As Carlo lies gasping for air under the anvil's crushing weight, Liz and Neil hesitate, wondering whether to save the young man who was trying to destroy their lives. But after only a moment they come to their senses and pull the anvil from his chest Four hours of surgery later, Carlo pulls through, much to Liz's relief. The next day, Liz visits Carlo and kindly asks him to drop his destructive crusade against Neil. Delirious, Carlo tries to sit up, moaning that he loves her and will never give up In so doing, he rips open his wound.

As Neil's on his way to surgery to patch Carlo up, he's stopped, by an "old friend," David Lebec, the head of the crime family which has been tracking him down. "You didn't think we'd fall for that phony funeral did you?" Lebec scowls, holding a gun under his overcoat. Before Lebec can kill him, Neil announces, "If you don't let me get to the operating room, your grandson will die." Aghast, Lebec assures Neil that if Carlo is saved he and Liz can go free.

After another series of operations, Carlo pulls through and Neil is allowed to go. Alone with his grandfather, Carlo learns in horror that Lebec had his father, Mario, killed because he betrayed the family. "But now I have found the man who will take my place," Lebec says. Shocked, but thinking that he will have the power to win Liz, Carlo accepts until he is told he will never see his mother again. "She stood by Mario; she, too, betrayed us," Lebec warns. Carlo reacts so violently that his wounds are again aggravated Before they can get him to the operating room, Carlo dies in his grandfather's arms "Neil will pay for this," Lebec cries to his dead grandson as he departs.

Meanwhile, Hope tries her best to take the Police Academy classes with a stiff upper lip, despite constant disparaging remarks by Bo. A rival classmate, Norma, doesn't make it any easier for her. She challenges Hope to a karate sparring session to prove that "debutantes don't belong on the police force." Williams accepts, summoning up courage she never dreamed she had, but gets bumped about and then flipped to the floor mats. After the fight, the drill sergeant again encourages her to quit, but she refuses "Then start acting like a winner, not a quitter every time you leave here," he insists. "Stop your whining"' With renewed spirit, Hope leaves, determined to get into shape.

Still mourning for Roman, though outwardly trying to be strong for the Brady family, Marlena is touched to receive so many sympathy cards from Roman's admirers. One guy in particular, Jimmy Potterfield, consistently sends Marlena flowers and fruit baskets during the holidays. A week later, when his friend becomes sick, he turns up at the hospital and gets a chance to meet Marlena face to face. "It's such an honor to meet you," Jimmy says, with a friendly country accent. "I used to listen to your radio show long ago.' Thankful for the man's kindness and warmth, she agrees to visit him at his country home.

In a secret location in Salem, Stefano waits for word of the third and final prism with which he can cure himself of his brain tumor. His health worsening by the day, DiMera tells his daughter Megan, "Roman Brady was a worthy opponent, but now that I have defeated him, I feel no zest for life-for the hunt- as I once did." But after careful consideration, he comes up with a new rival. "I have found someone with the strength, intelligence and determination to match that of Roman Brady - what a coincidence it is the mother of his children, Marlena!"

Just as Shawn is beginning to accept his son's death, he is outraged to learn that Eric has been arrested for molesting a ten-year-old child. Before he can get to Abe to demand his release, however, Kimberly goes to the sergeant, confirming the report. "I know he's guilty.. .because I was the same age when he did it to me," Kimberly says tearfully. But without the girl's confession, Abe cannot detain Eric. Since she knows what the little girl is going through, Kimberly gets permission to talk to her. She convinces the frightened child to tell where she was touched. Kimberly leaves, thankful she was able to help the girl as she would have liked to have been helped when Eric molested her. Because her father has been through so much lately, Kimberly makes Abe promise not to tell Shawn that it was she who talked the child into confessing. Though Carver assures an apoplectic Shawn that Eric is guilty, Shawn won't accept it and storms out of the station, threatening to sue.

Early on New Year's Eve, Linda visits Alex with the grim news that Anderson's is just about bankrupt. Jesting, Alex mentions that she ought to burn the place down and collect the insurance. A devious-minded Linda immediately makes the arrangements for the biggest New Year's fireworks display Salem has ever seen.

On their way to Blondie's to christen the New Year, Tom and Alice are stunned by a huge explosion as they pass Anderson's Manufacturing. A moment later, a flaming man runs from the building, falling in the road in front of their car. Tom administers first aid to the scorched man, but when Dr. Horton injects morphine to ease his pain, he dies from an allergic reaction. The next day, the police identify the body as Speed's father. But they haven't a clue as to why he was at Anderson's.

Excited about the upcoming holiday party at Shenanigans, Melissa hurries with her flower deliveries for Barry. In her haste, she drops one pot and a package of cocaine falls out. Quickly concealing It, a nervous Melissa rushes back to the shop, demanding an explanation from Barry. Thinking fast, Reid blames his boss and pleads with Melissa not to tell the police since he already has a record. "The cops would nail me in a second," he exclaims. Confused, Melissa reluctantly agrees to keep quiet.

