Natalie Buchanan
Natalie Buchanan (formerly Balsom, Laurence, Vega, and Banks) is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live and daughter of former supercouple Victoria Lord and Clint Buchanan. The role was originated in July 2001 by Melissa Archer.
Storylines
Origins
Natalie Balsom appears in Llanview on July 16, 2001,[1] immediately befriending Jessica Buchanan[2] and ingratiating herself to the Buchanan family. She later makes the startling claim that she is in fact the biological daughter of Jessica's parents Clint Buchanan and Victoria Lord Davidson, which is confirmed by a DNA test. At first it is believed that when Allison Perkins had kidnapped the Buchanan baby in 1986, another child had been returned and had grown up to be Jessica. Jessica begins a tenuous relationship with Natalie's wild adoptive mother Roxy Balsom, whom Jessica believed to be her own biological mother, and with Roxy's son who Roxy thinks is her biological son but is not Rex.
Your daughter? ... Oh, she's not your daughter. She's nothing. I'm your daughter.[3]
— Natalie, One Life to Live, 2001
Natalie's accomplice and lover Seth Anderson — an old friend of Cristian Vega's from Angel Square[4] who had crossed paths with Jessica in their youth[5] — had arrived in Llanview before Natalie in May 2001[4] with the task of getting close to Jessica and thus facilitating Natalie's own insinuation into the family. But Seth falls for Jessica, and is conflicted as Natalie's scheme erupts. Just as the new-found sisters begin to call a truce, Natalie discovers that Seth and Jessica are seeing each other, and she and Jessica are at odds again.
When a DNA test on Jessica later proves that she is also Viki's daughter, the real story comes out. Viki's enemy Mitch Laurence had secretly raped a drugged Viki around the same time she had conceived a child with Clint. Viki had unknowingly become pregnant with fraternal twins, one fathered by Clint (Natalie) and the other fathered by Mitch (Jessica). Dr. Walter Balsom, who had been one of religious leader Mitch's disciples, had taken Mitch's daughter during delivery, and Viki had never known that she had more than one child. Mitch, however, had wanted his daughter to grow up loved by Viki in the lap of luxury, and had sent Allison to kidnap Clint's child. They had replaced her with Mitch's daughter (who would become Jessica), and had given Clint's daughter (who would become Natalie) to Dr. Balsom and his wife Roxy.
Further adventures
After settling in town, Natalie meets Jessica's ex-boyfriend Cristian Vega. Viki's alternate personality, Niki Smith, returns in 2002 and pushes Viki's husband, Ben Davidson, out of a window; he is left in a coma, and Niki makes sure Natalie takes the blame. Cristian is the only person to believe Natalie's protestations of innocence, and he takes it upon himself to find the real culprit. Cristian discovers that Niki has returned, and when Natalie is cleared they begin a relationship. She and Cristian marry in 2003.
Later that year, FBI agent John McBain arrives in Llanview; Cristian becomes involved in one of John's investigations and is soon kidnapped and later presumed dead. Despite his guilt over Cristian's death, John gets close to Natalie and they ultimately pursue a relationship. Cristian returns in 2004 with no memories, and is believed to be an impostor; he kills mobster Tico Santi and his memories return, but he makes John swear not to reveal his true identity to spare his family from watching him go to prison. In 2005, attorney Evangeline Williamson appeals his conviction — proving that he had been brainwashed into killing Tico — and Cristian is released. He reveals himself to his overjoyed mother, Carlotta; furious over the deception, Natalie ends her relationship with John and asks Cristian for a divorce. Over the course of 2006, however, Natalie reunites with John after working with him to prove her uncle Todd Manning innocent of the "murder" of Margaret Cochran, and helping him finger Spencer Truman as the man who killed John's father.
Natalie takes a job as receptionist for the Llanview Police Department, and soon shows an interest in the forensics program. Working closely with John, her relationship with him deepens; Natalie begins to hope for marriage. But after a horrifying car accident in which John is badly burned and thought dead for weeks, Natalie's bond with John begins to fray. Thinking she is protecting John, Natalie tampers with evidence at the crime scene of Spencer Truman's murder; when the truth comes out, she is dismissed from the forensics program. Her relationship with John disintegrates as well, but they ultimately part friends, with John admitting he should have treated her better. Moving forward with her life, Natalie ventures into the family business Buchanan Enterprises.
