The Eridani Light Horse is a ficticious mercenary group in the science fiction universe of Battletech. They're featured in the games Mechwarrior 3 and Mechawarrior 3: Pirate's Moon.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: Eyes Only
DATE: 1 November 3067
MEMORANDUM FOR: Precentor Martial Cameron St. Jamais
FROM: Adept VI-Rho Angelis Woodbine
SUBJECT: Eridani Light Horse
Per your request, this memorandum provides a comprehensive history of the Eridani Light Horse, from their origins in the First Star League, to their centuries as elite mercenaries during the Succession Wars, to their central role in the resurrected SLDF and the defeat of the Clans.
This memorandum is a compilation of several intercepted sources, including:
> A 3062 report on Light Horse history from Colonel Scott Hinesick, Kommondant of the Focht War College of Tukayyid, to Victor Steiner-Davion, Precentor Martial of the Com Guard;
> A 3063 report on the Circinus Federation from Colonel Dana Ambrose, Director of Analysis for the Magistracy of Canopus's Intelligence Ministry, to Emma Centrella, Magestrix of the Magistracy of Canopus, including notes that I added from our Terran archives regarding the Light Horse's relatively unknown Periphery dealings;
> A 3067 update on the status of the SLDF from Colonel Andrew Redburn, Commander of the SLDF's First Royal BattleMech Regiment, to Prince Hohiro Kurita, Commanding General of the SLDF.
The common thread that runs throughout these sources is the resilience of the Light Horse's ideals, integrity, and sense of purpose. Most military commands as old as the Light Horse have achieved their success through cunning and adaptability. However, it is Light Horse's indomitable will and strong identity that has enabled this command to survive centuries of warfare.
Based on the information within this memorandum, recent reports from our ROM agents on Dieron, and prior technical analyses, I propose that the support of the Eridani Light Horse after the completion of the Third Transfer will be invaluable for our future operations on the rim. I anticipate that this noble unit will share our interests in re-establishing a new age truly worthy of their Star League heritage. Indeed, given their reputation and fame, an endorsement from the Light Horse will undoubtedly attract others to our cause.
Sons of Noah is a Christian punk rock band from Virginia Beach, Virginia. The group was formed during the summer of 2004 as a "one time use" filler band and then a side project of then existing Christian rock bands Flipside and Solitude. After self-producing a demo in 2005, the band started to gain fan base in their home town of Virginia beach, eventually causing the side project band to surpass the original two bands in local popularity. Sons of Noah got a chance early on to open up for a band they consider high on their list of influences, Roper, a band led by former Five Iron Frenzy frontman Reese Roper.
Also among the band's listed influences include Blink 182, MxPx, Pennywise, and Slick Shoes. One of the band's other major influences, Relient K, was parodied in a song entitled "We're Better Than Relient K". The song is intended to be a toungue-in-cheek tribute to the long time veterans of Christian rock, with Sons of Noah even putting down themselves for a lack of "experience, talent and fame".
In 2005 Sons of Noah signed with startup independent record label Raging Storm Records. The following year they released an EP entitled "Don't Talk To J", a project of comedic songs. The project was inspired after a sarcastic verbal exchange with their label CEO, who was pressing the band to finish up work on their full-length disc. As an end result, work on the full-length project was put on hold while the band wrote and recorded a series of songs to parody their relationship. Despite being filled with a number of inside jokes, which are all well explained through narratives between songs, the EP has sold well for the band.
In the summer of 2006 the full-length disc "Unabated Mediocrity" was released, just prior to the Sons departing for the Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. While at the festival, they played in front of a large crowd on the Decapolis stage, run by former Ghoti Hook guitarist, Conrad Tolosa. After leaving the festival, the band continued touring including spending a number of weeks with The Extreme Tour.
Cronulla 2230 (also informally known as Cronulla Monopoly or Cronullaopoly) is the name of a Monopoly-styled board game. The game is set in the beachside suburb of Cronulla in the Sutherland Shire district of Australia and is themed on the Cronulla race riots of 2005 between White youths and ethnic Arabs. The "2230" of the title refers to the Cronulla postcode.
The object of the game is to "become the wealthiest person in the Sutherland Shire through the buying, renting, and selling of property" in order to fund far-right organisations such as the Australia First Party and the Patriotic Youth League "so they can get into parliament and Win Back Australia!"
The Australia First Party denies any role in creating Cronulla 2230, despite promoting the game on their website and stating that the game "seems to have emerged as a response to the problems of the multiculti (sic) sickness that has gripped Australia." 1
The board game only exists as a set of downloadable pdf files and was originally hosted by the US-based Angelfire website. Players need to print out, cut and laminate the pdf files. The rules are similar to Monopoly, with houses, hotels and title deeds for properties (being streets in Cronulla). Penalty squares require players to pay money to either the Patriotic Youth League, Australia First Party or 'The Shire Boyz'. 'Aussie Luck' cards serve as Community Chess and Chance cards, and include racially divisive events like:
- Lebos slander Aussie bikini-clad beauties by calling them sluts. Pay $10
- Chinese gangs selling [...] openly on street corners. Pay $25
- Campaign against Aussie companies being sold overseas. Collect $30
- Vaccinations made compulsory for all Third World immigrants. Collect $50
On October 16 2006 New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma released a statement condeming the game, calling it divisive, insulting and that it encourages people to engage in violence, "It is garbage and it belongs in the bin". Iemma has sought for the Commonwealth government, which is responsible for regulating Internet content, to shut the site down or block access.
However, on October 18, 2006, Angelfire decided to remove hosting for the Cronulla 2230 board game following complaints by anti-racist activist groups such as Fight Dem Back due to violation of Angelfire's Terms of Service prohibiting racially objectionable material. 2
Cronulla 2230 has since been hosted by different domains, such as "downundernewslinks.com" 3
1980's
Unlike Victor, who was more of a "traditional" mobster, Stefano was much more refined and intellectual, more of an Blofeld in contrast to Victor's Don Corleone. On a personal level, Stefano had a burning hatred for the Brady family over some unknown slight that occurred in the distant past in Ireland that somehow involved a young Shawn Brady. Stefano also had an obsession with Marlena that was complicated when it was revealed that Roman had previously been married to Stefano's daughter-in-law Anna (Leann Hunley) with whom he had a daughter named Carrie (notably played by Christie Clark). Marlena and Roman would go on to have twins named Samantha (for her late sister) and Eric (for his late uncle). The struggle to eliminate Roman Brady would ultimately result in a complicated, long-running, and often retconned storyline over the "real" Roman Brady and the identity of John Black.
Enter Drake Hogestyn
Controversy began when Wayne Northrop left the show due to problems with the direction of his character. His character of Roman Brady was killed off in 1984 when he fell off a cliff on a tropical island in the Caribbean after being shot by Stefano. In 1986 it was decided by the writers to recast the role of Roman. Rather than just replace him, it was decided to outright explain why he was now being played by a different actor. It was explained that Roman was recovered by Stefano after his fall from the cliff, given immediate medical attention, brainwashed into believing that he was one of Stefano's assassins, given extensive training in the martial arts, and had plastic surgery to give him a brand new face. Temporarily nicknamed "the Pawn", he was actually "auctioned off" by a DiMera henchman named Petrov during an adventure in Miami, with the primary bidders being corrupt ISA Chief Ogden Vaughn, and Victor Kiriakis. Victor won, and returned to Salem with the Pawn, and set about trying to unravel the mystery of his identity for his own purposes. There was even a brief flirtation with the idea that the Pawn was Stefano himself. But the Pawn escaped Victor, adopted the name "John Black" after seeing it on a war memorial, and set about finding about his past on his own, and with his new friend Marlena. Now played by Drake Hogestyn, the character was eventually revealed to be "Roman", and the "Roman"/Marlena relationship once again became popular amongst viewers and they remarried. Deidre Hall left the show in 1987, and Marlena was presumed dead in a plane explosion. Hogestyn stayed on and John/Roman attempted to start several relationships, including an ill fated romance with Diana Colville (Genie Francis, of General Hospital fame), Peruvian mafia princess Bianca Torres, and French prostitute and con-woman Yvette DuPree. He eventually started a relationship with a new character named Isabella Toscano (Staci Greason) (Side note: Hogestyn complained about being on the backburner in several magazine articles before Hall's triumphant return several years later to bring the ratings back up and in the process, help make him the most popular male on soaps), who was the sickly daughter of crime boss Ernesto Toscano (before being revealed as the illegitimate daughter of Victor Kiriakis). The relationship between John/Roman and Isabella, and their connections to the various characters on the show, would lead to one of the most famous "umbrella stories" of the show's run: The Cruise of Deception.
