General Hospital spoilers: Ava tries recruiting Carly and Olivia in brewing custody war with Sonny?

Now that General Hospital’s Sonny (Maurice Benard) has kicked Ava (Maura West) out of his lavish condo and threatened their custody arrangement as it pertains to Avery (Ava & Grace Scarola), viewers may again see the ruthless side of Ava make an appearance.

Longtime fans of the show know that when Ava first arrived in Port Charles, she did so as the queenpin of the Jerome family, ready to annihilate Sonny. She went to some rather low lows, including using Morgan (Bryan Craig) as a pawn. Even as she started to make her exit from the underworld, leaving Julian (William deVry) to really take the reigns, her ruthless side didn’t fully disappear as she switched out Morgan’s bipolar medications in her misguided efforts to keep Morgan away from Kiki (Hayley Erin).

However, once Julian died, her deranged sister Olivia Jerome (Tonja Walker) was captured and Ava was caught in the Cassadine web of treachery via Nikolas (Marcus Coloma), Ava became a bit more docile and seemingly put scheming in her rearview mirror. Then came along all the Pikeman drama.

When the crime organization surfaced, presenting a massive threat to Sonny, Ava quickly found herself gravitating toward him as he offered her constant protection. Seeing his protective nature as enduring, she started to grow feelings for him, which prompted her to try and keep Sonny all to herself. She went on a mini-campaign to alienate Sonny from his loved ones, which effectively worked as far as Carly (Laura Wright), Nina (Cynthia Watros), Michael (Chad Duell) and Jason (Steve Burton) are concerned. Ava fueled Sonny’s anger toward these four, instead of helping him realize he’s behaving irrationally.

Speaking of irrational behavior, Ava even knows that Sonny’s bipolar medication has been tampered with, explaining some of his recent mood swings, and she’s sat on the information for months. Now fighting to retain custody of her daughter, she may never share what she knows about the medication, hoping Sonny’s continued spiral will benefit her in court.

With all that being said, Sonny’s mental health struggles may not be enough to tip the scales in her favor with a judge. However, words from the mothers of his other children may. Will Ava reach out to them given her less-than-stellar reputation? Possibly.

We’ll rule out Ava going to Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) for help. Ava is arguably the reason why Alexis lost her license to practice law. Plus, Kristina (Kate Mansi) recently ripped into Ava on Alexis’ behalf, so we doubt Alexis will lift a finger to help her. Although Alexis once tried her hardest to keep Sonny away from Kristina, citing his dangerous behavior, we don't think she'll support Ava in making the same argument.

Ironically, Ava could go to Carly. It wasn’t that long ago when Carly threatened to keep Donna (Scarlett Spears) away from Sonny until he figured out what’s going on with him. Ava is fully aware of this, and she could make a plea to Carly to side with her in court, mother to mother.

Now we’ll admit, that will be one heck of a plea considering Carly absolutely loathes Ava. The two women have never been friends, and that’s not likely to change. Additionally, while Carly may not be on the best of terms with Sonny, she’s still pretty loyal to him. It was only a few months ago when she wouldn’t even turn Sonny in to save herself and Drew (Cameron Mathison) from facing consequences for the insider trading debacle. So Ava has an uphill battle in recruiting Carly to her side, but again, the mother-to-mother angle is a good one to play; especially, since Carly adores Avery.

Then there’s Olivia Falconeri (Lisa LoCicero). As the mother of Sonny’s oldest son Dante (Dominic Zamprogna), who kept Dante’s paternity a secret until Sonny shot him, she could offer one of the strongest testimonies as to why Sonny is a danger to his children.

Unlike Carly, Olivia doesn’t hate Ava, although she definitely doesn’t trust her. Plus, Ava is the aunt to Olivia’s youngest son Leo (Easton Rocket Sweda). Could Ava draw some sympathy from Olivia? We can’t rule it out, but considering Sonny and Olivia have known each other a very long time, Ava once more better make one heck of an appeal.

New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.