MAJOR SPOILER.... or, you know, NOT
Oct. 31st, 2011 06:24 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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will_sonnyI'm not putting this behind a cut because, DUH! But at least it's finally official confirmation.
'Days of Our Lives': Another Salem character comes out of the closet -- EXCLUSIVE
In the wake of a decision by Days of Our Lives to feature its first same-sex relationship, the NBC soap has announced plans to reveal another gay character on the traditionally conservative sudser. EW has learned exclusively that Will Horton (Chandler Massey) will come out on the show, which introduced its first gay character last summer. Freddie Smith joined the show in June to play Sonny, a good-natured young man who returns home to join his family.
Massey, who earned his first Emmy nomination last year for his work on Days, released this statement: "I'm thrilled to be able to portray my character in an empowering way that will show his struggle to accept who he is. It is my hope that this storyline will inspire others to be true to themselves as well."
Will's sexual orientation will become obvious to the viewers as well as family and friends but his journey toward self-acceptance is expected to unfold over the next few weeks, the show says. Co-Executive Producer Greg Meng had this to say: "We are excited to have the encouragement and support from both NBC and Sony to tell the inspiring story of a young man learning who he is as he defines and creates his relationships with others."
For now, the show won't say whether Will eventually hooks up for Sonny. When Smith talked to EW this summer, he said he wasn't sure who his character's boyfriend would be in Salem. "I'm going to be surprised," he told EW. "There are a lot of guys on the show, so it's going to be interesting to see who I end up falling for. Someone new? Someone on the show? We all make jokes, `who am I going to make out with first?' It's going to be fun to see."
While competing sudsers have been in the forefront when it comes to same-sex couples — All My Children, for example, featured the first lesbian character in Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), which led to the first gay marriage between her and Reese Williams (Tamara Braun) — Days has largely played a backseat role when it comes to featuring gay couplings.
'Days of Our Lives': Another Salem character comes out of the closet -- EXCLUSIVE
In the wake of a decision by Days of Our Lives to feature its first same-sex relationship, the NBC soap has announced plans to reveal another gay character on the traditionally conservative sudser. EW has learned exclusively that Will Horton (Chandler Massey) will come out on the show, which introduced its first gay character last summer. Freddie Smith joined the show in June to play Sonny, a good-natured young man who returns home to join his family.
Massey, who earned his first Emmy nomination last year for his work on Days, released this statement: "I'm thrilled to be able to portray my character in an empowering way that will show his struggle to accept who he is. It is my hope that this storyline will inspire others to be true to themselves as well."
Will's sexual orientation will become obvious to the viewers as well as family and friends but his journey toward self-acceptance is expected to unfold over the next few weeks, the show says. Co-Executive Producer Greg Meng had this to say: "We are excited to have the encouragement and support from both NBC and Sony to tell the inspiring story of a young man learning who he is as he defines and creates his relationships with others."
For now, the show won't say whether Will eventually hooks up for Sonny. When Smith talked to EW this summer, he said he wasn't sure who his character's boyfriend would be in Salem. "I'm going to be surprised," he told EW. "There are a lot of guys on the show, so it's going to be interesting to see who I end up falling for. Someone new? Someone on the show? We all make jokes, `who am I going to make out with first?' It's going to be fun to see."
While competing sudsers have been in the forefront when it comes to same-sex couples — All My Children, for example, featured the first lesbian character in Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), which led to the first gay marriage between her and Reese Williams (Tamara Braun) — Days has largely played a backseat role when it comes to featuring gay couplings.
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Date: 2011-10-31 10:44 pm (UTC)So excited for Will's coming-out drama. :D
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Date: 2011-10-31 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-31 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-31 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-31 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-31 11:51 pm (UTC)ETA: Do you watch J&J clips on the internet? I know there's a channel that posts all scenes with Jack, Jennifer, and/or Abigail.
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Date: 2011-11-01 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 09:53 pm (UTC)Here's a link to the youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/1993JnJ
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Date: 2011-11-01 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 11:51 am (UTC)But I would love to have Will's story be half the show. I think that Chandler could handle it.
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Date: 2011-11-01 12:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 12:14 am (UTC)But Jack... well, he does have plenty of flaws, but IMO he makes up for it by being the least fickle character I've ever seen on any soap opera ever. In 22 years, Jennifer is the only woman he's ever loved. In all that time, he's slept with exactly two other women, one during a time period when he and Jennifer were divorced and one who was a woman one of his enemies sent to him basically wearing a "Jennifer suit" (hey, it's a soap opera!), and he was very upset when he realized what he'd done.
I've seen people who call it pathetic, the way Jack always wants Jennifer back, despite the fact that she has been your more typically fickle soap opera character and has had a few other romances and a couple of other marriages along the way. But to me, the way Jack always just loves Jennifer and will forgive her anything and always wants to be with her no matter what happens between them is not pathetic, but rather incredibly romantic.
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Date: 2011-11-02 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 11:00 am (UTC)The longer answer, in case anyone else is reading this who wasn't watching back then, is that, when Abigail was a baby, she was sick with aplastic anemia. Jack felt guilty over the fact that, as a survivor of Hodgkins Disease, he couldn't be a bone marrow donor for her. Then, they found out that a possible cause of Abigail's condition was toxic waste that had leaked into the water supply. He realized that he himself had authorized the dumping of toxic waste a number of years earlier when he was young and just getting started in business and his father had given him some papers to sign, and he didn't really know what they were he just signed them.
As Jennifer told Jack on their cookie date, there was no way to know for sure that that was the cause of Abigail's illness, but Jack had no question in his mind. He was (and still is) utterly convinced that it was entirely his fault his daughter was sick. He wrote Jennifer this letter all about how what he'd done was unforgivable, and he's never be able to forgive himself, and how she and Abigail deserved to be with someone who deserved them, and he could never be that person. He left them and sent Jennifer divorce papers, and very shortly after that checked himself into a psychiatric hospital, having had a nervous breakdown.
The hospital had this unorthodox practice where the patients "left their old selves behind" and used a different name during their stay, so Jack became Clark. And "Clark" became very close to another patient called "Monica". He was never in love with her, never stopped being in love with Jennifer, but the two of them bonded over the problems they were each dealing with and had a brief affair. And then, in true soap opera fashion, after Jack left the hospital, he discovered that "Monica" was actually Laura Horton, Jennifer's mother. Oh, soap operas!
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Date: 2011-11-03 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 12:15 am (UTC)Now I am seriously looking forward to how the reveal plays out. I was blown away with the Will/Marlena scenes last week. I curious as to how much Sonny will play into the coming out storyline. Sonny could be either a mentor or a love interest.
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Date: 2011-11-01 12:19 am (UTC)Yeah, it must be tremendously satisfying to get an "exclusive" story that the rest of the freaking world already knew about for six or seven months. (Well, the rest of the world except for the handful of people who kept insisting it was going to be Chad.)
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Date: 2011-11-01 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 12:59 am (UTC)There IS a big spoiler about the status of Will/Sonny in an interview with Freddie a few posts back, that I'm wondering if many people have seen? I would recount it here, but I fear it's not allowed.
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Date: 2011-11-01 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-01 03:26 pm (UTC)