"The supercouple phenomenon"
Meanwhile on rival network ABC, the intense popularity of the pairing of Luke and Laura on General Hospital in the 1980's, led to Days of our Lives to attempt to cash in on the phenomenon of the "supercouple" by pairing off their assorted characters into various relationships. Among Days roster of supercouples were Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso), who quickly became the focal point of the show during the mid-80s and helped the show regain its popularity. The show also gained ground with addition of two new characters, Steve Johnson (aka "Patch", due to the fact that the character wore an eye-patch after losing an eye while a Merchant Marine) (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla Brady (most notably played by Mary Beth Evans), whose courtship became a major storyline for the series in and helped to lead to the introduction of another of the show's most popular characters—Jack Deveraux. Heading into the 90's, Carrie (Christie Clark) and Austin (Austin Peck) would become another supercouple, battling for the sake of their relationship against Carrie's scheming sister Samantha (Sami) (Alison Sweeney).
At the same time, it was shown that Patch also had a past connection to Bo Brady. Both had once been in love with the same woman—a Russian agent named Britta Englund. In a fight over Britta, Bo put Patch's eye out. Because of this, Patch wanted revenge on Bo. Patch terrorized Bo and Hope for some time. On one occasion, he kidnapped Hope and placed a bucket allegedly filled with acid over her head. If she were to move, the plate would spill on her face. Bo rescued Hope, and they discovered that the bucket was actually filled with water. The immensely popular Bo and Hope reunited and were given a lavish wedding in London.
"Patch" and Kayla
After Patch/Steve terrorized Kayla in Cleveland at Emma's request, he was also hired by Victor Kiriakis to follow her around Salem and pick up on any information that would be relevant to Victor (regarding Bo/Hope, Kimberly's kidnapped baby, etc.). Steve found many excuses to hang around Kayla, and it was clear that he was developing an interest beyond what he was being paid to do. Kayla, meanwhile, was suspicious and frightened of Steve, but fascinated and attracted to him at the same time. Thus began a long period of "push and pull" between the two characters while they got to know each other and eventually fell in love. An ongoing theme in the early stages of their relationship was that Steve did not feel worthy of being loved by anyone, let alone a "good girl" like Kayla. Because of this, she had to work very hard to get him to let down his guard and accept her love. It took around six months before the two characters had their first kiss, and another six months before their relationship was consummated. They finally married in 1988, two years after they first developed an interest in each other. They had daughter Stephanie Kay in February of 1990.
When the character of Steve became a central character of the show and a fan favorite in early 1987, the story of his past was revealed. The impetus of this reveal was the arrival of a young woman named Adrienne, who befriended Kayla and worked at the Emergency Center with her. Eventually it was revealed that Adrienne was the sister of Steve, who had never known he had a sister. As a child Steve and his younger brother Billy had been put up for adoption because his father, Duke, was an alcoholic who abused his mother, him, and his baby brother, Billy. In attempt to protect his family, Steve had set a fire at age 5 in an unsuccessful attempt to kill his father. Adrienne had been born after Steve and Billy were given up for adoption. Her appearance in Steve's life was the source of much turmoil and self-hatred for Steve as he tried to shut out the memories of his past.
When Steve's mother Jo (Joy Garrett) followed Adrienne to Salem and re-entered Steve's life, Steve was forced to deal with the realities of his past, and to share his pain with Kayla. Alcoholic father Duke showed up to force Jo to come home with him, but ended up raping his virginal daughter Adrienne in a drunken rage instead. Adrienne shot and killed her father in self-defense, but then blocked out the traumatic incident. Steve took the rap in order to protect his sister, and almost went to jail for the crime, until Adrienne remembered what happened and cleared him at the last minute.
Adrienne and Steve went on to develop a close relationship despite Steve's initial reluctance to accept her. He even became close to his mother Jo, after struggling to deal with his anger at her for giving him away.
Eventually, while still recovering from the incident with her father, Adrienne met and developed a popular fairytale romance with Justin Kiriakis (Wally Kurth).
Steve and Kayla were brought back and "reunited" in June 2006. It was revealed that Steve had not actually died in the accident that had been assumed to take his life in 1990. His most recent memory is waking up in a hotel room in Cincinnati about 3 years ago and having no idea who he was, and then finding an ID that said he was Nick Stockton. He had been working as a hospital orderly in Cincinnati since that time, having no memory of his past. Meanwhile, Kayla had moved to Los Angeles after Steve's "death" and has spent the past 16 years becoming a doctor and raising their daughter Stephanie. She has never gotten over Steve and did not remarry.
Kayla's first sighting of Steve upon his return was in the cemetery where she was visiting his grave. She was thrilled and shocked to see him, but he had no memory of her. Since that time, they have struggled to find some common ground and have started to investigate the mystery of what happened to Steve during those 16 years.
The Deverauxs
In a summer 1987 storyline, Patch helped Senator Harper Deveraux (Joseph Campanella) to fake his death in order to better investigate an explosion that was believed to have been caused by Victor Kiriakis's mob connections. However, when Patch fired the gun, there was a real bullet. Harper went into a coma, sending Steve, Kayla, and the other primary characters in search of who had really staged the shooting and the explosion. Earlier that year, a person from Kayla's past had come to town: the senator's son Jack Deveraux (originally played by Joseph Adams, then by James Acheson), whom Kayla had met at an earlier time in Hawaii, when Jack had saved her life. After the senator finally came out of his coma, it was revealed that Jack was suffering from Hodgkin's disease, which was diagnosed as very probably being terminal. The Deverauxs hired Kayla to be Jack's private nurse.
The Deveraux family, including Jack, his father Harper, and step-mother Anjelica (Jane Elliot), moved to Salem permanently after Harper's unsuccessful presidential campaign, and Jo Johnson (Patch and Billy's mother) was hired as the maid. Jack and Jo formed a tight friendship after surprisingly being drawn to each other. One day, Jack (now played by Matthew Ashford) showed Jo a ring that he hoped to give Kayla as an engagement present, telling her that the ring was special to him since it had been a present from "his mother," who had died when he was young. Immediately, Jo recognized it as the one she had given her son Billy—Jack Deveraux was Billy Johnson. However, when Harper discovered that Jo was the mother of his adopted son, he was willing to do anything to hide it and to keep the truth from Jack.
When Jo told Steve the truth, though, he renewed his vow to protect his brother. Now that he found Billy, Billy was dying, and he could not even acknowledge their relationship. Steve/Patch decided to give Kayla up to terminally ill Jack, so that Jack could marry her and live the remaining time he had happily. Devastated by the breakup, Kayla accepted Jack's proposal and married him. Then, thanks to Dr. Mike Horton (Michael T. Weiss), Jack's Hodgkin's Disease went into remission.
Meanwhile, Melissa Anderson (Mickey and Maggie Horton's adopted daughter) developed a crush on Jack and also discovered that Jack is really Billy Johnson. Also, Harper Deveraux's true homicidal nature began to be revealed, as he was willing to commit any crime to keep his image intact. Harper erroneously believed that it was Kayla (not Melissa) who had Jack's adoption papers—and because he never thought that the working-class daughter of people who ran a fish market was a worthy match for his son, he began to poison Kayla.
