I have been such a huge fan of the new character, Mary Jane Benson, since she first arrived in Genoa City. As played by former All My Children and Superboy (Lana lives!) star Stacy Haiduk, the character has been the most fascinating woman to watch on Y&R since she debuted, and that's quite a task! The question on everyone's lips to date has been – WHO IS MARY JANE BENSON??
First introduced to us, face unseen, we saw Victor offer the mystery woman a job to deal with Jack Abbott. She tells Victor "she doesn't look so good" and Victor obliges to help her with that. At the close of the episode she tells Victor, she's in. What psycho wouldn't want a complete makeover to go along with her revenge? Then after seeing her in bandages, we meet Mary Jane Benson - a stunningly beautiful woman with haunted jewels for eyes and a crooked smile that belies something far deeper. She was eventually hired on as PR queen for Jabot to retouch Jack's tarnished image all the while reporting back to Victor.
The show gave us plenty of clues as to who she was and the Internet was awash with theories. Could she be the evil, recently face-changed Sheila Carter? Nah - Victor would never hire the lady who kidnapped his granddaughter, Summer Newman. How about Mari Jo Mason? This was everyone's guess at first. She shot Victor and framed Jill for it, but she was eventually found out and sent to a loony bin. Many thought Victor had possibly reformed the attempted murderess and was now going to unleash her venom on Victor's archenemy, Jack Abbott. Nope! The clues belied that Mary Jane had never flown on a jet before - Mari Jo had with Ashley during the whole Rick/Blade evil twin saga. Plus Mary Jane seemed to have a baby-complex, as whenever she was around a child, like Chloe Abbott's Delia, her smooth facade just crumbled and a yearning in her eyes was present. Mari Jo had LOTS of issues, but a yearning for a baby was not one of them. Plus Mary Jane kept on asking Jack Abbott about his former wives - almost every time she was with him! Poor Mari Jo never made it to the altar with Jack, not for lack of trying!
So who IS she then? Well the final clue was when Mary Jane met Paul Williams. When they met, Paul immediately recognized something about Mary Jane, but he couldn't quite figure it out. This confirmed my suspicions as to who Mary Jane was - none other than Paul's sister and Jack's first wife (duhn duhn duhn).....Patty Williams!
To appreciate her identity we have to go back 25 years to the time when Jack was even worse than his cad brother Billy Abbott! Jack was a playboy and a big ladies man, but his father John Abbott demanded that Jack grow up and start a family if he wanted to be President of Jabot Cosmetics. Enter Patty Williams.
She fell head over heels for him and Jack, being the opportunist he always is, married her and became President of Jabot. However, he really had a thing for Diane Jenkins, and was actually sleeping with his step-mother Jill Abbott. Meanwhile, poor Patty was pregnant with Jack's baby and Jill, seething over Jack's double-cross, set up Patty to find Jack and Diane making love! Jill's plan worked and pitiful Patty tripped over a plant and lost her baby.
Afterwards, still in love with Jack Patty wanted to make another baby and Jack put her off. Finally Patty overheard Jack and Jill arguing and Jack proclaimed he NEVER cared about Patty, that he married her to get in good with his pop, John and that he was going to get a vasectomy. Patty finally blew her fuse-box and got a gun. Sad thing though is that it wasn't to kill Jack – but herself. Jack finally did the right thing – he told Patty to shoot him! And then Patty finally did the right thing – and shot him three times. Jack lived, and Patty got off the hook – her father was the police chief!
But there was apparently no happily ever after for pained Patty. She left GC, never to be heard from again – till now! So far Patty Jane has been hinting at being very dangerous. She has a stuffed, dead cat that she talks to and strokes so lovingly. And an enemies list that keeps growing bigger each day.
She was successful in bedding Jack, but not winning his heart – which belongs to Sharon. She made a friend – Phyllis Newman, and they bonded over their mutual hatred of Sharon, till she spied Jack and Phyllis having sex on the couch! Victor has fired her. And Paul, like a dog with a bone, just can't stop snooping around. The walls are closing in on our sweet but deranged gal. What will she do next? That's the biggest mystery of them all!
