And
boy, did it get her. The night Marlena was discharged from the
hospital, the Devil took her once again for one last stint as the
Desecrator. MarDevil went to St. Luke's, where John was busy
performing a renewal of wedding vows for Tony and Kristen, and
trapped all three of them inside the Church. Then, she proceeded to
pour gasoline all over the outside of the Church and light in on
fire. Although John, Kristen, and Tony were saved, the Church was
left in ruins. The Devil had won, or so it thought. A few days later,
MarDevil read in the newspaper that John was donating a 15th century
saint statue to St. Luke's. MarDevil vowed to destroy the statue.
When she went to the Church with a sledgehammer, she was caught by
John. Not knowing what else to do, MarDevil began to strangle John!
Fortunately, Abe and Mike found them -- Mike sedated Marlena and they
took her back to her penthouse. While the others were downstairs
discussing the situation, Stefano, who felt compelled to cure Marlena
of her illness, came through the armoire and kidnapped her. He took
Marlena into his penthouse and left Celeste to care for her. Celeste
had suspected that the Devil had taken possession of Marlena for a
while now and was afraid to care for her. And she had every right to
be afraid. When MarDevil woke up, she simply waved her hand and
caused Celeste to fly clear across the room and knock her
unconscious. MarDevil then made her way out of the apartment; she had
remembered that Bo and Billie were getting married again and wanted
to stop their wedding. On her way to the Church, Marlena briefly
managed to snap out of the Devil's influence, but the Devil gained
control. By that time, however, the wedding was over. So MarDevil
decided to interrupt the reception. MarDevil wandered into the
Penthouse Grill, where the reception was being held, stark naked and
fainted. So Marlena was once again sent to the hospital. This time,
she was kept under guard.
A cop named Chuck was assigned to guard Marlena's hospital room. The District Attorney, Pat Hamilton, wanted desperately to have Marlena convicted for all of her crimes as the Desecrator. Knowing that she needed to get out of this mess, MarDevil turned to extremes once again. She coaxed Chuck into the room and began strangling him; she soon released him and took his gun while he was catching his breath. She proceeded to point the gun at Chuck and shoot him. She missed and succeeded in scaring the the wits out of Chuck. All the commotion attracted the attention of John, Abe, and Pat Hamilton, who entered the room to find Marlena unconscious on the bed; the gun was on the bedside table. John took the gun across the room and proceeded to help Chuck. While everyone was tending to Chuck, MarDevil opened her eyes and willed the gun to her hands. Pointing it at John, she ordered everyone to leave the room. Meanwhile, Marlena and the Demon inside her struggled to control her body. Marlena succeeded in the nick of time, managing to point the gun at the wall just as it went off. She then fell unconscious once again.
Mike
Horton was baffled by Marlena's attack on John, as was everyone else,
and ordered a battery of brain scans, spinal taps, and God only knows
what other types of exams. No tests showed anything wrong with
Marlena. Meanwhile, the elderly Father Francis made his way into
Marlena's room armed with holy water, determined to banish the demon.
When Fr. Francis splashed MarDevil with the water, it burned. Angry,
MarDevil waved her hand and caused Father Francis to fly clear across
the room and crash against the wall, leaving the poor old man
traumatized. After this incident, Pat Hamilton was hell-bent on
arresting Marlena. With no way out, MarDevil gave Marlena a heart
attack to keep her from going to jail. It worked, but this was only a
temporary diversion. She needed a way to escape from the hospital,
and thus sought Stefano's help. Stefano came to see her disguised as
a doctor, and she asked him to help her leave the
hospital.
Meanwhile, MarDevil enjoyed fouling the lives of the people of Salem. When Sami came to see how her mother was doing, she told Marlena about her infatuation with Austin Reed. MarDevil told the poor child to go after him, resulting in embarrassment for Sami. Sami ran away from home soon thereafter. She also fueled Kate's suspicions toward Vivian, resulting in Kate's subsequent "death."
