Marlena is exorcised! From SOD:
"Marlena's family stages an exorcism to try and rid the devil from Doc Evans. "From the moment we kicked it off with Doug and Marlena, we had this image in our mind of an exorcism at Christmas and a Christmas miracle of getting Marlena back." "It seemed like a good time to tell that story and play a lot of twists and turns. The exorcism is about people coming together for the good against evil, for love to triumph over darkness...." "So that was our goal: to have John capture Marlena on Christmas Eve and play the exorcism on Christmas Day." "We ended up with the idea to use Gabriel, the angel that comes to John's aid, and there were a lot of little elements of the first one that we were also able to use. But at the same time, of course, we wanted to make this our own and something new." "So there's maybe a surprise or two along the way, maybe some callbacks to the original story, but at the heart of it, it is about family and love and the relationship between John and Marlena. John was able to save her life the last time; is be ale to save her this time?" To that end, the family gathers at Chez Black to start the process. "We wanted to get as many of the family together as possible. That was our goal, to have her loved ones and kids and grandkids there - it takes a village to exorcise a demon." "It is about them all coming together. We wanted there to be some surprises and of course, it's not a sure thing that it's going to work, so it definitely takes you on a bit of a roller coaster ride." Fortunately, Eric arrives home just at the right time. "John prays for guidance and help because he really needs reinforcements. So he prays for some sort of sign and as he's saying his prayers, there's a knock on the door and it's Eric." "Who is in a unique position to help them because he's a priest. The last time Marlena 'died' during the exorcism, so there really are life and death consequences here." "But that said, it is Christmas. So not to give too much away, but even if it ends well, it doesn't mean it doesn't still have far reaching consequences in the aftermath."