DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[will81]

I didn't think Marlena was pro priest. Only because I remember it being the first time John looked at Kristen (who was pushing him to stay with the church) like she didn't understand him, while Marlena was simply agreeing with whatever John wanted and thus he felt this stronger connection to her. That they knew each other and she understood who he was. 

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[carolineg]

You are probably right.  Maybe I was just confusing the fact that Marlena was generally really pro John finding out his past, which was fair, but never cared much about the 5 years she was kidnapped lol.  I remember her urging him to find out as much as he could about the priest stuff. 

I would say, IMO, that John was still really into Kristen until Aremid and that's when he saw something 'more' again with Marlena.  But obviously, the audience would see it better than them and knew there was unfinished business with them even at Maison Blanche.  

On a sort of unrelated priest note I always thought it was funny John decided to re commit to being a priest and all of sudden he was performing weddings and had these duties.  Does it even work like that lol?  I know very little about this, but isn't it difficult to go back after you had a wife and children?  How does Eric go in and out as a priest as well?

[will81]

Maybe Marlena had some moments when she pushed John to the priesthood, though I get the feeling they may have been moments when she was feeling guilty about her affair. Not sure.

Yeah I don't think John was aware of his own feelings, but it seems JER was setting up that John and Kristen were not 'meant to be' and his beloved Doc knew him. I agree it was not until Aremid that John started to realise it, somewhat.

Lol John going back and forth is a bit odd. No sure it does work that way. My uncle is a priest and has never had a relationship. He is very much 'married' to GOD. I think if you leave, that's the end of it. Not take backs, haha. 

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by will81

[carolineg]

I think Kristen's view of religion was just so strong at that time (and completely abandoned post-Possession lol) that Marlena's "I support you no matter what" attitude came off more natural.  I just always thought she was okay with it and maybe pro/pushing is too strong of a word, but she wasn't against it and didn't want him to turn his back on it necessarily. 

So do you think Marlena realized if John was a priest brainwashed out of the seminary that meant John was probably a virgin when she met him and she was embarrassed she couldn't tell the difference between him and Roman?  Lol.   I know it's completely retconned out of existence now, but at the time..

I don't think JER ever left his vision of John/Marlena even if I suspect the network and other PTB wanted John/Kristen more when ED first arrived, but JER was never going to truly let that happen.  Aremid is where John/Marlena stuff becomes really clear, but I think the true turning point is when the devil starts using Marlena to actively seduce John.  You truly get the idea that's the endgame couple

Anyhow, Eric's priesthood journey confuses me more than John's.  Eric can leave, have multiple relationships with women, have a child out of wedlock, and get married and DIVORCED, and just go back to being a CATHOLIC priest?   I know women used to join convents after they were widowed, but I feel like Eric's life is not the same at all.  Maybe they just keep him around in case an exorcism needs to get done.

[will81]

Marlena seemed more on John's side "You do what you need to, I'm here" Kristen was more like "You have to stay a priest or the gates of hell will open up" I do think there was foreshadowing at that point. 

I don't think Kristen's religious devotion was that strong prior to John finding out he might be a priest, she was religious but not that devout. It ramped up when it needed to and disappeared when it needed to. 

I think the whole town should be embarrassed about mistaking John for Roman. They question it for a split second and then just accept it. Despite the height and build difference. At least facial surgery is plausible, somewhat. In terms of him being a virgin. He probably wasn't. I'd say DiMera probably had him in a trance sleeping with women he thought was his wife Marlena, to get him ready, lol. I do wonder if there were any other physical differences Marlena noticed, haha.

Eric - I haven't watched the show much since Kristen was dropped in the Harem, and I only returned to watch ED's first come back. So I don't know his story well enough. 

[carolineg]

Agree. They based the whole thing on a before and after photo.  Everyone should be embarrassed.  I think everyone just liked John better and went with it.  Including Marlena lol.   I think it's obvious she liked some physical differences.   

It's sorta funny that you think Stefano made him practice to have sex with Marlena.  If I am going to go even further into all this-why did Stefano even make John faux Ro?  What was his point?  Especially after he kidnapped Marlena as well?  Was there an end goal he was looking for like John to turn on all the Brady's at some point?  Or was it just for like shits and giggles?  Have they ever even tried to explain it?  

As far as Eric he got kicked out of the priesthood for Kristen seducing him.  I don't even want to talk about it.  He always got in a drunk driving accident and killed Daniel among the other lesser sins.  I honestly didn't even hear his excuse about why he went back recently. 

[will81]

My feeling was Stefano really hated John and wanted to torture him to no end. My idea would be that John was an MK Ultra victim, considering that is a real cover up that many know about and how popular conspiracy theories are it would fit well in today's show and still sort of honour the history. They should have pulled it back to that and had Stefano have links to dirty government officials. The story is that John was supposed to infiltrate the police or some other agency and go rogue. Hence why they brainwashed him to be Roman. 

I guess Stefano in retrospect kidnapped Marlena because he was obssessed with her. There was never more said about it. 

I do think successive writing regimes were probably building to something with John, but the constant writer change built to nothing. It is hard to have a story with so many twists and turns that get scrapped and retconned. I can't keep track of his back story.

[beebs]

Okay, I've had a few drinks and I'm tired, but...

