Soap Opera Tropes: Repressed Memories

One of the biggest soap opera tropes is repressed memories. On Days of our Lives, EverBob agreed to let Marlena hypnotize him to see if he can remember his childhood, which will, somehow, help explain whether he was married to Jada and cheating on her with Stephanie. The session turned out to be more or less a bust, as all Everett could remember from it was darkness.

Soaps’ History Of Repressed Memories

Perhaps because Marlena told him to close his eyes. But if anything productive does come out of the exercise, then Everett will join a long line of soap opera characters who found out things about themselves they likely would have really, really preferred to forget.

The Girl Who Used To Be Me

Laura Webber Spencer Collins (Genie Francis — did you know this about her?) thought she knew all of her youthful homicides on General Hospital. She remembered perfectly well killing David Hamilton, the man who got back at her mother, Lesley (Denise Alexander), for rejecting him by seducing her teen-age daughter.

When Laura found out, she killed him. Lesley took the blame and went to prison. Eventually, the truth came out, Laura was put on probation, married the love of her life, Scotty (Kin Shriner), and prepared to live happily ever after. (We all know how that went, but that’s a memory nobody can repress.)

But then, decades later, Laura’s dad, Rick (Chris Robinson) returned to Port Charles. Triggering Laura’s memory of having killed a woman he was having an affair with. In their attic. As normal people do. Scott covered up that crime since Laura was on probation. Laura went catatonic upon finally remembering her past actions. She was assumed to have killed Rick, too. But it turned out to be Scott. That man will do anything for her. And she rarely remembers any of it.

Runs in the Family

Adam (Mark Grossman, who recently revealed this about his on-screen alter ego) didn’t remember killing a man who was threatening his mother over money she owed on The Young and the Restless. Papa Victor (Eric Braeden) swept in to cover up his little boy’s crime, and Adam blocked out the memory for over two decades. Adam’s stepmother, Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), just added his childhood homicide to her ongoing list of why Adam was a horrible person.

But that was some serious pot-calling-the-kettle-black action. Did Nikki forget (ha — see what we did there?) that she, herself, killed her best friend at the age of five when they fought over her father’s gun? Nikki may not have remembered the trauma growing up, but she’d been advised by the time Adam showed up — and she proceeded to hate him.

Innocence Lost

But soap tropes’ repressed memories aren’t always about being the villain. Sometimes they’re about being the victim. On The Bold and the Beautiful, Jake (Todd McKee) finally confessed to his sister that he’d been sexually abused by their father while growing up. But it turned out that he’d repressed the real assailant — his uncle.

Before We Begin

Since Erica Kane (Susan Lucci, who just landed an exciting new role) debuted on the very first episode of All My Children, viewers assumed they knew everything that had ever happened to her — because they’d watched it happen. It wasn’t until 1993 and the arrival of Kendall (Sarah Michelle Gellar) that we — and Erica — found out she’d been raped at the age of 13 and impregnated with a child she’d given up for adoption. Erica had repressed the memory, and, after meeting Kendall, probably wished it had stayed that way.

Reasonable Doubt

When One Life To Live‘s Viki suffered her first bout of split personality, the reason was given as her patrician father objecting to her love for working-class Joe. A decade later, it turned out that the episode we saw wasn’t Viki’s (Erika Slezak, who lost her daughter earlier this year) first. Her first was actually when she became pregnant as a teen, and her father hypnotized her to forget both her baby and her baby’s father. A decade after that, it turned out that wasn’t the first time either. The first time was when Viki’s father began molesting her as a young child. And she didn’t only develop one altar, but several. That she forgot. Until they came out again during a battle with Dorian (Robin Strasser).

Royal Pain

Reva (Kim Zimmer) was presumed dead on Guiding Light. When she was found, she was living as an amnesiac Amish woman. She got her memory back and returned home. But then it turned out that Reva had forgotten another life. While pre-Amish amnesiac, she ended up on the island of San Cristobal. Where she married their prince. And gave birth to a son. Whom she hid to protect from his evil uncle Edmund. And then forgot about. Twice.

The Four Feathers

Mason had always been a mess on Santa Barbara. He blamed his father, he blamed his mother, he blamed everyone but himself. But then he got another excuse to wallow in. Mason remembered that, when he was a teenager, he was responsible for the death of his family’s foster daughter. And now her four friends from the orphanage were back to seek their revenge. It wasn’t too notable of a story. Except for one tiny thing. In the flashbacks, Mason (Terry Lester) was played by a TV newcomer…named Leonardo DiCaprio. Watch that key scene, here!

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