No sooner had Ben (then Justin Gaston) arrived in town than sister Jordan, fearing that her new acquaintances would gasp at how checkered their past was, suggested that he pull a U-ey and leave the way he had come in. There was just one problem…
Club TBD waiter Ben (soon Robert Scott Wilson) was far too smitten with Abigail Deveraux (then Kate Mansi) to move any farther away from her than… well, this. Further complicating matters was her continued pull to ex-boyfriend Chad DiMera.
There was, um, one other thing going on, too: Ben, it turned out, was the Necktie Killer, a serial murderer who’d sent to the grave both Serena Mason and Paige Larson. As his grip on reality grew ever looser, he even attempted to off Abigail and Chad.
In 2016, Abigail decided that turnabout was fair play. So when Ben broke out of his sanitarium and into the DiMera mansion, she stabbed him, knocked him out and tried to set him on fire the very same way he had her and Chad.
In 2017, Ben crashed the double wedding of his victim Will Horton’s widower Sonny Kiriakis and Paul Narita, and Chad and Abigail (then Marci Miller). But not to make trouble and get an unpleasant facial from the bride — to reveal that Will wasn’t really, much less most sincerely, dead.
After being sprung from prison in 2018, Ben proved himself a changed man by tending to Ciara Brady after the cool rider was injured in a motorcycle crash. So impressed was she, she not only stood up for him after the cabin went up in flames, she moved him in.
“Who wouldn’t want a reformed serial killer in the bedroom next door?” reasoned Ciara as she settled Ben into the apartment that she shared with niece Claire Brady and her own pursuer, Tripp Dalton. “Us,” shrieked Tripp and Claire, using their inner voices while outwardly plotting against their new roomie.
Ben and Ciara were really just beginning to enjoy their love for one another and Chinese takeout when he was remanded to Death Row for the murder of his sister. He hadn’t done it, though, despite his history of weaponizing neckwear. Jordan had actually been throttled by babydaddy Evan Frears (aka Christian Maddox).
Eventually, Ben rescued Ciara so many times that her skeptical mother, Hope, stopped glaring at them like this anytime they embraced. That made the young lovers’ next move clear: First General Tsao’s chicken — OK, fine, and some fried rice — then…
What should have been the happiest day of Ben and Ciara’s lives was utterly upended when, as soon as they’d exchanged “I dos,” their nuptials — and potentially their futures — were blown to smithereens by none other than…
Paige’s mother sought vengeance by abducting Ben and brainwashing him to throttle Ciara in such a way that he had to wear only his undies for episode after glorious episode.
Eventually, of course, Ben and Ciara were reunited. It would have been a, ahem, “Cin” not to put them back together. Alas, the newlyweds were separated again when the bride was kidnapped by yet another someone with a vendetta against the Necktie Killer.
Though Ciara was passed from one abductor to another, even worse one (Evan Frears!), she and Ben managed to get together again through a combination of detective work and yelling into thin air. We don’t judge, people; whatever works.
Ciara emerged from her ordeal with partial amnesia and skipped town with former beau Theo. While a heartbroken Ben looked in Claire’s direction, he was looking for a shoulder to cry on more than lips to kiss.
Since Ben would sooner have made an airplane of Ciara’s divorce papers than sign them, she had their marriage annulled. In turn, he kidnapped her to keep her from tying the knot with Theo.
At the cabin where first they fell for one another, Ben wooed his hostage… er, true love, who eventually regained her memory with the help of a particularly prophetic fortune cookie.
No sooner had Ben and Ciara remarried than his therapist, Marlena Evans, convinced them that having a baby was a fine idea. Little did they realize that the doc had been repossessed by Satan!
Once not only baby Bo but Salem was safe from the devil, Ben and Ciara decided to get the hell outta there — by boarding the Living in Cin and sailing around the world.
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