Viki - 1990s
Source: ABC writing team, Gary Warner’s book “One Life to Live Thirty Years of Memories” and various online sources
1990
Kevin tells Viki about the drug problem at his school. Viki exposes the drug dealers and forces the mayor to resign.
Roger convinces Viki to run for mayor of Llanview, much to Clint's displeasure.
Clint refuses to support Viki for mayor. Roger becomes Viki's campaign manager and their friendship begins to grow again. Viki receives death threats but bravely remains in the race. Clint and Roger conspire to protect Viki. Roger goes undercover as one of Herb Callison’s campaign workers. Clint and Roger decide to keep Viki ignorant of their plans, and she is devastated by his "betrayal". Eventually, Michael Grande is discovered as the driving force behind Herb's campaign. It is also determined that Carlo Hesser, a leader of organized crime.
In a close election, Viki Buchanan narrowly defeated Herb Callison and was elected the new mayor of Llanview. Viki vowed to stamp out drugs in Llanview—drugs that were being distrubted by Michael Grande and Llanview’s new crime boss, Carlo Hesser. During the campaign, Viki fingered Carlo as the drug boss, splashing his name across the from page of The Banner. The battle lines between Carlo and Viki had been drawn!
Soon after the election, Viki and Clint mended their relationship, and Viki gently told Roger Gordan, that while she would always love him, her place was with Clint.
The new mayor faced immediate danger when Carlo Hesser’s son, Johnny Dee ordered Llanview’s corrupt Police Commissioner Harding to assassinate Viki. Durimng a fund raiser, Harding shot Viki. While recovering from the bullet wound, she suffered a stroke that rendered her speechless and paralyzed. With her usual poise and perseverance, Viki struggled to recover.
Tina, who was on the island as a guest of Carlo’s son, Johnny Dee, was stunned to see her Llanview friends—and her ex-husband, Cord. Tina kept mum, but faced a horrible dilemma when Johnny spotted her speaking to Cord. To keep Johnny from searching Cord’s room, Tina stalled him…by seducing hi, After sleeping with Johnny, Tina went to bed with Cord; after their night of lovemaking, they decided to start dating again. To her horror, Tina discovered she was pregnant—and she didn’t know who the father was. She mistakenly believed that her child was Johnny’s. Cord, in true form, agreed to raise and love the child as his own. When Johnny learned of the baby, he tried to kidnap Tina from Llanfair but was killed by the paralyzed Viki, who turned into Niki Smith, regained use of her legs, and climbed the mansion stairs to shoot Johnny before he could drag Tina away.
1991
Carlo's initial plan to get back at Viki was to kill her daughter, Megan.
He forces Gabrielle to slip the drug into Viki's drink at a party, but Jake is on to him and prevents this from happening. Viki pretends to be drugged in order to find out what he is up to.
Carlo is able to get to Viki and inject her with the drug. He orders Niki to shoot Megan. Viki is able to exert enough control on Niki to prevent the murder. Bo and Alex obtain the antidote from Alex's father and Niki once again becomes Viki. Carlo's plan has failed.
Viki is cleared of the murder of Johnny Dee, as it is determined that it was a case of self defense. The Buchanans rejoice. Viki resigns as mayor in order to have more time for her family.
Viki senses that something is troubling Clint, and that he’s hiding something from her. He tells her that it is problems at the Banner that are weighing on him, but she is unconvinced.
Cord and Tina tell Viki that they have seen Clint with a woman named Sondra and suspect him of having an affair. Viki decides to investigate and is crushed to find Clint and Sondra together. It seems everyone's suspicions are confirmed.
Clint tells Viki that he is not having an affair. Sondra is a psychotherapist, helping him to cope with the fact that he is dying. Viki is devastated by the news. Clint asks her to keep his condition a secret.
Viki convinces Clint to tell the family, and they are able to convince him to undergo the very risky surgical procedure that could save his life.
