According to William Shakespeare, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” So, why doesn’t the name, Bennett Thompson sound as sweet as the name, Elijah Clarke? There is just something about that name, and there was just something about that man, with Blair Cramer, but all of what Elijah Clarke was ceased to be the day that it was discovered that Elijah Clarke was an alias used by a psychopathic killer, named Bennett Thompson.
Let me go back to the beginning. In February, Brian Frons and Ron Carlivatti promised the daytime audience that they had this HUGE story involving the Cramer women. This promise was made when the two time Emmy Award winning actress, Gina Tognoni reprised her role as Kelly Cramer. The huge story hinged on the threat to the Cramer women from the evil Mitch Lawrence. Unfortunately, Mitch was so poorly written that he was escorted off to prison shortly after Kelly’s return, but not before Kelly’s mother died from an apparent heart attack. The Cramers were sad for a moment; Kelly took a new job, Dorian took to her mayoral duties, and Blair took a new man, Elijah Clarke, a successful and generous attorney; most significant for Blair, Elijah Clarke was the polar opposite of her ex-husband, Todd Manning.
Elijah appeared to be everything a woman could want in a man. Like usual, Blair put the horse before the cart when she discovered Eli’s sexual prowess before she knew his heart, but things soon changed, and she found him to be a most attentive lover and a wonderfully supportive friend. He was often referred to as, “NotTodd” almost as often as he was referred to as Eli or Elijah. Blair reluctantly began to fall for Eli. Blair’s head told her to take it slow, to be cautious, to protect her heart, but we saw them fall in love and we witnessed Eli romantically proposed to Blair, and just minutes later, it was revealed that Elijah Clarke/”NotTodd” was actually, Bennett Thompson, a man who had so severely beaten Ford that he wasn’t expected to live. (Hey! I could live with that! Ford is a worthless, misogynistic prick) but within a week, the audience learned that the kind, considerate, even-tempered man, they came to know as Elijah Clarke was not only a pretty good multi-tasker, but he was a maniacal, serial killer.
According to the Book of Ron Carlivati, Eli murdered Melinda Cramer because she discovered his true identity and was going to warn her niece, Blair. (Here’s the thing. Melinda has been away from the Cramer women for years, living in a mental hospital. In fact, no one had even mentioned her name until she turned up dead.) Since it was actually Melinda’s friend, Rodney who identified Eli as Bennett Thompson, he had to be eliminated. Eli then pushed a pregnant Marty Saybrooke down a flight of stairs, killing her unborn child because he wanted to create a diversion for John McBain who was investigating Melinda’s death. Next on the list was Robert Ford. Eli bashed his head in because Mr. Ford was blackmailing him and threatening to reveal his true identity. Then we see him threatening an emotionally, unstable co-ed, first threatening to do harm to someone she cares about and then holding a gun on her and making her take pills, enough to kill her. He doesn’t stop there. He drugged Rex when he realized how close he was to finding out his true identity, and the man from the hall of records suddenly died, probably because he could identify Bennett Thompson. If Ron didn’t pile enough shit onto Eli, he also revealed that he was behind Tea’s illness, and supposed death. For those who still are not convinced that Elijah Clark is pure evil, Ron piled on a couple of dead wives, making him a black widower. So while Elijah Clark is “Mr. Nice Guy”, Bennett Thompson/Roy Patterson are cold blooded killers. What’s in a name? Not much, but when you are a writer who pulls stories out of your ass, several names can buy you some time while you the message boards, looking for a viable explanation for the bullshit you've foisted on your viewers.