Despite months of marriage, Jack and Kayla never consummated their relationship, first because Jack was ill and then because of Kayla's mysterious illness. Realizing that Kayla had married him largely because she believed he was dying, and because Steve had rejected her, Jack offered Kayla a divorce so that she could be with Steve. Kayla, still believing that Steve didn't want her, said that she wanted to remain married to Jack. Becoming suspicious of Kayla's lingering illness, Steve kidnapped her from the Deveraux home. Desperate to find his wife, Jack tracked Steve down, only to discover Steve in bed with his wife. Steve and Kayla swore to Jack that things weren't as he believed; actually things were exactly as Jack believed. Steve and Kayla, still in love with one another, began an affair, vowing to tell Jack the truth after he won the election to City Council.
The [...] of Kayla
On the night of the election, an unscrupulous reporter (financed by Harper Deveraux) produced photos of Steve and Kayla in bed together. A furious and hurt Jack went home to confront Kayla with the evidence of her infidelity after months of her coming up with excuses not to consummate their marriage. The argument spiraled out of control, and Jack raped Kayla. Kayla left Jack and told Steve what his brother had done. Steve returned to the loft, confronting Jack in a violent fight that ended up with Jack plummeting off the roof of the building. Jack suffered extreme damage to his kidneys, forcing Patch to make the controversial decision to give Jack one of his kidneys.
Jack was loath to accept his rival's kidney, but ended up doing so. It didn't stop him from continuing to harass Patch and Kayla. Even while wounded, he approached Kayla, who was going in for [...] counseling and accused her of ruining his reputation. In the aftermath of the marital [...] of his wife, Jack lived in denial. He pled guilty only to a domestic assault charge, refusing to believe that it was [...]. Soon thereafter, he tried to locate Steve's missing brother Billy in order to torment his rival some more with hidden skeletons in his closet. In doing so, he unearthed his own baby picture at Steve's house and finally discovered that he was actually Billy. Jo and Adrienne tried welcoming him, and even Patch/Steve tried to welcome him as a brother. Jack, devastated by the revelation of his parentage, rejected them all.
The Riverfront Knifer
Later, a serial killer began [...] and maiming women in Salem. Both Kayla and Kimberly Brady were attacked. A few women were killed. Jack became the primary suspect for the Riverfront Knifer and was even arrested for the crime, only for Steve to discover that the real killer was Harper Deveraux. Due to the trauma that Kayla had gone through during the Riverfront Knifer attack, she developed hysterical deafness. When Jack saw what had happened to Kayla, whom he claimed to love, he finally let her go and secretly hired a specialist to fly to Salem to treat her for her illness.
At last free of all obstacles, and with Kayla healed from her traumas, Steve and Kayla finally married in a lovely outdoor ceremony on a yacht. The couple hoped to have happiness at last. Not so happy was Jack Deveraux who, trying to save his shattered reputation, struck up a relationship with Melissa Horton. Melissa was in love with Jack, but he was most definitely not in love with her. He only believed that the Horton name could salvage his image. Discovering that he was only using her, Melissa left Jack publicly humiliated at the altar.
Bring back the Hortons
As the show regained its popularity in the mid 1980s, it was decided to bring the focus back to the Horton family, which had been marginalized in the early 80s in favor of focus on the Bradys.
An outcast in Salem, hated for the villain that he was, left friendless and loathed, Jack purchased publishing rights to the local newspaper "The Spectator." The newspaper became his life, and it was there that he met the future love of his life, Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves). Laura and Bill Horton's daughter Jennifer had been brought back as a wild teenager, sent to live with Tom and Alice Horton, so as to provide the young girl with the stable home that her parents were incapable of giving her. Jennifer quickly became a popular figure and began a friendship with another new character, Frankie Brady (Billy Warlock).
Frankie was a teenager who had been legally adopted by Shawn and Caroline Brady. However, Frankie and Jennifer's teen romance suffered due to Jennifer's growing fear of inheriting her mother's mental instability, especially after she witnessed her mother catatonic in an asylum. These problems were exacerbated when Frankie began having a [...] relationship with his college professor. Feeling betrayed by Frankie, Jennifer broke up with him; when Frankie earned a scholarship to Columbia University, he left town. Jennifer went to Salem University and got an internship at the local newspaper, The Spectator. She also became involved with Emilio Ramirez (Billy Hufsey), who she later discovered was having an affair with the married Adrienne. Upset by this, Jennifer broke up with Emilio. Disgusted with romance in general, she wrote "Love Stinks" on her computer monitor at The Spectator. When Jack Deveraux read the bitter sentiment, he couldn't help but agree.
The "new" Jack and the Jack-Jennifer romance
In the aftermath of the Jack/Kayla/Steve triangle, Jack (under the portrayal of Matthew Ashford) had garnered increasing fan interest and had developed into a complex, conflicted character whose dark edge was complemented with a level of existential angst over his identity (after learning of his motley collection of dysfunctional parents) and over his growing realization of his guilt in raping his wife. Instead of whitewashing the [...], the writers exploited it as a source of great angst, guilt, and regret for Jack as he began realizing the enormity of the crime and the fact that he could never take it back no matter how much he wanted to. Realizing that his biological father had abused his wife and children, and that his adoptive father was a serial killer who had preyed on women, in addition to his own crime against Kayla, convinced Jack that he was unworthy of being loved by anyone and that he was most certainly unworthy of any relationship with a woman.
Enter Jennifer Horton and the beginning of one Days' biggest couples, Jack and Jennifer.
Having graduated from college, while working at the Spectator, Jennifer became increasingly aware that Jack wasn't all bad. He did in fact have a conscience. She became aware of the ways that he would surreptitiously help his mother, his sister, and even Steve and Kayla by anonymously donating money, sending gifts, or help even as he openly continued to reject all of his family. Jennifer became aware that his rejection of his family wasn't a rejection of them, but Jack feeling that he was not worthy of anyone's regard. She began to fall for Jack. And Jack began to fall for Jennifer, but he refused to acknowledge it because he didn't believe that a virginal ingenue like Jennifer should ever hook-up with someone like him.
When Emilio returned to Salem, he wanted to win Jennifer back. The uncouth Emilio felt that he didn't have the polish necessary to win a Horton and so he elicited the help of the urbane Jack Deveraux who agreed to play Cyrano De Bergerac to Emillio's Christian, as Jack gave Emilio the words (*his* words) to win Jennifer. The problem came in that it wasn't Emilio that Jennifer loved. It was Jack. Jack, however, was adamant that they couldn't become involved and used the excuse that he was her boss.
Feisty Jennifer wouldn't take no for an answer and pursued Jack for months, finally giving him the ultimatum that if he didn't admit that he was in love with her, she would marry Emilio instead. Faced with the ultimatum, Jack decided to admit to his love, only to arrive too late to stop Jennifer's engagement to Emilio. Haunted by the memory of his father's and their abusive pasts, Jack didn't again work up the resolve to confess his love until Jennifer and Emilio's wedding day when he dressed up as a fireman, pulled the fire alarm and absconded with the bride. Furious about the interrupted wedding, Jennifer was in no mood for Jack's confession of love... which he didn't make until she had fallen asleep anyway.
1990's
The Cruise of Deception
The Cruise of Deception was a massive umbrella storyline that resolved many longstanding plotlines and setting up new, more complex stories in its wake. It also saw the return of Bo and Hope and longtime Days of our Lives cast member Julie Williams.
The plot revolved around Ernesto Toscano's scheme to kill off his assorted enemies, most notably Victor Kiriakis and "Roman Brady"(John Black) over their ties to his daughter Isabella, as Victor was Isabella's biological father and that "Roman" was in love with Isabella, much to Ernesto's disapproval.
