(July-August 1993)
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Players: Dr. Carly Manning, Vivian Alamain, Lawrence Alamain, Bo Brady, Caroline Brady, Ivan Marais, Nikki Alamain. |
In April of 1993, Carly decided to seek custody of her son Nikki. Fearing losing Nikki to Carly, Vivian decided to kill her. However, her attempt to kill Carly by draining the brake fluid in her car was unsuccessful. At the same time, Vivian was diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment. Taking advantage of her condition, she decided to frame Carly for her own murder.
After a failed attempt to drug herself with Carly's painkillers, Vivian came up with a much more grotesque plan. At Shawn-Douglas' birthday party at the Penthouse Grill, Vivian lured Carly into the balcony and engaged in a fierce argument regarding Nikki. During the argument, Vivian "fell" off the balcony. She would have died if her fall had not been broken by an awning below. Although Vivian survived the fall, she remained in a coma. However, she came out of her coma soon after and revealed herself only to Ivan.
While pretending to be in a coma, Vivian hatched a plot to frame Carly for the murder of her patients. Vivian, who was taking some Chinese herbs from Dr. Wu and a lot of morphine to cure her heart ailment, was obsessed with framing Carly. She believed if Carly was convicted and sent to jail, Lawrence would no longer pursue her and Nikki would stop loving his mother. Thanks to the herbs, Vivian soon was able to walk and felt completely recovered. Dressed as a nurse, she sneaked out of her room at the hospital and injected cleaning fluid into the IV's of Carly's terminally ill patients. After the second death, the spouse of the latter victim brought a suit against the hospital.
Tom Horton firmly believed that Carly was innocent of any wrongdoing, but warned her that the medical review board was keeping a close eye on her. Vivian was dissatisfied by the inability of the police to bring murder charges against Carly. She made things hotter for Carly by sneaking out of the hospital and planting the bottle of cleaning fluid in Carly's house. During his investigation, Bo Brady found the bottle but remained confident that Carly did not murder her patients. In a bold move, Vivian decided that her next target would be Caroline Brady, Carly's future mother-in-law who was in the hospital to cure a peptic ulcer. Recently, Caroline had told both Bo and Carly that they should postpone their upcoming nuptials. Carly had been upset to hear this from Caroline. Vivian deduced that if she killed Caroline, Carly would be immediately suspected. Armed with a syringe of cleaning fluid and a syringe of morphine, she donned her nurse disguise and entered Caroline's room. Just as Vivian was about to give the injection to a sedated Caroline, Carly entered and was stunned not only to see Viv out of her coma but just about to give Caroline a shot. Carly quickly figured out that Vivian must have been responsible for the death of the other patients, and Vivian boldly confessed to everything she'd done. Amidst tears, Carly attempted to get security but Vivian stopped her and they fought. In the struggle, Vivian stabbed a syringe into Carly. Carly fell to the floor and Viv fled to her room and resumed her "coma".
Carly was found alive but unconscious due to a morphine overdose. Vivian panicked because she did not know which syringe she'd stabbed Carly with. Later, Ivan informed her that Carly had been stabbed by morphine. He also informed her that she'd awaken soon. Although Vivian was overjoyed that Carly was now finally a suspect in the murders, since Bo had found the cleaning fluid syringe in Caroline's room, she knew that Carly would tell of Vivian's murderous activities. She obtained through Dr. Wu, the eastern medicine specialist, an herb that would stop Carly. She had Ivan administer it and within minutes Carly "died." The herb induced a death-like paralysis. Her breathing stopped and her heart slowed down; even Tom Horton was fooled.
Bo and everyone in Salem was shocked and saddened by Carly's untimely death. Bo fled town in a state of extreme mourning. Vivian "awoke" from her "coma" to help Lawrence and Nikki deal with their grief. As Carly's brother could not be contacted, Nikki was the next-of-kin and Vivian took the opportunity to manipulate the funeral arrangements, including a burial, as soon as possible. With the pretext that Carly had once told her she did not believe in embalming, Vivian managed to keep Carly from such a fate. At the funeral parlor, Vivian spoke to Carly and revealed to Ivan that Carly was not dead but in a death-like state. She was actually conscious but unable to move or speak. Carly awoke and was frightened by what she was hearing. She tried desperately to give some sign she was alive but it was to no avail. At the funeral, Carly was in the unique position of listening to her friends talk about her and mourn her. Bo arrived back in Salem and was shocked to learn that Carly's funeral was that day. He blamed Lawrence for rushing the ceremony.
Bo spoke at the service and held Carly's hand. When Bo touched her hand he announced that the body was warm. Carly's heart soared but was soon disappointed when no one would believe him. Carly was horrified and terrified as she was buried after the service. After the burial Vivian returned and rolled around in the freshly covered grave in maddening ecstasy. The herbs were making her absolutely psychotic.
