Over the rain-Bo
Salem says goodbye to fallen hero Bo Brady with a walk down memory lane.
Bo (Peter Reckell) has been counting down the days to his own death almost since he returned to Salem on Tuesday 8 January. There isn’t enough time to process everything between his sister Kayla’s (Mary Beth Evans) brain tumour diagnosis of Bo on Monday 14 January to when he dies in his longtime love Hope’s (Kristian Alfonso) arms on Monday 21 January. Days fans, be warned: Peter and Kristian will make you cry in these scenes even though there is a tiny silver lining to Bo’s heart-wrenching death: Hope and Bo’s lives and special moments together will flash before our eyes (complete with original footage) on the day that he dies. “I hope you feel when you watch it that it’s just so powerful because of the history that we all have together,” says Peter. “I was really proud of the writers and how they did this, as it’s a difficult thing.” The family will share a couple more precious memories on Tuesday 29 January, the day of Bo’s funeral.
MELODY LANE
Peter tuned in for the episode when it aired in the US on 20 November 2015 for one special reason – it included a song by his real-life wife Kelly Money- maker. “I usually don’t watch myself,” he admits. “I think that mostly what affected people were the memories. Most of those scenes were 30, 25 or 20 years old and that tells you the landscape of who has been most affected by this. It’s those people who were changing their high school and college schedules so they could watch the show, pre-DVD and DVR, back when we were putting Days on our VCRs.”
TWO GRAVES
Bo’s funeral and wake on Tuesday 29 January will be in sharp contrast to how
Aiden (Daniel Cosgrove) – the murderous new husband that Bo killed on Tuesday 8 January to save Hope – was dumped in a hole offscreen. Aiden’s son
Chase (Jonathon McClendon) stands over his dad’s grave on 29 January and comments, “St Luke’s is going to be full of people. The paper said every cop in the area is going to be there. A real hero’s sendoff. I didn’t have a funeral for you. I mean, come on, who would be there? Everyone in this town hates your guts. Because of you, they hate me too.” But Bo’s daughter Ciara ( Vivian Jovanni), who’s also now Chase’s stepsister, reaches out to invite Chase to join her family in mourning.
CELEBRATING LIFE
The burial itself is over in a flash (we don’t see the St Lukes’ portion as the soap appears to have retired the set), but in true Brady fashion, the family then gathers at the Brady Pub for Bo’s wake, which is much more of a celebration of his life. As Bo’s mother Caroline (Peggy McCay) tells Ciara, “Bo lived the life that he wanted. He did. I think that we should celebrate that. We should celebrate that he was with us as long as he was. And I think we should be telling stories and listening to [Irish band] The Clancy Brothers.” And she leads the Brady clan and Bo’s friends as they raise a glass, “To Bo Brady, a great man who loved his family more than life itself.” And where is Hope is this moment of celebration? Out to avenge Bo’s death – as he would have hers.
MY FAVOURITE BO-MENT
Peter joined Days in 1983 and while many fans would think that he would choose a Bo-and-Hope moment as his all-time favourite, he picks a different kind of love story. “The story was Roman (Bo’s older brother, then played by Wayne Northrop), where he died in 1984 and we were on the beach. The relationship [with Hope] happened because of the rivalry that Bo had with his brother, the competition for Pop’s (their presumed dad Shawn Brady, played by Frank Parker) love. Another thing the writers are getting back to now is the Bo- Patch (Stephen Nichols) relationship. Daytime has had great romantic relationships, but they’ve forgotten about the male friendships and the female friendships and the mom and dad and son relationships. Those are very powerful,” says Peter.