♥ Big Splits - Sneak Story Peeks
DAYS: The End Of
John And Marlena?
The Next Big Split? DAYS: John Gives Marlena An Ultimatum!
Changes are in the air - in matters of the hearts and souls of daytime's finest duos!
Real-life romances aren't the only love stories in jeopardy these days. Several soap opera couples are flirting with disaster over the next few weeks. Is DAYS OF OUR LIVES' John and Marlena's marriage strong enough to survive the black days ahead? On THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, will Matt/Carter succeed in tearing Nick and Sharon apart? On ONE LIFE TO LIVE, can Blair prove her innocence to Todd? To see whether these couples will break up or make up, plus the hot plots on all your shows, read on!
DAYS' soulmates John and Marlena are going through their own personal hell: Brady is tearing them apart. John wants to raise his son J.T. and Roman continues to long for Marlena! How much more can they take?
John is outraged that Marlena recently slapped and shoved Brady. The tension and animosity between the Blacks is so thick, it begins to overshadow their love for each other. John even tells Marlena that unless she starts to treat his son Brady better, he doesn't think their marriage will last. Marlena admits that she does not have a clue as to how she can get along better with someone who wants to see her dead.
However, Brady never lets up. He actually tells his father that he'll have to choose between him and Marlena. John is feeling trapped in the middle between two people that he loves very much.
When John and Marlena finally put aside their many differences to look at the situation more objectively, they start to rebuild their relationship on the foundation of the love that they still share. But how long will that last?
Blinded By Love:
"If any son of mine were to talk to my wife like that," says Drake Hogestyn (John), "being the age and size Brady is, he'd see the back of my hand. It would be a father/son moment we would never forget. As for Marlena and Brady," Hogestyn muses, "John is concerned by the escalating nature of the behavior. It's become physical. There could be some instability and that's frightening. Marlena is becoming more aggressive and that's scary. John sees his son as injured, going through rehabilitation. Who, in their right mind, would take advantage of that handicap situation and administer physical punishment?"
Deidre Hall (Marlena) denies that John's intimacy with Hope has any bearing on Marlena's frayed emotions. "Tension around John's child with Hope is really a separate issue," says Hall. "That concern is about how John wants J.T. to be a part of his life, even though decisions have been made by Hope and Bo to the contrary. When John starts pining away to be a daddy to his little boy, it's upsetting because it's not a plan that was put in place."
Hogestyn disagrees that Hope has little to do with the tension between John and Marlena. "I don't care how you slice it, it's infidelity, going outside your primary relationship and having a child - no matter that John and Hope were under Stefano's mind control. Then Brady comes into the picture when there's already great tension between John and Marlena."
"Battle lines are drawn. Families deal every day with the situation: How far can the step-parents go in the discipline of their non-biological child? The total effect of the two situations makes every issue harder to deal with. You feel everything that the other person does is wrong. Then you realize you're over-reacting, soften, and go in the other direction - trying to make things right again, remembering the love that is the basis of the relationship, until a disagreement surfaces again."
Meanwhile, Marlena has been pushed to her limit. "Brady has been in Marlena's life for eighteen years. She raised him from a pup," Hall points out. "Then Brady went off to school, came back, but we don't know what really happened to him. He's so masterfully manipulative. Marlena is confused about what's going on and her inability to have a remedy for it."
The Roman Factor:
Regarding Roman's hovering interest, Hall says, "John is the great love of Marlena's life. Roman's continuing love for Marlena works for the Hattie storyline, but not for Marlena. John is the only man for her."
Hogestyn has a male perspective. "John was Roman; John knows Roman. And if John were Roman now, he knows he'd be doing what he's been doing - trying to get what he wants: Marlena. John knows that. John and Roman are mirrors in going about getting what they want. So in scenes, I always play it that way. John knows exactly what Roman wants. It's the third element in the friction between John and Doc!"
Lorraine Zenka, SOAP OPERA UPDATE, 3/13/01
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♥ The News
DAYS: A 'Dead' End For
John And Marlena?
This week on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, John finally realizes that Marlena despises Brady because he's a constant reminder of the love John shared with Brady's mother, Isabella.
"The specter of Isabella is always hovering over John and Marlena," explains Headwriter Tom Langan. "Marlena thinks John will never love her the way he loved Isabella - and maybe she's right."
John blasts Marlena, blaming her for Brady's troubles. "John says, 'Brady has been right about you all along,'" previews Langan. "So the tide has turned, and John now stands firmly behind his son, which isn't good for the already tumultuous Black marriage."
