The All My Children History Project

The Problem with Jesse
With news of Darnall Williams return to All My Children, the inevitable question is whether he will be playing Jesse Hubbard (1981-88, 94, 2001-02) or Jacob Foster (1995, Loving; 1995-97, The City).

I lean towards the idea of Jacob's return. There are too many questions that would need to be answered for Jesse's return to be believable. Where was Jesse for the last twenty years? Since it wasn't Jesse' spirit who visited Tad in 1994 and helped Gillian in 2001, who was it? If it was him, were all those spirits (Jenny, Ray, Natalie, Cindy, Travis, Jeremy, et al) not really dead?

Let's not pull a Michael McBain here. We all saw how that went.

Another question that would need to be addressed is what happened with Angie and Jacob after The City. If they broke up, what happened to their daughter, Cassandra? How will Angie explain to Jesse why she fell in love with his doppleganger?

Jesse's return would be outlandish, even for soap standards. The complexity of the situation is further compromised by the fact that Jacob exists. Any viewer of Loving can tell you that his introduction was a lot to swallow. Why revisit that open wound when we can all just move on?

Angie has a lot more to do in her life now than worry about her long thought dead husband. Maybe Frank finally told her about his son with Mia Saunders, William. We don't know much about Dre... maybe he is William. The search for her grandson can lead Angie back to Pine Valley, the place she said she could never call home again after Jesse's death.