Also on board for the cruise were Isabella Toscano, Bo Brady (who was involved in an elaborate scheme to trick Ernesto into thinking he was on Ernesto's side), Hope Brady, Jack Deveraux, Jennifer Horton, and Julie Williams. Luring his enemies onto a cruise ship, Ernesto destroyed the vessel, shipwrecking the characters on an island he controlled. Jennifer Horton finally broke down all of Jack Deveraux's emotional walls to convince him to admit that he was in love with her, leading to the two finally making love (with Jennifer losing her virginity) in an abandoned cave.
As the shipwrecked characters tried to escape the island, the plot came to a climax when Ernesto got his hands on Hope and threatened to drop her into a vat of acid (later, it was retconned that Ernesto traded Hope for a decoy named Greta) and when both Shane and Steve arrived to rescue the castaways, Ernesto dropped "Hope" into the vat of acid (which then promptly exploded) as a final act of revenge against the group. The castaways returned to Salem where Hope was mourned by all.
The Alamain family
That fall, a young doctor, Carly Manning (Crystal Chappell), came to town and was instantly attracted to the grieving Bo.
Carly Manning was revealed to be oil heiress Katerina Von Leuschner, who had been Jennifer's best friend in boarding school. The aristocratic Carly had been promised since birth to marry Lawrence Alamain (Michael Sabatino) and claimed that she didn't wish to. Trying to extract her best friend from an unwanted (and forced) engagement, Jennifer impersonated Carly to break the engagement. Unbenownst to Jennifer, Lawrence was aware that she was an impostor, but he didn't care. He needed to marry *a* Katerina Von Leuschner to fulfill the Von Leuschener will and gain their fortune and if the real Katerina wasn't available, he'd take the fake one.
Meanwhile, Steve and Kayla were intending to renew their wedding vows when Harper Deveraux escaped prison intent on murdering them. It was Jack who rushed to save Steve and Kayla, begging his father to spare their lives, and—when Harper wouldn't give up his murderous plan—struggling to pull the rifle from his adoptive father's hands, [...] Harper in the process. Steve and Kayla called Jack a hero for his actions, but Jack saw himself as a [...]. Once again Jack pulled away from Jennifer, citing his disfunctional past as a reason the two could never be together. But for Jack, an even greater tragedy was about to happen that would shatter his world.
Bo Brady had found himself at odds with Lawrence Alamain over Lawrence's illegal corporate activities. To silence Bo, Lawrence hired Nick Corelli to blow up Bo's boat. It wasn't Bo, however, that was on the boat when it exploded, but Steve Johnson. Steve survived the initial explosion and with Kayla, Jack, Jo, and Adrienne at his bedside, he rallied. Only Lawrence, fearing that Steve had evidence of his crimes, hired a hospital employee to poison Steve's IV. Steve was pronounced dead but Lawrence's henchmen swapped Steve's coffin (in order to set up a way to bring back the character at a later date), leaving nothing but an empty grave.
The death of his estranged brother led to Jack finally having the courage to commit to a relationship with Jennifer, but Jennifer was at this point occupied with pretending to be Katerina Von Leuschner and being engaged to Lawrence Alamain. Jennifer stubbornly refused to give up the charade and Jack couldn't figure out why. She never told him that Frankie Brady (now revealed to be Carly Manning's brother Francois Von Leuschner) was being held prisoner in order to blackmail Jennifer into going through with the wedding and fulfilling the terms of the Von Leuschner will. Immediately after the wedding, Lawrence raped Jennifer as a means to punish her for attempting to con him. Jack rescued Jennifer from Lawrence clutches several days later, but she would mention nothing about the [...]. In retaliation, Lawrence blew up his villa trapping Alice Horton, Bo Brady, Carly Manning, Jack Deveaux, Jennifer Horton, Frankie Brady, Kayla Brady, and Shane Donovan in the wreckage. It took them days to dig themselves out.
Still grieving Steve's death, Kayla drifted into a relationship with Shane Donovan (whose marriage to Kim had imploded months earlier). The pairing of these two popular characters was anything but popular, however, and when their contracts expired both actors separately left the show in 1992. Nick Corelli was later killed by an emotionally distraught Jo Johnson (Joy Garrett), in retaliation for Steve's death. Pleading temporary insanity, Jo was made to serve her sentence in a mental institution.
Bo (who was eventually recast with Robert Kelker-Kelly) and Carly's burgeoning relationship grew as Jack and Jennifer's fell apart in the wake of the incidents in Lawrence's home country. Lawrence had followed the Salemites back Salem and continued to torment his many enemies. Jennifer, fearing Jack's reaction, kept the secret of what Lawrence had done to her. Unable to understand why she was pulling away, Jack turned the tables on Jennifer and this time it was him pleading with her to be honest about her feelings. In a post-traumatic flashback, Jennifer reacted violently to Jack, hauling off and slapping him and calling him a [...]. Jack recoils when Jennifer desperately tries to apologize telling her that she shouldn't apologize for telling the truth. He is a [...]. He had raped Kayla. He'd always known that he was unworthy of Jennifer, and now Jennifer realized it too. Both heartbroken, Jack and Jennifer called off their own engagement and vowed to go their separate ways.
Lawrence was enjoying his time in Salem, tormenting his enemies as the writers established Lawrence as the new main villain of the series. In particular, Lawrence sought to gain ownership over the Spectator just to spite Jack. In order to stop that from happening, and because he believed Jennifer had fallen back into a relationship with Frankie, a heartbroken Jack married Eve Donovan (Charlotte Ross) so that they could inherit Nick's fortune. This resulted in a brief but widely popular arc where Jack and Eve were forced to pretend to be a loving and utterly devoted couple in spite of their obvious disdain for each other.
After Frankie urging Jennifer to tell Jack the truth about what was really going on, Jennifer finally confessed the truth about Lawrence having raped her, which led to more angst for Jack over whether or not Jennifer would be able to love Jack now that she had been a victim of [...] as well. The [...] revelation made him view himself as a mirror image to Lawrence; though with Lawrence, Jack saw what he could have been, had Jack never abandoned his evil ways and sought redemption for his villainous misdeeds. This was made clear when Jennifer insisted that she still loved Jack despite his dark past and could no longer imagine life without him by her side.
Eventually, Jennifer pressed charges against Lawrence. This forced Jack to come full circle with what he had done to Kayla as Lawrence discovered and sought to use Jack's own history of [...] against him, culminating in a fight between the two in Jennifer's loft. Fearing his own loss of control and desperately seeking that Jennifer receive justice for what had happened to her, Jack committed himself to seeing that Lawrence did not escape punishment for his crime.
This led to Jack and Kayla gaining a level of closure towards their own past together, as Kayla forgave Jack for raping her, though Jack continued to feel guilty over the way he had denied that what had happened was [...]. This led to a tense moment on the witness stand, as Lawrence's attorney goaded Jack (called to the stand as a hostile witness for the defense) by saying that Lawrence didn't [...] Jennifer, just like Jack didn't [...] Kayla - as both couples were married at the time of the incidents. Pushed to the edge, Jack yells out that he did [...] Kayla, just like Lawrence raped Jennifer.
As the trial drew to a close, Shane Donovan feared that the jury would acquit Lawrence and controversially took matters into his own hands via recording a conversation between himself and Lawrence with Lawrence admitting to raping Jennifer. While the tape could not be admitted into evidence (as it was illegally obtained), fear of it being leaked to the press was enough to blackmail Lawrence into accepting a plea-bargain for 3rd degree marital [...].
With Lawrence temporarily defeated, Jack and Jennifer reunited in the wake of the trial and finally married in a wild-west rodeo themed wedding.
John Black
Meanwhile Isabella and "Roman" (John) grew closer and Isabella became pregnant just as "Roman's" wife, Marlena Evans returned from the grave. Marlena's death had been faked, and she had been the prisoner of Stefano Dimera. If that twist wasn't enough it was then revealed that Roman Brady (Wayne Northrop) was still alive meaning that the Drake Hogestyn Roman who had been in Salem for the last half of the 1980s wasn't Roman Brady after all. Returning to the name "John Black," John found himself confused as to who he was. Isabella said it didn't matter to her. She knew the man, not the name, and she loved him anyway. On the day that their son, Brady Black, was born, John and Isabella were married. Unfortunately, poor Isabella was soon diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And on the evening that Abigail Deveraux (Jack and Jennifer Deveraux's child) was born, Isabella quietly slipped from life while held cradled in her husband's arms.
