GH Recap: Friday, October 20 – Esme Bans Spencer from Ace’s Doctor Appointment – Drew Shuts Out Carly

General Hospital (GH) spoilers recap for Friday, October 20, reveals that Charlotte Cassadine (Scarlett Fernandez) was perplexed over Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) taking her out of school early, but he brought her home for a surprise reunion with Laura Collins (Genie Francis).

That gave Laura a chance to quiz Charlotte about Valentin, Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) and the new house, but Charlotte didn’t offer up much of anything.

Laura could tell that Charlotte had been feeling isolated and was struggling to fit in at school.

After Laura recalled the difficulties of being a teenage girl, she admitted she made some big mistakes back then.

Charlotte looked encouraged over the fact that Laura had done bad things too and almost seemed to be on the verge of a confession.

In the end, Charlotte ultimately just admitted that she missed Laura and was glad to have her back.

At the Metro Court, Valentin caught up with Anna, who felt like a sitting duck waiting for her enemy to strike again.

Valentin suggested Anna had friends she could stay with since she didn’t like being alone in her suite.

Anna didn’t want to put anyone else in danger and felt guilty for inviting trouble through her past.

Valentin said this was about revenge and that it all started with Victor Cassadine’s (Charles Shaughnessy) will reading, so he insisted someone was going after her on Victor’s behalf.

At The Invader, Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) pointed out that she had proof of Judge Albert Kim’s (Kurt Yue) connection to Asher Alexander, the billionaire investment banker.

Alexis assumed Judge Kim didn’t report the trip and gifts on his taxes, so she suggested the conflict of interest and scandal of all this could hinder his career.

However, Alexis offered the chance to make all this go away if Judge Kim would just commute Drew Cain’s (Cameron Mathison) sentence to time served.

Judge Kim felt it was no wonder Alexis got disbarred when she pulled stunts like this.

After Judge Kim ranted about the blackmail, he said Alexis belonged in prison too and took off. Alexis felt like she’d blown everything by going for the jugular, so she vented to Gregory Chase (Gregory Harrison).

Instead of calmly negotiating, Alexis had jumped straight to grandstanding – and she felt that she did that because she missed being a lawyer so much.

Gregory offered a pep talk before Alexis got a phone call from someone in the federal building. Judge Kim had asked to pull Drew’s file and seemed to be reconsidering his sentence, so Gregory praised Alexis’ great work.

At GH, Spencer Cassadine (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) arrived and complained about having to find out about Ace Cassadine’s (Jay and Joey Clay) appointment via text from the doctor’s office.

Esme Prince (Avery Pohl) pointed out that an earlier spot opened up with Ace’s pediatrician, so she got Kevin Collins (Jon Lindstrom) to give her a ride.

After Esme said she assumed Spencer would be busy with Trina, Spencer reminded her that he wanted to be at all of Ace’s appointments.

Once it was time to take Ace back to an exam room, Esme insisted on going alone.

Spencer turned to Kevin for answers, so Kevin said Esme was asserting her parental rights – ones that Spencer didn’t have as Ace’s brother.

Although Kevin warned that Spencer may have to accept a lesser role in Ace’s life over time, Spencer refused to get on board with that.

Once Esme reappeared with Ace and confirmed that his checkup went well, Spencer suggested they should take Ace to Kelly’s to celebrate.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Baldwin (Rebecca Herbst) caught up with Drew in his hospital room and told him how all the boys were doing.

Although Liz suggested there might be a way to order more tests and delay his return to Pentonville, Drew didn’t see the point.

Liz offered to get in touch with Carly Spencer (Laura Wright), but Drew didn’t want her to go through watching him get led away. It’d be better for Carly to just find out after Drew was transported.

Soon after, Elizabeth watched the guards wheel shackled Drew onto the elevator in his orange jumpsuit.

At the café, Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) talked to Cody Bell (Josh Kelly) about being placed on administrative leave. Cody understood how frustrating it was to do the right thing and get the wrong outcome.

After Cody shared the news about Sasha Gilmore (Sofia Mattsson) deciding to move to Texas, he said he told her the reasons that was a bad idea. Dante thought Cody should’ve told Sasha that he wanted her to stay.

Cody suggested he made a mess of the conversation by talking about his mistakes and confessing that he lied about Mac Scorpio (John J. York) not being his bio dad.

Although Dante gave Cody a nudge toward telling Mac the truth as well, Cody insisted he couldn’t do that. As Dante left, he warned Cody that he was making things more complicated for everyone.

At the yoga studio, Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) wanted to be more than friends with Diane Miller (Carolyn Hennesy) and pick up where they left off, but she insisted on wiping the slate clean instead.

That meant Robert was back at square one since Diane didn’t want to fight for his attention anymore.

Diane warned Robert that this chess game was only between the two of them, so he needed to remember she’d take the board away and offer no more rematches if he blew it.

General Hospital spoilers say Robert will have to stay in line if he wants to move forward romantically with Diane, so stay tuned for updates on whether he can achieve that.