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Jason Morgan
Played by Steve Burton
Written by Taryn

Jason is the son of Alan and Monica Quartermaine, the richest family in Port Charles. His biological mother was Susan Moore, whom Alan had an affair with. His half-brother is AJ. They got along well when they were kids, but later, AJ's resentment grew. The only grandparents that Jason has ever known were Edward and Lila.  His parents adopted Emily, who became his sister after her mother died of cancer. They were very close. Tracy is his aunt and Ned is his cousin.

Jason started out as a golden child. He was loved by all the Quartermaines. He seemed too good to be true. Despite coming from a dysfunctional family and being raised mostly in boarding schools, he was well-adjusted and normal, as well as smart.  He attended PC University, majoring in medicine, in order to become a doctor like his mom and dad. He also worked at GH part time and had joined the board of the Charles Street (non-profit) Foundation. He had a plan for his life when a tragic event changed his life forever.

In 1991, Jason came home from boarding school and quickly adjusted into family life, he often cut his brother AJ a lot of slack, knowing he was an alcoholic. In high school he fell in love with Karen Wexler, and the two began dating. He barely noticed Robin Scorpio, who had a crush on him. Eventually, he and Karen split because she was attracted to Jagger.

In 1995, Jason found new love with Keesha Ward. On spring break, the two went to Paris, where they admitted that they both were virgins. When they came home, the two had made love.

A year later, an event changed Jason's life forever. Jason, always trying to do the right thing, tried to stop AJ from driving drunk. Jason jumped into the car with AJ and tried to grab the keys from him before he drove off. However, AJ managed to start the car, and Jason, who had not put his seatbelt on, was left unprotected. AJ then ran right into a tree. Jason was ejected from the car and hit a large boulder. He was rushed to General Hospital, where he survived surgery, but Dr. Tony Jones warned the Quartermaines that neurological damage was likely. Jason remained unconscious until he received a visit from an old friend, Robin Scorpio.

The accident left Jason with permanent brain damage and no memory whatsoever of his family or of Keesha. Jason couldn't stand the way people looked at him after the accident, as if they pitied him or expected him to be something he wasn't. His family pressured him to remember who he was.  He pushed both his relatives and Keesha away.  One night he left home on his motorcycle and never looked back.  Needing work, he was offered help by mobster Sonny Corinthos, who wanted to give the young man a chance.  They had a lot in common because both valued honesty and respect, and neither talked very much.

Jason changed his name to Jason Morgan (Morgan is the maiden name of his Grandmother Lila, one of the few members of his family that did not treat him like an idiot). His birthday, he would declare, wasn't the day he was born, but the day of the accident.

Jason was brain-damaged, but it did not impair him the way Tony predicted it would.  Jason cannot do the same abstract reasoning as most people can, so he does not expect anything or think about the future or what might have been.  He is very straight-forward and honest, and he can tell when someone else is not the same with him.  Most importantly, for his job, he has no particular moral principles against killing or breaking the law, and he act emotionally when he needs to.  He became the perfect hit-man for Sonny and also his right-hand man.  He quickly rose in Sonny's organization.

The one person who was able to connect Jason was his old high school classmate, Robin. She was patient with him and had no expectations. She just accepted him for who he was - not for who he used to be. What began as a friendship turned into a deep love, but there was a problem: while Jason was falling for Robin, he was sleeping with Carly Roberts. When he ended their affair, she threatened to tell Robin, of whom she was very jealous.

Because Robin had HIV, she and Jason were careful when they consummated their love. Jason and Robin's romance came to a terrifying end, though, when they became victims of a hit man's attempt to murder Jason. Robin tried to force Jason out of the mob, but Jason loved the life he had chosen. After realizing that their differences were irreconcilable, Robin and Jason said goodbye.

After Sonny left Brenda standing at the altar, Jason became the man in control of Sonny's empire. Jason also became a father when Carly broke up with Tony and claimed that Jason was the father of her child. This was not true, but when she told Jason the truth about Bobbie being her real mother, and her night of passion with AJ, and how AJ could be the father of the baby, he went along with Carly's lie. After Carly gave birth to her son, Jason took the child into his care when she left town suffering from post-partum depression. Robin told Jason that she didn't believe it was right for him to keep the truth from AJ, but she agreed not to tell. Jason named the baby Michael, after his boss and friend Michael "Sonny" Corinthos.

Robin and Jason got back together and eventually moved into Brenda's old cottage so that they could start their lives over. Jason eventually pulled some strings and arranged for Carly to be released from the mental hospital, and she moved into the cottage with them.

Ultimately, Robin left, pushed out by Carly, but not before telling AJ that Michael was really his son. AJ began to pursue his paternity rights, insisting on a blood test for Michael. Jason and Carly made plans to leave the country with Michael, but at the last minute, after Jason and Michael had already left, Carly panicked and went to the Quartermaines with a story about how Jason had kidnapped Michael.