Jared Banks
The mysterious Jared Banks comes to town in 2007 with an interest in the Buchanan family. Natalie despied Jared, and it is soon revealed that he is seeking revenge against Jessica for her alter "Tess'" part in sending him to prison. Blackmailing Jessica and Natalie with the knowledge of Tess' crimes, Jared secures a job at BE alongside Natalie. Though Jared is a skilled executive who reveres the legacy of Natalie's late grandfather Asa Buchanan, his arrogant and abrasive personality causes him to butt heads with Natalie constantly. Jared's manipulation of her family fuels Natalie's animosity, but the two cannot fight their mutual attraction. Irritated when Jared takes her cousin Sarah out on a date and flaunts himself in front of her, Natalie retaliates by staging a tryst with longtime Buchanan ranch hand Chuck Wilson III in Texas while the family is there for the reading of Asa's will. Jared and Natalie's sparring comes to a head when they admit their feelings for each other by the campfire and fall into a passionate embrace. That same night, however, Jared stumbles upon the opportunity to pose as Asa's long-lost son.
Having idolized Asa since childhood, Jared cannot resist, choosing fortune and ambition over love. Now "related" as uncle and niece, Jared and Natalie struggle to distance themselves from each other, but as his feelings deepen, Jared is tempted to drop the ruse. At the Go Red Ball on Valentine's Day, Jared confesses to Natalie that he still has major feelings for her, but she tells him it can never happen because he is her uncle. Jared also saves Jessica's life at the Ball, and is almost shot and killed, but the bullet only grazes him. Jared almost confesses the truth to everyone at the Ball, but stops when Clint and Bo begin to really treat him like their brother and a Buchanan. Jared decides not to tell anyone yet. In March 2008[6] Jared reveals the truth to Natalie, who decides to keep his secret to protect the Buchanans from the real heir, greedy con artist David Vickers. Though at first disgusted with Jared for this plot against her family, Natalie still battles her attraction. When Nigel asks Jared why he decided to tell Natalie, he admits that he's fallen in love with her. Natalie and Jared begin flirting with each other again, although Natalie resists taking it any further.
In May 2008, Jared tricks Natalie into going to Texas with him, where he tells her he loves her. At first she runs away and denies her feelings, but she ends up telling him that she loves him too and they make love for the first time. Jared also tells Natalie the whole truth about his father and they try to figure out how to tell the family and be together in Llanview. Once back in Llanview, they dodge a blackmail attempt from David Vickers, who has found out that Jared is not a Buchanan. Jared and Natalie also manage to sneak around and steal moments together.
Nash's death/Tess' return
Dorian Lord publicly reveals Jared's true identity, portraying the Buchanan Enterprises board as complicit in the scheme and allowing her to take over the company. His new venture with BE now dissolved, Jessica's husband Nash Brennan blames Jared and Natalie for the loss of Nash's vineyard. The argument gets physical, and Jared accidentally shoves Nash over a railing; he falls through a skylight to the floor below, and dies soon after. The trauma causes Jessica's alternate personality "Tess" to reemerge. After some failed attempts to kill Natalie and Jared, Tess locks them in a secret room below Llanfair, ultimately trying to kill them with a bomb. They are rescued and Jessica seeks psychological treatment, while Jared and Natalie care for her daughters. Natalie is furious to learn that an angry Jessica had "let" Tess emerge to exact the revenge she could not, and gives Jessica an icy homecoming from the sanitarium.
After the sisters repair their relationship, Natalie's suspicions about the night of Chloe's birth arise. Natalie begins investigating, and along with Jared, learns that Jessica's baby was stillborn, leading to a second alter, Bess, to switch Jessica's dead baby with Starr Manning's healthy one, born the same night. After Kyle Lewis blackmails the couple about the baby switch, Natalie and Jared come clean with their family.
Natalie and Jared marry in a private ceremony on May 13, 2009.
