1986-1990

1986

In 1986, the rapist attacking Salem's women turned out to be Ian, Melissa's ex-lover. Melissa, meanwhile, after finding out Pete was involved in some illegal activities, had fallen for Soviet dancer Lars Englund. However, when Pete was hurt in an accident while saving Bo Brady's life, Melissa couldn't bring herself to leave him. His paralysis was a psychosomatic attempt to hold onto Melissa. Kayla opened a waterfront clinic on her return to Salem, and she fell in love with Steve Johnson, who worked for Victor Kiriakis. Bo, it turned out, had been fathered by Kiriakis when Caroline had a brief affair with him. Bo and pregnant Hope moved into the Kiriakis mansion. Bo explained to her that the arrangement was part of an attempt to foil Victor. Not long after, she had a miscarriage.

Marlena believed that the mysterious Pawn, John Black, was her presumed dead husband, Roman, and they reunited.

Jennifer Horton returned to town a runaway from boarding school, but she got her act together when she moved in with her grandparents. When her friend Matt, a drug addict, attempted to jump off a ledge, Marlena saved his life but almost lost her own when she fell. After spending almost a month in a coma, she and Roman were remarried, but it was not long before she was kidnapped by Orpheus. Roman and other friends followed the trail to Stockholm, where they found Marlena thanks to ISA assistance.

Liz and Neil Curtis divorced, and she left Salem. Mike became involved with Jewish doctor Robin Jacobs. Steve was briefly involved with Britta, his old flame, but she was working for Victor, and eventually she left town.

Shane and Kimberly separated when she thought her baby might really be Victor's child. They got back together, but Andrew was kidnapped and they separated again. The holidays were less than joyful when around Christmas Marlena was presumed dead in an explosion set off by Orpheus, and Shane discovered the bruised and dead body of his ex-wife, Emma, on New Year's Eve.

Marlena was actually being held prisoner by Orpheus. Roman located her just in time to watch her plane crash, and she was once again presumed dead.

Victor feigned proof that Bo was not actually his son and disowned any relationship. Hope and Bo's son, Shawn-Douglas, was born, and the family left town on a sailboat bound for a trip around the world.

Jennifer became involved with Frankie, who with his brother Max stayed with Shawn and Caroline. Adrienne Johnson arrived in Salem. After her father, Duke, raped her, she shot him. Her brother Steve took the blame when Adrienne blocked the event from her mind, but all charges against Steve were dropped when her memory returned. She then became involved with Victor's nephew, Justin.

Robin was shot while she was reading a mysterious computer disk. When she recovered, she ended her relationship with Mike, who began to spend time with his old friend Diana Colville, who had returned to Salem. Diana then became involved with Victor in order to find out more about the disk, but she was really in love with Roman. Victor, meanwhile, was fighting his rival Serena over that same disk.

Justin and Adrienne were married in Greece, and Roman and Diana traveled there as well, following Victor and Serena. When Serena attempted to kill Roman, he shot and killed her before Diana could tell him Serena was her mother.

Steve agreed to pose as Senator Deveraux's assassin, but discovered too late that he had been set up. He and Kayla went on the run and eventually cleared Steve's name. Jack Deveraux, the Senator's son, came to Salem. He had Hodgkin's disease, and fell in love with his nurse, Kayla. Steve discovered that Jack was actually his brother, and pretended not to love Kayla in a self-sacrificing move. He thought if his brother married her, Jack would have more hope of recovery. Jack and Kayla married, but didn't consummate the union.

Roman suffered from mysterious trances, remembering pieces of his past.

Kayla regained her hearing and her speech just in time to recite her wedding vows to Steve. They honeymooned in the Orient, and returned with a deaf child, Benjy. Later, the boy was taken away by his evil father, Stefano DiMera, but his maternal grandfather, Orion, rescued him.

After a second honeymoon in England, Shane and Kimberly returned to Salem with Shane's twin brother, Drew. Drew was secretly working for Stefano, who had kidnapped Carrie and eventually managed to capture the entire Brady family on an island. Blaming Roman for Benjy's deafness, Stefano put Roman in a trance and ordered him to kill everyone, but Diana was able to pull him out of it.

Eve was held hostage by Eddie, but her former pimp, Nick Corelli, helped to rescue her. Anjelica, married to Neil, gave birth to Justin's son, Alexander but she didn't tell him right away. Justin tried to kill Emilio when he found out about his affair with Adrienne and ended up causing himself an accident. Emilio rescued him, then disabled the brakes on Justin's car, but Jennifer got in the car too, and Emilio confessed before leaving town. Justin finally learned that Alexander was his son. His concern for Anjelica angered Adrienne, and she left him.

Steve went undercover to expose Saul Taylor, an evangelist preacher, as a cult leader and criminal. Taylor, with Col. Jericho, stirred up trouble in Salem, leading Marcus Hunter, Steve's childhood buddy, down to South Carolina. Jericho kidnapped Shane, who was thought killed in an explosion. Eventually Shane escaped Jericho's clutches but lost his memory, and set up a new life with Rebecca Downey. About this time, Scott Banning returned to Salem.

Just when Mike and April became engaged, Robin came back to town with Jeremy, Mike's son. April wanted to allow the three to be a family, and she married Nick, who now ran a legitimate business--Blondie's, which he'd renamed Wings. Robin and Jeremy eventually moved to New York, but April stayed with Nick. Marina Toscano, Steve's presumed dead wife, arrived in Salem. She was secretly working for Victor, and hoping to use Steve to find a mysterious key.

Jack discovered Isabella, Marina's sister, in a sanitarium, though she was clearly sane. Steve managed to find the key, but Victor got it from him, and Marina was mysteriously murdered. When Victor realized the key was a fake, he made several attempts on Steve and Kayla's lives, and Steve hid pregnant Kayla in a lighthouse.

Believing that Shane was dead, Kimberly made love with Cal.

Ernesto Toscano arranged a deadly voyage on the cruise ship "Loretta." When the ship exploded, Jack, Jennifer, Julie, Victor, Bo, Roman, and Hope took refuge on an island. Jack and Jennifer made love for the first time there. Ernesto took Isabella prisoner, but she was rescued by Roman. Ernesto then held Hope in a cage that exploded over a vat of acid. Hope was presumed dead.

While honeymooning in Tahiti, Justin and Adrienne met Dr. Carly Manning, and she returned to Salem with them. She discovered her old boarding-school friend Jennifer, who helped Carly avoid an arranged marriage to Lawrence Alamain. Jennifer took Carly's place and Lawrence, uncovering their scheme, raped her.

Later, Jack was emotionally torn up over the death of his adoptive father, murderous Harper Devereaux. His natural father, Duke Johnson, was a violent man, too. Jack pushed Jennifer away. However, when she was held captive by Lawrence, he rescued her.

Carly and Bo, began to become romantically involved. When Steve was killed and died in Kayla's arms, Shane and Kayla took off for Alamain's country, believing Lawrence was responsible. Lawrence engineered an earthquake, but the group survived. By the end of the year, Lawrence was in Salem.

Feeling abandoned by Mike, who opted to join medical volunteers overseas, April married Nick. Shortly after, Nick was mysteriously murdered.