When General Hospital had Sonny beat the living daylights out of former henchman Dex, we weren’t as surprised as Kristina. (It wasn’t that long ago, after all, that the don hung his flunky from a meat hook!) But a number of viewers were upset by the twist.

Though Valentin has messed with the godfather’s bipolar dosage, one of Maurice Benard’s followers complained that “people off their medications don’t necessarily go around hitting people and being out of control. This was the wrong message to send.”

“This is true,” the Emmy winner replied, “but when you have a character like Sonny who’s volatile and is drinking and is manic and his thoughts are [taking] him over, it could definitely happen.

When another “fan” suggested that the whole storyline had been engineered just to get the actor another Emmy nod, he took it in stride — but also set the record straight. “Believe me, that’s not true at all. I’m absolutely cool with the Emmys I have,” he said. “I don’t need to convince anyone of anything.

Benard, who often discusses mental-health issues with guests on his State of Mind vlog, also opened about his difficult journey with bipolar disorder in his memoir, Nothing General About It.

Now, the question on General Hospital is, how far will Sonny go before Ava discloses that his meds have been tampered with? Will she sit idly by and watch as Avery’s father becomes so unhinged that he just might make good on his threat to kill Dex?