Series / Passions

Main cast from left to right: Timmy, Tabitha,
And the Rest.

"Passions doesn't throw reality out of the window, so much as jettison it into the sun."

—Charlie Brooker, Screenwipe

Passions, created by former Days of Our Lives head writer James E. Reilly and airing on NBC from 1999–2008, is quite possibly the weirdest-ever daytime Soap Opera outside of Dark Shadows.

The show ostensibly follows the lives of numerous families in the small New England town of Harmony, including the eeeeevil Crane family, who orchestrated most of the non-magical plotlines; the Lopez-Fitzgeralds, many of whom fell in love with Crane family members; the Bennetts, who were connected to the Cranes through Alistair's grandson Ethan; the Russells, who have got to be one of the oddest Brother–Sister Incest stories on record; the Winthrops, who get involved in an impressive romantic three-way plot; the Hotchkiss family (involved with the Winthrops); and at least one member of the Standish family (related to the Bennetts).

The show opened as a fairly innocuous daytime soap, albeit with elements of the paranormal. That soon ended with the introduction of Tabitha the witch and her ambulatory doll Timmy. An episode of Passions makes the average telenovela look like The Wire. The "villains" belonged in a Silver Age comic book. The ruling dynasty was comprised of inbred idiots. A transgender Two-Face stalked Harmony for victims to rape/blackmail (the joke being that rapists and blackmailers are the two most common villains in soaps). Zombies, the Devil, and dwarves ran amok. Characters popped over to Magical Land of Oz for an afternoon... And, in one memorable arc, a faked death involved some serious stealth work.

Passions is, to date, the last new soap opera to premiere on American daytime television. It replaced the long-running Another World; when it premiered in 1999, there were eleven soaps on the air. Now there are four (three on broadcast TV, one on streaming), and, as a result of Days moving from the network to co-owned Peacock in 2022, none at all on NBC, the network which once aired Passions.

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This show contains examples of:

