The Prisms are three mystical crystals that were sought after by several people notably Stefano DiMera. They were invented by Russian scientist Victor Chorvat, father to Larry Welch. Over time the prisms were scattered over the globe. When the prisms are brought together, a laser was shone through them. Stefano wanted them because, among other things, they would reveal a way to cure the brain tumor that was supposedly killing him at the time. Stefano referred to his efforts to bring the prisms together as "The Triad Experiment" and had written a manifesto detailing his plans. At the time, was believed dead after driving into the Salem River.[1]
First Storyline[]
The first prism was in New Orleans, hidden in an art exhibit. At the time, Bo Brady had been hired by the mysterious Cartel run by Maxwell Hathaway, the apparent father of Bo's former high-school sweetheart, Megan Hathaway. The cartel was using Larry, now an attorney with political ambitions, and blackmailed him and Hope Williams into marrying one another. With the help of Howie Hofstedder, Eugene Bradford, Hope, and Alice Horton, Bo managed to steal the prism from the art exhibit. However, he was pursued by an assassin and apparently ISA Captain Shane Donovan, who was posing undercover as Larry and Hope's butler and an employee of The Cartel. In the cat-and-mouse game, the first prism fell off a boat into the Mississippi River and was eaten by an alligator. Bo also "married" Hope at Oak Alley plantation with clothes styled from Gone with the Wind in a private moment between the two.
The second prism was in the possession of Daphne DiMera when she came to Salem from Europe. There were several attempts in Salem by various people to try to steal it from Daphne, but they all failed. One of the people hunting it was André DiMera, who mistakenly believed Stefano was dead and killed Maxwell. It was then revealed that Megan actually was not Maxwell's daughter, but was Stefano's. She was working with Stefano to try to find the prisms and he promised to deliver Bo to her.
In October 1984, Roman Brady got a call from Haiti that made him think Stefano might be alive. He was going to go to Haiti with a group of Salemites. Eugene Bradford, Anna Fredericks, Tony DiMera, Calliope Jones, Liz Chandler, and Carlo Forenza were going to Haiti to do a photo-shoot for Anna's clothing company at Eugene's Haitian estate. Daphne DiMera and Kate Honeycutt also were on-board. Daphne was going to Haiti, because the weather was going to be good for her failing health and Honeycutt was her a nurse.
The second prism had been incorporated into one of the clothing designs made by Calliope, so Andre planned to hijack the plane and take it to Stefano's island in the Caribbean. Stefano knew Andre's plan and planned to surprise him on the island, where he would get the prism, Andre, and Roman all at the same time. Shane learned of Andre's plan too, but did not stop the plane from leaving.
Right before the plane was going to leave, Roman's infant son Eric was hospitalized, so Bo insisted on going to Haiti in Roman's place. Hope fled Larry and snuck about the plane as well. Andre, posing as the co-pilot, tried to hijack the plane to take it to Stefano's island in the Caribbean, but the pilot had a heart attack and the plane crashed on another island. Daphne died from injuries caused by the crash and Nurse Honeycutt was revealed to be working for Stefano. The prism eventually wound up in the hands, as a necklace, of Jasmine, an island resident who nursed Tony back to health.
Back in Salem, Shane revealed himself as Roman's long-time ISA contact. Shane explained that Kim Brady had taken photos in the Caribbean that might reveal the whereabouts of Stefano's island and the location of the plane crash. Stefano, Andre, and the ISA had all been trying to find those photos, which is why Kimberly's apartment kept getting ransacked. Roman left for Haiti to find out what was known about Stefano. Shane stayed in Salem and worked with Kimberly to find the photos, which eventually showed the location of Stefano's island.
Shane went to that island alone, but was caught by Ilya Petrov, Stefano's second-in-command. Meanwhile, Stefano found out the location of the island where the plane had crashed when Andre broadcast the coordinates over a radio. Shane, despite being captive, switched on the radio in Stefano's compound so the coordinates were broadcast to the ISA as well. He managed to escape just before Petrov blew up Stefano's compound with a volcano that erupted upon activating a detonation device.
