Identity Crisis
The Pawn - a mummified mystery man covered with bandages from head to toe - first appeared on Days of our Lives in late 1985. Steve Johnson stumbled upon him and realized he'd struck gold. Victor Kiriakis was offering $1 million to the person who could deliver this mysterious man to his door. Steve planned to eventually turn him in, but after he left his hostage alone for a few hours, he returned to find a pile of bandages on the floor and the mysterious man gone. So began the saga of John Black as John's portrayer, Drake Hogestyn, tells the history of his character from pawn to priest.
My first day on Days of our Lives was January 10, 1986. ("I was not 'The actual Pawn,'" Hogestyn notes. "Another person did all the mummy stuff.") I stumbled into town and into a rescue mission, where I started talking to a Brother Francis. He offered me food and clothing, but I told him I didn't need a handout. I could work. He said, "Good. Maybe we can find a job for you, Mr...?"
At that point Brother Francis was called away. That's when I noticed a Vietnam War memorial on the wall. I brushed the dust off the first name with my thumb. It read John Black. When Brother Francis returned, I told him my name was John Black.
The search for my identity began. I remembered Patch (Steve Johnson), and saw him one day at Shenanigans. I overheard him talking about this man Victor Kiriakis was looking for. Victor was offering $1 million for the return of "The Pawn." Knowing full well that man was me, I decided to befriend Victor to gather information about my past. I got a job wiring the security system at his house, so I could come and go as I pleased.
One day I broke into a wall safe and found pictures of the Bradys and other important people. I recognized all the faces, but I didn't know who they were. So I began talking to those people in hopes of putting things together myself. A lot of arrows pointed to the possibility that I was Stefano. Anna DiMera, Stefano's daughter-in-law, told me that Stefano put a phoenix on everything he owned, and I later discovered a phoenix tattooed on my right shoulder.
I met Marlena when I saved her from a thief who was attacking her. A psychiatrist at the local hospital, she suggested I take a security job there. She also found me an apartment. We became friends, and it wasn't long before she realized I didn't know who I was and offered to help me.
After weeks of searching, we came up with the name of a plastic surgeon in Miami who recalled a case involving a patient and a Mr. Kiriakis. He had pictures of that patient before and after surgery, so Marlena and I headed off to meet him.
Back in Salem, people were after me, and Bo and Shane (Donovan) had decided I was Stefano. One night Marlena called Bo at home, just as I had taken off my shirt. Noticing the phoenix on my back, she gasped: "My god! I'm here with Stefano," I overheard and took her captive, because I couldn't take the chance of her running off.
As Marlena and I searched for the doctor, Bo was after us. We all ended up on a hillside where Bo and I fought. He sucker-punched me, and just as I was about to go off the cliff, Marlena found the doctor's briefcase with the before-and-after-surgery pictures inside it. Marlena screamed, "Don't kill him, Bo. He's your brother." I was the husband Marlena thought had died.
When we came back to Salem, all of a sudden I was Roman Brady, father of three and a cop. Life was wonderful for a while. Then Orpheus entered the picture. Apparently, he and I (Roman) had been partners in the ISA, and on one of our stakeouts I accidentally shot and killed his wife. Orpheus blamed me for her death. To settle the score, he put a bomb in the Brady house. It blew up just as Marlena entered. The only thing left was ashes and her wedding ring. Believing Marlena was dead, I went to a mountain cabin to get away from it all. There I discovered Olivia Reed, Orpheus' sister-in-law. Eventually, I put two and two together, tracked Orpheus to his island and learned Marlena was alive.
Orpheus and I had a big shoot-out and I killed him. I grabbed Olivia and asked her where Marlena was. She said, "She's flying off to a location where you'll never find her." I raced to the airport and got to the control tower as the plane was taxiing. I saw Marlena yelling. The plane took off and moments later it exploded. Marlena was gone.
Over the next few years, I had relationships with Diana Colville and Yvette Dupre. It was during my time with Diana that I uncovered another secret from my past. When Diana ran The Spectator, a man came in asking her to run a picture of Roman Brady pre-surgery. He was desperate to find him. It turned out this man had come to town to warn me that Stefano was on his way. I began having flashbacks about this man and going into a trance whenever someone mentioned the word pagoda, or I even saw one.
Stefano finally lured me to the top of a hill, the very spot where Roman was once believed to have died. It was there that I learned why Stefano hated me. Years earlier, I was on a job for Stefano, while under one of his pagoda spells. I was supposed to eliminate a foreign adversary but I couldn't pull the trigger. So Stefano sent in his No. 2 man. Stefano followed, and unbeknownst to him, his young son, Benjy, was behind him. When the place exploded, everyone made it out, but Benjy became deaf permanently.