As part of the New Year's Eve festivities at Blondie's, Liz sings one of her favorite songs dedicated to love and happiness in the coming year. Afterward, while everyone cheers in the background, Neil sneaks backstage to meet Liz, but runs into David Lebec with his gun drawn. "I've waited twenty years to find my grandson and you've killed him .... I should've killed you along with Mario years ago," Lebec snarls as Liz walks in. Muffled by the roar of the crowd celebrating the first moments of 1985, a shot rings out... but it is Lebec who falls to the floor! Out of the shadows steps Danielle, stone faced, with pistol smoking. "He killed the two men I loved most in my life... I had no choice," Danielle murmurs, shocked by the realization that she's just murdered a man.

Though hounded by reporters the next day, Don thinks Danielle will not have to go to jail. "With that man's record I'm sure the jury will see she acted in self-defense," Don says confidently. Later, when the furor around the murder dies down, Lebec's cohort, Geoffrey, makes a call to his boss and tells him that the time isn't right to get Neil. But it soon will be - some day when he least expects it, Geoffrey says. Growing more and more frustrated about Stefano and his "Triad Experiment" which Bo accidentally mentioned to her, Marlena asks Abe for more information, but he just warns her to stay out of it. Sensing that she is in some way involved, Marlena visits Eugene for information on how to break into a computer "for background information on one of my patients," she lies. Believing her, Gene lends Marlena a book on "hacking" and she heads off for the computer in Abe's office. There, she gets through to the l.S.A.'s file and finds crucial documents. When Abe interrupts her effort, she is forced to erase all that she found. But Marlena's nervousness does not escape Abe, who suspects she's up to something.

After, Marlena is visited by her country admirer, Jimmy, and agrees to dine at his place outside of town. But when Gene announces that his birthday party will be on the same night she makes it an early dinner. Pleased, Jimmy makes a mysterious cell, saying everything is going according to plan. At the dinner, Marlena enjoys Jimmy's country-style cooking and his down-home good nature. After the feast she meets Jimmy's reclusive godmother who has been a long-time admirer of Marlena's since her radio talk show. Late for Gene's party,. Marlena rushes off and accidentally picks up Jimmy's telephone bill. After she's goes, Stefano emerges from under the wig and make up. Roaring with laughter at his sick game, Stefano exclaims, "What an exciting opponent she will be."

The Truth Is Exposed

Meanwhile, Bo is happy to learn that his mom and dad are working to get Uncle Eric out of jail and in an effort to be closer to his family he offers to help in every way he can. But when Kimberly finds out that her uncle may be released, she confesses to Bo what Eric did to her. Bo is aghast, but agrees to tell Shawn, since Kimberly can't face her father with the truth about his brother. Though Bo tries to break it to him gently, Shawn is furious that he would think to accuse a family member of such a horrible crime. "Sometimes I don't understand you, boy," Shawn cries in disbelief. "Roman would never say a thing like that... he'd be behind us one hundred percent." When Kimberly learns of her father's reaction, she tells him the truth. Coming from her, Shawn has to believe that his brother is a child molester. Shocked, he suffers a heart attack

Terribly upset and blaming herself for her father's grave condition, Kimberly tries to tell Bo, who is at Gene's party, about Shawn, but Bo is too upset over their fight to listen. An angry Bo and a depressed Melissa decide to leave the party and commiserate together at Shenanigans After a few drinks, they go to the movies and get thrown out of the theater for rowdy behavior. Hope, meanwhile, attributes Bo's drunken behavior to his father's heart attack and decides to take him his Christmas present and apologize to him. But when she goes to his room later that night, she is shocked to find Melissa, clad only in one of Bo's shirts (she spilled beer all over her clothes), with him. Assuming the worst, Hope controls her rage and announces that she thought Bo was upset about his father. Devastated, Bo races to the hospital while Melissa explains what happened to Hope. Too hurt to listen, Hope throws Bo's present across the room and leaves crying, certain that she's not only lost Bo, but her best friend, too.

Back at Gene's party. Marlena arrives in time to have cake as does Gene's stuffy mother, Vanessa As the ultimate surprise for Gene, the cake is rolled out and out pops Calliope clad only in a few rhinestones and sea shells - right in front of Vanessa! Depressed because all her hopes for winning Vanessa's approval to marry Gene are gone, Calliope gets another blow, when she learns that his mother plans to find him a suitable woman from a socially prominent family

After a visit by Speed at the Body Connection, Pete notices $200 missing from the cash box and rushes out to confront him. He's furious at first but when Speed tells him it was to help out his sister since there's no money coming in from his father's death, Pete sympathizes, saying he'll pay it back for him. Later, Tom and Alice meet with the boy to express their sympathy, since they were the ones who found his father out side of Anderson's. Resenting the Hortons' social status, Speed is distant However, when he asks how his father died and Tom admits that the man died after he injected him with morphine, Speed explodes with rage. His father never took off his medic-alert badge which stated his allergy to morphine, Speed shouts. He accuses Dr. Horton of killing his father and then covering by disposing of the badge. Later, Speed meets with Gwen. He 'wants to sue Dr. Horton for negligence resulting in his father's death. Though reluctant to tangle with the Hortons, Gwen examines the evidence and agrees to take the case mainly because she and Larry need the money. But all Larry can think about is that the Hortons will finally get what's coming to them.

From the February 12, 1985 issue of SOD

Return to the 1985 Updates

Return to the Days Archive