A to B

• Abhorrent Admirer: Kay sees Reese as this.
• Aborted Declaration of Love: A Running Gag on this show.
• Abusive Parents: Julian and Sheridan's father Alistair, Beth's mother Edna.
• Accidental Marriage: Theresa and Julian, both drunk, get married in Bermuda. Also, in the series finale, Gwen discovers that when she and Rebecca went to Vegas, she got drunk and married some guy by an Elvis impersonator, therefore nullifying her marriage to Ethan.
• Action Dad: Sam. He is Harmony's Chief of Police after all.
• Almost Kiss: Many times.
• All Just a Dream: Lots of dreaming and dreamers on this how.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Kay in regards to Miguel in the beginning. While Miguel was in love and crazy about Charity, Kay pined for Miguel endlessly. Eventually, Miguel does end up choosing and marrying Kay in the end.
  • In the beginning, Theresa in regards to Ethan. Although Theresa has loved Ethan since she was a young girl and dreamed of marrying him one day, Ethan was in love with Gwen and had his heart set on marrying her and only saw Theresa as a friend as the housekeeper Pilar's daughter.
• All There in the Manual: Hidden Passions, which was a tie-in novelization that looked into the backstories of the main characters, supposedly written by Tabitha, making it an offline variation of the Character Blog.
  • It should be pointed out that this is averted because much of what was in Hidden Passions was contradicted in the series; two good examples are Eve Russell's and Katherine Crane's back story. What was aired on the screen was completely different than what was in Hidden Passions.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Kay.
• Alpha Bitch: Ivy, Kay, Theresa, Gwen.
• Always Save the Girl: All of the male characters regarding their respective female love interests, but the biggest one is Luis in regards to Sheridan. Luis has saved Sheridan's life so much that it's too much to count.
• Always Second Best: Fox feels this way in regards to Ethan. Gwen feels this way in regards to Theresa. Kay feels this way in regards to Charity. Simone feels this way in regards to Whitney.
• Ambition Is Evil: The Cranes. Who else?
• Anchored Ship: Luis/Sheridan, Chad/Whitney and Ethan/Theresa.
• Anguished Declaration of Love
• Antagonistic Offspring: Sheridan towards Alistair.
• Arch-Enemy: The Cranes and the Lopez-Fitzgeralds.
• Arranged Marriage: Julian/Ivy. Ivy was always in love with Sam, her high school sweetheart. Also, Ethan/Gwen. According to their respective families, their union or marriage had been planned since they were children.
• Awful Truth: Does there really need to be an explanation for this one? Passions is all about secrets and awful truths.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Luis and Sheridan. They constantly fight, argue and bicker so much yet they clearly adore each other at the same time and just can't stop thinking about each other or stay away from each other.
  • Also Sam and Ivy. Despite Sam's proclamations that he absolutely cannot stand Ivy and wants nothing to do with her, it is clear (especially later on) that he does and always loved Ivy, even though he was married to Grace for a long time.
  • Julian and Eve. They appeared to have hated each other, but there is no denying that Julian in fact did love Eve and always had a strong affection for her. In fact, it could be argued that Eve is the only woman whom Julian ever truly loved.
  • Julian and Ivy get this. After a decades-long loveless marriage that they were forced into by their parents, they actually reconcile for a while when they get fed up with Sam and Eve, realizing that they accept each other despite, or perhaps because of their numerous faults.
• Ax-Crazy: Norma is this.
  • Not an ax, but after Gwen is told by Ethan that he wants to cancel the wedding (and he says this the night before the ceremony), she realizes his and Theresa's secret relationship and goes after Theresa in her home with a baseball bat.
  • In a cross between this and Car Fu, Ivy drove a car through the front door of the church during the Luis/Sheridan/Ethan/Theresa double wedding.
  • Beth used an ax to destroy a closet door in order to force her mother out of hiding.
• Babies Ever After: In the final minutes of the finale, the female half of nearly every couple reveals that she's expecting.
• Back from the Dead: Martin Fitzgerald, Katherine Crane, Rachel Barrett.
  • Actually, Martin was officially missing for the first five years of the show; it was at times speculated that he might be dead, but it was never proven or taken for granted.
  • Also true of Alistair Crane, Julian Crane, Sheridan Crane (twice), Vincent Clarkson, Antonio Lopez-Fitzgerald, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, Marty Lopez-Fitzgerald, and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald (twice).
• Badass Family: The Cranes (no relation to Denny...we think). DO NOT mess with them. They don't forget their enemies and they will strike if you dare try to cross them.
• Bad Boss: Alistair.
  • also Juanita Vazquez whose the head of the mexican mafia.
• Bastard Bastard: Beth. She is revealed to be the long lost illegitimate child of Alistair Crane and Edna Wallace.
  • Let's not forget Vincent Clarkson, who is the long lost illegitimate child of Julian Crane and Eve Russell.
• Been There, Shaped History: Tabitha (perhaps erroneously) claims credit for every major disaster in human history, including Pompeii, the Black Plague, and the Titanic. Apparently, she was also the Wicked Witch of the West (her skin is naturally green, but is camouflaged to look flesh-toned).
• Beautiful Dreamer: Various characters have watched other characters while they are sleeping.
• The Beautiful Elite: Yup.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Sheridan, Charity. Both were the embodiment of goodness and kindness (until Sheridan did a Face–Heel Turn during the last two years of the show).
• Beauty Is Bad: Ivy. Although she is very beautiful, she does not have good intentions for the majority of the show.
• Bed Trick: In addition to the Theresa thing mentioned elsewhere, there's also a story where Kay morphs herself into Charity to sleep with Miguel. Amazingly enough, this saves Miguel's life.
  • David pulls a pretty epic one on Grace, convincing her that he's her long-lost first husband (she has amnesia) and to leave her actual husband and children to be with him.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Luis and Sheridan at first. Also, Sam and Ivy and Julian and Eve.
• Betty and Veronica: Ethan/Theresa/Gwen with Ethan being the Archie for Theresa's Betty and Gwen's Veronica, Chad/Whitney/Simone with Chad being the Archie for Whitney's Betty and Simone's Veronica, Miguel/Charity/Kay with Miguel being the Archie for Charity's Betty and Kay's Veronica, Kay/Miguel/Fox with Kay being the Archie for Miguel's Betty and Fox's Veronica, Sheridan/Luis/Antonio with Sheridan being the Archie for Luis' Betty and Antonio's Veronica, Whitney/Fox/Chad with Whitney being the Archie for Chad's Betty and Fox's Veronica, Sam/Ivy/Grace with Sam being the Archie for Grace's Betty and Ivy's Veronica and Luis/Sheridan/Beth with Luis being the Archie for Sheridan's Betty and Beth's Veronica.
• Big Bad: Alistair for the majority of the show. Later on, Vincent, also known as the Blackmailer and Julian and Eve's illegitimate long lost son, becomes this in the last few years of the show.
• Big Good: Charity. She is the embodiment of kindness and goodness. Her name even means "kindness".
  • Also Sheridan of the Crane family. With the exception of the last few years of the show when she Sheridan becomes just as manipulative and corrupted as the rest of her family.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Oh so much.
• Big Fancy House: The Crane Mansion.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Crane family. The Lopez-Fitzgerald's are pretty close behind though. So are the Bennetts.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ivy, Gwen, Kay and sometimes Theresa.
• Black Gal on White Guy Drama: Why Julian and Eve couldn't be together in their younger days. Dialogue makes it quite clear that their racial difference is why his father forced them apart.
• Black Magic: What Tabitha practices.
• Black Sheep: Sheridan of the Crane family. Sheridan has always felt that she has never fit in or belonged with her family.
• Boyish Short Hair: Sheridan, Beth, Grace.
• Boy Meets Girl: Miguel and Charity, Ethan and Theresa, Luis and Sheridan and Chad and Whitney.
• Brainwashed/Brainwashed and Crazy
• Break the Cutie: Poor Sheridan, Theresa, and Charity.
• Broken Bird: Sheridan and Theresa especially qualify.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Chad and Whitney, but in the end it turned out they're not after all.
• Burn the Witch!
• Bury Your Gays: Rae, Chad.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Theresa is this after her second disastrous trip to Bermuda.