Jared's death/Reunion with John
In November an old inmate of Jared is killed and all fingers point to Jared. When Natalie begs John to look the other way, he refuses. Mitch Laurence returns from the dead, and kidnaps Jared. Natalie, Jessica and Rex go to Napa Valley to find Jared. Rex gets a call from his aunt telling him that she is dying and she only has a few days to live and she has something to tell him but he says he can't leave Natalie and hangs up. Natalie tells him to go and she will call the cops and they will help She pretends to call them so that he will leave. Jessica and Natalie soon realize that Mitch is alive, after Jessica finds Nash's body. John and Brody show up to get Jessica and Natalie and Mitch pulls out a gun and John orders him to put it down and when he is about to drop it he shoots Jared in the chest and Jared is rushed to Napa General Hospital, where he dies of an embolism in his heart. Natalie is devastated and demands revenge on Mitch. She also blames John for what happened because he made her doubt Jared and Jared knew it. During Jared's funeral Mitch pops out of Jared's coffin and plays mind games with Natalie and everyone else.
Bo and John arrested Mitch and brought him to LPD where John threatens that he will kill him. Natalie finds the present that Jared had been going to give her - a baby name book since they were going to start trying to have children - and a letter that tells her that he had also been planning a New Years Eve wedding for them, since they never got to have one with their friends and family, and a honeymoon in Oahu. Natalie gets angry at the fact that they never got to have any of this because of Mitch. Natalie comes into John's office and Mitch tells her that John threaten him and John turns his back and Natalie tells him that John has a lot to lose but she has already lost everything and stabs him with a letter-opener. Natalie continues to see Jared sometimes as a ghost or hallucination. He is with her when she takes a pregnancy test right before Christmas in the hopes that maybe her birth control malfunctioned and she is pregnant with Jared's child. The test is negative. At this time, Natalie is still grieving and John is helping her cover the fact that she is the one who stabbed Mitch.
In April 2010, Marty is revealed to be pregnant with John's child and Natalie in jealous and is developing feelings for John again. Later Natalie has an argument with Marty at the coffee store and offends Marty. Later on while leaving her office at the hospital Marty is then pushed down a flight of stairs and miscarries the baby. Natalie is believed by both John and Marty that Natalie is the one who pushed Marty down the stairs along with her uncle Todd Manning who had raped Marty several years before.
On May 21, 2010, Natalie who is developing feelings for John again begins to drink again and becomes drunk and goes to Brody's apartment were the two have a one night stand due to both of them being drunk. She then decides to leave for London to visit her brother Cord. However as she arrives at the gates at the airport she runs into John who tells her he too is developing feelings for her again and she decides to stay in Llanview. Natalie and John begin dating again. Jessica regains her memory back after Mitch kidnapped her and is unaware about Natalie and Brody's one night stand. Soon after Natalie rejoins the forensics program and agrees to Brody not to tell anyone especially Jessica about their one night stand.
Pregnancy
Natalie is revealed to be pregnant with either Brody or John's child and is shocked by this. Jessica soon finds out she is pregnant as well with either Brody or Ford`s child after Jessica and Ford "almost" had sex as well while she still had memory loss. After the doctor confirms the pregnancy Natalie and Jessica avoid telling each other about their pregnancies and Natalie leaves the hospital and goes to Rodi's. She talks to Brody but doesn't tell him about the pregnancy and later she confides in Gigi Morasco. Gigi correctly guesses that Natalie is pregnant and tells Gigi that she is not sure who the father is. Natalie learns that Jessica is pregnant right before she was about to reveal the news to John. Natalie avoids saying anything while everyone celebrates. Natalie considers terminating her pregnancy.[7] Natalie goes to the Llanview Family Planning Clinic to have an abortion, but in the end she decides against it. Natalie tells John of her pregnancy, but does not tell him he may not be the father.
Paternity/Marty's Involvement
Natalie gets an amniocentesis on the same day as Jessica to determine the paternity of her baby. On the day of the results Clint sends his assistant to make sure that Brody is the father of Jessica's baby. He instructs him to change the results if this is not the case. Unaware that Natalie had a test done as well, Clint only tells his assistant to change his "daughters" results, he never specifies which daughter. In the clip showing the assistant changing results the mouse on the computer is pointing to Natalie Banks not Jessica Buchanan. Therefore, it is assumed the assistant changed the wrong results which means that John McBain is the father of Natalie's baby. Natalie believes that Brody is the father of her baby but chooses not to tell him because Jessica is so elated that he is the father of her baby and she does not want to ruin their happiness.