A random aside, but considering how we were talking about them bungling Stefano's death storyline, I had to share this. I know some of y'all will definitely hate it, but...enh, I was young when I started writing this. I had planned to write for my DAYS fanfic (without going too deep into the weeds), that Kristen turns up pregnant, back in 2013-14 after she drugged and raped Eric. After a subsequent WTD involving Brady and Eric, the truth is revealed when Stefano, realizing Kristen is unhinged and her fixation on the baby is becoming obsessive and dangerous to the child, reveals that the baby is actually neither man's child, but actually Abby and EJ's baby from their tryst on Smith Island (requiring Abby leave town for a few months to "work for DiMera").

Kristen snaps, and, feeling betrayed begins to withhold Stefano's insulin, eventually causing him to go into diabetic shock, and dies. Kristen being the monster that Stefano created, being the one to kill him feels incredibly appropriate. After she's revealed as the killer, she's put into Bayview. Marlena is told of a "new experimental treatment" being developed by a new doctor there...turns out it's Rolf, using a pseudonym. He's used MK Ultra to "cure her psychotic depression". of course, knowing how MK Ultra works, it wipes Kristen's memory. When Marlena tours the facility to see what this new doctor's treatment involves, she realizes something funny is going on. After some digging, she realizes what's happening and blows the whistle on Rolf's experiments, ultimately leading to Bayview shutting down.

In the aftermath of this, Kristen returns to Salem, and John, realizing that the old "evil" Kristen is gone, takes pity on her, and insists that she stay with him and Marlena at the micropenthouse. Brady, of course, backs John up on this, but Marlena is extremely reluctant, and can't see past the things Kristen's done, even though Kristen doesn't remember and is back to being "sweet, innocent" Kristen again. The tensions between them bleed into Marlena's relationship with John, of course, as well as with Brady.

I'm probably explaining this horribly, but it just kickstarted my memory about that seed of an idea I had. One day I'll write it all out.

That really is a big part of the problem, as well. I know that, ultimately, Gene Palumbo had wanted to tie John to the Alamains, as they were the big bads of the time, and they had just added Vivian to the cast to try to really solidify their place on the show, but considering he was out so quickly, and there was such a turnover in 1991-93 in terms of writers, nothing really could gel properly. In fact, I think Palumbo was brought back for a few weeks during Sheri Anderson's return in mid-1992 to wrap up some of his stories, as well?

Oddly enough, his run wasn't THAT unpopular. He did manage to get the show back up into the Top 5 by the end of his run for a number of weeks, but, in retrospect, it was pretty damn messy, and inconsistent.

[carolineg]

Did Palumbo do the John is a jewel thief story?  That was awful lol.  It had continuity errors from his own recent story the Tale of 2 Romans.  

I don't think tying John to the Alamains was that bad of an idea, but the show didn't do a lot to solidify the Alamains long term.  Once Lawrence was out, John only had Vivian and that wasn't really dramatic.

I think every writer salivates at the fact John has such a blank past and wants to write their own story so none of it makes sense.

They should really have made John Roman's twin that Stefano kidnapped due to a Brady past vendetta that made sense back in the early 90's.

[Vee]

Didn't they say Forrest Alamain was supposed to have died in the family pool?? Such wacky stuff.

[carolineg]

Yes, but the coffin was empty and Stefano kidnapped Forrest/John as a child, but I am not sure why.  I still don't know if we ever found out if the real Forrest Alamain died in that pool.  Probably?

[Dion]

 

Yeah having looked back at some of the clips it does seem clear to me now that while JER had John and Kristen playing out all the classic supercouple tropes (As an example, Kristen's marriage to Tony is somewhat reminiscent of Kayla's marriage to Jack), there was always something a little off about them. There was a lack of earnest faith between John and Kristen that John and Marlena had.

 

So many retcons over the years lol. 1991 made it something to do with Mayan codices, while 2008 made it all about the feud started after Stefano's father and Colleen Brady had an affiar.

I also think 1991 tried to explain Marlena's kidnapping as Stefano fearing that Marlena was somehow on the verge of figuring out that John wasn't Roman after all so he faked her death in the plane crash. How that fits into Orpheus I don't know.

 

John actually is the real Forrest, it's just that he was adopted by the Alamains rather than being their biological child. Who they adopted him from keeps changing though lol.

I think currently we are meant to believe that John's father Yo Ling, formerly Timothy Robicheaux, who escaped to China during the Korean War formed some sort of communist alliance with Petrov, found out John had been adopted by the Alamains and reclaimed him so the Alamains (or maybe just Philomena) let him take John and faked his death in the pool. And John was brainwashed at some private school before Petrov betrayed Yo Ling and took John to Stefano.

[Khan]

Actually, the real Forrest Alamain didn't drown.  He, too, was kidnapped and sold on the black market...to Clyde Weston.

Yep, Ben is Forrest.

As DeeeDee would say, "Watch."

[Vee]

I had no idea he was still Forrest Alamain. Wow. Who is Petrov again?

The entire Jigsaw/Yo Ling thing was so insane and also so very vintage Josh Griffith, almost adjacent to his uber-gothic second OLTL run with Michael Malone. Who with his excesses def should've gotten a shot at this show. The whole 'private school, league of assassins' thing is actually great fun for a show like this IMO, but not with the 17th retcon of John's identity and Tobin Bell lol. I don't mind the bones of the retcon but I feel they should've left it alone.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Vee