Timeline: (1999-2002)
Major Characters Involved: Bo, Hope, Stefano, John, Marlena, Abe, and Lexie
Prologue:
For the first time ever, viewers had an opportunity to vote on the Internet for either John or Stefano as the father of Hope’s baby. John received the most votes from viewers, so initially John was named the biological father. There were a significant number of viewers who were dismayed, though, that Bo’s name was not on the voting ballot, so the writers actually listened to the fans and made Bo the father of Hope’s baby in the end.
Storyline History
During Hope’s missing years when she was presumed dead, Stefano DiMera transformed her into art thief Princess Gina Von Amberg, who once had a passionate affair with John Black before he came to Salem. In 1999, Stefano transformed Hope back into Gina by activating the microchip in her neck. During John and Marlena’s honeymoon that same year, John was kidnaped and held captive on Gina’s submarine and brainwashed into his former identity as Gina’s lover. Gina (Hope) and John made love, but after John escaped, he remembered nothing about the passionate incident because of the microchip in his neck. Soon afterwards, Gina (Hope) slept with Stefano.
Meanwhile the real Princess Gina had plastic surgery to look younger like Hope and took over Hope’s life, thus locking Hope and Stefano in a castle in Paris. Hope remembered nothing about sleeping with John or Stefano, since her memories of Gina had been erased by the latest satellite transmission. While in captivity, Hope discovered she was pregnant and naturally assumed that Bo was the father. John eventually remembered sleeping with Gina (Hope), but kept it a secret from his true love Marlena.
Hope and Stefano were finally rescued and Hope shared the joyous news that she was pregnant. Bo realized that there was no way he could be the father, since they hadn’t slept together during the time of conception. He kept this a secret from Hope.
Abe and Lexie Carver had been trying to conceive a baby for months with no luck, so they considered adoption. Enter Marlo Ungerschtemer, Dr. Rolf’s niece, who coincidentally was pregnant and due around the same time Hope was. Marlo coaxed Lexie into adopting her baby, which she agreed to after persuading Abe. Unbeknownst to Abe and Lexie, Marlo drank heavily during her pregnancy, but came off sweet and innocent where Lexie was concerned. Marlo even hit on Roman Brady during one of her drinking binges. Stefano and Rolf had to lock Marlo in the secret room to keep her from drinking.
Stefano had consulted with Rolf and decided that they would mastermind a baby switch. Since there was a chance that Stefano could be the father of Hope’s baby, he wanted to keep his baby under very close wraps and in the family. What better way to do this than to have daughter Lexie raise his heir?
The day Hope went into labor, Rolf injected Marlo with a drug which would induce her labor and thus make the women give birth to the babies at approximately the same time. After the births, Rolf snuck into the maternity ward and swapped John Thomas (JT) and Isaac’s bracelets. The nurses placed the babies back in their proper cribs, or so they thought, thinking nothing of the so-called mistake.
The Bradys were devastated to soon discover that JT had fetal alcohol syndrome. Hope blamed herself, since she assumed that she drank during her time as Princess Gina, but had no idea how much she really consumed.
In a shocking twist of events, Rolf pushed Marlo down the stairs at the DiMera mansion during an argument. He even snapped her neck to ensure that she was really dead and tossed her body in the river. Stefano manipulated Lexie into keeping Marlo’s death a secret, for fear she could lose Isaac. Ultimately, the Salem P.D. discovered and identified Marlo’s body.
John eventually discovered that he was JT’s father, which put quite a strain on his and Marlena’s marriage. Hope learned the truth about who JT’s father was and she, John, and Marlena kept this a secret from Bo. Although Bo realized that he couldn’t have been JT’s father, he still bonded with JT just the same. However, his suspicions grew as he eventually found out that Marlo was a drunk and Isaac was a perfectly healthy baby.
Glen Reiber, Marlo’s ex boyfriend, found out about Marlo’s death and realized that he could possibly be the father of her baby. Glen and his wife Barb encountered Abe and Lexie at Green Mountain Lodge. The Carvers put two and two together and realized that Glen could be Isaac’s biological father. Lexie, though, tried to persuade the couple to try and have a baby of their own and would soon resort to whatever evil tactics she had to do in order to keep the son whom she had grown to love.
Glen ultimately found out that Isaac was his and Marlo’s baby and the Carvers adopted him. When Glen and Barb ordered a paternity test, Lexie manipulated Brandon Walker into swapping JT and Isaac’s blood samples. Brandon shocked Lexie with conclusive results that JT was really Glen’s biological son. Lexie realized that Stefano had orchestrated a baby switch and feared losing Isaac to Bo and Hope. Thus, she decided to keep it a secret that Bo and her best friend were raising Glen’s son while she was raising Bo and Hope’s son.
Glen and Barb kidnaped JT, whom they mistakenly assumed was Isaac. Glen took a sample from “Isaac” (JT) and had it sent to a remote lab for testing. Glen and Barb soon realized that they took the wrong baby after seeing a news report on JT’s disappearance. Soon after, the DNA test results arrived on the Reiber’s doorstep. Barb was astonished to discover that JT was really Glen’s biological son. She threw out the test results and deduced that the babies had been switched at birth.
Lexie soon discovered that John was the biological father of Hope’s baby right before Stefano fled Salem. She decided to move herself and a reluctant Abe into the DiMera mansion and take control of the household, ordering the servants around. Abe soon realized that Lexie was not the sweet and generous woman he once married.
