Our last villain throwback for March is Alistair Crane (Passions). Confession time. On occasion, we feature a character that I might not know or be that familiar with. But 99.9% of the time, I’m very familiar with the soap they were on and/or know some/a good bit of the other characters that were involved in their stories. But this week is that other. 01% percent. I’m kind of flying blind here. I never watched Passions for one second. There might be about three soaps that fall into that category and Passions just happens to be one of them. But believe it or not, I was siked when we decided to feature Alistair Crane. Yes, it was more work. But I learned a lot. You can never ever ever be too versed in soaps. It was very interesting to meet you Mr. Crane!
Alistair Crane, whoa. He was pretty darn ruthless, huh? Kidnapping, rape, sexual and physical assault, murder plots, torture, hired assassins, fake deaths on and on and on it went. He too was one of those non-discriminatory villains. His family was not immune, in his case, they were targeted more than his enemies. Ruthless.
Alistair’s history was dark and twisty long before his hands, torso, the back of his head and cigar was ever seen on TV. He was born into a rich, privileged and loveless family. A younger Alistair fell in love with and became engaged to Rachel Barrett. Rachel broke things off when she learned the type of man he really was. Alistair kidnapped her and faked her death pretty much proving Rachel right.
He moved onto Rachel’s sister, Katherine, whom he didn’t love at all. Katherine didn’t see Alistair for who he truly was until after the nuptials. Katherine lived a nightmare being physically, emotionally, verbally and sexually abused by Alistair. He cheated on Katherine often. And it didn’t matter to him one bit if the other women were willing partners or not. Julian, his son, and Sheridan, his daughter, were born of him and Katherine. He had a son, Chad Harris, as a result of him raping one of Julian’s girlfriend’s, fourteen-year-old sister, Liz Sanbourne. That was difficult to read.
Years later, Rachel was able to escape and planned to kill Alistair. But Sheridan (young) stabbed her aunt with a letter opener. Alistair placed Rachel under medical care. When able, she escaped again and threw herself off a cliff in the Pacific Ocean and was presumed dead. She wasn’t. She turned up alive and appeared on screen. Katherine escaped Alistair as well. She ran off with Martin Fitzgerald, an employee of Crane Industries. She too would appear on screen.
How much destruction, damage and death can a faceless man wreak? Obviously a lot. For five years, only Alistair’s torso, hands, the back of his head and his cigar were shown. But the byproducts of deeds were evident everywhere. Sheridan, Alistair’s daughter, would initially bear the brunt of her father’s fury more than anyone else.
Sheridan’s love for and relationship with police officer, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald (he hated the Crane family), posed the greatest threat to the Crane dynasty in Alistair’s eyes. He expended much time and resources on sabotaging the relationship. Alistair first tried to make Sheridan believe Luis was just using her to get to the family. When that didn’t work he upped the ante. He planned to kill Sheridan. His first failed attempt was a poisoned wedding ring. But the double wedding was called off (another couple related). Then he planted a bomb on a boat and Sheridan was thought to be dead.
She wasn’t. What she was, was in love with Luis’ long lost older brother, Antonio, when she returned. She and Antonio married but she was still having Luis on the side. She got pregnant. Who is the baby daddy with a baby switch would seem to be the usual next course of soap of action. This dude was hardly the usual. Alistair disguised himself as Charlie, a lesbian with a grudge against blondes, (would have loved to see that) and worked with Luis’ ex-fiancee, Beth Wallace. Sheridan was kidnapped and held prisoner until she gave birth. Again, par for the soap course. But Alistair must have had a taste for the dramatic. He drove off a cliff with an empty car seat. Beth threw Sheridan in the ocean attached to an anchor. Sheridan lived. Beth got baby Marty with father Luis.