Finally, Stefano snuck Marlena out of the hospital and took her to the lighthouse, where he left Celeste in charge of her. Celeste was petrified of MarDevil, who revealed herself to Celeste as soon as Stefano had left. MarDevil took this time to demonstrate her powers to Celeste and morphed into Kristen. After frightening Celeste half to death, she morphed back into her original form. Celeste managed to escape the lighthouse to warn someone of the demon infesting Marlena's body, but she didn't make it very far; the devil caused Celeste's car to crash. Meanwhile, MarDevil was waiting for John (who had discovered that Stefano was alive and had kidnapped Marlena from the hospital) to arrive, along with Stefano. Marlena hoped for John to kill Stefano, so that she could have their souls as well as Marlena's. MarDevil almost got her wish, but Tony and Kristen arrived at the scene before John could squeeze the life out of Stefano. In the meantime, the Devil gave Marlena yet another bout of anemia, and she wound up back in the hospital. Soon after, she recovered once again. John and everyone else were convinced that Stefano had drugged Marlena and thus her strange behavior. And with that, Mike discharged Marlena. Meanwhile, the Devil was determined to take John's soul and proposed to do it by seducing John.
After
a few failed attempts to pique John's interest, MarDevil engineered a
wonderful plan to cause John to drop his trousers, so to speak.
First, the Devil infested John's mind with erotic images of Marlena.
Then, "Marlena" took a trip to Smith Island to get away from it all.
Once there, MarDevil phoned John, screamed, and hung up. Of course,
John rushed to the island to save Marlena from whatever it was that
had frightened her. Marlena apologized to John saying that it had
just been a large spider...Oops! John decided to stay there for a
bit, and MarDevil got down to work. She telepathically told John to
make love to her. Meanwhile, she shred her clothes and went skinny
dipping in the lake. Next, MarDevil feigned drowning, and John
quickly rushed to her rescue. Once on the shore, John succumbed to
temptation and kissed Marlena. Fortunately, he stopped before it
could go any further, although he shamefully admitted that he desired
her. MarDevil played on his attraction and began kissing him again.
This time, a hysterical Kristen arrived at the scene to stop it.
Kristen had been suspecting that Marlena was possessed for some time
now and knew what the Devil was planning to do thanks to a very
clever Father Francis. Although Father Francis had been lying
speechless in the hospital, he had managed to point out the word
"succubus" in a dictionary; succubus is a demon who assumes the form
of a woman to seduce a man. In any case, Kristen stopped John from
having sex with Marlena. After MarDevil left the beach to put some
clothes on, she overheard Kristen plotting to throw holy water on her
to prove John that Marlena was possessed. When the moment was right,
MarDevil switched the holy water with ordinary lake water and
Kristen's test failed. Just then, however, the devil lost control of
Marlena. Momentarily free, Marlena got on a rowboat and tried to make
it to the Church as quickly as possible.
After
an arduous trip from the island to the mainland, Marlena got in her
car but the devil caused it to crash. Fortunately, Marlena only had a
head injury and continued to run, being chased by the devil in the
form of a furious wind. Apparently, Marlena was too quick for the
devil because he sent a bunch of spirits to slow her down. Despite
the ghosts, Marlena made it to the Church. Problem: the devil brought
back the ghost of Curtis Reed to stop her from entering St. Luke's.
Curtis succeeded in capturing Marlena, but Father Francis (who had
miraculously recovered by the grace of God) showed up wielding a
crucifix and managed to get Marlena inside. Once in the Church,
Marlena asked God for forgiveness of all her sins: the affair with
John, the betrayal of Roman, the anxiety she caused Sami, etc.
However, the Devil lured Marlena out of the Church by conjuring up an
image of Sami. Curtis held Sami hostage and told Marlena that he
intended to have his way with her; naturally, Marlena left the
sanctuary of the Church to protect her baby, but as soon as she
reached Sami she vanished. Marlena realized that it had been a trick
a little too late. Just then, the Devil to control of her once
again.
Soon
after this, Carrie and Austin's engagement party took place. By this
time, Kristen had continued her crusade to prove that Marlena was
possessed by the devil. Meanwhile, the devil was eagerly waiting the
night that the "stars would fall", the night of the meteor shower...
the night of Carrie and Austin's engagement party. Aramaic scrolls
that Father Francis had had in his possession, which were written
thousands of years ago, foretold the ultimate fight between good and
evil. The prophecy read, "When the moon is covered by darkness, the
stars will fall, and the Evil One will show his true power in the
place of peace." The "place of peace," they said, was Salem; Salem is
a derivative of the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom. Whatever. That was
the night of Carrie & Austin's party. Kristen, who was aware
of the prophecy, tried to get the devil to show itself, but MarDevil
resisted. During the course of the evening, funny little strange
things happened, such as a disappearing rattlesnake that attacked
Kristen and a swarm of bees that attacked Shawn. But the oddest thing
was MarDevil turning into a panther and attacking a biblical scholar.
