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota), the villain who nearly killed Holly, or possibly something stranger involving the WSB.
Either way, Dean seems to be settling in for a long stay — and GH fans couldn’t be more thrilled.