Stefano and I fought on the hill and I knocked him off. I could have let him fall to his death, but he warned me that if I did I would never know about my past. Reluctantly, I pulled him back up, and he made his getaway.
Eventually, I met Isabella Toscano. We fell in love and were planning to marry, but on the night of our engagement party I was drawn to the pier, where Marlena walked out of the fog and back into my life. Where she had been and what had happened to her was a mystery, and the cop in me wanted to solve it.
Coins Marlena had brought back to Salem with her led us to San Cristobal. Once we got there, I started having visions, and remembered training for something where I was dressed in army fatigues and running on a beach. Then, we found the real Roman Brady, who had apparently been held hostage there. The two of us began fighting, each insisting he was Roman. Marlena's solution was for all three of us to return to Salem and figure things out.
DNA testing ultimately revealed that I was not Roman, but I didn't believe it. I was sure the real truth was back in San Cristobal. Marlena, Roman, Isabella, Bo, Carly (Manning) and I returned to the island. I was determined to find out how my past and Roman's were intertwined. Once we arrived, I began having flashbacks about a pyramid, tunnels and a secret panel. Roman remembered things too. Our combined memories led us to the place where the Mayan codices - a national treasure - were buried and led right to Stefano.
"Thank you for doing my work. That is what you were trained for. You give me the treasures, and I'll give you back your past," Stefano taunted, waving a satchel at me. I refused to give him the treasures, and both he and the satchel fell into the fire that had erupted. I managed to retrieve the bag, which contained three clues to my past: a partially melted wolf's head gold ring, half of a locket, and a burned picture of a woman with a birthmark on her neck.
Roman, Bo and I received an award from the U.S. government for finding the codices. A picture of the three of us was distributed internationally. In it I was wearing the wolf's head ring. Danielle Stevens saw the picture in Italy, and though she didn't recognize me, she recognized the ring. She had an identical one of her own. By the time I returned to Salem, I learned that Isabella was pregnant. It made me more determined than ever to uncover my identity, and Isabella gave me the space to search for the answers.
Shortly thereafter, the Mayan codices were exhibited at a local museum. The guard was killed and the codices were stolen. A wolf's head card was left behind - the sign of Romulus, an international art thief who operated primarily in Europe. At that time I'd been having blackouts, and sometimes couldn't account for several hours of the day. People suspected that I might be Romulus.
Danielle arrived in town, took an apartment in my building, and worked her way into my life. Suspecting Danielle was up to something, Isabella searched her apartment and discovered a stash of diamonds. Diamonds, however, weren't the only thing she was hiding. She claimed that I was her husband, John Stevens, and that there was information about my past in a safe-deposit box we'd co-signed for in Switzerland. The two of us headed there, and by the time Danielle took me to the safe-deposit box, I had put two and two together: I knew she was Romulus. When we unlocked the box and I found the other half of the locket inside it, Danielle pulled a gun on me and demanded I hand it over. I refused, telling her I'd already summoned the police there. However, I let her escape, and knocked myself out before the police arrived. I ran into her before leaving Switzerland and she confessed that we had a relationship once, but were never married.
Once back home I began having flashbacks about a woman wearing a locket at a costume ball. That woman turned out to be Carly, and she was dancing with Lawrence Alamain. After I showed Lawrence the locket, he and Vivian began acting strangely around me, so I started to watch the Alamain house. Vivian and Lawrence had a pine box shipped from Lawrence's country. It was the coffin in which his brother, Forrest, who died at age 3, was supposed to have been buried. When they opened it, it was empty. From that moment on, Vivian and Lawrence walked on eggshells around me. I found out the reason when I discovered an infatuated Carrie in Lawrence's bedroom with him. "If you ever touch her again, I'm going to kill you," I told him. He screamed that I couldn't, because he was my brother.
Now I'm Forrest Alamain, but I continue to go by John Black. I fought for half of the Alamain fortune and received it. I spent the next six months in a suit and tie running Alamain Industries. Isabella, whom I'd married and with whom I had a son named Brady was my right-hand woman.
In an effort to obtain more information about my childhood, Isabella offered a reward to anyone who knew Forrest Alamain. A crotchety old janitor, named Buddy Rose who worked at a boarding school in New York, came to Salem claiming he knew me. He told me how I used to hang out with him as a kid. I'd play hooky from school and he'd take me to Yankee games. He told me I left school when I was a teenager to return to Europe and find my roots.
As I started to grab hold of my past, my future began to fall apart. Isabella was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Within a matter of months, she died.