Meanwhile, Stefano and Roman both headed to the island where the plane had crashed. While Stefano had his security-women capture Hope only to be rescued by Bo, Roman took the second prism from Jasmine. However, Roman and Stefano got into a fight on a cliff. Roman was shot and fell to his apparent death. Stefano then took Roman's body and the prism. All of the other people on the island except for Andre, who appeared to have died in quicksand then returned to Salem. Upon returning, Larry was exposed by Hope as a cohort to Stefano through The Cartel and that their marriage was a fraud.
The search briefly turned back to the first prism. Shane asked for Bo's help in finding it in New Orleans, but he refused. Nurse Honeycutt, however, went to New Orleans and found poachers who had killed the alligator. She got the prism and passed it to Megan in Salem. Megan then delivered the prism to Stefano, which left only one prism remaining. Stefano planned to obtain the third prism in Salem where it was being brought by Russian agents working with a Russian ice show. He posed as Mrs. Lafferty, whose son, Jimmy Porterfield, became friendly with Marlena Evans, Roman's widow. In the aftermath of Roman's supposed death, Stefano's attention turned toward Marlena and her twins, who he planned on kidnapping and taking to a compound in Caracas, Venezuela. Jimmy and Nurse Honeycutt helped Stefano, as did Megan, until she was accidentally killed by Larry, who pushed Megan into a hot tub that she had rigged to kill Hope. Larry was in contact with a Russian over a secret with the prisms.
Bo finally agreed to work with Shane, and they, with Hope's and Kim's help, targeted the ice show. Kim agreed to get close to the Russian in charge of the show, Leopold Bronski, as a way of finding Roman's killer, even though she was furious that Shane pushed her to prostitute herself with Bronski. Hope got a job as a security guard at the ice show. Meanwhile, Marlena discovered Stefano's plan to take the twins by going to Venezuela and sneaking into Stefano's compound, disguised as a maid. There she discovered two cribs that she learned were intended for Eric and Sami. In the lead-up to the ice show, Stefano kidnapped the twins, but Bo rescued them and they were returned to Marlena. Stefano was caught by Tony and held captive. On the night of the ice show, Jasmine released Stefano, who rushed to the arena to get the prism. Marlena went to the arena too, determined to stop Stefano for good. Kim went to the show with Bronski, Shane and Bo slipped inside as stagehands, and Hope posed as a skater in the show.
What none of them knew is that Victor Chorvat had rigged the third prism. When removed from a case that kept it cold, it would get progressively hotter until it exploded -- a massive bomb that would take out most of Salem. Bronski and Larry knew about the bomb and tried to escape Salem on the night of the show. Bronski kidnapped Kimberly, but Shane stopped them at the airport and Bronski revealed that the prism was a bomb.
Back at the arena, Stefano got a hold of the prism and tried to escape through the catwalk. But he was cornered by a gun-toting Marlena. Stefano dropped the hot prism, which started a fire, and was then shot by Marlena and fell from the catwalk. Bo rescued Marlena from the fire, while Shane located the prism and put it on ice. Immediately after, Marlena was arrested for Stefano's murder. She was later tried and acquitted for Stefano's murder. Nurse Honeycutt and Jimmy cornered Hope and a drunk Bo in his apartment, and Hope was shot. Jimmy was arrested and went to prison. Honeycutt escaped. Hope recovered.
Meanwhile, Shane decided that the prisms were too powerful and dangerous, even in the hands of the ISA. He took the third prism, and dropped it in the Atlantic Ocean so it could never be found. After telling Nickerson he dropped the prism in the ocean, Shane was fired. When he returned to Salem, he told Bo and Kim what he had done with the prism. It was never clearly revealed where the other two prisms wound up.
Epilogue[]
Petrov took over Stefano's operation, but he was killed by Victor Kiriakis several months later, though revealed to be alive decades later. Honeycutt worked for Petrov and cared for the Pawn (John Black) post-surgery. She later joined forces with Victor and disappeared after the Pawn escaped from Victor.