Whatever. Upon arriving home, MarDevil was met by Kristen, who once
again wanted Marlena to admit she was possessed. A fight ensued, and
Kristen slugged Marlena, causing one of her contact lenses to pop
out. Finally, Kristen had the proof she wanted: one of Marlena's
eyes was yellow, a sign of demon possession. And finally, MarDevil
admitted the truth...and proceeded to knock Kristen unconscious. She
then dragged her to the rooftop, tied her on a ledge, and left her
there in what seemed to be some sort of sacrifice. Later that night,
the stars fell, and the Devil's power did show - by the time John had
rescued Kristen and heard everything, MarDevil had already begun
levitating.
What
followed were months of exorcism rituals involving Mike, John,
Caroline, Father Francis, and even Stefano...and of course, MarDevil
who was usually tied to her bedposts (I'm not about to go into detail
about this because I think I've made this storyline detailed enough -
I'm getting sick of writing about it so I'm sure you've gotten sick
of reading about it.) During this time there were lots of
praying, lots of holy water-throwing, and even some Father
Francis-tossing on MarDevil's part. At one point, Stefano was
watching over Marlena when MarDevil convinced him to cut her loose.
Once loose the devil took its true demon form. A fight ensued, in
which MarDevil morphed back into Marlena, and threw Stefano over the
balcony. At another point, MarDevil was being exorcised when it
conjured up an image of Isabella in order to distract John. John knew
that Isabella was just another of the devil's tricks and told it to
go to Hell (and it literally did.) After many months, John was able
to exorcise the demon...but Marlena's body gave up and died.
Fortunately, this was only one of the Devil's tricks and John knew
it. At the morgue, John and MarDevil had their final confrontation.
John asked God for help and the Devil was finally expelled from
Marlena's body. Marlena was, at last, saved (and the Possession was,
at last, over.)
In the time that followed, Marlena tried to adjust to life again at the realization of what had happened to her. She was slowly reinstated into the hospital, and her first duty was to act as physical therapist for Stefano. She was hesitant at the thought of helping him recover from his injuries, but also felt extreme guilt since she had caused those injuries. Something that helped was the fact that Stefano was suffering from amnesia, so he couldn't remember all the horrible things he had done to her and her family. The amnesiac Stefano was actually quite nice and regretted all the evil he had done, even though he couldn't even remember it. As she tended to him, Marlena grew close to Stefano, as he grew close to her. In fact, the amnesiac Stefano allowed his true affectionate feelings for Marlena show and wanted to demonstrate to her that she was not evil. In addition to a poetry book, Stefano gave Marlena oodles of good advice, and she began to take a liking to the man who had hurt her so much in the past. Meanwhile, Peter Blake was getting married to Jennifer Deveraux in a creepy little hamlet called Aremid. Stefano wanted to attend the wedding but Marlena advised that it wasn't good for his health. Instead, they stayed in Salem and continued working on his physical therapy. But on the night of the wedding, they received word that Tony had been shot and was dying. Marlena and Stefano immediately chartered a jet and went to Aremid. When they arrived, they were told that John had probably shot Tony because of a violent argument they'd had before the shots were heard. Marlena refused to believe it. Even though all the evidence pointed at John, she knew that he would never do something like that. Shortly after their arrival, Tony died. Despite anything that Marlena said, Stefano was convinced that John was guilty and wanted to make him pay. Stefano's attitude began changing and reminded Marlena with whom she was dealing. In addition to his hatred for John, Stefano also began acting very edgy while staying in the old Blake house and refused to tell Marlena what was happening. One night, he was struck by lightning. Unbeknownst to Marlena, the bolt returned his memory. Stefano continued to play innocent, but Marlena saw that something was obviously wrong.
More information to
follow!
The character of Dr. Marlena Evans
has been played by Deidre Hall from 1976-1987, and again from
1991-present
Back to the Character Histories
Back
to Beth's Days of Our Lives Page