Days of our Lives Classic Character Recap: Theo Carver

Poor Theo Carver. This thoroughly decent, much put-upon young man on Days of our Lives seems to be the living embodiment of the phrase, “nice guys finish last.”

Who Is Theo Carver?

Theodore “Theo” Brandon is the son of Abraham “Abe” Carver and his wife Lexie – though there was reason to suspect that his father might have been his biological half-brother, Brandon. The first paternity test was tampered with, but a second one definitively proved that Abe was the parent.

Early Days
On the day of Theo’s christening, Abe was seemingly shot to death but he had in fact been kidnapped and deposited on an island by a deranged Andre DiMera. Once he returned to Salem, Abe struggled to continue with his marriage to Lexie and for a time, he planned to divorce her and sue for custody of Theo.

Those plans were suspended when Lexie herself was presumed dead, and after she was revealed to be alive and well (and imprisoned in the DiMera tunnels), husband and wife reunited.

When they feared that Theo was suffering from a developmental disorder, Abe and Lexie had him tested. The diagnosis: their son was on the autism spectrum. Theo bonded with Chelsea Brady during his therapy sessions at University Hospital and when the young woman decided to leave town, he was devastated.

At Lexie’s urging, and much to Abe’s chagrin, Theo became better acquainted with his maternal family – the DiMeras. In short order, he formed close connections with Stefano, EJ, and Chad as well as Taylor Raines, the young woman who EJ was courting.

He also grew extremely close to Ciara Brady with whom he frequently engaged in mischief. Theo was devastated when his mother passed away but he was comforted by conversations he had with her spirit.

Teenage Angst 
While still in his teens, Theo received the one-two-punch of learning that Salem PD employee Lani Price was his half-sister and being forced to deal with an anonymous bully.

He was assisted on both fronts by Ciara and young love blossomed. When he discovered that Ciara had been raped by her step-brother, Chase Jennings (who was also revealed to be the bully), Theo worked with Joey Johnson and Claire Brady to scare him into confessing the crime.

Though Abe disapproved of Theo and Ciara’s courtship, the teens persisted, though Ciara eventually broke things off. Afterward, Theo became a shoulder for Claire to cry on and they eventually began dating – a development that did not sit well with Ciara.

You Gotta Have Friends

Both girls stood by Theo as he dealt with his father’s near-assassination at the hand’s of Clyde Weston – a reprobate whom Theo briefly trained a gun on! As Abe recovered, Theo grew suspicious of his father’s ex-girlfriend/surgeon, Valerie Grant.

He worked with Claire to plant a recording device on Valerie, which she eventually discovered. Despite the initial hostility between them, Valerie actually became a sounding board for Theo as he and Claire faced prejudice over their interracial romance.

For a time, Theo shared a loft apartment with Claire, Ciara, and Joey but the situation led to an estrangement between the women who both vied for Theo’s affections. He tried to remedy the trouble by setting Ciara up with an acquaintance but went a little too far in his feeding Wyatt information about Ciara’s likes and dislikes.

Ciara eventually left town, but not before questioning Theo over his lack of response to a letter she had penned for him – in which she revealed the true extent of her feelings for him. When Theo learned that Claire had swiped the letter, he ended their romance.

Theo Carver – Goodbye Salem
Technophile Theo gained employment at DiMera Enterprises – and found himself called upon to perform some less-than-legal jobs. Chief among them, deleting a photo that showed Chad standing over Deimos’s dead body and breaking into a warehouse.

It was while performing the latter task that Theo was shot and critically wounded by JJ Deveraux. Emergency surgery saved his life, but when he awoke, Theo realized that he couldn’t move his legs.

He decamped to a clinic in South Africa that specialized in mobility therapy and has remained there ever since – though he stays in frequent contact with Abe and Lani. Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.