After a tense night of waiting in the Intensive Care Unit, Viki and the others are thrilled to learn that Clint has come through the surgery. Clint vows to dance at Megan's wedding, and the family cheers him on as he strives for a complete recovery.
1992-1996
Jake and Megan are wed, but almost as soon as they tie the knot, Jake (a P.I.) leaves on an investigation in the middle-eastern country Jaba. Jake disappears, and Megan is left not knowing whether he is alive or dead. Worse yet, Megan begins suffering from lupus. Despondent over losing Jake, she ignores her health and parties heavily, taxing her system to the limit. A desperate kidney transplant (Viki was the donor) fails to save her. Reverend Andrew Carpenter harbors a crush on Megan, and risks his life going to Jaba to rescue Jake just in time for husband and wife to have one last moment together. Megan dies in Jake’s arms.
The death of Megan (and supposed death of Cord) sparks a rift between Clint and Viki that grows wider over time. Viki takes an interest in Andrew’s father General Sloane Carpenter whose personality is disturbingly like that of Viki’s late father Victor. The unthinkable happens when Viki has an affair with Sloane, and finally divorces Clint in order to marry him. Sloan, who suffers from Hodgkin’s disease, is living on borrowed time though. Viki actually marries him while he is in the hospital intensive-care unit, and he dies shortly afterward in 1994. Meanwhile, Viki and Dorian’s long feud reignites. Viki discovers evidence that supports her long-held belief that Dorian murdered her father, and had her nemesis is brought up on charges. Dorian’s lawyer, Nora, finds conflicting evidence from a Lord family butler who says he saw Tina’s mother, Irene Clayton, fleeing from Victor’s room just after he died. Nevertheless, Dorian is found guilty and given a death sentence for Victor’s murder. Yet, she is saved by a handsome young man named David Vickers who claimed to witness Irene murder Victor. Even more shocking is his claim that he is Irene and Victor’s son.
David’s fraud (and Tina’s complicity) is the latest in a string of stressful incidents for Viki—divorcing Clint, Dorian’s seduction of Joey, Sloane’s death—that finally take a toll on her psyche. The final straw is when Viki has an angry confrontation with Dorian, in which Dorian reveals the late Victor’s darkest secret: he is a pedophile who repeatedly raped Viki over the entire course of her childhood. Faced with memories that she has repressed for her adult life, Viki snaps and reverts to her multiple personality disorder (now known as Dissociative identity disorder). But this time, she exhibits a number of new personalities beside Niki. The main new alter (alternate identity) is Jean Randolph (a skewed version of Viki’s mother, and a control freak), as well as Princess (a frightened little girl), Tommy (a violent young boy) and Tori (the most explicitly vengeful of the alters). Jean imprisons Dorian in Llanfair’s secret room for a while. When she finally lets her go, she forces her to marry David Vickers to keep her away from Joey.
Eventually though, Tori takes control and actively seeks to destroy everything that Victor Lord has ever built. Tori sets Llanfair on fire, hoping it will burn to the ground. But she realizes that Viki’s daughter Jessica is still inside. Viki reasserted herself to rescue Jessie, and after many months of drama involving the alters, undergoes psychotherapy to deal with the reality of her childhood. She remembers the most terrible secret of her life in therapy though; back in 1976, she briefly became Tori and murdered Victor (although years later, it would be revealed that Victor survived the attempt on his life). Viki was found not guilty of murder by reason of temporary insanity, but her life was forever changed.
1995 (SOD)
OLTL finally decided to explore the root cause of Viki's personality disorder. "[Then-Head Writer] Michael Malone kept saying, 'Do you think you could do another one?' and I would say, 'Throw another one at me; I'll do it.' He told me the storyline in advance so that I would be able to do some preparation. We had the most fabulous lunch at Le Cirque with [Creator] Agnes Nixon, who was called in to consult on that story."
