Chloe Lane: From Ghoul Girl to Darling Diva

When I started watching Days of Our Lives, Chloe Lane wasn’t appearing much on the show. I saw her only as Nicole’s competition for Brady and, being the Bricole fan I was, immediately decided to hate the character. But that was seven years ago. Since then Nadia Bjorlin has definitely won me over. Chloe is now one of my favorite characters by far and I’m still at a loss to figure out how I didn’t love her from the beginning. I’m beyond glad I’ve corrected that wrong! This article is my way of atoning for that mistake – by providing a tribute to the character of Chloe Lane, as well as her portrayer, Nadia Bjorlin.

Nadia Bjorlin debuted on Days in 1999. For the first fifteen years of her life, Chloe Lane believed she was an orphan. Having been told her parents died in a car accident, she moved between foster homes until she was offered a place in the home of Nancy Wesley, whom she learned was her biological mother. She accepted the offer to move to Salem and even agreed to the request that Craig not be told who she really was. She was instead referred to as being the ‘daughter of a friend’. Her relationship with Craig was a shaky one, since she had to constantly lie to him.

One night, after overhearing an argument between Nancy and Craig, Chloe stole money from her mother and decided to run away. She continued with her plan, even after seeing Nancy being hit by a truck. However, once she learned her mother was in a coma, she decided to return, so she would be there when she woke up. It was actually Chloe’s singing which ended up waking Nancy.

As though dressing in all black all the time and wearing glasses wasn’t bad enough for her reputation, Chloe was highly defensive in nature. Her nerves and tendency to be high-strung caused her to appear cold and condescending to her classmates. She thus became the victim of intense bullying and was unaffectionately known as ‘Ghoul Girl’ throughout the school. It got to the point where dead chickens were actually being left on her doorstep.

Finally, Belle Black and Shawn D. Brady took pity on her and befriended Chloe. Eventually she became close with Philip Kiriakis, and he was the one to follow her to the docks after she sang an aria for Shawn’s birthday. Things were looking up for Ghoul Girl.

Of course, when have things ever stayed pleasant for a character on Days of Our Lives? Everything came crashing down when Nancy’s father (Dr. Albert Miller) came to Salem. He realized who she truly was, and she was tempted to leave town with him. Instead, she revealed the truth to Belle, and decided to stay in town. She walked in on Nancy telling Craig the truth about Chloe. Although Craig left briefly, he later came back and accepted her.

At the same time, Chloe was becoming closer and closer with Philip. Although she saved his life, it was actually her appearance at the Last Blast Dance which blew him away. Dressed uncharacteristically in a red sheath, he was mesmerized by her. In a Carrie-esque scenario, a bucket of chicken’s blood was supposed to be dropped on her head during the dance. Shawn pushed her out of the way and Philip took the dunking for her. They nearly kissed, but were interrupted by Nancy. She vowed to get revenge when he later broke a date with her, not realizing that he was just preoccupied trying to get his parents back together.

When Mimi’s father lost his job, the Lockharts found themselves homeless and the teens of Salem set up a Habitat for Humanity type of thing. Trying to improvetheir public image, the Wesleys agreed to take them in. Chloe, however, was not at all thrilled about this decision and embarked on a campaign to get them out of her house. It didn’t help at all that during the same time, her relationship with her mother was deteriorating rapidly.

Soon after, Chloe and Philip shared their first kiss, but it was tainted by the discovery that the only reason he had asked her to the Last Blast Dance was that he’d lost a bet to Shawn. While trying to run away from everything, Chloe ran into Brady Black on the pier, and the two began exchanging quips about each other, and he mentioned that her singing had no passion to it. On Halloween, they saw each other again, while Brady was dressed as Zorro. They continued their verbal sparring, but by then she was officially dating Philip.

The couple nearly became intimate with one another while at the stables, but were interrupted by Victor, who, at the time, was thought to be dead. She was angry and took off in a fury, not giving Philip a chance to explain why he had lied to her. Craig and Nancy later found her and she toldthem he had raped her. She took back her statement after Craig punched Philip, but her mother didn’t believe her until she’d been formally examined. She leaned on Belle for support as she had the exam done and was horribly embarrassed by the whole experience. (Who could blame her, really?) She justified her lies about Philip by saying he shouldn’t have lied to her.