It is revealed a day after the tests that Marty has obtained a copy of the changed results. Rex also obtained a copy after searching Marty's apartment.
On December 10, 2010 John gets down on one knee and proposes to Natalie. A shell shocked Natalie excuses herself and calls Rex to discuss on whether or not to accept considering the circumstances that Marty knows of the paternity results. Rex tells her to take a chance urging Natalie to say yes to John's proposal despite everything. A nervous Natalie tells John to keep the engagement quiet and not tell the family just yet because Natalie wants to go to Marty and make sure that she will keep her big fat psychotic mouth shut.
Later Marty vows to Natalie that she will not tell John of the paternity results shortly after hearing that John proposed to Natalie. Natalie thanks Marty and from then sees it safe to tell everyone of the engagement on Christmas. Yet little does Natalie know that Marty still plans to tell John of the paternity results just not directly, but by her sister Jessica at a private wedding ceremony between both Natalie and John. And eventually on the night of the wedding , Marty interrupts the ceremony. Jessica is rushed to the hospital. Marty and Natalie gets into a heated argument. Marty accidentally hits her head while arguing with Natalie. Natalie takes Marty to the Buchanan lodge holding her captive with a shotgun trying to save her relationship with John and stop Marty from telling Jessica her secret by keeping her at the lodge so she can finally go tell John of the results herself.
Childbirth and the Aftermath
Natalie's water breaks before she can leave the lodge and Marty turns the tables on her, turning a deaf ear to Natalie's pleas and departing, leaving the laboring Natalie alone with no phone and no way to get help.
Fortunately, Marty has a pang of conscience and returns to help Natalie give birth. John tracks her and Marty to the lodge and walks in moments after Natalie has given birth to a baby boy. When Marty holds Natalie's baby, she thinks it is her and John's baby boy. John calls the paramedics to take Natalie and the baby to the hospital. Marty is committed and eventually sedated after bursting in on Natalie, John, and the baby demanding that the baby is her and John's and that Natalie is trying to steal it. When John asks Natalie what happened at the lodge, she lies to John saying that Marty took her to the lodge and held her captive. John leaves the room and Natalie wonders if she should tell John the truth or not. Natalie and John decide to name the child Asa McBain, but was later changed to Liam Asa McBain (due to Jessica and Brody wanting to name their baby Asa McBain), and ask Rex and Gigi to be his Godparents. Jessica and Brody plan to get married and convince Natalie and John to have a double wedding with them. On their wedding day, Vimal reveals that he changed Jessica's paternity test and not Natalie's. Natalie later admits to John that he's not Liam's father, Brody is. Natalie and John have a run in with Jessica and Brody right after they both spill to their fiance's about their night together. Natalie reveals to a shocked Brody and Jessica that Liam's father is Brody. Jessica tears the room apart and Natalie tells Jess that she is her sister and she loves her. Jessica tells Natalie she will never be her sister, leaving Natalie emotionally scarred. Later that day, Tess returns. Natalie finds John in a compromising position with Kelly Cramer and he tells her he slept with Kelly. Natalie yells at Kelly tells John she'll never give up on him. After getting some advice from Echo DiSavoy, John goes to Llanfair. At first, Natalie thinks John is there for her, but he's just there to see Liam. The two bond over the baby boy, but John feels out of place holding him. He runs into Kelly at Llanfair, who is crying after a run in with Joey. Natalie sees John and Kelly hugging, and she and Joey lay into them, and Joey punches John. John goes to Rodi's and finds out that Gigi knew about Brody and Natalie, and fires her. Natalie finds out, and rushes to Rodi's to confront John. She walks in on John and Kelly making love, and she lashes out at them. She and Brody rush Liam to the hospital after he gets a rash. It turns out to be a minor thing, and John jealously walks in on Brody and Natalie hugging. She and Brody bond over Liam, and they wake up next to each other and extremely close to each other. Natalie then goes back to work as the forensics tech, and lashes out at John. She puts boundaries between the two and they agree on only being