Alistair wasn’t done. Taking Sheridan’s baby wasn’t enough. He wanted to rid her of Luis once and for all. He talked Antonio into institutionalizing an emotionally drained Sheridan from the “death” of her baby. Alistair planned for Sheridan to have electric shock therapy until she forgot Luis. When she remembered Luis, Antonio kidnapped her to get her to leave Harmony with him. Alistair blew the plane up. He didn’t know Antonio relented and let Sheridan leave so Antonio was the only one to die. Luis and Sheridan fled to Mexico to get away from Alistair and to bring Luis’ youngest sister, Paloma, home. Katherine and Martin were living in Puerto Rico as Ellen and Bob Wheeler. Alistair found out and salivated at the thought of ‘a five for one’. He tried unsuccessfully to kill all five several times.
In September 2004, a glimpse of Alistair’s face was finally revealed. Alistair tormented, held captive and raped Katherine when she returned to be reunited with her children. Marty’s maternity came to light. Alistair helped Beth, who was then discovered to be his daughter from a one-night stand with Edna Wallace, get out the country with Marty. Sheridan was livid with Luis because he would never believe that Marty wasn’t Beth’s. Luis left to find Marty. Alistair had Luis kidnapped, held at the same place he had kept Rachel decades before and faked Luis’ death.
I was so happy when I came across the part that Alistair did have a soft side. I was beginning to wonder. It was only for his granddaughter, Fancy. Fancy told grandpa about the treatment she had endured from Noah Bennett and the soft side was history. It was war. He had Sam Bennett fired as police chief. He had his henchmen lead Sam’s wayward daughter, Jessica, into a life and drugs and prostitution. And when grandpa got more than an eyeful of Fancy being “fancy” with Noah on the beach…he had him arrested on false drug and weapon charges.
Sometime later, Alistair promised Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, Luis’ sister, to help her keep her son, Little Ethan and her daughter Jane, from her ex-fiance Ethan and his wife, Gwen. In exchange, she promised to be his mistress. Theresa tried to back out the deal. Not a good idea. Alistair raped her. He treated her in pretty much the same manner he had Katherine. This dude. Alistair put in their prenup that he could adopt Little Ethan. He adopted Ethan and made him his heir and disinherited the rest of his family. Theresa “clicked” when she found out her brother was dead. She was all about an eye for eye. She tried but was unsuccessful in taking out Alistair.
Liz took her crack at a revenge killing for Alistair raping her. She missed. But when she stabbed him in the neck, he was at least put in a coma. Surely everyone took, even if just a little one, a sigh of relief? (I did.) Of course, he came out of his coma. He kept it a secret and left for Rome disguised as a monk. He was on a quest to possess a chalice which would give the possessor the secrets to becoming omnipotent. Soap gawd forbid. This dude was too much as is.
Alistair wasn’t idle while plotting to become omnipotent. He attempted to escape Rome on a train with him, Beth and Marty when all of his many plots were uncovered. The train fell in a ravine and yep he was thought to be dead but he wasn’t. He was seen a year later in a mental institution. He hadn’t been idle then either. He was the mastermind behind his grandson’s, Vincent’s, acts as the masked Blackmailer. And so Alistair was back and picked up right where he left off.
He was mad when he learned that Theresa lied to him. Little Ethan was actually Ethan’s and not Julian’s, which meant he had put a non-Crane as his heir. Alistair sent poisoned strawberries intended for Theresa but were eaten by Ethan. During the aftermath, Chad and Alistair struggled over a gun. Chad was shot and died by the hands of his father. Ethan survived the strawberries.
Alistair again was Alistair. He just refused to quit, huh? Fancy (his beloved granddaughter) was in love with Luis. Brave girl. He put a mind control device in her nose to control her and break them up. Alistair told Luis he would have to impregnate Alistair’s other granddaughter, Pretty, if he ever wanted to see his son, an alive Marty, again. This dude.
Finally, it seemed like everyone had had enough. Esme Vanderheusen tried to curse Alistair. His response? He tried to rape her. Her fifteen-year-old niece, Viki, stabbed Alistair. He survived. Then Eve Russell decided she would try and be the one to rid the world of Alistair. Julian didn’t want her to go to prison so he decided he would kill his father. He shot Alistair at point blank range. Blanks not bullets were what Julian’s gun was filled with. But Alistair was dead. Viki came back to finish what she started. She shot Alistair the same time Julian did. Alistair was dead.
I sure missed a lot not watching Passions, didn’t I?!
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