Eventually she and Philip got back together, but at the next Last Blast Dance, Jan and Mimi posted OperaGirl.net photos, which revealed Chloe in the shower, Philip turned on her. He called her horrible names and freaked out at her in front of everyone there. Later, he tried to get back together with her, but she refused. She then skipped her class trip to Puerto Rico and begun to hang out more with Brady. They spent a lot of their time singing together, and working on incorporating emotion into her voice. When Philip learned she was spending so much time with Belle’s brother, he began attacking her verbally, but she still made excuses for him because she had lingering feelings for him.

Chloe began to fall in love with Brady and he with her, but she was still torn between him and Philip. Just as things were starting to get back to normal between her and Philip, she began experiencing health problems. Soon after, she was diagnosed with leukaemia. In need of a bone marrow transplant, the search began for Chloe’s birth father. Assuming her father is Nancy’s rapist, Frederick Sykes, Chloe sets out to find him with Brady. However, Philip arranged to have Brady arrested in an effort to destroy any relationship the two may have or develop. Instead, it had the opposite effect – as these schemes so often do – and drove them closer as Chloe discovered the kind of man Philip actually was.

Brady and Chloe grew closer as they continued the search. Once they finally found Frederick, they discovered he could not be her father, as he’d had a vasectomy many years before. Meanwhile, back in Salem, Craig began to do some investigating of his own, and shocked Nancy with the news that he was actually Chloe’s father. It turned out the child Nancy was carrying was a perfect match for Chloe, so she was able to receive the transplant she so desperately required.

Once Chloe recovered, she had the chance to sing for Cecilia Marin, who offered her an opportunity she couldn’t turn down. Although deeply in love with Brady, she couldn’t pass up the chance to give her dreams of singing a try and thus left Salem. She returned in December 2003 at Victor’s insistence, but the opportunity of a lifetime came up and she couldn’t pass it up. She left Brady again.

A few months later, on her way back to Salem (where Brady was building an opera house with her), Chloe was in a car accident which left her horribly scarred. Afraid that Brady wouldn’t love her in her condition – which I always took issue with, but I won’t go into that rant – she had her mother tell the world that she was dead. Of course, Nicole learned that Chloe was still alive and, in fear of losing Brady, took the opportunity to expose her to a flesh-eating virus which would only enhance the scar and shatter Chloe’s hopes of it ever healing.

Chloe attended her own funeral, but hid in the back. A CD of Chloe’s singing was put on, but when the vocals didn’t work, she sang live, in fear someone would come back and discover her. Brady knew it wasn’t a recording but dismissed it as just being an emotional day. Later, Chloe had radical surgery and was revealed to Brady to still be alive, even before they knew if it had worked. He proposed and she accepted, and on their wedding day, she took off her bandages to reveal a perfect face, no longer marred by scars. They got married and left Salem.

In November 2007, Chloe returned to town without Brady, who was presumed to be missing. She was a prime suspect in his disappearance, which caused many people in Salem to take a sudden disliking to her. People who had once really liked her suddenly treated her like she was the plague and had done horrible things. Even when Brady was revealed to be alive and in rehab, she got the blame for his using.

It was in this period of being rejected by most of Salem that Chloe found herself befriending an old enemy – Nicole Walker – after an incredible food fight in the Brady Pub (one of my all-time favorite scenes in Days history). After briefly reuniting with Philip, she began dating Lucas Horton. The two women were bonded together by their fear of Sami taking away their man – Lucas from Chloe and EJ fromNicole. It was through Chloe that Nicole learned that Sami was also pregnant with EJ’s child – information which was later used to kidnap the baby and replace her with another. Despite their closeness, Chloe remained unaware of Nicole’s plot. She was later, however, the only one from Salem allowed to visit her in prison.

Chloe became engaged to Lucas and acted as a stepmother to his daughter, Allie. However, when she served as a donor for Lucas’ mother, Kate, she foundherself drawn to her doctor, Daniel Jonas. Thus began the storyline known as Danloe, as they shared a forbidden romance. Too bad no one in Salem knows how to be discrete. Their affair was soon discovered by others, particularly by Maggie Horton – Lucas’ aunt, as well as his AA sponsor. Out of guilt, Chloe left Lucas, who then drank himself senseless. After being involved in an accident, he was left in the hospital, barely clinging to life. Out of desperation, Chloe vowed that she would stay with Lucas and remain faithful for the rest of their life together, so long as he made it through, which, of course, he did.