C to D

• Came Back Wrong: Various characters seem to come back not right after they have been presumed to be missing or "dead".
• Cannot Spit It Out: Basically all the men on the show when they're involved with love triangles. Ethan can't ever decide who he loves more: Gwen or Theresa. Chad couldn't bring himself to curb Simone's delusions of them being a couple and tell her he was dating Whitney. Miguel kept sending mixed signals to Kay when he was in love with Charity.
  • Luis though is probably the biggest man guilty of this. It took him a long time to admit he loved Sheridan, and then took another long time to choose between Sheridan and Beth (and later Sheridan and Fancy). Even while knowing how psychotic Beth was, he could never stand up to her, or even stop her from running off with Marty.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Tabitha feels this way about Miguel and Charity, for if the two ever consummate their relationship, Charity would awaken to her full powers and eliminate all evil from the universe, including Tabitha herself.
• Cassandra Truth: Passions is based on secrets and truths being revealed.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: This show is so full of hot men that there is literally no shortage. Luis, Ethan, Antonio, Miguel, Noah, Fox, Chad, Hank...
• Card-Carrying Villain: Tabitha is a gleeful agent of evil whose mission to prevent nebulous "good" forces from driving her out forever.
• Catapult Nightmare: Sheridan suffered from very bad nightmares since childhood, where she dreamed about killing someone with a letter opener, seeing blood on her hands, seeing a dead body and being blamed for murdering someone (at one point, she believed that she was the one who had murdered Martin).
• Cat Fight: Mainly between Gwen and Theresa. Also between their mothers Rebecca and Pilar.
  • There were a few good ones between Beth, Sheridan, and/or Fancy, too.
• Catchphrase: Theresa — "It's fate!"
• Central Theme: You Can't Fight Fate, Because Destiny Says So, Fate Drives Us Together, Awful Truth, Cassandra Truth, Screw the Rules, I Have Money!.
• Character Exaggeration: In the DirecTV episodes, Theresa was turned into the full-scale heroine while Gwen got the full villianess treatment. However, in the previous NBC episodes, their roles were neutral.
  • This actually happened to Gwen twice; the first time occurred after Ethan called off their engagement and Gwen went after Theresa with the baseball bat. Before, Gwen had been a relatively good and kind character, but after losing Ethan she became determined to get him back, ultimately despite whatever consequences her actions had on other people. The move to DirecTV later turned her villainy up to eleven and removed virtually every redeeming quality that she possessed.
    • Despite her situation with Ethan, Gwen still had her good qualities and said valid points in the NBC episodes before the DirecTV transition. Also after the transition, all of Theresa's bad deeds were practically pushed aside, giving her the heroine status.
• Character Outlives Actor: Josh Ryan Evans, who played Timmy, died on the same day that his character died on the show. This still counts, though, as it's Passions and trips to the afterlife are plausible (in fact, Timmy was set to return as an angel). Timmy reappeared as a Fake Shemp at the show's end.
• Chekhov's Gun: The infamous bird statue of the earlier seasons which contained dirty photos of Julian and Eve in bed. The statue originally belonged to an old man named Orville.
• The Chessmaster: Oh boy. Julian, Ivy, Alistair anyone?
• Childhood Friends: Miguel and Kay. They have been friends since childhood, although Kay has always been in love with Miguel but he did not reciprocate her feelings until way later on.
• Child by Rape: Chad. Originally, he knew his parents were from Harmony and eventually came to believe he was the son of Julian and Eve after he fathered a child with Whitney. Later, he turned out to have not committed incest with Whitney and that he was actually the son of Eve's deranged adopted sister Liz, who was raped by Alistair. Then we find out he really did have gay incest with Vincent, who turns out to be the actual son of Julian and Eve (thus Chad's half-nephew/cousin and Whitney's half brother). Vincent is also a cross-dressing intersex serial killer (no seriously this is all true) who has violently raped or tricked various of his relatives into sex, including Chad, his sister Fancy and the topper is he becomes pregnant with his father Julian's baby. Yeah.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Whoo boy.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Luis. Especially in regards to Sheridan. Most of it has to do with his cop instinct as well.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Reese.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Theresa in regards to Ethan, Gwen in regards to Ethan, Ivy in regards to Sam and Kay in regards to Miguel.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Theresa. The things that she does is completely out there. Also, Tabitha. She comes off as weird and zany to many of the other residents in Harmony.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Ethan is torn between being loyal to Gwen or Theresa.
• Cool Old Guy: Julian.
• Costume Porn
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Ethan in regards to Theresa.
