Days: How Melanie Left Salem

Last Friday, September 28, 2012, Melanie (Molly Burnett) left Salem to visit her mother Carly (Crystal Chappell) in Europe. This entry summarizes the character's departure.

Melanie and Chad (Casey Deidrick) quickly got engaged after Nick Fallon (Blake Berris) got parole after serving time for kidnapping Melanie and making her believe she killed her adoptive father. Nick had been rehabilitated and was off the drugs, which caused him to act out of character. Melanie's grandma Maggie (Suzanne Rogers) and father Daniel (Sean Christian) were both against them marrying after a short engagement as they felt it was a reaction to the all of the stress after being kidnapped a second time.

Maggie and Daniel were right that Melanie should be careful. Chad lost it when he found Nick with Melanie's scarf and beat up the other man. Gabi (Camilla Banus) stopped Chad before he hurt Nick too severely. Nick's wounds though were enough for him to need to go to the emergency room as he didn't fight back due to being on parole.

Gabi then told the truth to Melanie about bringing Andrew into their lives. Andrew pretended to stalk Gabi, so she could get closer to Chad. Eventually Andrew lost his mind, kidnapped Mel and threatened Gabi. Chad had been keeping this a secret to protect his girlfriend. Mel was horrified that Chad was lying about this too.

Chad's behavior in both of these cases was deplorable to Melanie. She had enough and needed some space. In the end, she left town to get away from it all. She left Salem before she gave the ring to Chad, but devastated him by not taking her with it.

In the last few years, Melanie has been one of the more controversial Days of Our Lives characters. Some viewers seem to love her, but others cannot stand her. I liked some of her pairings more than others. That said I felt the original characterization of her as a bad girl was more interesting, than when it seemed like everyone in Salem thought she was awesome. For example, when we didn't know that Maggie was Melanie's granddaughter it was shocking that even Victor liked her for Philip. I wish Molly good luck in her next jobs outside of soaps.