By week's end, John vows to help relieve his son of his emotional baggage, and the only way he can think of to do that is to keep Isabella's memory alive - which is the one thing Marlena wishes her husband would forget.
Tony Calega, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 6/12/01
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♥ A Surprising Twist For
DAYS' Marlena And Brady...
The News - DAYS: Marlena And Brady...Friends?
Marlena finally does a good deed for a bad seed this week on DAYS OF OUR LIVES when she reaches out to her troubled step-son, Brady.
"Brady has been very down and depressed," explains Headwriter Tom Langan. After watching Brady struggle to walk with his cane, Marlena rummages through her closet and fishes out something she knows will lift his spirits: a framed picture of John, Brady and his late mother, Isabella.
Marlena goes downstairs and suggests to Brady that they mend fences. When she apologizes to him for everything that has happened and he does not respond, Marlena pulls out the photo. Finally, she gets through to the angry boy, who places the photo on the piano with the other family portraits.
"We have to resolve this Brady/Marlena thing," states Langan. "This gesture is a bridge to build communication between these two."
The question is: Will Brady burn this bridge, too?
Tony Calega, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 6/19/01
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♥ The News
Stefano's Last Hurrah
Stefano's shoot-'em up exit this week on DAYS puts both Lexie and John in the line of fire.
As the week opens, Hattie gives Bo and Roman the evidence they need to nail Stefano. As Stefano tries to convince Lexie to leave the country with Isaac, John kicks in the door and demands to know where J.T. is. Roman and Bo burst in as well, causing a desperate Stefano to pull a gun. But he doesn't aim the weapon at the cops. Instead, he turns the pistol on Lexie and uses her as an escape shield.
Chaos ensues when a shot is fired and Lexie falls to the floor. Stefano makes a run for it, and a gun toting John goes after him. By week's end, the bitter enemies have a deadly faceoff that ends in more gunfire.
SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 6/19/01
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DAYS' Stefano: It's Over!
Outward Bound:
"The walls are closing in on Stefano," previews Executive Producer Ken Corday of the storyline that finally propels The Phoenix out of Salem on DAYS.
This week, Hattie confesses to Roman that she saw what she thought was a dead body in the DiMera mansion in January. Thinking they finally have the goods on Public Enemy Number One, Roman and Bo head to the mansion with handcuffs. Meanwhile, John, who decides that Stefano had something to do with J.T.'s disappearance (he didn't), kicks in the door and demands that Stefano return John's missing son. A reeling Lexie overhears the request and figures out that John is the father of Hope's baby.
"He didn't realize she was there," points out Drake Hogestyn (John). "He's thinking, 'Oh, my God.' But he realizes that the more people who know, the more likely it is that the secret will come out." "She's in shock," says Renée Jones (Lexie). "Also, betrayal, because she feels her father knew all along. Her next thought is, 'Oh my God, he (John) cannot find out that I have Hope's baby because he will want to come after this baby to claim this baby and be in this baby's life.' She cannot let this happen."
Suddenly, Roman bursts through the door, ready to nab DiMera once and for all. The trapped Phoenix, however, has other plans. He pulls a gun on Lexie (who is holding Isaac) so that he can use them as a human shield to reach his secret room getaway. "There's a whole shootout business because he has to deal with Roman and John, but that's all sort of to keep them at bay so he can escape," says Joseph Mascolo (Stefano). "No one is shooting anybody to kill anybody because that's not the nature of what we do." (OOPS! This is wrong. When John broke down the door to the DiMera mansion and screamed at Stefano for taking his son, Lexie came in and heard John say this; she was holding Isaac at the time. Because John was outraged and yelling, she called Iliana to take Isaac. So when Stefano took Lexie hostage, she was not holding Isaac.)
Lexie, however, doesn't know about her father's plans. "At first, there's fear," says Jones. "An accidental slip and the bullet's going to go through her brain. There is that fear, but Lexie tries to stay calm, hoping nothing will happen. Stefano manages to sneak in a line to her, which is, 'Always remember that I love you.' Now she knows he's using this (tactic) to escape, but that he would never intentionally hurt her."
