Truth be told, I haven’t been much of a “TV” kind of person this past decade of my life. In between work, life, and relationships, television was something I turned to when I needed to fill in the cracks of my day. That all changed when I lost my job. It was great, really. Wake up late, turn on the tube, and hang out all day with my sweet 42″.
Soap operas were definitely not my thing. My mother was a big fan of Days of Our Lives and used to have me record it for her while she was away at work. As a kid, the show never really stuck to me. I knew the characters and watched it, but couldn’t follow the story lines from my lack of interest. My little interest turned to zero when I noticed how ridiculous the story lines turned out to be. A ghost possessing the main character? A man who was known as someone else is no longer that person? What the? I’m over it.
But this was plenty of years ago. The time is now.
All I got to say is… One Life to Live. I was somewhat ashamed of my interest in this soap opera that has been running since 1968. This show has been running longer than my existence on this planet! The many stories in this series revolve around rape, murder, cheating, the changing of paternity tests, conspiracies, DID (dissociative identity disorder), and the list goes on. Needless to say, I am now a fan.
The running story line that I’ve been quite hooked on is the story of Todd Manning.
I seriously cannot describe the history of Todd Manning, as I don’t know all of it, but here’s a little rundown:
- He’s famous for his rape of Marty Saybrooke
- He was married twice and has 4 kids
- He had a scar on his face
- He went missing and when he returned, he had a new face
- He owns a newspaper
- He has a ton of money
- His son, Jack, was accused of murdering Gigi Morasco (which he did, but not intentionally)
- He paid off Jack’s friend’s father to take the blame for the murder
- He has temper problems
- He helped Marty Saybrooke leave the town after she murdered her doctor and kidnapped someone else’s baby
- and more!
The list goes on! I mean really… how intriguing is all of this? But wait, it doesn’t stop there. There are TWO.. TWO, Todd Mannings. How is this possible? What in the world is going on?
Two Todds? What?!
That’s exactly what the characters and all the viewers thought when the “old” Todd (left) came face to face with the “new” Todd (right). As I previously mentioned, before Todd had went missing, he had a very distinguishable scar on his face. When he returned, he came back a new man. As expected, DNA tests were done, but what did the results show?
Both men came up as Todd Manning.
WTF?!
Turns out, both Todds are twins. There’s a-whole-nother story behind that, which I will briefly touch. Their mother, Irene Manning, had twins but could only support one so she gave the other one up, but kept a close eye on him when she started working for the agency (FBI). From there, she managed to kidnap the old Todd and brainwashed the new Todd (real name Victor) into believe he was the REAL Todd Manning. Knowing that Todd was a target, she decided to have his face changed to someone else. For 8 years, he managed to live a life that was implanted into his brain.
So… much… DRAMA!
The Todd’s themselves are going through absolute hell; Todd is trying to reclaim his life as Victor is trying to figure out what he’s going to lose from this truth. The families of Todd Manning are currently trying to figure things out. Do they remain loyal to the man they’ve know for the last 8 years, or do they run back to the man who is the original Todd?
What would you do?