On a soap, though, no one ever sticks their vows and despite being married to Lucas, Chloe was unable to keep her distance from Daniel. Kate eventually discovered the affair and, being the ever protective mother, decided to hatch a plan to kill her daughter-in-law by poisoning the food she was supposed to eat for the talk show they were hosting. However, instead of actually killing her, the poison sent Chloe into a coma. The truth about the affair came out and Daniel was the one suspected of attempted murder. No one believe him when he explained that it was really Kate.

Being her husband, Lucas was her next of kin and thus in charge of her fate – should he take her off life support, or keep her alive and hope she’d eventually wake up? Great timing kicked in and he found out about her affair. Although he didn’t want to kill her, it didn’t make the decision any more difficult to take her off of life support. Daniel made his way out of jail on bail, but was not allowed anywhere near Chloe. He managed to stall (and failed many times at getting Kate to admit that she poisoned Chloe in a way that could be used as evidence in a court). Finally convincing Nathan and Melanie that administering more of the poison might be the jolt that would wake her up, the two snuck in to do so. Ultimately, that decision was the one which saved her life. Chloe woke from her coma just before she was taken off life support.

Lucas and Chloe got and annulment and she quickly moved in with Daniel. The two got engaged and it seemed everything was going well for awhile. Then, Chloe discovered that having children may not be possible for her, and she was devastated. She ended up having a hysterical pregnancy. Once again, the great-timing monster jumped in and it was just after this that Daniel discovered he had a daughter with Carly – Melanie.

The insecurity which has plagued her since the beginning of her appearance on Days reared it’s angry head again as she began suspecting Daniel and Carly of having an affair. After a scheme pulled off by Vivian, the insecurity threw Chloe back into the arms of her former flame, Philip Kiriakis – who just happened to be married to Daniel’s daughter. Definitely not the smartest move in Chloe’s history. Of course, as any good soap fan would predict, Chloe became pregnant. Sadly for her, she has no idea yet if it’s Daniel’s baby or Philip’s – and won’t until the results come in on her birthday.

Considering the way this show works, I’m tempted to say that the baby will turn out to be Philip’s. Eventually this will all have to come out, breaking up Melanie and Philip as well as Daniel and Chloe. I would bet that Chloe and Philip will end up together – at least for awhile. I also hope this doesn’t severely impact Carly’s relationships, given that she knew about the affair and paternity issue. I do like that Carly and Chloe have become friends lately. My favorite bit was when Chloe suggested that Carly be godmother because she’d be a great role model, and because it would annoy the crap out of Victor.

What I love about Chloe is how much her character has evolved. There was a natural progression as she became more comfortable with herself and became more of an open person. She’s still insecure about herself and her relationships, but at least now she knows how to talk to people without seeming overly judgemental or cold. She’s come out of her shell – even in such simple ways as her wardrobe. Instead of dressing in shapeless black clothes, she’s always in a dress that shows off her figure. But what I like is that although she’s changed a lot, her character still at least mildly resembles how she started off. She isn’t completely confident in her actions and her first instinct is always to hide something or run away from her problems. One aspect I’d like to see her to away with is her inability to remain with just one man, but on a soap, that’s probably too tall an order.

One other thing I love about Chloe is that she’s become a bigger part of the show than she was before. It’s nice to see Nadia getting more screen time than she was previously. She’s such a talented actress and I felt like before, they weren’t making good use of that fact. I wish they would have her sing on the show again, though. Chloe’s an operasinger, and yet, we rarely hear her sing anything anymore. Nadia’s voice is so beautiful, it’s a shame we don’t get to hear it.

I’m excited to see where Chloe’s relationships take her in the future. I can’t wait to see what she’s like as a mother. I really hope they don’t pull a Nicole and have her lose the baby, though. If they keep making it so the women of Salem can’t have babies, the entire next generation will be made up of Sami’s children (since she’s apparently the most fertile woman in Salem). I don’t know yet whether I’m hoping for Philip or Daniel to be the father of her baby. I see it being Philip’s baby, but I could be happy either way. Either way, I’m stoked to see what will happen next for Chloe!

ValaBlack