General Hospital spoilers and speculation for episodes airing through August 27, 2026.
Drew Cain’s disturbing alliance with Ava Jerome may be hiding a revenge plot more than a decade in the making. Ava believes she has found a powerful partner who can help her fight Sonny Corinthos, but Drew may know something she has apparently forgotten: Ava was responsible for the accident that destroyed his original face and changed his life forever.
In September 2014, the man viewers then believed was Jason Morgan escaped captivity and attempted to return to Port Charles. While Ava was fleeing Sonny’s men, she struck him with her car. An official ABC weekly recap confirms that Ava hit the unidentified man before paramedics transported him to General Hospital.
The victim suffered catastrophic injuries and required extensive reconstructive surgery. When his bandages were removed, he had an entirely new face and no reliable memory of who he was. He eventually lived as Jake Doe and later believed he was Jason. The story was subsequently rewritten when Steve Burton’s Jason returned and Billy Miller’s character was revealed to be Jason’s identical twin, Drew Cain.
That complicated retcon does not erase Ava’s role. The man Ava struck is the character now known as Drew. Her vehicle caused the injuries that required facial reconstruction and helped trap him inside a stolen identity. ABC’s October 2014 recap documented the removal of his bandages and the appearance of his new face.
Now Drew and Ava are sitting across from each other as allies, discussing children, enemies and revenge as though that brutal history never happened.
On August 7, Ava approached Drew and suggested they work together against Sonny. She confessed that she feared Sonny’s family would convince Avery to hate her. Drew immediately connected Ava’s anxiety to his own battle over Scout and encouraged her to fight anyone who might separate her from her daughter. Daytime Confidential’s recap confirms that Ava initiated the alliance.
That fact is the strongest argument against the theory that Drew planned everything from the beginning. Ava went to him voluntarily. No aired scene has shown Drew privately admitting that he remembers the accident, blames Ava for his reconstruction or intends to punish her.
However, Drew’s behavior since accepting the partnership looks increasingly suspicious.
After Sonny’s vicious August 27 confrontation with Ava, Drew used her anger to push her toward a far more dangerous assignment. Instead of immediately helping Ava defeat Sonny, Drew insisted that they deal with Jack Brennan first. Ava correctly warned that moving against a WSB operative could be disastrous, but Drew continued applying pressure.
Drew has much less to lose if the operation fails. Ava could lose her freedom, her access to Avery or even her life. If Brennan discovers the plot, Ava may appear to be the active conspirator while Drew remains one step removed from the trap.
That imbalance is why the theory is gaining attention. Drew may not need to attack Ava directly. He can allow her fear of losing Avery to drive her into a reckless scheme, then abandon her when Brennan or Sonny retaliates.
The historical connection adds a darker possibility: What if Drew has known all along that Ava was driving the car?
Drew’s memories have been altered, suppressed and manipulated repeatedly, making it impossible to assume what he remembers. Even if he does not possess a clear personal memory of the impact, the circumstances of his arrival at General Hospital are no longer an impossible secret. Other Port Charles residents knew Ava was involved, and the accident became part of the public explanation for Jake Doe’s reconstructed face.
Drew therefore may have learned the truth without ever confronting Ava on-screen.
If so, his current alliance could be an elaborate act of delayed revenge. He can weaponize Ava against Brennan and Sonny, let her destroy her remaining stability and then reveal that he never trusted the woman who permanently changed his face.
The strongest counterargument is that Drew genuinely needs Ava. She understands Sonny, has access to influential people and shares Drew’s obsession with controlling how their children view them. A long-term partnership may be more useful to him than revenge.
Fans also remember that Ava did not deliberately target Drew. She was driving while terrified and fleeing danger when he appeared in the road. Her failure to remain at the scene was serious, but the collision was not presented as a planned attack.
A fresh r/GeneralHospitalGH discussion recently revived the forgotten connection. Viewers immediately recognized the irony of Ava partnering with the man whose face she accidentally changed.
The show has not confirmed that Drew remembers, and this theory should not be treated as an aired revelation. Yet the setup is almost too explosive to ignore. Ava thinks Drew is helping her protect Avery, but she may be walking into a trap built from an accident neither of them has publicly confronted.
If Drew eventually reveals that he knew the truth, Ava will discover that Sonny was never the most dangerous man in her new alliance. The real threat was sitting beside her, smiling through the face she helped create.