Stefano fires the gun, and Lexie falls to the floor. When Roman and John kneel down to check her, Stefano takes off. Abe arrives and tends to his wife, who is fine, but hysterical. John goes after DiMera, who leads him to a tunnel, where they have a showdown. Stefano uses his power over John by reminding him of the days when John worked for him. "It's such an intense relationship these two guys have; it's always been kind of a love/hate thing," notes Mascolo. "They just try to keep each other pinned down." Roman finds them, so Stefano shoots the gun out of his hand and forces John to drop his weapon too. DiMera then slips through a steel door with John hot on his heels. More shots ring out, and Stefano escapes, leaving John behind in a pool of blood. "I don't think John really believes he's gone," notes Hogestyn. "There are a lot of issues that are unresolved with John and Stefano and a lot more story to be told. He could come back. Never say never."
"Lexie's happy that he was able to get away," says Jones. "She doesn't feel that he's gone, though. He never said goodbye or anything. She just feels that he's laying low for a while."
Stefano's last stop? Salem Place, where he runs into Shawn and Belle. "He bumps into them on his way out," says Mascolo, who adds in character, "I've got my Panama hat on and everything, I look at them and say, 'Maybe there's going to be a day where you're going to try and catch me, too.' It's kind of cute. Then, I get in this car and it's 'arrivederci, Salem.'"
Will The Phoenix rise again? "Does Stefano ever really leave?" teases Corday. "We all know the answer to that."
Stephanie Sloane, SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 6/19/01
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♥ The News
DAYS' Gina And John:
Hope Wants Details
John stuns Hope this week on DAYS OF OUR LIVES with the news that both Lexie and Stefano know he fathered J.T. Hope shocks him right back by asking for the scoop on their night of passion.
"She is ready to know the truth now," explains Hope's portrayer, Kristian Alfonso. "She needs to know the truth so she can come to grips with it and decide what she wants to do."
Too bad John can't come to grips with telling it.
"John says that it could change their lives forever," says Alfonso. "But in her mind, she's thinking, 'How could it ever change? My love is for Bo.' John's point of view is that Princess Gina was so madly in love with him, what if these feelings come back? It could destroy two families. John has said that the love Princess Gina and John shared is a love he never had with Marlena, and Hope never had with Bo. John remembers it, but Hope has never experienced it. The greatest love she's ever experienced is the love she shares with Bo."
What if John's tale of sex on the submarine triggers Hope's memories of that night? "She doesn't know what she's getting into," warns Alfonso.
Carolyn Hinsey, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 7/3/01
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♥ The DAYS Episode
You've Been Waiting For
Supercouple Surprise!
The News - DAYS: The Battle Of The Supercouples:
Who's the ultimate Salem supercouple? On November 29, three of DAYS OF OUR LIVES' most popular duos - John and Marlena, Bo and Hope and Mickey and Maggie - converge at Tuscany for some fun, dancing and reminiscing. In the process, viewers are treated to some classic Salem moments, like Marlena and John's wedding and Hawaiian honeymoon, Bo and Hope's nuptials, and the day that Mickey and Maggie met.
The special episode shows "the couples being dressed up, being out together, having a silly time, and enjoying each other," reveals Deidre Hall (Marlena). "In fact, I have a line at some point where Marlena says to John, 'I've missed going out with Bo and Hope, laughing, loving them, and sharing times with them.' It's clear that they're all lonely for it - as the audience has been."
During the course of the evening, the three supercouples begin "discussing their romantic lives, relationships and inspirational relationships," continues Hall. "They talk about Tom and Alice. Hope talks about her romantic wedding. Then Marlena leads into a flashback of her and John. She says something about how their wedding day was the most romantic day of her life."
Hall believes the fire is still there for John and Marlena. "They love each other deeply and freshly and newly," she assures. "It's the kind of love that doesn't get trite or tired. She can't help but smile when he walks into a room. John is a very romantic, sexy character. You can't help but see him as a matinée idol - very heroic and desirable."
Surprisingly, though, Hall wouldn't choose John and Marlena as Salem's Number One supercouple. "You know what? I would actually pick Roman and Marlena - Roman played by Drake Hogestyn," she quickly clarifies. "By the time John became Roman, the audience wanted it so much. They loved him so much, because the writers had done a fabulous job setting it up. There was such profound poignancy in all the moments that preceded the reveal that he was Roman."
The evening at Tuscany culminates with a Mexican Hat Dance. "It's the moment after a glass of wine, so it's all funny and adorable," smiles Hall. "The thing about these sort of scenes is that we (the actors) love getting together. So every scene began with, 'Shut up!' Somebody was trying to give us directions while we were busy playing, catching up and having a great time. It was fun."
Janet Di Lauro, SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, 12/4/01
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Bo Learns The Truth!
Bo Knows!
