DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos

[te.]

To be fair, from what can be deciphered from sources it seems like they went the route of not specifying what war he was in instead of saying it was the Korean. I imagine that it might be what was said backstage rather than on-screen.

[Lye-C]

Trying to apply real life years to SORASing never works. Just go with it.

[Khan]

Going one step further: Marlena, as the Salem Stalker, "kills" Josh Taylor's Roman.  Roman turns up alive on Melaswen, but now he's played by Wayne Northrop again.  And in Salem - which, I assume, would have been almost like a ghost town at that point - Kate, still grieving over Roman's "death," meets Chris Kositchek, played by JT, who has returned suddenly in the wake of all the killings.

I think I would've liked that twist, if only because Marlena never has been written properly since her return in '91.  You'd have to redeem the faux Marlena, however, because of her connection with John.  And ideally, you could pair them together again and still pair "the real Marlena" with Roman (that is, if Wayne is playing Roman again, as he would be in my scenario), while pairing Josh Taylor, as Chris, with Kate.  But we all know by now how difficult it can be for Deidre to play dual roles for a number of reasons, lol.

[Contessa Donatella]

Hank Northrup, an actor, son of Lynn & Wayne, is hired to play a clone of Roman. 

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[JAS0N47]

Don't know which sources you are referring to, but when the story originally aired, it was fully mentioned that it was the Korean War.  Here's the storyline synopsis sent to newspapers for 11/9/67: Susan tries to tell Tom what happened that brought her to the hospital, but she is weak. Meanwhile Mark undergoes nightmares as he relives his experience as a prisoner of war during the Korean conflict.

[te.]

Thanks! I was about to tag you if you knew more, but looks like they mentioned it on air. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Yeah, I recall that they said the Korean War too. It was completely weird. 

I don't know this. LOL! Help me out. Of course, when she tries to do Hattie, she's awful. 

[carolineg]

I like the idea about WN turning up as Roman and if JT needs a job he could play Chris K.  You are solving multiple problems pretty easily.

I am not a fan of 1991 Marlena being "faux" Marlena.  It erases so much good 90's stuff IMO.

[Lye-C]

I liked that the real Marlena was the real killer and her victims were really dead. I never believed that Deidre was being written off so I knew JER would keep her around in some capacity after Marlena’s execution.

Prior to the Marlena reveal, Corday said in an interview that the killer would be put on trial and executed. JER loved Deidre and would’ve had her play a different role to keep her on the show. 

[Khan]

On the other hand, it solves some story problems, such as how Marlena, or "Marlena," came into Stefano's possession, even though she "died" at a time when Stefano wasn't even involved in the goings-on in Salem.  Heck, you could even say "Marlena" is really back-from-the-dead Samantha, whom Stefano kept alive and in a medically induced coma after being "killed" by the Salem Strangler, explaining that that is why Stefano always has been enamored with Marlena before or beyond all that "Queen of the Night" [!@#$%^&*].  Again, though, nobody needs to see Deidre Hall play another dual role, lol.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Khan

[carolineg]

All pretty interesting ideas.  If we needed to use Samantha again I would have changed the Alex North plot.  North fed Marlena all these ideas about being married when he was actually married to Samantha and bitter and vengeful about her death.  That would have easily solved so many issues with that story and not erased all of Marlena's marriages and been much more believable.  That also would have solved the issue of Deidre playing dual roles for an extended period and not retconned Sam's death either.

[Lye-C]

Just bring back Andrea as Sam! I’d actually bring her back as Hattie and then reveal Hattie has been Samantha with amnesia all this time.

Stefano wasn’t on the show when Sam died and he hadn’t even seen a picture of Marlena until his very first episode. 

I don’t like back from the dead stories but Sam is the only character I’d bring back from the dead if I ran things. With Andrea in the role of course.

[Contessa Donatella]

Great idea!

[j swift]

I was trying to do the math from Alice's perspective, not withstanding SORASed grandkids, great grandkids and great great grankids.

Francis Reid was born in 1914, and was 96 when she died.  However, Alice Grayson Horton was born in 1911, according to her grave site. So, let's say Alice had Tommy and Addie when she was 20 (the median age of marriage for women in 1930 was 21.3).  If Tommy went to Korea at the end of the conflict in 1953, when most of the soldiers were captured, he would have been 36 when he reappeared in Salem in 1967, making Alice 54 when the series premiered, and 99 when she passed. 

She could've been 20 when she “popped out” Tommy and Addie.  Then, she had Micky the next year at 21. Bill was born she was 29.  And, she was 32 when she had Marie in 1943.

Interestingly, Addie would've been 17 when she had Stephen and 18 when she had Julie (since Julie was said to be 16 in the premiere episode), and 43 when she had Hope in 1974.

Which makes Marie 6 years older than Julie, and 30 years older than Hope.  So, Marie was 24 when she fell for Mark/Tommy and then left Salem

But, of course, the SORASing of David in 1975 screws up the whole timeline.  Because he was born in 1968 on screen, he went from 7 to 18 overnight.  Which means Alice was 64, and Julie was 26 with an 18-year-old son (although Susan Seaforth Hayes was 32 at the time).  So, I guess we can blame Pat Falken Smith for that one.

Edited December 14, 2023 by j swift

[Paul Raven]

Re Alex North. Could Samantha have been posing as Marlena when Alex met and married her. Maybe Sam with her low self esteem and other issues felt more confident as Marlena-the more successful twin. Could that have worked with some tweaks?

Another idea-have a young woman turn up at some point turning out to be Samantha''s child-giving Marlena a surrogate daughter.