General Hospital: What was Pikeman?

On General Hospital, Director Ross Cullum’s arrival in Port Charles has us wondering if his presence is related to Pikeman. If you need a reminder of the details of the security group that used that term loosely, we have a digest-version summary for you.

General Hospital: A Quick Refresher on Pikeman 

Pikeman Security Group was generally known for its involvement in munitions, mercenary operations, and private military contracting — and managed to be legit and shady at the same time.

The Pikeman storyline began in 2022 when Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) pretended to be just an intermediary for the company when he went to Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) with a business proposal.

Valentin told Sonny that Pikeman wanted to use Sonny’s facilities to move merchandise through Port Charles without governmental or law enforcement interference. 

Sonny was told that he could either agree and get paid $10 million per shipment or they’d find someone else, and he would become their enemy. What Sonny didn’t know was that Valentin was setting him up to take him down. Ultimately, Sonny didn’t take the deal. 

Enter Jack Brennan

In 2023, the character of Jack Brennan was introduced (then-Charles Measure, now-Chris L. McKenna) as both the director of the WSB and the secret leader of Pikeman. It was eventually revealed that Jack took money from a botched WSB mission in the ‘80s that he was a part of with Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) and Jameson Forsyth.

At some point, Jack purportedly used that money to start Pikeman with Valentin — who told Anna it started around the time Victor Cassadine (Thaao Penghlis) was the head of the WSB. 

Both Jack and Valentin were aiming to use Sonny and then dispose of him. 

Meanwhile, Jameson Forsyth, supposedly under Jack’s orders, was sent to kill Anna and find the old files she had on him, which showed Forsyth was the one who botched the old mission, as well as his many other shady dealings. 

Forsyth burnt Anna’s house down and later retrieved the file from her apartment, but ultimately ended up with a toe tag in the morgue after mysteriously being killed in a hit-and-run. 

Jason Returns From the Dead

Unbeknownst to Jack and Valentin, a presumed dead Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) was being blackmailed by Agent John “Jagger” Cates (Adam J. Harrington) into working undercover with Pikeman for the FBI. 

Jason was supposed to be a part of Pikeman’s assassination plot against Sonny, but he successfully thwarted their efforts. 

Meanwhile, Valentin planted fake emails to try to frame Anna as the head of Pikeman.

Cates eventually went completely off the rails, and Sonny later killed him, but no one seemed too interested in solving that crime.

Brennan and Valentin In Charge

In late 2023, Jack Brennan was arrested and sent to Pentonville. It was soon revealed that Valentin was running Pikeman in Jack’s absence.

Supposedly, the WSB then enabled the FBI to disband Pikeman. Jack was released from prison, all records of his incarceration were wiped, and he was put in charge of the new WSB field office in Port Charles.

And that was when Valentin was made the fall guy — and went on the lam with Charlotte (Bluesy Burke). 

The French Connection

WSB agent Colette Moreau (Mercedes López Renard) was sent to find Valentin, but tried to kill him instead. Brennan sent her to The Hague after discovering she was a double agent who had previously worked with Faison (Anders Hove) and was currently working with Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and Pascal (Marc Forget) — and Cullum, too, but he doesn’t know that yet — to help them complete Faison’s final project. 

Valentin feels he was set up by Jack to take the fall for Pikeman and thought it was Jack who ordered Colette to kill him. 

In response, Valentin tried to kill him twice — once by strangulation and once by polonium poisoning. Carly ended up thwarting both of his efforts. 

Valentin was eventually arrested and sentenced to Steinmauer. However, he has escaped and is living in Carly’s (Laura Wright) attic while the two concoct a plan to bring down Jack together.

We’re not quite sure how any of this will intertwine with Cullum’s recent arrival in Port Charles, but with him there, and Valentin nearby, and Jack in between, we can bet that we’re about to find out.

What do you think? Is there something else you remember about the Pikeman connection? Let us know your thoughts!

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