While getting over her death, I sought comfort from Marlena. The unresolved feelings between us led to a brief affair, and she discovered she was pregnant. Although the baby - a beautiful little girl named Isabella (Belle) - turned out to be mine, Marlena and I were initially led to believe that Roman was the father. I stepped aside and wished the two of them all the best.
It was during this time that I met Kristen. A couple of thugs were beating her up in the park, and I saved her. I introduced myself as John Black. She knew my name all too well. She also knew she was supposed to stay away from me. I was attracted to her immediately, maybe because I sensed she had a secret and there was an element of mystery about her.
We wound up having an affair, and I discovered her secret while we were at the Horton cabin on Smith Island. After making love, Kristen suddenly ran out; I went after her and found her on the pier with Stefano. "How can you be with him?" I asked her. "Are you setting me up?" She assured me her feelings were genuine; that she fell in love with me even though she knew she shouldn't have - even though her "father" had warned her about me.
Stefano, who was supposedly suffering from a terminal illness, was taken to the hospital, where Roman and I questioned him about his connection to thug/drug addict Curtis Brown. We were desperate to tie him to something that would lock him up once and for all. That's when Stefano let a sketch of a woman slip out from his belongings. As soon as I saw it, it set me off. I began having flashbacks. I heard a woman calling, "Johnny, Johnny. Save me. Save me from Stefano." Stefano looked at Peter and smiled; the picture still worked.
I told Stefano about this woman I had recalled who called me Johnny, and I saw that it scared him. I knew I was getting close to something he didn't want me to recall. He told me that it was best if I never uncovered the truth about my past. If I did, it would destroy my relationship with Kristen.
Not wanting me involved with his adopted daughter, Stefano set a plan in motion to split up Kristen and me for good by ensuring that she married his son Tony. On the day of Kristen's wedding - knowing that I'd show up and try to stop it - Stefano engineered his getaway in a rigged car. When I shot at the tires to stop him, the car blew up. It appeared as if Stefano had died, and I killed him. Kristen was devastated and to fulfill her father's greatest wish, she married Tony.
I was certain that Stefano was still alive, but Kristen didn't believe me. A few weeks later, I began receiving pieces to a puzzle that eventually formed a picture of Maison Blanche, the plantation in New Orleans where Stefano was hiding. He lured me there and took me hostage in the dungeon. Then, he tricked Marlena into coming there too, and held her prisoner with me.
I began remembering that I'd been there before. My memories were confirmed when I found "Johnny Black 1985" scratched on the wall. I was confused; I thought I had taken the name of John Black off the Vietnam memorial plaque in January 1986. I also remembered Celeste, Stefano's housekeeper, who had helped me years ago. I flashed back to her putting something in my hand, which I then hid behind one of the beams. That's when I found a Saint Christopher medal and a Biblical passage. I begged Celeste for help - to give me a starting point from which I could search for my past. She refused and told me, "Be careful what you wish for. It may come true."
Stefano decided to keep Marlena as his companion and continue brainwashing me. In preparation for this procedure, Stefano began drugging me. Hoping to make me stop fighting his drugs, Stefano told me that I would remember everything about my past right before he erased my memory. Stefano began to panic when I remembered hearing bells ringing. In the middle of all this, all hell broke loose at Maison Blanche. Stefano couldn't continue with his plan because Roman had discovered his hideout. Marlena and I were freed by Roman, and I went after Stefano. I found him trying to flee on a rowboat. We fought, he went overboard, and as I was trying to get the truth from him, Gina, Hope's look-alike, came out from beneath a tarp. When she fell overboard and screamed for help, I was forced to let Stefano get away and save her.
Back at Maison Blanche a fire had broken out. Roman and the others (Tony, Kristen, Jennifer and Peter, who were at the plantation for a charity ball) managed to get Marlena out of the basement, but Kristen, devastated that her father had deceived her and was really alive and had held me prisoner, wanted to go back into the burning house to get Stefano's notebook computer, which held information about my past. Tony went in instead, but got caught in an explosion that caused him to lose his eyesight.
Once back in Salem, I attempted to break the computer's code, to no avail. Then, I got a call from Celeste, who was in jail in New Orleans. By the time I arrived down there, Stefano had gotten to her, so when I confronted her she said she had nothing to tell me. We started to argue. "There's nothing you can do to keep me away from Kristen. I love her, and I'm going to marry her," I told her. "You can't marry her. You're already married," she blurted out.
Later, I told Kristen and Marlena I didn't believe it. I would know in my heart if I was married to any woman. I would remember if I loved someone enough to marry her. It was the one thing that couldn't be stripped from my memory. But that's what I have to believe to move forward in my pursuit of a life with Kristen.
Janet Di Lauro, Soap Opera Weekly, 9/13/94
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