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Returning home, Ivan was shocked to learn that Vivian had a radio transmitter, an oxygen tank, and lights put in the coffin, and that Vivian had intended to taunt Carly. He pleaded with Vivian not to go through with the scheme and to tell Lawrence or the police. Vivian blackmailed Ivan into keeping his silence, threatening to send him back to his home country. Carly was now able to speak and when Vivian called her, she begged Vivian to let her out. She promised she would not tell anyone what Viv had done. She even promised she would not see Nikki and allow Viv to raise him. Vivian was almost tempted but realized that Carly would say anything to be released from the coffin. Ivan believed that the herbs that Vivian were responsible for her bizarre behavior, stopped giving them to Vivian, and continued to plead with Viv to release Carly. |
The air supply in Carly's coffin was running out and she desperately pleaded to be released. The combination of hearing Carly gasp for air, Ivan's pleads and the withdrawal from the herbs made Vivian have a pang of conscience and she confessed what she had done to a stunned Lawrence.
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Lawrence refused to believe that Vivian could be so cruel and it was only when Ivan backed up her story that he believed it. The three of them raced to the cemetery and Ivan and Lawrence dug up Carly to find her unconscious but alive. Lawrence wanted to take her to the hospital but Dr. Wu insisted that Western medicine would kill her and she needed special herbs to return her to health. Lawrence was highly suspicious but agreed to keep Carly hidden in the attic of the Alamain mansion. On more than one occasion he warned Viv that Carly had better not die or he would avenge her death. Vivian, terrified for her own safety had Dr. Wu administer an antidote. |
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Days later, Carly regained consciousness but had amnesia not remembering anything from the last 10 years. Thinking it was 1983, she called Lawrence "James", the moniker he had fooled her with back then. She also believed that they were in Paris. After a while, Lawrence told Carly they were not in Paris, and that she was ill and needed to recover. Soon after, she snuck out of the house in her nightgown and went to the cemetery. She sat on a bench that Bo was sitting on just minutes before. Lawrence and Vivian track her down and Larry distracts Bo, who is only about 30 yards away from Carly, while Vivian gets Carly to head home. While Carly knows the man seemed familiar, she didn't see his face and wonders why she felt like she knew him. Larry sets plans in motion to keep Bo out of Salem and keep him away from Carly until she is well enough to travel to Europe.
In order to keep Lawrence from taking Carly out of the country Bo got a warrant for her arrest for the death of her patients. He said that if she ever regains her memory she'd thank him for it. Meanwhile he still looked for Vivian and he found her. She tried to convince him to let her go, that it would benefit him if she wasn't found, but he was a good cop and ignored his personal feelings and arrested her. Lawrence convinced Vivian to admit to everything so he could take off with Carly and in return he'll make sure she'll get off with a plea of temporary insanity. She agreed and so Lawrence was about to take Carly to Paris.
Bo was already desperate. The one thing that Marlena said could help in such a case would be if Carly sees her son, but Lawrence made sure nobody knew where Nikki was.
Curious, Carly left the Alamain mansion on more than one occasion and visited the park, where she was seen by Billie Reed. Billie was very depressed about the developements, but going to drink one night, she met a drunk Ivan and cleverly got him to tell her Nikki's whereabouts. She didn't know what to do with the information. She wanted to tell Bo because it's the right thing to do but she didn't want to tell him because if Carly regained her memory that would mean the end of Billie and Bo.
Lawrence found Carly in the park and, fearing that someone might have seen her, planned to leave Salem with her. Vivian begged Lawrence to take her with him, but he told her to go to hell, saying that he'd never allow her to hurt Carly again. Just as they were going to board the plane, Billie arrived at the airport with Nikki on October 13, hoping that his presence would help Carly regain her memory. Carly took one long look at him and remembered everything. She was angry at Lawrence for deceiving her but she was also grateful for his dedicated nursing of her. All of her feelings for him flooded back. Still, she had to talk to Bo and see what's going on.
Lawrence gave Carly a deadline - either she'd be here by 5:00 pm or don't -Nikki and him were leaving to Paris with or without her.
Carly first went to Jennifer (who was just abandoned by Jack the day before) to ask for advice. She explained to her how she fell in love with Lawrence again when she suffered from amnesia and how she now remembers her love for Bo and how hard it is for her to decide. Jenn couldn't really help her so Carly went to Bo's boat.
Bo was very surprised to see her - he didn't know she regained her memory. They talked and they held each other and they talked some more and the more they talked the more they realized that it was over between them. Breaking up was very hard. They both cried but finally they said their goodbyes.
Carly came right in time to join Lawrence and Nikki in their flight to Paris on October 18, 1993 and Bo was left lonely and heart broken - but not for long...
In the end, Vivian confessed to her crimes.
With the help of Victor, she avoided serving jail time. Instead, she was sent to Pine Haven Sanitarium for a psychiatric evaluation. Meanwhile, Carly was released and felt grateful to Lawrence for demonstrating his love for her. Lawrence convinced Carly to move to Paris with him and Nikki, and she agreed. After saying good-bye to Bo, Carly boarded the Alamain jet and left for Paris with Lawrence and Nikki.
Four years later, the burial is still something that Vivian and Ivan talk about. You can view a movie of a 1997 Vivian and Ivan interaction that refers to the event. It's in both .avi and .mov format. Click on the icon to download the format of your choice. The movie is courtesy of Carrie Chafin.
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Thanks to Clint Wilson and Ken for writing this story. Thanks to Stacy Krugman for the pic of Vivian, Lawrence and Carly.
