General Hospital Star Steve Burton Sees Only Two Fates For Jason After The Arrest

Well, if you’ve been following General Hospital lately, you probably noticed Jason just got yanked off the canvas—literally taken away in a van by the WSB. Fans are, as usual, freaking out about where this leaves Jason Morgan, and even the guy who plays him, Steve Burton, didn’t know how long he was supposed to stick around. Now we’ve got some answers (kind of), straight from Burton himself.

Jason Morgan, Vanished

Here’s what happened: In the latest storyline, Jason swoops in to help out Rocco, but the World Security Bureau comes along and carts him off. It was a classic soap exit, and, yes, that was the start of his absence. Steve Burton actually talked about all of this on the 'That’s Awesome With Steve And Bradford' podcast, breaking down his exit and giving a peek behind the scenes.

Apparently, even Burton didn’t really know exactly when his last day would air:

'I wasn’t sure, because a lot of times when we get the script, there’s multiple shows in that script. But the day of the air of the show, at the time, said April 2nd. So I thought maybe I was trickling into April.'

Bottom line? By the time viewers saw Jason being kidnapped (again), that was it. Burton said point blank: 'That’s it. We're done.'

So, What Happens to Jason Now?

Well, this is where things get a little soapy, even by GH standards. Burton says Jason ‘will be back in the summer,’ but don’t count on it being business as usual. There’s a whole mess of loose ends and possible escape plans.

• Barton thinks there’re two big directions they could take. One, Jason goes full fugitive. No shock there; he’s basically a professional at being on the run.
• The other option, he says, is an actual legal resolution to his arrest. See, they all know Jason didn’t shoot Cullum, which is why he got picked up in the first place. So there’s a chance the soap gods could clear his name, one way or another.

To make things even more tangled, there’s all this talk on the show about Carly and Valentin teaming up to bust Jason out. Burton’s take? He thinks Jason and Valentin have a kind of tough-guy mutual respect, and throwing Carly into the mix just adds more fuel—not to mention all the anti-Brennan sentiment swirling around.

When’s He Back?

According to Burton, Jason will pop up again sometime this summer... but it’s anybody’s guess what condition he’ll be in or what side of the law he’ll land on. For now, Port Charles is short one mob enforcer, and ABC’s not saying anything more specific.

So, to recap: Jason’s off the board, Steve Burton’s out (at least for now), and the story could break either way. Sometimes even the actors haven’t got the full script.