Cesar Faison Part 5 (2014 & 2018)

Port Cesar Faison Part Five

2014 & 2018

We have reached the final chapter of our Cesar Faison retrospective, and this one is a lot. We are covering 2014 and 2018, and our guest JD was back with us for all of it. By the end, even he had run out of reasons to defend the man. Make sure to listen to the full episode for our complete breakdown and commentary, because there is a lot more where this came from.

2014

We pick up with Anna Devane trying to untangle the mystery surrounding Luke Spencer's disappearance. Tracy Quartermaine returned from Amsterdam convinced Luke had been set up by Jerry Jacks, who had been holding him captive and demanding ELQ stock in exchange for his life. When Tracy paid up, Jerry delivered her other ex-husband Lord Larry Ashton instead. He had promised to return her husband. He simply never specified which one.

Running alongside that story, Anna was also reopening the AJ Quartermaine murder case, and the trail led back to Duke Lavery, who had given Sonny Corinthos a false alibi. When Franco's secretly recorded footage surfaced showing Sonny openly confessing to shooting AJ, Duke's lie was exposed. He admitted it. Anna placed him under arrest for perjury, obstruction of justice, and being an accessory after the fact. Deeply personal and painfully professional at the same time.

Meanwhile, a more dangerous mystery was building around Faison's whereabouts. Justice Department agent Kyle Sloane found no official record of Faison ever being held in any prison after his supposed capture. The implication was clear: Anna and Robert had gone off the books.

When confronted, Anna revealed the truth. After cornering Faison at the Wyndemere stables, she and Robert had secretly imprisoned him in the underground caverns beneath Spoon Island, with a WSB operative assigned to bring him food and water and report back regularly. To prove it, she led everyone out to the hidden chamber. It was empty. The operative had been sending Robert false reports the entire time. No one knew when Faison had escaped or how long he had been free.

A flash drive found in a safe deposit box connected to Jerry Jacks contained research tied to Faison's mask technology, the same kind he had used to impersonate Duke Lavery. That discovery reframed Luke's disappearance entirely. The truth eventually came out: Luke had been imprisoned and drugged while Faison walked around Port Charles wearing his face for months. When Anna and Dante cornered the impostor, Anna recognized him immediately. It was Cesar Faison in a Luke mask. Dante arrested him on the spot. Even in custody, Faison used the moment to attack Anna, accusing her publicly of imprisoning him without due process. She told him she wished he were dead and blamed him for everything he had done to Robin. He sneered that after hiding him in a pit for a year, she was no better than he was.

Faison's escape from PCPD custody came during a prisoner transport when a masked gunman stormed the station, grabbed Sam as a shield, shot Detective Nathan West in the chest, and fled with Faison. Helena Cassadine later revealed the full plan: Faison had worn Luke's face only briefly so he would be exposed and arrested, keeping suspicion on him while the real mastermind stayed free. Cesar Faison disappeared once again.

2018

When we pick back up heading into 2018, the mystery of how Drew Cain ended up living Jason Morgan's life is starting to unravel. Doctor Andre Maddox admits he implanted Jason's memories into Drew using a memory mapping procedure, funded through a hidden account by someone who stayed completely out of sight. Jason explains to the Navy, who wants to arrest Drew for desertion, that he and Drew are identical twins who were kidnapped, that the procedure was forced on them without consent, and that the person behind all of it was Cesar Faison. Faison had discovered Drew by chance, confirmed through DNA that the two men were twins, abducted Drew, and arranged the memory transfer that caused Drew to believe he was living Jason's life. The Navy eventually releases Drew and begins treating him as a crime victim.

A manuscript surfaces titled The Severed Branch, written under P.K. Sinclair, a pen name connected to Faison. Spinelli recovers burned portions through computer reconstruction, and the story describes a son turning against his father and trying to take everything from him. The question of who wrote it becomes central to everything that follows. Around the same time, Nathan West learns through a DNA test that Victor Cassadine was never his father. When he confronts Liesl Obrecht, she finally tells him the truth: his real father is Cesar Faison. She had hidden Nathan from him deliberately and given him to her sister to raise to keep him safe. Nathan is horrified. When Anna later presses Obrecht for more information, she finally admits that Faison had another son named Henrik, who had been sent away young and grew up mostly ignored, trying to earn a father's approval that never came.

Lulu convinces Nathan to go public with his connection to Faison, hoping to draw him out. Maxie is terrified, and she is right to be. Faison confronts Obrecht, learns Maxie is pregnant, and captures both Obrecht and Lulu in the tunnels beneath Wyndemere. He targets Hamilton Finn to get to Anna, eventually taking Finn hostage in Anna's home and telling her no one will ever love her the way he does. He makes his way to the Crimson office, finds Maxie alone, and makes it clear he knows exactly where Nathan lives. When Nathan arrives to protect Maxie, Faison shoots him. Jason Morgan arrives and shoots Faison. Nathan is rushed into surgery. Despite everything the doctors do, Nathan is pronounced dead. He was shot protecting his wife. The loss hits everyone who knew him hard.

Faison refuses to cooperate without a deal, offering to reveal Henrik's identity only if Jason and Drew help him escape. Jason refuses. Faison's condition worsens from the gunshot wound, he goes into cardiac arrest, and the damage is too extensive to survive. It later comes out that Peter August, who had visited Faison shortly before he died, swatted his emergency call button away when Faison reached for it. Cesar Faison is dead.

The fallout does not stop there. Anna confides in Andre Maddox that she had become pregnant with Faison's child during an undercover operation years earlier, gave birth secretly in Brussels, and arranged for the baby to be adopted without ever looking at her. Valentin Cassadine confirms the story and tells Anna the child was a girl, and that Faison never knew she existed. Medical testing after Faison's death reveals he had Huntington's disease, a hereditary condition that can be passed to his children. The implications reach immediately to Nathan's unborn baby and to the daughter Anna gave up in Brussels. She tells Andre the search has to begin there. Faison's will adds one final layer: he structured an inheritance so that only one of Jason or Drew can receive it, and only if the other brother dies. Even in death, he built something designed to keep causing damage. The remainder of the estate goes to his son, with the wording intentionally vague. With Nathan gone, that leaves one possibility: Henrik.

That wraps up our five-part Cesar Faison retrospective. Even JD, who spent four episodes finding reasons to defend the man, could not get past shooting his own son. There is no coming back from that one. Listen to the full episode of Port Charles 411 for our complete breakdown and all of the commentary, including JD's final verdict on the man he once called a nice guy. Join us Monday as we recap this week's shows, and we will see you at the pier.