The behind the scenes reason for such a massive swerve in story was that the producers had approached Deidre Hall about returning to the show in the role of Marlena. Hall agreed to return only if the producers also brought back her close friend Wayne Northrop in the role he originated, Roman Brady. The producers were interested but knew quite well that Hogestyn was extremely popular with viewers and they couldn't just fire him. However, since Hogestyn's Roman had moved on to Isabella, a compromise was struck: Northrop returned as Roman, who had been held prisoner by arch-villain Stefano DiMera for seven years, and it was revealed that Hogestyn's character, John Black, was one of Stefano's mercenaries who had his memories taken from him and was brainwashed into thinking he was Roman as punishment for betraying Stefano (as well as a means of carrying on Stefano's favorite hobby—the continual torment of the Brady family).
In fairness to the writers and producers, it should be noted that the idea that Hogestyn's character was not the real Roman Brady was nothing new; various magazine articles in 1988 hinted at the idea during a story arc that involved the return of Stefano and explored what really happened to Roman during his 2 years in Stefano's custody. One idea floated in the press at the time centered around the possibility of Hogestyn's character actually being one of Stefano's unknown sons. However, this was never fleshed out and the storyline concluded with a fairly clear resolution that Hogestyn's character was truly Roman Brady who had been captured by Stefano, given a new face via plastic surgery, brainwashed into believing he was one of Stefano's assassins (but not successfully to the point where he actually assassinated anybody), accidentally caused an explosion that caused the deafness of Stefano's son Benji Hawk, and was found by the ISA but abandoned again when its other agents in Stefano's organization were discovered and killed. Roman remained in Stefano's clutches until Stefano went into hiding during one of his faked deaths, and Roman was auctioned off to Victor Kiriakis as "The Pawn".
Nevertheless, the return of the "real" Roman was particularly amusing to fans who paid close attention to the obvious physical differences between Northrop and Hogestyn, and wondered how anyone, particularly Marlena who had been married to (and slept with) both men, would readily accept one in place of the other. Hogestyn was taller, darker, hairier, had straighter hair, and was right-handed, in contrast with the shorter, fairer-skinned, smoother, curly-haired, left-handed Northrop. It was also apparent that Hogestyn was either a few years younger than Northrop, or it was just that being cooped up in Stefano's prison for 7 years had caused Roman not to age quite as well as his Salem-bound counterpart.
Through many different writing regimes, John's past would change considerably. He is, to date, quite possibly the most continually rewritten character in the history of television. His character has been retconned at least 6 or 7 times over the period 1986-2000. First it was revealed that he was a member of the wealthy Alamain family, and then he was a priest who Stefano's mistress confided in. Eventually it was revealed that John was a mercenary, con artist, and jewel thief who worked with Gina von Amberg, a royal princess who was a con artist like her lover on the side (and who, like Hope Williams, was portrayed by Kristian Alfonso). Years later it was rewritten yet again that John was actually the illegitimate son of Daphne DiMera, Stefano's deceased common law wife and Alamain sister, and an as-yet-unrevealed father (fan speculation continues to center on Shawn Brady, which would make him Roman's half-brother and may explain why he shared enough similarities with Roman to be able to replace him so easily and for so long). Marlena reunited with the real Roman while John and Isabella were together.
Much had changed since Roman was last in town, and he struggled to fit into the canvas. Meanwhile, John and Isabella's happiness was short-lived, as Isabella was given fatal pancreatic cancer to accommodate the exit of Staci Greason when contract talks broke down because the actress demanded too much money. After dealing with his grief, John began a controversial affair with Marlena, which culminated with Marlena and Roman's daughter Sami (Alison Sweeney) catching them having [...] on a conference table at Victor Kiriakis's new Titan Industries office building. When she became pregnant as a result of this fling, she believed the child to be Roman's and was aided in this belief by Sami, who altered a paternity test to make it appear that Roman was the father. Ultimately, Sami was exposed after kidnapping and attempting to sell her younger sister Belle (named for the late Isabella Black). Unable to forgive Marlena, Roman fled town in disgrace at being cuckolded by John. The scandal would force Marlena to raise Belle alone while John found comfort with a new arrival in Salem, social worker Kristen Blake DiMera (Eileen Davidson). Sami, meanwhile, never forgave Marlena and John (who Sami considered a second father) for betraying Roman like they did, with the incident triggering a serious turn to the dark side for Sami.
Buried alive: The James E. Reilly era begins
In 1993, the show began to drift towards more supernatural storylines with the hiring of new head writer James E. Reilly. One of his first major storylines was to have Carly Manning buried alive by John and Lawrence's insane aunt, Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel). The show shot up in the ratings as NBC heavily promoted the storyline with lurid commercials showing actress Crystal Chappell in a coffin screaming while Louise Sorel laughed like a mad woman while laying on top of Carly's grave. With ratings at a high level, Reilly decided to fire several popular actors who Reilly had disliked; most notably Matthew Ashford, Michael Sabatino, and Crystal Chappell. Carly and Lawrence's complicated and often adversarial relationship ended up turning to love in a rather rushed storyline where they reclaimed Nicholas, the child that they long believed dead from Vivian. The happy family ended up leaving town for a life together in Europe. Jack Deveraux meanwhile would not get a happy send-off; Jack was controversially written out of the series so that Reilly could pair Jennifer up with a newly created character of his named Peter Blake (Jason Brooks), who was a mob boss and Steffano DiMera's adopted son. Jack fled his wife and newborn daughter Abby after Abby recovered from cancer, after it was publicly exposed that Abby's illness was caused by toxic chemicals Jack (while working for his adopted father Harper as a teenager) had ordered dumped near where the couple lived at.
Carrie and Austin and Sami and Lucas
Reilly also began to fill the show with new young actors to help promote the show to younger viewers. Besides Carrie (Christie Clark, who had been a cast member of the show since she was a little girl), there was her half-sister Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney). There were also two dysfunctional half-siblings Lucas Roberts (Bryan Dattilo) and Austin Reed (Patrick Muldoon). Lucas himself was the offspring of a relationship between his mother Kate Roberts (Deborah Adair, Lauren Koslow) and Bill Horton, retroactively inserted into Days canon as the event that caused Laura Horton to have her nervous breakdown. Austin and his sister Billie (Lisa Rinna) were children of a previous marriage of Kate that had ended in Kate having to abandon her children to an abusive father. Austin was a boxer whose budding romance with Carrie suffered after a mobster threw acid in her face (Austin was the intended target).
Reilly quickly created a love "rectangle" between Austin, Carrie, Lucas, and Sami that would borrow from previous love triangles, most notably the Bill/Mickey/Laura triangle from the early 1970s. Carrie was a very attractive young woman who had to endure the manipulation and lukewarm relationship of her jealous sister, Sami. At one time, Sami was infatuated with a young man named Alan, but Alan wanted Carrie and had planned to [...] her. When he was unsuccessful in this, he instead raped Sami. She eventually shot him in the testicles, effectively castrating him. Carrie convinced Sami to press charges against Alan but when Sami lost in court, she sanked further into manipulative and self-destructive behavior. Austin showed her kindness and she then became obsessed with him. Sami drugged Austin and seduced him, only to run from his house the next morning when Austin told her he would only love Carrie. She ran to Lucas's arms, and they slept together in an effort to get over their mutual heartbreak over Carrie and Austin's relationship, as Lucas also wanted Carrie. With help from Vivian, Sami convinced Austin he was her baby's father and attempted to get him to marry her. Meanwhile Lucas used his other half-brother, Mike Horton (now played by Roark Critchlow), to break Austin and Carrie up by having Mike steal Carrie away from Austin. However, the truth about young Will's paternity came out, resulting in a wedding for Carrie and Austin. Lucas declared his undying hatred for Sami for not telling him he was in fact Will's father, as he had longstanding issues with his own absent father.
