Soap World is at it again – tempting me with a sexy reformed serial killer and asking me to give him a second chance. Ben “Necktie Killer” Weston has returned to Salem after a productive stint in the sanitarium. Soon he stumbles, somewhat literally, across an unconscious Ciara [Ce-are-ah] Brady and sets about rescuing her. As is often the case with such things, she ‘rescues him right back’ and launches Days of Our Lives’ #Cin ship in the process. Will I surrender to Ben’s charm? His desire for redemption? His sexy-as-Alan Rickman’s voice? Yes. I. Will.

Objectively speaking, killing more than one person with a necktie ought to ostracize an individual from polite society. Salemites, however, inhabit a fictional world where nearly everyone in town has killed someone, stolen a baby, or slept with three brothers in the same family. The ability to forgive fictional characters for their trespasses is a basic soap-viewing requirement.

For his part, Ben (Robert Scott Wilson) strangled several women and a now back-from-the-dead Will Horton, and there was also some unpleasantness with Abby and Chad in a cabin. Hope Brady, Ciara’s mother, believes that Ben is a monster, while Dr. Marlena Evans gives Ben a clean bill of mental health. I’m going with Marlena on this one, because I once saw her levitate while playing host to Satan. She knows evil when she sees it. The only true criminals in this story are the writers who thought it would be a good idea to make Robert Wilson’s character into a serial killer in the first place.

Wilson’s charisma holds the key to Ben’s appeal. This guy has all of the qualities casting directors dream of – smoldering good looks, real acting chops, and this body:

Head Writer Ron Carlivati had the eye and the foresight to pair him with another talented beauty, Victoria Konefal who can exude strength and vulnerability with one look. As a rape-survivor, Ciara, feels “damaged” and lost. Who better to journey back to the light with her than child-abuse victim Ben?

Cin resembles vintage soap romances like the one between Ciara’s aunt and uncle, Steve (Patch) and Kayla. Carlivati allows the scenes in the cabin between Ben and Ciara to move slowly, just as writers first did when bad-boy Patch (Stephen Nichols) let good-girl Kayla (Mary Beth Evans) tend his wounds [this is not a sex metaphor, though they eventually get there].

Ben is taking a well-trodden path to salvation. Wilson recently said of Ben, “If we can make him human again and make him feel again” the audience might embrace him. Ben on his medication is no different than a vampire with a soul

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike (James Marsters) Buffy.wikia.com

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Angel (David Boreanaz) (wikipedia)

or a green-hooded vigilante who has decided not to kill bad guys anymore.

Each seeks to make amends for a lifetime of piling up bodies. With Ben and Ciara, Days is essentially telling a vampire romance without the bloodletting.

Finally, when it comes to soaps do we really want to be so unforgiving of a guy because the writers attach the word “serial” to his killing? I can think of a few mobsters on General Hospital responsible for repeated murders who supposedly anchor the entire show. In his brilliant #Cin Thread Alan Sarapa roasts everyone connected to Ben’s story while embracing the absurdity of his redemption for what it is – damn good soap. Anyone “clutching their pearls” over Ben’s resurrection ought to take a look at their love for the genre that produced him. I’ll save my moral outrage for kids in cages, thank you very much.

Maybe I’m nostalgic for the simpler days of the Cold War or perhaps it’s that Wilson and Konefal have enough fire to burn down a cabin. Either way, I love Ben Weston. That doesn’t make me a bad person.

Just a cinner.