In General Hospital, Esme named her baby “Ace” because she felt like the name was just right, but fans suspect that there is a more sinister reason for this slip.
Before Esme’s baby was born, she was held captive, escaped, and subsequently had severe memory loss.
This memory loss continued after the baby was born, but when she named him “Ace” just like she did at Wyndemere Castle before he was born, fans grew suspicious that she was lying all along.
The moments leading up to baby Ace Prince-Cassadine’s birth
Long-time General Hospital (GH) fans will know that Esme Prince is no saint. However, after all of the unfortunate things that have happened to her on the show recently, she seems more like a victim than the villain.
Not only was Esme imprisoned by Nikolas when she revealed to him that she was pregnant and forced to live out most of her pregnancy isolated in a storage room in Wyndemere Castle with only Elizabeth to nurse her and the baby, but she also almost drowned and subsequently, ended up with amnesia.
At this stage, she did not even remember her own name or what had happened to her, not to mention her pregnancy.
General Hospital: Why did Esme name her baby Ace?
Esme set the storage room in the castle on fire and then jumped into the ocean, only to wash ashore near the spot where Spencer and Trina were about to kiss.
From the moment that it was revealed that Esme suffered from amnesia following her daring escape from Wyndemere Castle, suspicions were raised about the character’s true motives.
While some fans truly believe that Esme could not remember anything from her past, other were instantly convinced that she was faking the disorder and was trying to use her amnesia to avoid the repercussions of her past actions.
In classic General Hospital fashion, the show has dragged out this ‘is-she, is-she-not’ storyline as much as it can and has been giving fans no insight as to what is really going on with Esme’s amnesia.
Most recently, the show once again teased that there might be more to Esme’s amnesia when she named her baby Ace. Esme also called her baby “Ace” when she was still being held captive at Wyndemere Castle, referring to him as her “ace in the hole”.
This slip confirmed many fans’ suspicions that Esme was faking her amnesia all along, but other fans thought that she simply remembered the name without understanding why or where it came from.
In fact, Esme herself explained that the name just sort of came to her, and that she felt it was the right one for the baby.
For now it seems like General Hospital fans will just have to wait and see if Esme naming her baby Ace Prince-Cassadine was a sign of something more sinister.
Why fans think Esme’s amnesia is real
There is no denying that Esme’s villainous lineage has been the cause of many of her misdoings in the past, but many fans believe that the amnesia that she is experiencing is real and that this is giving Esme a chance to be who she truly is, away from Ryan’s influence.
If she is telling the truth about her memory loss, this would also explain why Esme was so terrified of Ryan when they were alone in the woods and why she did not seem to know where the name “Ace” came from.
Why fans think that Esme is faking her amnesia
On the other hand, it is also entirely possible that Esme is just pretending to have amnesia and fooling everyone around her, like she did with Spencer and Nikolas in the past.
There is no denying that Esme’s vulnerable state has made many of her past victims go easy on her and has helped her avoid some serious repercussions.
After all, why would she want to go back to being the town seductress if she could stay the hurt and scared young mother?
Theories for how Esme’s amnesia storyline will play out
In all likelihood, Esme’s amnesia storyline will play out somewhere between the two extremes.
General Hospital spoilers for the episodes of 6 to 10 March 2023 indicate that Esme’s slip with naming her baby “Ace”, may have been the trigger for her other memories to come flooding back throughout the course of a few future episodes.
However, just because Esme may start remembering details about her past life very soon, this does not mean that she will be forthcoming about her recovery with the people around her.
In this case, such deceitful behaviour may still lead to some unexpected drama down the line.