Even Peter Reckell (Bo) wondered when his alter ego was going to be clued into the fact that John and Hope's one night of submarine sex produced her baby boy on DAYS. "They kept telling me the truth would come out, and after awhile I was like, 'Sure, yeah right,'" Reckell laughs. "The day that Bo finds out is a really good day. The script was written very well. He isn't led around by the nose. He puts two and two together and figures it out."
As the week begins, John successfully extracts the chip from Hope's neck in a private room in the DiMera mansion during Lexie's party. Bo catches them at a very in-opportune moment: Hope wakes up and has flashes of Gina and thinking John is her lover, pulls him into a passionate kiss. "Bo walks in on them, and he fairly quickly beats the crap out of John," says Reckell. An emotional Hope tries to reason with her hubby, explaining that it was Gina, not Hope, who kissed John, but Bo won't listen.
John isn't too successful in explaining either. "John's initial reaction is that he would have liked to have planned when they could have a conversation about this, but it looks like the time has picked itself," says Drake Hogestyn (John). "He hopes cooler heads will prevail and they'll be able to talk it out, but he gets walloped from behind."
Bo comes down the stairs, where he meets up with Lexie, Abe and Marlena, who ask why he looks as though he's been in a fight. An angry Bo announces that Hope has been cheating with John. As if that weren't shocking enough, Barb walks in and declares that Lexie has been keeping a secret of her own. Before Barb can spill the beans about the baby switch, a hidden Rolf shoots her with a tiny dart, causing her to pass out. Abe and Lexie rush her to the hospital.
When Hope and John try to explain what happened, Marlena is understanding. Naturally, Bo isn't and confronts Hope, who says she'll share her secret if Bo promises not to tell anyone else. At that moment, Bo realizes that John is the father of Hope's son. "Bo had suspicions about it for the longest time, and he puts it together pretty fast," previews Reckell.
Bo goes ballistic, railing at Hope and John for keeping the truth from him. "It's a betrayal," says Reckell. "His wife and a couple of his best friends have known all along. And that's what is so difficult to get over." Kristian Alfonso feels that Hope is braced for her hubby's wrath. "It's exactly what she anticipated and feared," says the actress.
At least one person in the room is relieved that Bo knows: Marlena. "She's wanted it to come out all along," points out her portrayer Deidre Hall. "Marlena is more comfortable in the truth of the information, so she's better able to deal with her own emotions and the emotions of the people around her."
Which are running high. "At first, Bo's trying to get answers and the facts; it takes a few days to get everything straight," says Reckell. "After that, it's him trying to figure out how he feels about everything." Hope tries to point out that she was being manipulated by Stefano when everything happened. "She didn't intentionally hurt Bo," notes Alfonso. "It wasn't like she went out and had an affair with five guys, or one guy, or even thought about having an affair. It wasn't like that. It was something this woman had absolutely no control over."
Nevertheless, Bo isn't ready to forgive her - or John - right away. "I think if he doesn't forgive her down the road she'd be devastated," asserts Alfonso. "She's already devastated. I think she feels that her world could really fall apart if he does not forgive her. She thinks he should at least feel some compassion for what she had to go through."
By week's end, John and Bo have another talk, but Bo still isn't ready. "There are a couple of conversations with John, most of which have John trying to do what he's been doing, keeping things under control, trying to keep some perspective on it," says Reckell. "Bo is like, 'Yeah right - get away from me before I hurt you again.'"
Hope isn't having an easy time of it either. "Where we are right now is Hope trying to hang onto the family and getting Bo to trust her again," says Alfonso. "She wants him to understand that she did what she did to protect him and to protect her family because she felt he would never understand. And of course, that's exactly what's taken place. He doesn't trust her anymore."
Unbeknownst to all, Brady and Chloe are still in the manse (as are Belle and Shawn, but they're trapped in a secret room) and overhear everything. What to do about Shawn and Belle?
"That's a pretty heavy load for a kid to digest," nods Hogestyn. "Then again, they read the tabloids! But it just doesn't sound right. It's kind of kinky: 'You and I share a half brother.'"
"At first Hope stresses to Bo and to John and Marlena that the children can never know," says Alfonso. "Hope says to Bo, 'No matter how you feel about me or what I did, you've got to promise me the children will never know. You cannot tell them.'" Bo disagrees. "He wants to tell everybody because he feels that Shawn can deal with it," explains Reckell. "Bo wants everybody to know because he wants it to be out in the open so they can deal with the issues and move on."
SOAP OPERA DIGEST, 12/25/01
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