We admit that 2023 was an interesting time for the entertainment industry. With all the strikes, from the writers to the actors (rightfully so), it was a little difficult to go full throttle with some of our favorite things that happened in TV and film since we didn’t have much. But, despite all of this, we still had some things to enjoy. If you all didn’t already know, this writer is an avid Soap Operas fan. I was one of those kids whose mom watched them all day, and as I got older, I became a fan.
General Hospital happens to be one of those soaps that I’ve followed since the time I was allowed to start watching. I’ve seen many ships come and go and rooted for my fair share. Currently, the ship that has me in a chokehold is Spencer (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Trina (Tabyana Ali), AKA Sprina. They’re the ship I have been shipping since my favorite little Cassadine troublemaker returned from boarding school and met my other favorite young adult, Trina Robinson.
Their relationship has had many, and I mean many, ups and downs. But not one of those downs has made me jump ship (See “I will go down with this ship: Sprina edition”). Amid all the downs, and there were some downs this year, we still had a lot of good, which is why we could compile this list of our top Spencer and Trina moments of 2023.
Spencer and Trina’s First Kiss
One thing Spencer and Trina have had no shortage of is almost kisses. The folks at General Hospital loved getting us to the precipice of a kiss for Spencer and Trina before saying, “Nope, not just yet.” Like some constant cosmic joke (Thank you, Trina), anything that could interrupt all their kisses did. It’s no surprise that the Sprina fandom reached a level of frustration that knows no bounds because we were constantly asking when our ship would get that kiss.
After almost two years, Spencer and Trina shared their first kiss on Valentine’s Day. After Trina learned that her mother, Portia, had been lying about her paternity for twenty years, she went to the place that is her second home, the Jerome Gallery, where she works. With Spencer accompanying her, he provided the moral support she desperately needed. The setting of the gallery, the place where they first “met,” couldn’t have been more perfect. Trina, dressed in her soft pink dress, looked like a princess beside a tuxedo-clad Spencer dressed to the nines, looking like the Cassadine Prince he was.
After Trina voiced that learning the truth meant she no longer truly knew her identity, Spencer delivered the most beautiful monologue to tell her he knew who she was. The lead into the kiss was executed perfectly, and the moment Trina got on her tip-toes was adorable. It was a kiss that felt like a moment from a Romance novel. We loved the way Trina’s eyes lit up after initiating the kiss. It was like she said to herself, “I finally did it.” Spencer’s happiness at receiving the kiss was just as cute. Of course, we must acknowledge how the kiss went from cute to passionate because it was clear from that moment that Spencer and Trina had been holding back for a while. That mix of sweet and sexy was chefs kiss and worth the wait.
Spencer And Trina Make It Official
The Nurses Ball is one of General Hospital’s annual traditions; the show always goes big. Exciting things always happen at The Nurses Ball, so it was only fitting that Spencer and Trina made it official during this big event. After Spencer and Trina shared their first kiss, you would have thought they’d enter a relationship, but that was not the case. The night of their first kiss, Spencer’s terrible ex-girlfriend, Esme, gave birth to his baby brother Ace after her psycho parents broke her out of minimum-security prison. Yup, you read that right. Soaps are wild. So anyway, once that happened, things changed in a significant way. Spencer, who had told Trina a month before Esme gave birth he was going for custody of his sibling (yeah, you read that right, too), became a little preoccupied with that whole mess. And once again, Trina made another sacrifice for Spencer by dropping the charges against Esme because, oh, yeah! She has amnesia, and having a baby live with you in prison is not a good idea. We told you, soaps are crazy.
With all this drama in their lives, Spencer and Trina’s relationship status seemed to be up in the air, or as people like to say, “It’s complicated.” It was apparent Trina knew what she wanted, but Spencer did not. That is, until he was friend-zoned on the red carpet when he and Trina were asked about their relationship status. It was like a light bulb went off in Spencer’s mind that if he did want a relationship with Trina, he needed to put his cards on the table once and for all.
What we loved about this moment was that Spencer had to work for Trina. It was cute seeing him chase her all over The Nurses Ball. Spencer took Trina for granted, and we needed him to earn her. The cute and flustered way he asked her to be his girlfriend was precisely what we would have expected from Spencer Cassadine. Some of our favorite flirtatious moments between Spencer and Trina took place at The Nurses Ball, and this will remain one of our top Sprina moments for a very long time.
The Sprinadventure
We rejoiced when Spencer was shipnapped by his Uncle Victor (Charles Shaughnessy). Why, you may ask. Well, that’s because we knew his lady love Trina would also be onboard the Haunted Star. At The Nurses Ball, Trina and Spencer got into a fight, and just as they were working through it, he received a call from his Uncle telling him they were setting the plan in motion for him to get custody of Ace. We will spare you the details of that plan because it was just too wild and convoluted for words. Unbeknownst to Spencer, his uncle, true to Cassadine’s form of betraying loved ones, had a plan he was keeping from him.
Once Spencer was taken, Uncle Victor broke down his plan, which sounded a little like Valentine from Kingsman: The Secret Service. It was all about unleashing a pathogen on the citizens of Port Charles and ultimately the entire world minus the Cassadines (again, we say soaps are crazy). When Spencer learned his baby brother, and Trina was onboard the ship, he realized his life wasn’t the only one at stake. Trina ended up on board the vessel after following Spencer because she felt something was wrong. Of course, at the time, she didn’t know that Uncle Victor had hijacked the whole thing and that they were headed out of Port Charles and on their way to “Somewhere in Greenland.”