One by one, Jean, Tommy, Princess, Tori, et al emerged, and Viki struggled to deal with them. The climax came when Tori set the house on fire. "Here we are lying on the floor," says Slezak. "This was at about 1:30 in the morning. Tori burned Llanfair down, and Jessica was stuck inside. Viki went back to save her. Then we came down the stairs and something fell and hit us on the head. The fire department shut us down because the set caught fire -whoof! They screamed 'Cut! ' and the fire department said, 'That's it, good-night.' It was out of control for about two seconds, but that was it."
1996
Carlo Hesser has Viki hypnotized to shoot her son, Kevin.
Why would Viki attempt to shoot her own son, Kevin? Blame Carlo Hesser for the near tragedy. In the final stage of his plan to exact revenge on Viki, Hesser ordered psychiatrist Elliot Durbin to hypnotize her into shooting Kevin. Though a shot was fired, no one was hurt, and Kevin gently convinced his hypnotized mother to put the gun down. Naturally, while this was taking place, the real villain slippery Carlo Hesser was nowhere to be found.
1996 (SOD)
Viki 's half brother, Todd, returned to Llanview. "I have enjoyed playing scenes with Roger so much since he came back,” praises Slezak. "It's a very unique relationship on this show. We are related by accident. We didn't pick each other, but there we are, brother and sister. We want nothing from each other. This is a relationship based on choice. We choose to be friends. We don't pull punches. When I think Todd is acting like an idiot, I tell him. And he says, 'Butt out.' I love working with Roger. I think he's super."
1997
Viki hires Mel Hayes to work at the Banner. Viki and Clint grow closer but Viki starts to have intimacy problems. Viki starts sex therapy with Dr. Maude
1997-98 (SOD)
Boozy newsman Mel Hayes (below) came to work at The Banner. "As far as I know, Mel and Viki are going to be friends," insists Slezak. "They understand each other- the losses, the pain, the difficulties. Viki doesn't judge people; she tries not to, anyway. So Mel, for all his faults, is still a wonderfully rich human being." So... is there a future for Viki and Clint? "I don't know where they're going with that, muses the actress. .'Maybe we'll get back together 10 years down the road, when we 're both in wheelchairs." She pauses at the thought, then roars with laughter. .'Well, no... 20 years!"
1998
Clint asks Viki to re-marry him, she turns him down
1999
In late January of 1999, Victoria Lord Carpenter narrowly escaped death when a plane she was planning to travel on crashed. She had gotten off the plane moments before take off thanks to a mix up with a note meant for her traveling companion, Mel Hayes. In the ensuing weeks Viki began to have dreams of a foggy roadside area at a crossroads she'd never seen, and Mel, speaking to her, trying to tell her something important. One night while driving she actually found the site she'd been dreaming about and had another vision of Mel Hayes, who told her she had been spared for a reason.
Viki entered the bar "CrossXroads" and thus began one of the most beautiful and romantic love stories ever to hit the daytime screen.
Viki meets bartender, Ben at Crossroads and is immediately attracted to him. He doesn't know her name, so he immediately nicknames her "Blondie" a name she will come to love and treasure forever.
At Ben's urging, Viki musters up the courage to sing Karaoke to "I Will Survive".
As Viki comes to realize the tenuousness of Ben's survival from being on the run, Viki becomes more and more attracted to Ben. He tries to push her away by lying to her but she soon realized his deception. Viki and Ben continue to fall deeply in love and this culminates with them becoming lovers and soulmates in the first of many scenes in the Llanfair Attic.
As a result of Ben's past, Viki soon becomes a target for the mobsters. Hugo and Dorian, Viki's long time nemisis, team up together to get even with Viki and Ben and they kidnap Viki and hold her hostage in Dorian's root cellar.
At CrossXroads, the night of Cristian and Jessica's engagement party, Jessica who is nearly ready to give birth is hit by a hit and run driver. Jessica gives birth to Viki's first grandaughter, Megan, who dies shortly after birth. The driver turns out to be none other than Dorian Lord Hayes, Viki's bitter enemy. Ben also has discovered he too has a bitter enemy in Asa Buchanan who has managed to strip him of his medical license and seems determined to destroy his life.
