As DAYS’ Kayla Brady Johnson, Mary Beth Evans has certainly been put through her paces. There’s the kidnappings — the seemingly endless number of kidnappings. That time when she was heavy with child and Kayla was equally pregnant and in a women’s prison! And oh the medical maladies she’s been forced to (pretend to) suffer through, including being deaf and mute at the same time. But out and out dying…that was a new one. And for that, and for being ever so game, Evans has rightfully earned herself kudos in the form of Soap Hub’s Performer of the Week award.
Mary Beth Evans — Performer of the Week
It’s not every actress who’d be willing to go into a scene barefaced, but given that her character is grievously ill and hasn’t left her hospital bed for quite some time, Evans forwent the makeup. She also made you believe that she was a woman inching ever closer to the great beyond.
Before she passed, Kayla intended to right a few wrongs and bequeath some belongings. First, the apologies. She was truly sorry for hiding the extent of her decline and keeping her baby boy at bay. Next, she insisted on her eldest taking ownership of Caroline Brady’s (the late Peggy McCay) bracelet. When Stephanie Johson (Abigail Klein) hedged, Kayla gently explained that from that day forward she could wear it and remember both her and her grandmother.
More declining. More insisting. Then Stephanie agreed to accept the trinity knot on the proviso that she be able to return it once Kayla recovered. To that, Evans pulled a slight smile, not of the warm and friendly variety but more a resigned, all-knowing one. As far as her alter ego is concerned, that time will never come, but oh what a thought.
Then came the promise of a miracle cure-all — it had worked on Marlena Evans Black (Deidre Hall), so surely, it’d do the same for Kayla.
Or would it? Soon after the drug was administered, Kayla rallied for but a moment before locking her eyes to a position far off in the distance, uttering, “Pop,” and then flatlining!
Fear not fans. Kayla’s vitals soon perked up and stabilized and consciousness was achieved — and just like that Kayla was back to her old self again.
Some really sweet scenes followed — Kayla making her assembled family promise that they’d all come together again real soon and without a life-or-death scenario playing out(!); Kayla and her beloved stepson (Tripp Johnson, played by Lucas Adams) bidding one another adieu with a gleeful, “Doctor!” — but the best were the ones between Evans and longtime co-star Stephen Nichols AKA Steve “Patch” Johnson.
“Please don’t ever scare me like that again,” he begged. “I promise,” she replied. And boy if Mary Beth Evans didn’t sell the heck out of that!
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