Larry was blackmailed by Victor over Megan's murder and forced Larry to take the fall for Victor's illegal operations in 1986, and Larry went to prison. In 2002, Larry was released and sought revenge. He kidnapped Hope and made it appear that Lexie had killed her. He also used Billie Reed to keep tabs on Bo, and then shot her in the head when she was about to help Shane identify Larry. Larry was then thought dead, but he faked his death. Later, he teamed with Nicole Walker to kill her husband, Victor. But Nicole got cold feet and tried to call it off after Brady was nearly killed. Larry refused and tried to shoot Victor, but Brady pushed Victor out of the way. Brady and Nicole chased Larry and witnessed his car crash down a ravine. Larry was later taken to a hospital where Nicole feared he would implicate her in the plot to kill Victor, but Larry died before he could say anything.
Roman was later discovered to be alive. At first, of course, everyone thought the Pawn -- John Black -- was Roman. Then, the real Roman was discovered in San Christobal in 1991.
Shane was later revealed to have known that Roman was alive before the Pawn appeared and, also, admitted that he had a chance to save Roman. However, that chance involved a choice that Shane had to make. He could only save one ISA agent who had been captured by Stefano, and the other agent was Shane's brother, Drew Donovan. Shane chose to rescue Drew and left Roman behind. (This all occurred before the Pawn appeared, so it is likely that Drew was captured by Stefano before Shane came to Salem.) Shane did not know that Drew actually had switched sides and had joined forces with Stefano. In 1988, when Stefano was revealed to be alive again, Drew betrayed Shane and the Bradys by kidnapping Benjy Hawk and tricking Kim to go to Stefano's island, the same island where Roman had "died" years earlier. Drew was shot by one of Stefano's men when he had a sudden change-of-heart and tried to save Shane and Kim from being killed. Drew later disappeared from the hospital.
Re-Emergence[]
The prisms reemerged in Beyond Salem. Harris Michaels attempts to retrieve one from the Mediterranean Sea but soon discovers Hope Brady found it first and kept it hidden via a necklace. Thomas Banks (disguised as Kristen DiMera) retrieves one from a poker player in Monte Carlo before killing him and giving it to a very much alive Megan Hathaway. Li Shin reveals that DiMera's resources discovered one and planned to announce the discovery at a gala event in Hong Kong.
Megan, having been in cryostasis in the Caracas compound until Stefano found away to heal her wounds, had brainwashed Harris to do her bidding and had him kidnap Steve Johnson and John Black to brainwash them into stealing the prism from the gala in Hong Kong. Steve is subdued but John escapes with the prism. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Hope guards the other prism, via a necklace, but Harris, pretending to be in love with her under Megan's orders, intends to marry her and kill her for the prism. However, Megan sees that Harris is developing genuine feelings for Hope and is starting to resist the mind control. So, she hires Thomas Banks as a sniper to finish the job. Banks is subdued by Sister Mary Moira and Harris is shot instead, but Megan still makes off with the other prism.
In Caracas, John delivers the last prism to Megan. While John is confronted by Paul Narita and others, Megan escapes the compound that is later destroyed. In another lair, she uses the three prisms to bring life to another person in stasis revealed to be Bo Brady, thought to have died from a brain tumor.
Later, in 2023, Wilhelm Rolf used them to create a cure for a toxin from a rare orchid that Kate, Marlena, and Kayla were exposed to by Orpheus. He also used them to create a formula to reverse damage to organs and potentially the aging process. Megan hoped to use it to relive hers and Bo's younger years to start over. However, when Megan's lair in Greece was raided, the prisms were confiscated by the police until Bo, brainwashed by Megan and Rolf, stole them for his own purpose under alias of Shane Donovan. When Bo is shot by Shawn, the prisms were attempted to be recovered by Banks, but he is subdued and the prisms ended up in the hands of the ISA for research and storage.