Picture it: Salem, 2004. The town had become a graveyard, with a staggering number of beloved residents brutally murdered one by one. Fans were outraged, heartbroken and in utter disbelief as iconic characters like Abe, Jack, Maggie, Cassie, Victor, Caroline, Tony, Doug, Roman and even sweet Alice Horton met grisly fates at the hands of the mysterious Salem Stalker. Just when it seemed the nightmare was over and viewers were left to grieve the losses, Days of Our Lives pulled the rug out from under them with one of the most insane twists in soap opera history – the Melaswen Island reveal.
It had all started with Abe’s shocking murder, gunned down by a figure in black gloves. The once-peaceful town then fell into chaos as the body count rapidly piled up. The murders grew more bizarre, from Jack’s poisoning to Alice having her trademark donut stuffed down her throat. Fans raged as viewer favorites were killed off en masse by the unseen Salem Stalker. Who was doing this, and why?
The stunning answer came when none other than Marlena was unmasked as the deranged killer. But the twists were just getting started. Just as frantically as the victims fell, the storyline spiraled into a surreal frenzy overseen by new headwriter James E. Reilly, best known as the creator of the cult hit Passions.
In a shootout, Marlena was gunned down herself – only to wake up very much alive in a coffin surrounded by lush greenery. A serene Alice greeted her with “Hello darling, I’ve been waiting for you,” leaving Marlena understandably convinced she was in the afterlife. But no, this was the jaw-dropping revelation of Melaswen Island – a bizarre tropical duplicate of Salem where all the “dead” residents were actually alive and well, just trapped and dressed in tacky Hawaiian shirts.
As the resurrected characters reeled from the shock, suspicion quickly turned to Tony DiMera being behind the twisted scheme. But in another soapy switcheroo, he was revealed as his villainous lookalike cousin André in disguise. André had indeed masterminded this deranged plot – drugging and kidnapping the Salemites, faking their deaths, brainwashing Marlena into believing she was the Stalker, and trapping them all on a replica island as an absurdly overblown act of revenge. His motive? Apparently just tormenting his enemies by…giving them an all-inclusive island vacation?
Delightfully bonkers didn’t even begin to describe the Melaswen bombshell. The storyline had swiftly degenerated from a gritty murder mystery into full-fledged campy madness. Fans watched in disbelief as their beloved show went jumping the shark into a storyline that made villain Orpheus’ previous serial killer reign look positively restrained.
Naturally, the denouement was just as zany as the setup, with a volcanic explosion demolishing the island setting. Marlena and Roman also endured a detour to André’s medieval castle lock-up because…why not? By the time the duo finally returned to Salem alongside the resurrected residents, viewers must have felt they’d awoken from a feverish group hallucination.
In the end, the entire sordid Salem Stalker saga amounted to an eccentric letdown, with no lasting ramifications beyond giving the audience a bizarre tongue-in-cheek thrill ride. Reilly’s over-the-top plotting achieved its goal of shaking up the ratings, but also drew ire from fans unwilling to see beloved vets killed off en masse just for a deranged stunt.
Still, two decades later, the Melaswen twist remains a quintessential “Oh no, they didn’t!” moment in soap opera infamy. While narratively disposable, it injected a madcap spark of giddy unpredictability that ensured Days lived up to its name for awhile. Some viewers were appalled, others delighted by the sheer insanity of it all. Loathing or loving the choice, fans remained invested enough to tune in and rubberneck the daytime train wreck unfolding in all its inexplicable glory.
The ratings stunt accomplished its goal of stirring the pot, even if few viewers likely tuned in hoping to see the show descend into such unrestrained lunacy. Reilly himself embraced being the object of audience hatred, welcoming passionate reactions as long as they kept viewers hooked. Eyebrow-raising plot holes like Abe’s ghost lurking around Salem after his “death” were mere nitpicks in the grand portrait of daytime daringness run amok.
In hindsight, the Melaswen twist stands as a delirious pop culture relic – an example of a show swinging for the fences with a bizarre gambit that paid off in buzz if not creative substance. Like it or not, the nonsensical island reveal endures as a quintessential guilty pleasure that keeps fans talking twenty years later. Isn’t that the hallmark of an iconic soap opera moment?