professional. Kelly conveniently comes to the station and Natalie is furious, but walks away. Cristian Vega tells her that Marty is still carrying around her paternity test results. On April 20, 2011, Natalie returns to Llanfair after going to see Ford and sees Tess with Viki, but quickly realizes that Viki's alternate personality, Niki Smith, has come out. Tess tells Natalie that it is not Niki Smith, but Viki pretending to be her to scare away Tess, and Natalie believes her. Soon after, Natalie finds out that Clint had a heart attack and rushes to be with him. While at the hospital, she runs into Marty and confronts her about still carrying her DNA results. She snatches them and rips them up without reading them while Marty laughs in her face. While at the hospital, Joey and Natalie realize that Nikki really has re-emerged and run over to the custody hearing to confront her. At the custody hearing, Viki tries to reemerge and another of her alternate personalities, Jean Randolph, comes out. She faints and Viki wakes up. The judge then makes her decision about Ryder's custody hearing and finds Viki an unfit parent and places the child in foster care. Natalie offers to take him, but the judge refuses because she lives with Viki. Aubrey and Joey step in and the judge grants them temporary custody. Natalie asks Rex and Gigi if they can watch Liam, and discovers that Gigi took Shane's therapy session recording so she and Rex could listen and see if there was anything they should know about Shane. Both Rex and Gigi feel they are violating Shane's privacy, so Natalie offers to listen to the tape so they wouldn't have to, and promises to tell them anything they absolutely need to know and nothing else. She starts the recording and realizes it's Marty's session and hears Marty talk about how she broke John and Natalie up. Rex and Gigi come in and take it from Natalie after realizing it's not right to listen to their son's private session. Natalie tells them it's really Marty's session, but they tell her not to listen to it and say they're going to take it back to the therapist's office. After the tape is returned, Natalie goes into Dr. Buhari's office while her assistant is on break. She hears Marty talking to the doctor and she takes the session tape, this time with the clear intent on listening to it. The tape reveals the Marty altered baby Liam's paternity results to make Brody the father, when in reality the biological father is John. Natalie decides to tell John the truth. She and Liam head to John's house where unbeknown to her a deranged Marty is waiting, who moments earlier brutally stabbed Kelly Cramer. Natalie sees a note that Marty left for John to meet on the roof, where she comes face to face with Marty. A fight ensues and Marty is left clinging to the side of the roof. After much hesitation, Natalie helps Marty, who thanks her by pushing her off the roof to the ground below, where she is found by John.
Relationship with Brody
On July 1, 2011 Natalie finds John and tells him that she has moved on with Brody. At the police station, Brody is shocked to find out that Liam is NOT his son and Marty switched baby Liam's paternity results. Meanwhile, due to Natalie's fall Marty caused, Natalie has short term memory loss, it leaves Natalie unaware that John is really Liam's father. However, Brody steals the note Vimal wrote to John revealing that the real father of Liam is John, not Brody. He also erased the tape inside recorder Natalie took from Dr. Burhari's office admitting that Marty altered the DNA test results. Brody doesn't want to ruin his relationship with Natalie, so Brody knows he's in trouble when everyone finds out the truth about Liam. It was revealed that as of July 26, 2011: Victor Jr., Marty, Jack, Vimal, Jessica and Brody are the only people who know the truth about Liam.
On the 23rd September 2011, Brody proposed to Natalie and she accepts. It is revealed that John is still in love with her but he hasn't told her yet.
Notes and references
- ^ "One Life to Live recap (7/16/01)". ABC.com (Internet Archive). Archived from the original on March 26, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2008.
- ^ One Life to Live recap (7/20/01) - ABC.com
- ^ "Editor's Choice: The Changeling, OLTL". Soap Opera Digest. Vol. 26, No. 45. ErikaSlezak.com. November 13, 2001.
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(help) - ^ a b One Life to Live recap (May 2001) - ABC.com
- ^ One Life to Live recap (7/3/01) - ABC.com
- ^ One Life to Live recap (3/31/08) - ABC.com
- ^ One Life to Live recap 5/13/09 - abc.com