That Time General Hospital's Kristina Corinthos Joined A Cult
After getting out of a disturbing relationship with an abusive boyfriend, starring in a reality show about being a mob princess, and entering into a groundbreaking love story with college professor Parker Forsyth (Ashley Jones) on "General Hospital," Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Lexi Ainsworth) left town for a while. She and Parker had moved to Oregon, and when she returned to Port Charles in September of 2018, she told her family that the two had split up. She started bartending at Charlie's Pub but felt unfulfilled in life. Eventually, she met a girl named Daisy Kwan (Kelsey Wang), who invited her to join a self-help organization called Dawn of Day.
Daisy had given Kristina a book called "Every Dawn is a New Day," which was written by DOD's leader, Shiloh (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) — who fancied himself a life coach as well as a spiritual advisor. When Kristina met Shiloh, he easily won her over with his charm, and she felt the DOD community would help her find direction in life. The members all believed DOD was a charitable organization that served the community.
Kristina ended up moving into the group's house in February 2019, and she started to ascend the ranks of the organization and attempted to get others to join in. However, many of her family and friends felt DOD seemed like a cult. Her sister, private investigator Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), was concerned that Kristina was in over her head, especially since the members seemed to idolize Shiloh.
Sam infiltrated Dawn of Day to save her sister
Sam feigned interest in Dawn of Day to infiltrate the group and see what was going on. In the past, she had been a con artist and recalled that one of her previous marks had a son named David Henry Archer, who went by Hank and had lived abroad. She quickly figured out Shiloh was really Hank, who had changed his name when he founded Dawn of Day. Sam was concerned that he had a secret agenda against her and her sister since she'd swindled his father out of all of his money. She pretended to believe Shiloh's teachings as a way to gain the group's trust and get more information.
In order to continue to move up the ladder toward what he referred to as "enlightenment," Shiloh required a now brainwashed Kristina to donate thousands of dollars to DOD. He also wanted her to become part of the group's inner circle, known as "The Trust." She then borrowed $10,000 from her boss, Julian Jerome (William deVry), to secure her position in DOD. For her to become part of The Trust, Kristina also had to provide a damaging scandal or shocking secret about herself or her family for Shiloh to hold as collateral. She revealed to Shiloh that her mother, Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn), had killed her abusive boyfriend in a hit-and-run accident.
Once her compliance was fulfilled, it was time for Kristina to partake in the ritual that would gain her entrance to The Trust.
Kristina's family held an intervention for her
In preparation for Kristina's induction ceremony, Shiloh's assistant, Harmony Miller (Inga Cadranel), brought her to an attic space and gave her a special dress to wear and an unknown drink. Meanwhile, Sam and Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) realized Dawn of Day was a cult and hatched a plan to extricate Kristina. Jason secretly made his way into the house, located Kristina — who had passed out from the drink — and fled with her to a safehouse.
It was revealed that Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen), a friend of Kristina's brother Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell), had once been a member of Dawn of Day and was well aware of the way Shiloh controlled and abused the women in the group. Harmony was her adopted mother, who had forced Willow to go through the same ritual that Kristina almost did. The ceremony involved Shiloh having sex with the female candidate, who was drugged in order to comply. Kristina's father, mobster Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) set up an intervention with Alexis Davis and psychiatrist Dr. Neil Byrne to help deprogram Kristina from Shiloh's brainwashing.
Willow joined the group and explained to Kristina all the horrible things Shiloh had done in the name of so-called "enlightenment." After hearing Willow's terrifying story, and with the help of Neil's guidance, Kristina finally realized what a bad decision she'd made and that she was nearly a victim of the cult. Eventually, Jason and Sam took down Dawn of Day, and Sam killed the predatory leader in self-defense, finally stopping Shiloh's reign of terror for good.