And no, it’s not just because the writers love to see Sasha suffer! 

Talk about a fake-out! One minute, it looked as if General Hospital‘s Brando was going to be just fine, the next he was coughing up blood, seizing and — much to our shock — dying! It was only the latest shock in the storyline which has seen someone terrorizing the people of Port Charles in general — and those close to Sonny in Particular — in recent weeks.

But from a storytelling perspective, there may be something even bigger at play happening. Because poor Brando may have found himself a chess piece being sacrificed as part of a much larger story which required long-suffering wife Sasha to be a widow

Well, let’s backtrack a bit. You’ll recall that before Sasha got involved with Brando, she had a steamy romance with Michael. The same Michael who is now married to Willow, who finds herself having his baby even as she keeps everyone in the dark about the fact that she has leukemia. But Willow’s plan to keep her condition under wraps until she’s further along in the pregnancy could have potentially fatal consequences.

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If Willow puts off life-saving treatments too long, she could find herself on the losing end of the battle… which would create a whole new set of problems. If Willow were to believe herself dying, she’d desperately want to make sure that Michael, Wiley and her as-yet-unborn child would be taken care of. And what better way to do that than by making sure there’s someone ready to step into her place once she’s gone?

Someone like Sasha.

While it’s hard to imagine that Willow would even consider pushing Sasha and Michael together under normal circumstances, the passing of both Brando and a few month’s time might make it seem almost as if someone Up There had a master plan.

The tricky part, of course, would come down the line. What if Willow successfully pushed Michael away from herself and toward Sasha — all while keeping him in the dark — only to later go into remission? It’s easy to imagine Michael, hurt by Willow’s actions, would struggle with feelings of betrayal. Especially if, by that point, he’s rediscovered the feelings he once had for Sasha.

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Right now, of course, all anyone on the canvas can do is mourn Brando’s loss. Sasha — already having suffered so much in recent months — will need good friends to lean on in her time of grief. Friends like Willow and Michael… even if doing so means unintentionally setting in motion a chain of events that will further complicate all of their lives!