These new storylines generated much attention. Patrick Muldoon initially played Austin early on but when he left the show, Austin Peck was cast as the new Austin Reed. Viewers generally agreed they liked the casting of Peck as Austin Reed.
The Bo, Hope and Billie love triangle
Then Hope (Kristian Alfonso) returned from the dead, only she had amnesia. While there were lingering questions as to whether Hope was really Hope or Gina, another impostor created by the DiMeras, Bo continued in his relationship with Billie. They married. However, when Robert Kelker-Kelly was fired and replaced by Bo's originator Peter Reckell, there was an emotional shift in the story as the writers decided to reconcile Bo and Hope. Hope was revealed to really be Hope and it was only a matter of time before Bo and Hope reunited and Billie left for Europe. Later, Billie (Krista Allen) returned to the show and made trouble for Bo and Hope. In a convoluted plotline that involved Bo leaving Hope as part of an undercover operation, Bo was forced to make love to Billie, who was captured by [...] dealers who rehooked the former addict onto drugs.
Billie became pregnant, but the child, Georgia, was apparently stillborn, ending their relationship as Bo and Hope reconciled again
Return of Tony DiMera
Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) returned under Reilly's pen in 1993 to take care of an ill Stefano and to marry his longtime sweetheart, Kristen. Tony had reconciled his differences with Stefano during their absent years from the show. Tony was now portrayed as a protagonist, who wanted to legitimize the DiMera business. After a few mishaps, Tony was able to marry Kristen but she ultimately left him for John, resulting in Tony faking his own death and making it look like John had murdered him.
Mike Horton: [...]?
Meanwhile Mike Horton moved back to Salem and next door to Marlena Evans, having recently returned from the Middle East where he worked for a medical relief agency. Unfortunately, Mike's return came at the same time that the relief agency he worked with was busted for smuggling explosives into the region (Mike wasn't involved in the smuggling plot but due to his high ranking position inside the agency, was terrified that the scandal would ruin both his reputation and that of the Horton family if his involvement in the scandal ever became public). Stefano knew about this and one day showed up at Mike's door and threatened to expose Mike's unwitting involvement in the smuggling ring to disgrace the Horton family name, if Mike didn't give Stefano regular access to his apartment.
Enter Satan and The OJ Simpson Trial
Stefano was now turning to Satanism to try and force Marlena to love him, leading to him casting a spell (one that required Stefano be in close proximity to Marlena) that would brainwash Marlena into loving him. Unfortunately for Stefano, he utterly failed to realize what dangerous forces he was involving himself in and instead of brainwashing Marlena, he instead accidentally offered Marlena up to Satan, who promptly possessed Marlena. Marlena, now under Satan's domination, tormented local churches via mass acts of vandalism and nearly killed Stefano and John Black before being subdued. Afterwards began a lengthy "exorcism" storyline that coincided with the retcon that John Black was a priest, leading to John being forced to perform the lengthy ceremony to save Marlena from Satan's clutches.
The Satanic Possession storyline was extremely controversial, as many fans and critics began to turn against Reilly's writing for taking the show into a direction that was more supernatural-based than reality-based. But the storyline, which gained mainstream attention from the media for its lurid twists (such as Marlena floating in mid-air), was a ratings goldmine for NBC. Adding to this was the fact that the possession storyline ran at the same time as the OJ Simpson [...] trial, when the big three networks all preempted their soap line-up so as to devote the time for coverage of the real life trial. The fact that Days, with this controversial storyline, could keep its ratings high while suffering from multiple hiatuses helped solidify Reilly's power base with network executives.
The Jennifer, Jack and Peter love triangle
Writers were not satisfied with the Jennifer Horton and Peter Blake pairing and decided to recast the role of Jack Deveraux and bring him back to Salem to seek to reclaim his family from Peter Blake's grasp. Now played by Mark Valley, Jack's return was added to the metatext-esque storyline of Jennifer's mother Laura's (now sane and played by Jaime Lyn Bauer) utter disapproval of Jennifer's relationship with Peter. Laura was suspicious of Peter and desperately wanted to expose his villainy to her daughter, so Peter had Laura's office painted with toxic chemicals to send her around the bend and make it look like she had suffered another nervous breakdown. Rather than force her mother back into a mental institution, Jennifer sent Laura to a mental health spa where Laura had a one night stand with Jack. They had no idea of the other's identity as Jack had never met Jennifer's mother before. They were using assumed names and in spite of wanting to see Jack and Jennifer reunite, Laura was torn with her own attraction to her former son-in-law.
A monkey wrench was thrown into the now love rectangle story when Melissa Reeves quit the show in the fall of 1995 without advance notice, amid rumors that Melissa Reeves had begun an affair with co-star Jason Brooks and had quit the show in order to try and salvage her marriage.
The result was the recasting of the role of Jennifer with look-alike Stephanie Cameron, along with a brand new recast of Jack (Steve Wilder) when Mark Valley's contract was not renewed. The Jack/Laura relationship was quickly dropped and the writers rushed a quickly reconciliation between Jack and Jennifer, just as Stefano faked Peter's death and framed Jack for the [...] (in truth, Peter had gone insane and gained super-strength due to a rare tropical illness he had contracted).
After a year of sporadic appearances while working with a traveling circus, Jack and Jennifer cleared Jack's name and exposed Peter as being alive. Peter was promptly arrested at long last and the characters of Jack, Jennifer, and Abby left the show for Africa in 1998.
The Gina/John Black storyline
As the 1990s ended, the writers finally ended up resolving the mystery of Hope's missing years with it revealed that Stefano had brainwashed Hope into thinking she was the famous art-thief Princess Gina Von Amberg. In one of John's many retconned pasts before he arrived in Salem, he had been a co-hort of the evil Princess Gina, travelling with her under the guise of being a priest (removing that particular aspect of John's background) and stealing valuable artwork for Stefano.
Needing Gina and John for one last score, Stefano restored their brainwashed personas just as John and Marlena were married again. In a controversial storyline that would devastate the show's ratings, a brainwashed Hope (now calling herself "Gina") stole John from Marlena on her honeymoon, helped Stefano brainwash John, and then made love to him on a submarine. The "Sub-[...]", as it was called by fans, created an outcry as many saw it as being a massive betrayal of the characters and their respective marriages, even though both John and Hope were under mental control when they had [...]. Furthermore "Gina" seduced Stefano and had Bo kidnapped and brainwashed into thinking he was a mime and left to wander the streets of Paris, his mind conditioned to prevent Bo from remembering who he was or from even being able to speak.
The storyline was horribly controversial and reached even further heights of anger when Hope became pregnant and the writers ran a fan contest to decide if Stefano or John was the father, with Bo not being offered up as a possible father.
This proved to be a bad move ratings wise as ratings fell precipitously even as the real Princess Gina surfaced, determined to claim John from her doppelganger. Bo was rescued and freed from being forced to spend the rest of his life as a mute amnesiac and exposed the real Princess Gina (now pretending to be Hope, after locking Hope and Stefano up in her European castle dungeon) as she laid dying after her scheme was exposed. Hope and Stefano were rescued and Hope gave birth to a child who was revealed to be John's.
The storyline was horribly unpopular and when the writers changed in 2001, the new writers created a hastily conceived retcon where it was revealed that the brainwashed Hope slipped out from Stefano's sight one night after they brainwashed Bo and decided to have a little "fun" with him, in terms of "Gina" having [...] with the mute, amnesiac, mime-cladded Bo, resulting in Bo being the father of Hope's child after all.
