The change in staff occurred amidst key story arcs. In January 2012, Sam learns she is pregnant with either Jason or Franco's child. Jason kills Franco, in James Franco's last guest appearance, and Sam learns that Jason and Franco are twins and Franco is the father of her baby. There were two major February sweeps events. The first was the death of Robin Scorpio-Drake, played by Kimberly McCullough on and off since 1985, who had chosen to leave to pursue directing opportunities. Robin dies in a lab explosion, and Valentini received praise for bringing high-profile legacy characters back in the fallout, such as Anna Devane (Finola Hughes), Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) and Holly Sutton (Emma Samms). New head writer Ron Carlivati took the writing over the day after the explosion, immediately turning the story around. He explained, "In the overall general landscape of daytime, with these shows going off the air and soap fans feeling so lost and disenfranchised and giving up hope for their shows, I wanted there to hope that this was not the end of Robin's story." A few months later, it is revealed that Robin is alive and being held captive at an undisclosed location. The other sweeps event was the catalyst for ushering in the former "One Life to Live" cast members who had signed on with "GH". Cole Thornhart, Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson) and baby Hope Manning-Thornhart are in a car crash involving Anthony Zacchara that kills Cole and Hope. The aftermath brings Starr's mother Blair Cramer (Kassie DePaiva) and father Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) to town, and the latter promptly sets roots by buying the local newspaper and television station. Meanwhile, John McBain (Michael Easton) arrives in town, investigating Sonny Corinthos in the death of his sister. Sonny is put on trial for the car accident, introducing Starr to his son Michael, who become close and start dating months later. Valentini explained the integration of the characters: