Susan
Banks is the sister of Mary Moira Banks, Thomas Banks, and Penelope
Kent; the four of them are quadruplets. Susan is the mother of Elvis
Banks. Currently, she is the wife of Edmund Crumb. She is the ex-wife
of John Black. However, this marriage was invalid, as she was passing
herself off as Kristen Blake at the time. Susan is a fun-loving,
sweet, simple-minded woman with less-than-perfect features. She first
appeared as Kristen Blake's eccentric, and pregnant, impostor.
However, she quickly fit into the Salem canvas after the ruse was
exposed. More troubles followed Susan, but she overcame them for the
chance have a happy life with her one true love, Edmund
Crumb.
One
fateful day in the fall of 1996, Kristen Blake walked into Dr.
Robbins' office trying to make up an excuse not to be examined, since
she was pretending to be pregnant by using a pillow. However, when
she entered the examination room, she saw a woman who was the
spitting image of herself. It was Susan. Susan told Kristen in her
Southern twang that "Mr. Stefano DiMera" had taken care of
everything. Susan had been hired by Stefano to take Kristen's place
at the doctor appointments and in the delivery room. She would then
give her baby to Kristen and disappear from Salem.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't quite have both oars in the water. When she was alone in her apartment, Susan would get out her doll, Lisa Marie, and pretend she was her baby. All the while hinting that people would be shocked to find out who the father of her child was.
At first, Stefano's scheme worked. By using especially-made dentures and contact lenses, and a blond wig, Susan looked exactly like Kristen. Yet, Susan began to like playing Kristen. In her spare time, she would don the get-up and take strolls around Salem Place, or go dancing at the Salem Club. It wasn't long before people began to notice that Kristen seemed to be in more than one place at the same time. One of these people was Vivian Alamain.
Susan
was soon found out by Vivian. Shortly thereafter, Vivian and Ivan
began to work with Kristen on the baby plan. Finally, the day of the
baby's birth came. Before giving birth, "Kristen" married John, with
Vivian and Ivan as the wedding party. Meanwhile, the real Kristen
watched the entire ceremony dressed as a nurse. After delivering the
baby, which was named John Jr., Susan decided she was not ready to
give the baby up. Kristen demanded that Susan take her money and
disappear immediately with the thought that her child would now have
a better life with her. In an emotional scene, Susan put her foot
down. Although Susan did leave for a bit, she returned to Salem for
her baby, who she called Elvis in honor of the King himself.
Desperate to keep Susan quiet, Kristen hired her as John Jr.'s nanny.
While living at the DiMera mansion, Susan developed a crush on
John...and a fear for the vampires, Vivian and Ivan! She thought
Vivian and Ivan were vampires because she'd seen them digging up a
grave.
Life in the DiMera mansion was not a pleasant one for Susan. Kristen warned her that Stefano was going to come and take her away if she didn't leave Salem. This didn't work, so Kristen went so far as to threaten to burn down Graceland! Susan almost left, but she decided that her "sweetpea" was more important to her. Meanwhile, Susan sought psychiatric help from Dr. Marlena Evans. She told Marlena everything that had happened to her, without any names of course. As time went by, Susan realized that Marlena and John had been an item at one time. Some time later, Susan was shocked to discover that Kristen planned to lock her up in a secret room in the wine cellar. Susan ingeniously trapped Kristen in the room and took over her life. After putting Kristen in the room, Susan noticed that Marlena was there with Kristen. Although she wanted to help Marlena, she knew that John loved Marlena. So to keep her good life going, Susan kept Marlena and Kristen in the secret room. Susan managed to fool everyone into thinking she was Kristen, including John, Vivian, Laura, and Ivan. Susan and John even made love.
Her scheme was almost unmasked when Sister Mary Moira Banks, Susan's twin sister, arrived at the DiMera mansion. Susan pretended to be Kristen and kept her own sister at bay. However, Sister Mary informed John of an Elvis Presley tattoo that Susan had gotten as a child. Susan panicked and tried to hide the tattoo from John. Meanwhile, she planned her wedding to John. Susan changed all of the plans that Kristen had made. The day of the wedding finally arrived, surprising everyone but the bride.
Susan
had changed everything to Elvis-related themes. Her wedding gown was
full of rhinestones and sparkly things; John wore not a tux, but just
black pants and a leather jacket; the best man, "Colonel" Abe Carver,
wore a cowboy hat; the maid of honor and the usher, Vivian and Ivan,
wore similarly outlandish costumes. It was Susan's dream come true.
"Kristen" and John were wed in the patio of the DiMera mansion. But
Susan's dream came to a rapid end during the reception. Although
Laura Horton had interrupted the wedding, her ravings were deemed
incoherent. But at the reception, Laura hit "Kristen", making Susan's
false teeth fly out of her mouth and into Vivian's champagne.
Everyone found out the truth about Susan. She, in turn, informed
everyone how she'd come to work for Kristen and Stefano by agreeing
to give up her baby and pass him off as John's son. She also told
everyone about Vivian and Ivan's part in Kristen's scheme. Naturally,
she told them where Marlena and Kristen were being held captive. A
compassionate Marlena and John took pity on Susan and no charges were
brought against her. In fact, Marlena invited Susan to come live with
her at the penthouse. Susan was happy to see that not everyone in
Salem was a vampire.
For the next few months, Susan lived in peace, watching the crazy lives of the Salem citizens. She marveled at how no wedding in Salem could ever come off without some disaster occurring. After being a spectator at Sami and Austin's wedding, and then Marlena and John's wedding, she had good reason to think this. She also participated in Vivian's crazy séances and strange happenings at Jonesy Jones' townhouse. However, she also discovered something shocking. For a year she had believed that Elvis Presley himself had been the father of her baby; that is why she'd named the child Elvis. But she was wrong. Susan began having odd dreams about being in a white room with the King himself. She finally remembered the truth. Stefano DiMera had artificially inseminated her; he had dressed up as Elvis Presley to confuse her. Susan was fearful for her baby's safety. But for the time being, they were safe since Stefano was in jail.
In late 1997, Kristen was back to her old tricks. She was desperate to take Elvis away from Susan. So much that, one evening, Kristen drugged Susan into oblivion and tricked her into signing some papers which gave custody of Elvis to Kristen. When she found out what she'd done, Susan was inconsolable. She wanted to commit suicide. Desperate for help, Susan contacted her brother, Thomas Banks. It turned out that she, Sister Mary, and Thomas were triplets. Thomas, who was a shady character, did almost nothing for Susan and left Salem as fast as he came.
As
the new year began, Susan finally went to Marlena for help. She told
her what Kristen had done to her. Together with John and Marlena,
Susan made appointment with a judge to appeal Kristen's custody of
Elvis. They kept Kristen from coming to the appointment. Susan
pretended to become emotionally upset at the judge's office and left,
while Marlena spoke in her behalf since she was her psychiatrist.
Then, Susan dressed up as Kristen and signed the papers to give
permanent custody to herself. After this victory, Marlena and John
decided to ship Susan off to an overseas secret location where she
could begin a new life without the threat of Stefano or Kristen. Some
time later, Susan arrived to her new home in the English
countryside.
Susan
wandered into a small pub/inn (that looked suspiciously like The Red
Dragon Inn from Aremid) and met Violet Crumb, the innkeeper, and her
son Edmund. It was love at first sight. Edmund was a nerdy-looking
guy who not only thought Susan was beautiful, but also enjoyed her
"exotic" personality. So Susan already had a friend, a boyfriend, but
she almost fainted at seeing the house John had bought for her. It
was a beautiful English home (that also had shades of Aremid). Edmund
and Susan went out on dates and picnics, and Susan was happy until
she came to the pub one day. She screamed at the sight of Vivian
Alamain and her vampire friend, Ivan!
As
it turned out, Vivian was just there with her fiancé, Jonesy
Jones. However, Susan did realize that Stefano's people were looking
for her and Elvis near the area and tried to lay low. With some time,
she quickly befriended Vivian. In fact, Susan helped Vivian get ready
for her wedding and acted as the Maid of Honor. The wedding photo
appeared in the village newspaper. Susan thought it was such a
wonderful photo that she faxed it to Marlena in order to show her and
John how happy she was there. Soon after, Susan received strange
phone calls from a mysterious British woman who wanted to meet with
her. On top of that, she received a call from Kristen herself.
Kristen claimed to have kidnapped Sister Mary, who was staying at St.
Monica's Convent in Salem. Kristen warned Susan that Sister Mary's
life depended on her; either Susan brought Elvis back to Salem, or
her "Sissy" would die. She chose to save her sister and agreed to
come back to Salem. The next day, Kristen was dead. Or was
she?
The
night of Jennifer Horton's funeral, the same night that Susan was to
meet with Kristen at Peter Blake's old house, Susan's body had been
found in the pool. But it wasn't Kristen's body at all. In reality,
Susan was in a Middle Eastern palace being told to belly dance for
her life, while Kristen impersonated her in Salem. While being kept
prisoner in her room, Susan remembered the events that had transpired
the night she left England and arrived in Salem.
As
she had been walking out of her house in England, she'd met a British
woman clad in a very bright yellow suit, wearing a large hat. The
woman had looked exactly like Kristen. Though Susan had been
terrified at first, the woman introduced herself as Penelope Kent.
Penelope had claimed that she was Susan's long-lost sister. She said
that their mother had given birth to quadruplets, but could only
afford to raise three children, and so she'd given her up for
adoption. The Kents, a childless and wealthy wealthy British couple,
had adopted her. Susan wouldn't have believed a single word that came
out of Penelope's mouth had not Penelope shown her the picture inside
her locket; it was a pictures of Susan's mother. After Susan had
welcomed Penelope into the Banks family, she told her about her
predicament with Kristen. Penelope had offered to help by pretending
to be Susan and confronting Kristen herself. They had both gone to
the Blake house looking exactly like Kristen and wearing the same
outfit; but Susan had been taken by the Turban Man. Susan did not
know what had happened to her sister -- she didn't know she was
dead.
Susan's
situation went from bad to worse. Not only was she a bad dancer, but
she couldn't wear her glasses while dancing either. The Sultan she
was to dance for didn't like her face with glasses. When she danced,
she tripped on the Sultan and caused a big mess. The Sultan,
displeased, ordered her to be beheaded. At the last minute, the
Sultan began choking. Susan got up from the chopping block and
rescued him by using the Heimlich Maneuver on him. This heroic effort
bought her some time, as she was pardoned and sent back to her room.
The next day, a woman named Maya came to her room and gave her a
sarong to wear. Maya was going to teach Susan how to dance for the
Leader. Maya also informed Susan that she was on an island fortress
owned by Americans who set themes each week. Whereas the previous
week had been Arabian week, this week was Tropical Island week. Susan
went to work on learning the Hula, as well as devising an escape
plan.
After
several failed attempts to both dance and escape, Susan finally got a
lucky break. While the Leader was trying to get fresh with her, Susan
hit him over the head with a goblet and knocked him unconscious. She
proceeded to jump out of a window, into the moat, out swim alligators
(even though she was doggie-paddling), and finally rode into the
nearby town on a donkey. She managed to get a call out to Violet and
discovered that Edmund and Kristen were on their way to Bermuda with
Elvis. Susan followed, and reunited with Edmund. There, Edmund
confessed to Susan that he killed Penelope; Susan forgave him. They
then held Kristen at gunpoint and contacted the Turban Man. They
offered Kristen in exchange for Susan's freedom, and the Turban Man
was a happy camper. Although Stefano called on Kristen's cellular
phone to make sure she was all right (he had figured out that Edmund
had killed "Susan"), Susan pretended to be Kristen and assure Stefano
that she had Elvis and was ready to escape.
After
the Turban Man took Kristen away, Edmund found a vicar and married
Susan aboard the Alamain jet he and Kristen had used to arrive in
Bermuda; two complete strangers acted as the witnesses. They
proceeded to joyfully take off for England. When they arrived, Susan
called John and he informed her that Belle had been taken to the
hospital as a result of ingesting penicillin, to which she was
allergic (Kristen had left a penicillin-laced piece of candy for
Marlena, who was also allergic.) John told Susan that Belle would be
all right and that he and Marlena couldn't be happier. Thrilled,
Susan decided to play one last joke on Kristen. She called the Island
Fortress and left a message for Kristen: John and Marlena were happy
together. Currently, Susan and Edmund are living in England. No one
in Salem is aware of the events that transpired in Bermuda. No one
knows that Penelope, not Kristen, died in the killing
pool.
The character of Susan Banks was
played by Eileen Davidson from 1996-1998