2000 and Beyond
Return of Tony DiMera
Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) returned to steal Marlena away from John. His motives remained unclear for many months as he put subtle plans into motion and worked at creating tension among many characters. Stefano had left him a blue key that he said would unlock the secrets to his past and future, and John and Tony spent many months racing to learn the secrets of the key first. It turns out that the key unlocked the bracelets of the Gemini Twins, mind-controlled teenage-aged pawns of Stefano. Tony's fugue states led him to a DiMera island compound on a string of islands shaped like the Gemini constellation. On the island, he used the blue key to open a box containing Stefano's diary. The diary contained all of the information pertaining to the Brady / DiMera feud, revealed that John was the son of Daphne DiMera and therefore. Tony's half-brother, and further solidified Tony as the new antagonist of the show. He also served as a catalyst for Sami and Lucas to finally acknowledge their feelings for each other, when Sami was nearly killed by Tony when she confronted him over his helping Lexie ruining her relationship with Lexie's stepson Brandon Walker (Matt Cedeno). Finally, the new struggles against Tony resulted in the sudden, surprise revelation that John Black, rather than just just being a semi-amnesiac former mercenary, thief, and priest-turned-wealthy local businessman, was in fact Salem's resident ISA agent-in-place, and naturally his #1 assignment was to wage the ongoing battle against the DiMera clan (the exact timing of his employement by the spy agency was never revealed; it was just sprung on the audience out of the blue one day with a brief return by Shane Donovan).
Nicole Walker
Finally, the writers eagerly exploited the show's newest (at that time) character, Nicole Walker (Arianne Zuker). Originally a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Nicole was hired as a model by one time Titan Industries employee Sami, and Kate later paid her a large sum of money to marry Lucas, tp help Lucas win custody of his son. Through the Robertses, Nicole discovered the power of money and quickly manipulated her way into the bed of Victor Kiriakis, much to Kate's horror. As her marriage to Lucas ended, she married Victor and found herself rich and powerful, though Nicole found herself outmatched when she crossed swords with Victor. Having survived a near fatal stroke that left him paralyzed for several years, Victor was determined to never be helpless again and used the fact that Nicole murdered a rogue doctor Colin Murphy (Justin Melvey) when he tried to blackmail her to keep her under his thumb. Much to Victor's horror, Nicole became involved with Brady. Victor was soon presumed dead and was therefore unable to prevent Nicole from seudcing Brady.
The Salem Stalker
With ratings at an all time low and NBC threatening to cancel the series, James Reilly was brought back as head writer in the summer of 2003 and given carte blanche to "fix" the show. His major storyline to save Days was the ultra-controversial Salem Stalker storyline. The storyline began with the shooting of Abe Carver (James Reynolds), which stunned the city of Salem. Even more stunning was that he pointed to Maggie Horton (Suzanne Rogers) as he lay dying, though she was never considered a suspect in his [...]. Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford) was killed by a brick to the head, since he had been working with Abe on a story. Maggie, who had seen Abe's death but mentally blocked it out, found herself a victim of the serial killer, who bludgeoned the recovering alcoholic with a liquor bottle. Caroline Brady (Peggy McCay) was poisoned at church during a memorial service, and her granddaughter Cassie (Alexis Thorpe) was stabbed to death and placed in a pinata on Thanksgiving Roman's (Josh Taylor) throat was slashed at his wedding to Kate Roberts, and Tony DiMera was mutilated by a tiger the killer let loose at a fundraiser where he had promised to reveal the Salem Stalker's identity. Tony survived the attack, but was given a lethal dose of medicine by the [...] who was revealed to be none other than Marlena Evans.
In the meantime, an insane Jan Spears (Heather Lauren Olson, then Heather Lindell) electrocuted Victor Kiriakis in a convoluted attempt to win the heart of Shawn Brady. The death was at first attributed to the Salem Stalker, but later the police became unsure. Doug Williams (Bill Hayes) discovered Marlena's treachery and was stabbed to death in the cemetery. He left a note that was found by Alice Horton. Marlena confronted Alice, who despite heavily interventions by Abe, Maggie, Caroline, and Roman, was suffocated by one of her homemade donuts. Alice, however was able to call John Black and warn him that Marlena was the killer. After a nasty fight. Marlena ended up in the hospital, where under the influence of truth serum admitted that that she killer everyone because Abe had discovered that she intended to stop Roman from marrying Kate, though a non-drugged Marlena apparently didn't remember any of the crimes. The storyline was extremely controversial as many of the victims were longtime fan favorites. In the midst of this original cast member John Clarke (Mickey) left, ratings when the shock of the killings wore off and it had been revealed that Marlena had been the killer, ratings began to fall. Faced with angry fans, the show re-hired all of the fired actors and claimed that the resurrection of all the characters had been the plan all along (though apparently none of the actors were aware of this). In the wake of Jack's death, Jennifer discovered that was pregnant. Dr. Lexie Carver advised her to abort the child claiming that it had a serious birth defect.
It was during this time that a curious phenomenon appeared on the show-for several months, no matter what time of day the action was occurring, any clock shown onscreen showed the time as "4:20". rumors spread like wildfire among fans and on the internet blogs that this was a clue to the storyline's resolution, especially those in-the-know of the various meanings of the time and/or number. It eventually got around that this was merely a gag being perpetrated by the props department and had no relevance to the show's storyline.
After Marlena was "killed" in a prison riot arranged by Nicole, Marlena found herself alive in a seemingly deserted Salem. As she explored the town she met Alice Horton, who was alive after all. Alice was later joined by Roman and Abe, who revealed that the entire charade had been faked by an unknown enemy, though most believed it to be Stefano of Tony (who was the only victim not to be found on the island). Victor, though not a victim of the Salem Stalker, was also on the island of Melaswen, of New Salem spelled backwards. Tony eventually revealed himself to the survivors, though he claimed to be a victim as well. However, Tony was responsible for everything, and had done so to destroy Salem's greatest love stories and prove that he was more powerful than his father Stefano ever had been. The plan was part of his revenge against his half-brother John Black, who he could never surpass, or forgive for his betrayal with Kristen. The seemingly dead Colin Murphy was also a prisoner of Tony's island, as was Billie Reed, now played by Julie Pinson. Bo, Hope, Jennifer, John, and Patrick all made it to the island, and were reunited with their lost loved ones. Jennifer gave birth to hers and Jack's healthy baby son who was eventually named Jack Patrick Deveraux.
Tony and John had a final duel to the death in Tony's faux Zen chamber, resulting in Tony's apparent demise. The captives ultimately were rescued from Melaswen, but Tony triggered a volcanic explosion resulting in a tidal wave. Marlena, Roman, Jack, Cassie, Victor, Caroline, and Colin were presumed dead.
The remaining islanders returned to Salem to attempt to regain the lives they had lost. Maggie found that Mickey, now played by veteran actor John Ingle, had remarried, while Abe began to suffer from migraine headaches that led to blindness, Eventually, it was revealed that the six victims. were in fact being held by a very much alive Tony in a European castle (the fate of Colin Murphy is unknown, though he is believe to be dead). Victor and Caroline became close again, while a segregated Jack and Cassie began to scheme escape. Roman and Marlena were thrust together in yet another part of the castle, though they weren't seen often, and began to fall in love again. Devastated at losing her parents and her new found love with Lucas Roberts, Sami began to act out again, and and disguised herself as man named Stan (while Alison Sweeney was on maternity leave). She caused John to be wracked with excruicating pain got him hooked on drugs. While battling his addiction, John became involved with Kate Roberts. Marlena and Roman saw John and Kate having [...] and, out of grief and desperation, had [...], too.
After a fire in the castle, Jack, Cassie, Roman, and Marlena escaped and returned to Salem. Victor and Caroline were spirited away yet again by Tony, who was later apprehended, and Victor and Caroline were allowed to return to Salem. Immediately after his reunion with his family in Salem, Jack was diagnosed by Lexie Carver with a fatal illness, A couple of months later he "died" again after a car wreck on a bridge. Fulfilling Jack's wish that when he died, Jennifer would turn to Frankie Brady, Jennifer and Frankie grew closer and became engaged.
