General Hospital (GH) recap for Friday, January 16, reveals that Willow Cain (Katelyn MacMullen) was found not guilty while Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) faced a Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) shock. Pascal (Marc Forget) also made a twisted move, so let’s talk about how Friday’s exciting episode played out.

For starters, Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) showed up at Drew Cain’s (Cameron Mathison) place wanting to take Willow out and distract her while they awaited the verdict.

Drew insisted Willow wasn’t there and bickered with Nina over the trial.

Nina made it clear that her lawyers would handle the appeal process if Willow was found guilty.

Drew assumed Nina was hoping for a bad outcome so she could play the hero, but Nina fired back and refused to let her daughter suffer in prison because of him.

Meanwhile, Willow met with Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) at the café after he summoned her.

Michael wanted to talk about what would happen if Willow was found guilty and mentioned the programs designed to help incarcerated women with small children.

Michael was willing to let Willow see Wiley Corinthos (Viron Weaver) and Amelia Corinthos (Sequoia and Serenity Mork Macko) if she was behind bars, but Willow wondered what would happen if she walked free.

Michael pointed out that was a different issue since he didn’t want the kids around Drew, who was married to Willow.

Before Willow and Michael could fully discuss the matter, she got a phone call from the courthouse and learned the jury was back with a verdict.

In captivity, Anna received a phlebotomy and imagined Liesl was the one giving it to her.

Although Anna tried to object, “Obrecht” made it clear that Cesar Faison (Anders Hove) was back and insisted on this arrangement.

In reality, another medical professional treated Anna.

Pascal got confirmation that the phlebotomy went well and that Anna’s other “treatment” was working too since she thought the woman was Liesl.

Pascal knew Anna was ready for the next step and continued to play mind games.

When Anna woke up, she spotted a cigarillo in the ashtray before hearing “Faison” through the speaker system talk about watching over her.

At GH, the real Liesl cornered Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and gushed about her plan for them to support Rocco Falconeri (Finn Carr) at his hockey games.

Obrecht had purchased season tickets along with jerseys and more, but Britt was wary over overstepping.

However, Liesl acted like Britt was more than a surrogate and encouraged her to connect with Rocco.

That led to Obrecht talking about her regrets since she didn’t put her kids first in the past, but she was ready to make up for that now.

In bed together, Giovanni “Gio” Palmeri (Giovanni Mazza) and Emma Scorpio-Drake (Braedyn Bruner) confirmed that they had no regrets about the night before.

Gio reassured Emma about Anna’s return and talked about maybe returning to PCU, but he was uncertain of his major.

Emma had figured out she wanted to go into veterinary medicine and thought she could help Gio find his passion, too.

In Alexis Davis’ (Nancy Lee Grahn) office, she had another tense conversation with Trina Robinson (Tabyana Ali) and Kai Taylor (Jens Austin Astrup).

Although Alexis followed up on their theory and believed Willow was guilty, she did what she had to do in court.

Kai and Trina contemplated coming clean to the cops if Michael wound up on trial next, but Alexis pushed them to wait until the verdict was read before they did anything else.

After Harrison Chase’s (Josh Swickard) meeting with Internal Affairs, he gave Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) updates outside Bobbie’s.

Chase insisted that he owned up to everything he did, but he assured Dante that he didn’t cross the line of destroying evidence.

Even if Willow was found not guilty, Chase pushed Dante to keep digging for answers.

At the courthouse, Kai let Michael know that although Drew had been good to him, that didn’t mean he believed everything he heard from Drew on the stand.

Drew came around the corner and didn’t look happy over Kai shaking Michael’s hand.

Chase also spoke to Alexis and assumed she was helping Willow because she didn’t believe her client was capable of shooting Drew.

Willow rushed back from the café and made it just in time for court to resume.

The jury’s verdict was not guilty, which brought a very mixed reaction in the courtroom!

General Hospital spoilers say Willow has more problems ahead of her despite this lucky break, so don’t miss all the troubling news to come.