General Hospital Spoilers: Ric & Ava conflict, dark secret revealed

General Hospital’s Ava Jerome (Maura West) hit pay dirt when she discovered Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) and Elizabeth’s (Rebecca Herbst) car accident was caused courtesy of Kristina (Kate Mansi) cutting the brakes.

Now, we know it wouldn’t be Ava and Ric if they didn’t decide to take advantage of this tidbit with Ava deciding to blackmail Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) for some of that Cassadine money. What are those two really up to? Soap Opera Digest spoke with Hearst to get the tea on what’s to come.

Digest: On Monday’s episode, Ava showed him the footage that led them to realize that Kristina cut the brakes on the car in an attempt to kill Ava. How would you sum up Ric’s reaction to this?

Hearst: I think he hates to have been proven right about somebody. He even says, “This is gonna absolutely destroy Molly [Kristen Vaganos] and Kristina’s relationship.” But truth be damned between me and Alexis! I’m sorry, this girl is off the rails.

I think now, he’s definitely in the quandary of how this is going to affect his daughter, but it always goes back to, “Sonny [Maurice Benard] gets the attention. Sonny gets away with stuff and now his daughter gets away with stuff. Alexis will cover for her, my daughter is second best.

Does Ric feel a ounce of remorse for blackmailing Alexis given the two have just brokered peace between each other?

Digest: Ric and Alexis had called a truce in the prelude to the car crash. In light of that, does Ric have any compunction about signing on to the blackmail, or is that sort of a moot point for him?

Hearst: As the actor playing him, I was initially like, “Hmm, blackmail…” But I just try to lean into it and know that I have enough history about the character I play that it didn’t feel like a stretch.

I feel like it will be a very complex sort of dance that he’ll go back and forth with. Ultimately, I believe that he does have pause about it, but he’s more about getting her to come to his side and realize that my daughter is our daughter as much as Kristina is hers and Sonny’s.

From my viewpoint, I really love the story because so many characters are dealing with so many different of their own knee-jerk demons, right?

I’ve told you about what Ric is dealing with, and then there’s the element of Alexis understanding that Kristina did eff up — she did something that could have cost somebody their life, she let her impulsiveness get the better of her, and now what does Alexis do?

What would a parent do at that point? Do you protect them or do you let them fall and learn the lesson?

That’s a tough position to be in. And there’s genuine remorse — at least in the moment — on Kristina’s part. And Ava’s got to look out for herself as well, right? She’s definitely playing on Ric’s heart. She’s not trying to necessarily manipulate him completely for her own gain, she’s just like, “Look, come to my side. You know it’s the better way.”

It’s an, “I win, you win” sort of situation, and that’s one thing that they both get about each other. I’m really loving it because it’s, “How do you play it without the, the twisting of the mustache? How do you play that subterfuge or that subliminal message of having two meanings speaking to the same person?”

Will this new development in Ric and Ava’s relationship bring them closer?

Hearst: Yeah, I think so — but let’s just say they sleep with one eye open on each other. There’s that visceral, playful part of what they love about power and manipulation and for Ava, definitely money to a secondary degree.

I think that’s the aphrodisiac between the two of them, so I think that does bring them closer together. But I think ultimately, with what they know about each other, they can’t fully trust whether they’re all in with one another.

That question is always there, but it makes for something very exciting, and the thing I love about playing that with Maura [West, Ava] is that even though they’re in bed together, literally and figuratively, on so many levels, there’s always one foot off the bed, to make sure that they have their own balance.