As 2004 progressed, the slow-paced storylines continued, and ratings fell to ever new 'all-time lows'.
In a homage to Marlena's many visits to the prison cages of Stefano, Shawn was kidnapped by his insane childhood friend, Jan Spears (Heather Lindell), and kept in a cage for months while she attempted to trick him into having [...] with her. Meanwhile Belle (who Shawn had left on bad terms when he refusal to give vital information about her mother being the serial killer resulted in the "deaths" of Shawn's maternal grandfather Doug and his maternal great-grandmother Alice) and Philip found themselves forced together by Kate, who spent time manipulating the love lives of her children. She also did damage to Lucas and Sami's relationship by having Sami drugged and placed with her ex-boyfriend Brandon, resulting in Lucas canceling their planned wedding. Another more controversial storyline was Mimi's decision to have an abortion after becoming with pregnant with Rex's child on the basis that Rex would not want a child due to the couple's poor financial status. The truth was kept from Rex for many months and fans were forced to watch Rex and Mimi perform the same scene of Mimi trying to tell the truth to Rex only to have something interrupt her before she could tell Rex the truth. Meanwhile, Jan found out about the abortion and blackmailed Mimi, culminating in Mimi accidentally putting Jan into a coma, then pleading guilty so she would receive a lengthy jail term and never have to face Rex again. Ultimately, Mimi was released from jail when it was proven that Jan's coma was an accident but Belle revealed to Rex the truth about Mimi's abortion and Rex dumped Mimi as a result of her lies. Many fans complained than rather than using the storyline as a discussion on the pros and cons of abortion, viewers watched as Mimi was 'punished' for her choice by developing an infection which rendered her barren and losing Rex's love. Actress Heather Tom wrote an op-ed in Soap Opera Digest criticizing the story as inaccurate and irresponsible.
While Victor was presumed dead (actually bonding with old love Caroline on Melaswen), Nicole seduced Brady. Chloe was disfigured in a limo accident and faked her death rather than meet Brady without her beautiful face. Eventually, Nicole found out Chloe was alive and through a convoluted series of events, was mistaken for a doctor and had to perform plastic surgery on Chloe's face. Nicole permanently scarred Chloe but when Brady found our Chloe, he told her the scars didn't matter.
After escaping Jan's cage, Shawn crashed his motorcycle into a wall and forgot everything that Jan had done to him and he thought the he loved Jan and not Belle. After months of being with Jan he realized that he loved Belle and drove his motorcycle into a window at the church in a failed attempt to stop the wedding of Belle Black (now played by Martha Madison) and Philip Kiriakis (played by The Real World alumnus Kyle Brandt) as his obsession with Belle caused him to stalk her and drink heavily. While Philip tolerated Shawn's obsession with his wife for the sake of Belle, Philip soon found his life irreversibly altered when Philip (who was a Marine) was sent on a mission to a war zone-which many fans assumed to be Iraq, although the war zone was never named as such. He was promptly captured and tortured by Tony, who had assembled a group of highly trained mercenaries in infiltrate the war zone and spirit Philip away. Meanwhile Shawn, having slept with Belle during a snowstorm shortly before Philip was deployed. was filled with guilt and sought to make amends by going over to the war zone and rescuing Philip from the encampment where Tony's army of European mercenaries were situated.
Aiding him in the mission Philip's half-nephew, Brady, his half-brothers, Lucas and Rex, and Sami, who was disguised as a male reported named Stan (in truth, Alison Sweeney was on maternity leave and Dan Wells was hired to play her in drag) who proceeded to play the four rescuers and Tony against each other before helping the men rescue Philip. Tony meanwhile escaped capture through the guys' attempt to bring Philip home was rejected by Philip, who opted to stay behind to help his fellow troops in combat, believing it was his military duty. It was during his first mission after his rescue that Philip lost his leg to a landmine, sending him home as a result. Although the war zone was never labeled as Iraq, many were not comfortable with the depiction of a fake war while the Iraq war was going on, where many real soldiers had suffered and died, as well as the controversial to have Philip lose his leg.
Meanwhile, Marlena discovered she was pregnant with Roman's child, though she kept this from John because he was going through withdrawal from the painkillers to which he had become addicted to while Marlena was presumed dead. However, the truth came out as John and Marlena and Roman and Kate tried to ment their trouble marriages. Roman and Kate separated, but mostly due to her constant interference in Sami's life. Marlena lost her baby after a tumble down the stairs, due to the high risk pregnancy and the stress involved her marriage. She awoke in the hospital to find she had amnesia. and John as convinced to call in a specialist named Alex North. In a twist, Alex North was played by none other than Wayne Northrop the original Roman Brady. Dr. North had been using hypnosis on Marlena and trying to help her recover her past-a ye-another-retconned past in which the two of them were married.
The Salem teenagers
The show continued on with plotlines that focused upon new teenage characters including Belle Black (originally Kirsten Storms, then briefly Charity Rahmer, now played by Martha Madison), Brady Black (Kyle Lowder), Shawn-Douglas Brady (Brandon Beemer), and Philip Kiriakis (originated by Brandon Tyler, then almost immediately recast with Jay Kenneth Johnson, and now played by Kyle Brandt, formerly of MTV's The Real World). They were soon joined by Cassie (Alexis Thorpe) and Rex (Eric Winter), who were ultimately revealed to be the offspring of Kate and Roman, who Marlena gave birth to while she was believed to be dead, and Mimi Lockhart (Farah Fath), Belle's best friend, whose father lost his job and abandoned his family.
The main storyline of the time involved the very popular relationship between Shawn and Belle, who vowed to remain virgins until they married and exchanged "purity rings" as a sign of love. (The motives for this wasn't to promote abstinence but a plot consession brought about due to the fact that actress Kirsten Storms had a multiple picture TV-movie deal with Disney at the time she was hired to play Belle, which included a "morals clause" preventing her from taking any roles which involved the character playing sexually active characters).
The other big teen stories of the time were Brady and Philip's rivalry over Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin), daughter of conniving Nancy and Dr. Craig Wesley (Patrika Darbo and Kevin Spirtas). Chloe initially wore all black ensembles and big glasses. After many taunts as "Ghoul Girl" she shocked the students at the Last Blast Dance by throwing off her cloak to reveal a sexy red dress. Philip had originally dated her only as a prank (he planned to dump her and break her heart), but he soon fell in love with her. Brady was alienated from his family because of his hatred of Marlena, and confided in Chloe. Eventually Brady and Chloe became a couple, but his grandfather, Victor, felt that Chloe was not good enough for him and got her an overseas job singing opera.
Oftentimes, a soap will use much of its airtime on teens to gain an edge in the younger dempgraphics and ignoring the seasoned characters. This inevitably ends up alienating older, more loyal fans. However, with this particular set of teens, many soap opera publications applauded the show for its incorporation of the teenagers with the adult characters.
By the summer and fall of 2005, the soap brought back some of its fan favorites from the 1980s and 1990s including former Salem teenagers Austin Peck (Austin Reed), Billy Warlock (Frankie Brady) and Christie Clark (Carrie Brady).
The Gloved Hand
In 2006, There is a mysterious gloved hand terrorizing Salem as we speak. The first time we saw him was when he switched Belle Black and Mimi Lockhart's baby embryos. Which, caused Mimi and Philip Kiriakis to have a baby together and Belle and Shawn-Douglas Brady to have a baby. Then we saw The Gloved Hand mess with Sami Brady telling her that he would tell Lucas Roberts, Austin Reed and Carrie Brady that Sami blackmailed Lexie Carver into lying to Carrie that if she married Austin there would be problems with there children. Then he messed with Max Brady's race car before a race. On the track Max's car blew up with Stephanie Johnson behind him. Max and Stephanie quickly went to the hospital. Recently, they showed that race car driver E.J. Wells is the Gloved Hand and he is working with Patrick Lockhart.