General Hospital: where has Lucky Spencer been?

Surprise General Hospital fans! Jonathan Jackson is back as the one and only Lucky Spencer, a role he originated back in 1993. Earlier in June, show executive producer Frank Valentini teased on the Daytime Emmys red carpet that a popular star was set to return to the soap’s canvas. While we guessed and held out hope he was referring to Bryan Craig who plays Morgan, which Craig is set to return for a one-day stint in August, Valentini was apparently teasing the return of Jackson.

As reported by Deadline, Jackson is expected to appear as Lucky on the soap later this summer and in some bonus good news, it’s been teased that his homecoming will kick off a "long" run.

Considering Lucky’s on-again-off-again ex Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) is currently on the outs with Finn (Michael Easton), and she has a Carly-sized problem in her way if she wanted to reconcile with Jason (Steve Burton), Lucky popping back up in Port Charles is rather timely. Although, we can’t say for sure Elizabeth and Lucky are destined for a reunion.

With all that being said, we decided to revisit Lucky’s last big storyline and his subsequent brief return to get a reminder of where viewers left off with the character. So without further delay, let's dive right in.

What happened to Lucky?

Earlier in 2011, Elizabeth was carrying on an affair with Nikolas (Tyler Christopher) and Lucky caught them in the act. Lucky was naturally outraged that she was cheating and even more because she was doing so with his brother. Eventually, Elizabeth learned she was pregnant with Aiden, and after some tears, tampering from Helena (Constance Towers) and heated arguments between the brothers, baby Aiden turned out to be Lucky’s son. However, that wasn’t enough to reunite Elizabeth and Lucky.

Months went by, and Elizabeth found herself desperate to get back together with her now ex-husband. In fact, she faked a mental health breakdown hoping to win his sympathies and convince him that he was still in love with her. Unfortunately for her, as the Christmas holidays rolled around he wasn’t convinced he could be with her again given their rocky past. He then stumbled upon a discussion between Maxie (Kirsten Storms) and Elizabeth, where the two ladies argued about Elizabeth pretending to have mental health struggles.

The conversation was enough to push Lucky over the edge, and he opted to leave town and go to Ireland to heal and find himself. Lucky’s departure effectively ended Jackson’s series regular run.

Now since exit, Elizabeth has mentioned that Lucky was seemingly thriving in Ireland. In 2013, his brother Ethan (Nathan Parsons) noted that Lucky had been doing some volunteer work in a country in Africa. Then in 2015, Jackson reemerged as Lucky for a brief stint as General Hospital said goodbye to the one and only Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). In the few episodes, Lucky managed to save the day as both Luke and Laura (Genie Francis) were facing death at the hands of Frank Smith  (Joe Cortese).

Fast forward to the present, and it looks like Lucky has a lot of questions to answer. Is he still in law enforcement and will he go back to work with the PCPD? Is he married or dating? How will Aiden (Tristan Riggs) respond to seeing his father again? Perhaps most importantly, what brings him back to Port Charles?

New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.