Because nobody knew Trina was onboard, she could sneak around undetected. That ultimately led to her being dubbed “Trina the Ship Slayer” because, in our honest opinion, she was the one who saved the citizens of Port Charles. If it hadn’t been for her, no one in Port Charles would have known their location, and they would not have been rescued. But, we digress. The Sprinadventure storyline was weeks’ worth of good drama and Romance for Spencer and Trina. This was the first time our couple was genuinely alone and had a brief moment of physical intimacy. Some of the best moments happened during this storyline (one in particular deserves its own mention on this list), and it reminded us why we love General Hospital so much.
The Leap
As mentioned in our previous post, The Sprinadventure gave Spencer and Trina some fantastic moments. But none were as iconic and historic as Spencer and Trina’s reunion. Once Spencer and Trina made it to “Somewhere in Greenland,” Uncle Victor’s plan was kicked into high gear. After surviving almost being thrown overboard, Spencer and Trina, who were supposed to be used as test subjects for Uncle Victor’s pathogen, were rescued by Tina’s father Curtis (Donnell Turner), Spencer’s grandmother Laura (Genie Francis), and others. The plan was for Trina and Spencer to take his brother and get to a seaplane that was waiting for them. Spencer chose to return to the ship when he realized his Uncle still had the pathogen and was trying to make a run for it.
Just after Spencer re-boarded the Haunted Star, Trina got word that the WSB was planning to strike the ship because they needed to stop the pathogen from entering the world. She was naturally panicking because she knew Spencer was on the ship. Just as she told his grandmother, there was an explosion, and the Haunted Star blew up.
Everyone except Trina just knew Spencer had been killed in the explosion. She refused to give up on him because he was her soulmate, and if he were truly gone, she would have felt that. While everyone was telling Trina that she needed to accept that Spencer was gone and that they needed to get back home, she was determined not to leave without him. Ultimately, she had to resign herself to the possibility that he was gone. Just as she was preparing to leave with Spencer’s family, Trina heard something, and when she turned to see what it was, she was stunned and delighted that it was Spencer. She immediately ran and leaped into his arms, and the two shared the warmest embrace and the sweetest/most passionate kiss.
It was quite the reunion, and we later learned Tabyana Ali improvised it. Initially, they were just supposed to hug, but Ali, who was in the moment, felt that if Trina was reuniting with the man she loved after thinking he could be dead, she deserved much more than a simple hug. We agree because it turned out beautifully. It was even recognized on Twitter, or X by other soap greats including Peter Reckell, who plays one half of the super couple Bope (Bo and Hope) on Days of Our Lives. When you receive praise from a soap legend like that, you know you’ve done something significant. And that’s why the leap deserved its place on this list.
Pre-NYC Getaway Romance
After Spencer and Trina returned from “Somewhere in Greenland,” we knew their Romance would increase tenfold, but that was not the case. Spencer was stuck in Babyland raising a child that wasn’t his all summer, and Trina was dealing with her father being shot and then losing the ability to walk. Sad Sprina Summer was all we knew, and there was no Romance to be had. From June to the end of August, we watched our pairing be put through the wringer again, which was difficult. Eventually, there was a turnaround in the fall, and Fall4Sprina 2.0 began.
Spencer realized he and Trina could never have real-time alone in Port Charles and planned a Romantic weekend getaway in New York City. The moments we got leading up to that trip were adorable and Romantic, so we had to give them a place on this list. Sprina fans know how important the art gallery is for Spencer and Trina. It’s their place and has been since the day they met. Some of their most intense arguments have happened there, but also the most loving moments, like the first kiss.
Having Spencer show up to the gallery to tell Trina he wanted to take her away for the weekend was the best setting. The scenes were cute and the right amount of sexy. It was a precursor to what was to come in NYC. What we also loved about those scenes was that Trina and Spencer just talked about themselves, their lives, and their aspirations. Then we had the dorm scenes the day Spencer and Trina were to leave for their trip. As a hard-working college student, Trina was trying to finish a paper when her very excited boyfriend showed up.
Spencer was ready to go, but Trina wanted to ensure her assignment was done so she wouldn’t have anything but her and him to focus on. We appreciate her for prioritizing her education before being able to have some carefree fun. The back and forth between Spencer and Trina was fun and light-hearted, and we finally got to see Spencer pay his girlfriend a visit to her dorm. That was another perfect way to lead us into the NYC trip.
NYC Getaway
What better way to close this list than with Spencer and Trina’s Romantic weekend in NYC? Besides their first kiss, Spencer and Trina’s NYC weekend getaway was one of the most anticipated moments in the Sprina fandom. That was because we knew that they were going to make love for the very first time. Trina had told Spencer before that she was ready to be intimate with him, but he insisted the setting needed to be perfect because it was her first time. Well, we can say that it was worth the wait because every bit of their trip was done so well. All the people involved in making the moment happen on the show did an incredible job. From the writing to the setting, the direction, and the music, every aspect came together to create the most beautiful and Romantic moment in soap history.
It is a very rare thing to see an interracial pairing, especially in a soap opera, because it’s a genre that sadly is not always kind to black women. It was obvious that the folks at General Hospital took this into account. Ali and Chavez’s chemistry was on point and delivered in every scene. Every Romantic beat was played way beyond our expectations. We felt the tension and the passion they had been holding back because this was the first time they took a trip alone that did not involve them being, you know, kidnapped.
We got our love confessions as well, which were intense and sweet. Trina was in control when it came time for the love scene, and Spencer followed her lead. The scene was tasteful, and we loved every bit of it. And we can’t forget the beautiful montage of their moments set to their love theme titled “Here and Now” by Daena Jay, Having this song play during that montage and again during the love scene further cemented their status as a soap opera super couple.
