Performer of the Week

Soap Opera Digest

January 27, 2009

Since Susan Haskell's last Performer nod for Marty's discovery that Todd was her rapist, the amnesia-riddled character has been making a slow and awkward return to reality, which Haskell has portrayed as both sympathetic and troubling at the same time.

When Marty confronted Téa before Todd's hearing, she stood assuredly before the oily attorney, shoulders back as she asked Téa to state why she'd defend someone who'd wronged her in the past. Marty listened intently, her eyes filled with a desperate need for information, as Téa delivered a garbled string of excuses. Téa went so far as to suggest that Marty was jealous of Téa's history Todd, which Marty quickly countered with a slap. When Nora advised her client to compose herself, Marty's cool demeanor conveyed a sense of entitlement to inappropriate behavior because she'd gotten a clean slate.

But as the hearing got underway, the absurdity of Marty's predicament began to wear away at her confidence. Forced to answer Téa's hard-hitting questions on the stand, she uttered each honest response as though swallowing a bitter pill. She became more and more nervous with each admission, and closed her eyes as she painfully digested the realization that she did willingly sleep with Todd. Téa wouldn't let up, pummeling her with questions like, "Did you ever say no?" and proposing that Marty wanted Todd to make love to her. Marty held her hands up to her head as if to shield herself from Téa's probing words, then suddenly cried out, "Yes, that's what I wanted! But I didn't know! Oh, my God, I didn't know." She was now crying, holding her hands out, pleading for Téa and the courtroom to grasp this concept.

As Marty starts her life with a blank canvas, it's fascinating to watch Haskell sort through her character's jumbled emotions and take her from sweet and childlike to someone a little bit darker than we're used to seeing .