Today’s episode of General Hospital is brought to you by the letter “Z” — as in the WSB bigwig who will decide Valentin’s fate and potentially replace Sidwell as the ABC soap’s Big Bad. Who is this enigmatic character? Here’s all we know so far.

For Letter or Worse, Here Comes Z

It seems like (and practically was) only yesterday that we hadn’t even heard of Z. Now, the power player’s name is on a whole lotta folks’ lips. On one hand, per Jack, Z could broker a deal with Valentin to help bring down Sidwell and Cullum. On the other hand, Z could send Carly’s loverboy back to Steinmauer.

Sounds like a loose cannon to us.

And yet, Z is a loose cannon who wields a great deal of influence. How else could Valentin hope that this heretofore-unknown individual could both save Josslyn and put an end to Cullum’s reign of terror? Clearly, he or she is at the top of the WSB food chain.

Do We Already Know Z?

Whether Z turns out to be good, evil or something in between, there’s a 50/50 chance that we’ve already met the character, we just don’t realize it yet. Z could be Johnny Zacchara, free from prison and now a big kahuna in the spy biz. (Brandon Barash is available and just welcomed a new member to his family.)

Or Z could be a not-as-dead-as-believed Claudia Zacchara. With Sarah Joy Brown hinting that she’d be willing to return to Port Charles, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination to think that Claudia could have cheated death and rebranded her as a take-no-prisoners WSB Mata Hari.

More: Kirsten Storms may not return to General Hospital — here’s why

But perhaps the likeliest candidate to turn out to be Z is Alcazar… with an emphasis on the “Z” in his name. Though like Claudia, Lorenzo is supposedly deceased, it was hinted back in 2012 that he was alive and well and passing himself off as One Life to Live’s Tomás Delgado.

Detective Hats On, and… Go!

Who do you think Z is going to turn out to be? Are we focusing too much on the letter as a clue and ignoring the possibility that the character is using an alias unrelated to their actual identity?

Hit the comments with your Z theories, then check out the brand-new edition of Soaps’ Burning Questions below.