AMC: The Man From Erica's Past

[LeClerc]

Remember that SON August teaser about Erica being "haunted" by thoughts of a man from her past? Well the new National Enquirer spoilers say it's:

Mike Roy.

HUH!? Erica's final story is going to be about Mike Roy? I thought for sure the man from her past would be Eric Kane.

There have been a few Mike Roy-related oddities on the show in recent months. When Erica was in captivity and was going through the photo album of all her husbands Mike Roy was the only one they didn't show a picture of. There was some speculation at the time that Mike Roy was the one who had kidnapped Erica because the disembodied voice sounded like Mike/Nicholas Surovy's voice (although it was not).

Then last week Mike Roy's obituary was among those Ryan and Griffin found in David's safe. But Mike "died" more than a decade before David arrived in Pine Valley. And Mike and David were in Pine Valley at the same time in 1998, so David has to know he is alive.

Where the heck are they going with this?

[alexisfan07]

Wow can you say random? WTF!

[dragonflies]

Guess that's why he got a obit mention

[quartermainefan]

Erica's greatest love! That is how she should exit the show, with Mike.

[SFK]

Have the AMC and OLTL camps realized how similar the shows are right now with this syfy back from the dead stuff? It's interesting to compare and contrast the way in which they are going about it. AMC is just next level with it, just character after character after character, yet there's the veneer of AMC warmth and nostalgia. OLTL's just got Todd and Irene yet it's played much splashier and OTT.

What made Mike Roy so special for Erica? I've often heard him referred to as her greatest love and wondered if that was Susan/Agnes opining or if there was really something there that we saw from Erica that we didn't see with anyone else.

[Adam]

I can't comment on the original Mike Roy storyline, but the triangle between Erica, Roy and Jackson in 1998 was beyond ridiculous.

[ghfan89]

Wait, I thought Mike had returned from the dead back in 1998? Why did they say he is dead?

[LeClerc]

He did. I don't think he was ever dead or near-dead either. His death in the 80s was staged by the government (I think). So even back then he couldn't have been one of David's patients.

[alexisfan07]

Maybe they're retconning that he ever came back LOL

[Skin]

He was the one that got away in the 80's. She desperately wanted to marry him but he died just before she got a chance to. Adam also was a big obstacle for them because he was going after Erica during this time period. But all of that was ruined with his 1998 return so I don't know where that leaves us 13 years later.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=_ZYBNHX3yuA

This was them at their figurative best so to speak.

[LeClerc]

That's what I'm worried about. Not a single writer on the team now was with the show in 1998 and JHC knows squat about anything that happened pre-2003. Surely Susan Lucci would point out the inconsistency to them though?

[alexisfan07]

I'd like to think Lorraine would know though and I think if they do retcon it, it would be purposefully

[ghfan89]

Yeah, that was recast Mike. Here's a clip of when Erica meets Mike Roy (about 6 minutes into the clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee6jDoipdcc

[You're Soaking in it]

It was ridiculous, mainly because McTavish treated the resurrection as light-hearted and campy (first he lurked around in typical McT fashion, then Erica's reaction was mostly petulantly angry that he "lied to" her... then she proceeded to "hide" him from Jack because no one could know he was alive... Three's Company-like "comedy" ensues)... when the Mike relationship, for Erica, was so significant in that he embraced her for everything she was - emotional warts and all. So his death in the 1985 had an incredibly powerful impact on Erica. He was the one man who really never tried to change anything about her.... and no one until Jackson ever really had that kind of rapport with her.

In the 80's, which is when I first watched, I really loved Erica & Mike... Nicholas Surovy is the original and quintessential Mike Roy - and I'm sure that it will be he who returns to the role. But I also really liked his recast, Hugo Napier. While more subdued in mannerisms and more debonair than Surovy, I thought he was just as charming and had very good chemistry with Susan. It was his version of Mike who was shot and "died" - so his death was just as heartbreaking with him in the role. He was part of a wave of departures (Jenny) and recasts (Nina, Liza, Greg) that AMC experienced in this era.

To LeClerc & AlexisFan, I'm sure no one is forgetting, as much as they would like to, the admittedly awful resurrection story of 1998 - and I doubt they are ignoring it. Perhaps what they're doing is rectifying the joke that storyline made of the Erica / Mike relationship... which would be a good thing to do.

[DRW50]

I didn't think the Mike/Erica/Jack triangle was bad at all. It was mostly the ending which I thought failed (when she had to have goodbye sex with Mike - this was just too much for a middle-aged Erica who had been through the fire over the years).

Mike was her lost love for a long long time, and helped define her character. It just seems kind of random to bring him back now.