Carly had a plan, she told Jason, which was to get AJ to drink again, then take full custody of Michael in a divorce, assuring that AJ would not be able to win custody. She told him the plan would take about a year. Jason reluctantly went along with the idea. Carly married AJ, and after a custody hearing, they were forced to share custody with Jason. After some time, Jason felt that his anger toward AJ would confuse Michael and terminated his own custody rights for the sake of his son.

Jason began to recognize that he had deep feelings for Carly and they shared tender moments. When Carly was ready to leave AJ for Jason, she went to tell him and found him dancing with Elizabeth Webber. Misunderstanding the situation, Carly went to Jason's best friend, Sonny Corinthos, to interrogate him about Jason's connection to Liz. After a big fight where they both let out their anger, Carly and Sonny ended up having sex. Jason walked in on them the morning after and was crushed.

Jason decided that the people he loved were in danger as long as he was around, so he went to Sonny and told him he was leaving town.  He gave him power of attorney over all his accounts and control over his assets, which had been put in trust for Michael. He told everyone goodbye and left on his motorcycle.   Later, Jason sometimes visited and became more accepting of Sonny and Carly's relationship.

Jason finally returned. He began dating Liz, and on Sonny's orders kept a watch out for Sonny's sister, Courtney, who was married to AJ and working as a stripper. Eventually, what started as a bodyguard relationship led to deeper feelings. Liz dumped him. After Courtney and AJ broke up, Jason began dating Courtney in secret, due to their fear of Sonny's reaction.

After that, he was arrested for the murder of Luis Alcazar, married Brenda Barrett to keep Sonny's marriage safe from her, annulled that marriage, and got engaged to Courtney. Sonny was mad at first that the two were involved, but eventually he came around.

Courtney and Jason's wedding was postponed because Carly was kidnapped. Courtney discovered she was pregnant but kept the news to herself because of his worries about having a child during dangerous times and because of Carly's situation.

After being kidnapped by Lorenzo, Courtney lost the baby while trying to escape. To make it worse, she had not told Jason about the pregnancy before she was kidnapped.  The two had some problems after losing their baby, but they eventually worked it out. The happy couple married but still had to deal with the fact that Jason was involved in the mob business. These problems led to their separation and eventually their divorce. They still love each other and find it hard to move on.

Through it all, Jason has still maintained his integrity and has sought to find himself outside of the life others want for him.  Everyone who knows him and loves him knows they can count on him to be there for him, especially Sonny, Carly, Courtney, and his sister Emily.  Jason only has a problem when someone asks him to lie, or to disobey Sonny.

Jason had a really hard time when Sonny was dealing with his bi-polar disorder.  Jason had to become head of the organization a few times, and he really didn't like it that much. He is better at taking orders from Sonny than being the guy in charge.

Jason has had to deal with a lot of tragedy. Courtney and Emily both died, and then later, Jake. He didn't know Jake was his son at first, so he took his death especially hard.

Jason got involved with Sam, and they have had a rocky road.  Sam started out on the show as a liar and con artist, but after she miscarried Sonny's baby and fell for Jason, she was a changed woman. Jason and Sam have been great partners in every way. She does not mind his mobster life, and they do their own thing. She may sometimes need to be rescued, but she's tough and capable in her own right, so she is able to fight by Jason's side if need be.

They have been terrorized in the past few years by this crazy guy, Franco, who was obsessed with Jason.  Sam and Jason finally got married in 2011, but Franco attacked them on their honeymoon and raped Sam. Franco seemed to die in an explosion. Sam found out she was pregnant, and they thought at first that it was Jason's baby. Then Sam learned that Franco was really Jason's long-lost twin brother. Jason was stunned to learn that crazy Franco was his brother, that he had a hand in his own brother's death, and that Franco is the father of Sam's brother. Also, he learned that Sam lied about this at first. It is a lot for one person to handle.

Over the years, Jason's personality has changed, even since his car accident. At first he was very unemotional, but now we know that Jason does feel things very deeply. He just doesn't express them as openly as most people. He doesn't say a lot but expresses quite a bit with his face in subtle ways.  Sam has softened him as a person as he's learned to love her and open up to her.  He finally decided that he wanted to have children, despite his dangerous lifestyle.  Being friends with Spinelli has also helped Jason open up more. He is sort of an older brother to Spinelli. He shows more humor than he used to.

Even though Jason is a mobster and a "hit man", he spends most of his time protecting or rescuing people. He has often worked with the police (especially against Franco).  You could even say that he is pretty good friends with Lucky and Dante, even though they are police. People obviously respect him for his courage, honesty, and integrity - despite his being the enforcer for a mobster. Jason doesn't care about breaking the law, but he does have a moral code and treats people fairly.

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Page updated 5/1/12