• Crystal Ball: Tabitha has one.
• Daddy's Girl: Kay adores her father and is at odds with her mother until shortly before the latter's death. Sam is also reluctant to believe Grace when she comes to believe that Kay has made dealings with evil.
• Damsel in Distress: Sheridan, oh so much.
• Deadpan Snarker: Fox Crane when played by Justin Hartley. Also Noah Bennett to an extent.
• Death by Childbirth: It was assumed that Julian and Sheridan's mother, Katherine, and died after giving birth to Sheridan. However, this turned out to not be true as Katherine was revealed to be alive.
• Death Is Cheap: Owing to the show's supernatural plotlines, it was quite plausible for the show to have characters return from the dead. Or, in the case of Sheridan Crane, surviving just about any attempt on her life. Also, Julian was revealed to have once faked his own death.
  • This is really only the half of it. To count: Alistair and Marty supposedly died in a train crash in Rome with Beth (who may or may not have actually died); Katherine and Rachel both turned out to be alive after having had their deaths faked by Alistair pre-series; Julian supposedly died when he was shot and fell into a vat of boiling tuna; Sheridan came back from the dead at least twice (buried alive and blown up in Bermuda); Vincent turned out not to be dead after falling off a cliff; Antonio sadly did not die in a plane explosion; Luis didn't really die in Morocco while searching for Marty; and Theresa fake-died twice (once by lethal injection and once by shark).
• Death Is Dramatic
• Deceptive Legacy
• Deer in the Headlights
• Demonic Dummy: Timmy.
• Demonic Possession: Some characters got this, especially Charity.
• Disappeared Dad: Gwen's father Jonathan never appeared in the show and was only mentioned by name. Martin Fitzgerald also used to fit into this, but he appeared five years into the show.
• Disguised in Drag: Vincent aka The Blackmailer. He dressed and disguised himself in a half man-half woman costume.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Alistair Crane (the show's Big Bad) created a borderline Rube Goldberg Gambit Roulette involving elaborate and (at times) interconnected forms of cruel revenge upon nearly every resident of Harmony, which the writers milked the mystery as to why he was doing this for all it was worth. Finally the real reason was revealed which was... his wife died there, so he felt that literally the entire town (including his relatives who only happened to live there and people who only recently moved there who he never met before) should suffer as much as he. ...What.
• Distracted by the Sexy
• Doctor's Orders: Eve gives them to many characters.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Hank in regards to Sheridan.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Theresa raped Ethan three times, once by disguising herself as Gwen and drugging his drink, once in the Crane jet, and once towards the end of the DirecTV run: Theresa was living as the Winthrop children's frumpy nanny, Gertrude, because her whole family would somehow die if she were revealed to be alive, and wanted to be with Ethan, so she drugged Gwen to keep the other woman out of the way and then drugged and had sex with Ethan so that he would think that he had been dreaming. While Theresa's actions were reprimanded all three times and she was once labeled a rapist, the show largely presented her actions as justified acts of desperation and upheld the trope—in fact, the incident where she disguised herself as Gwen was retconned into Ethan knowing that it was Teresa all along.
  • Kay raped Miguel, which conceived Maria. However, this is never known to anyone other than Kay and Tabitha, and Miguel is treated like a monster by the rest of the cast (and later on by the show itself) when he doesn't stand by Kay's side. This being after Kay repeatedly rubbed her pregnancy in Charity's face (with nobody calling her on her behavior other than Grace) and Kay knowing that she only got Miguel into bed through deception.
• Dramatic Irony
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Sheridan, especially in the first few seasons when she was suffering from bad nightmares. This had to do with the trauma she had suffered as a child.
• The Dutiful Son: Ethan and Luis.

E to F

• Et Tu, Brute?: Endless betrayal and backstabbing occurs on this show, whether it's between family, friends and lovers.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones
• Even the Guys Want Him: Ethan and Chad. Vincent a.k.a. the Blackmailer was obsessed with both of them, especially Ethan.
• Everyone Can See It: Almost everyone that came into contact with Luis and Sheridan together, always made a comment that they looked like a couple who were either married or in love. Luis and Sheridan would always try to deny it though.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Charity, Fancy and Sheridan.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry
• Eyepatch of Power: Fancy wore a diamond-studded eyepatch for a while.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A tabloid reporter, who was more than happy to bring down both the Cranes and the Bennetts with The Reveal that Sam, not Julian, is Ethan's real father, still had genuine sympathy for Grace, knowing the hurt that the revelation would do to her.
• Evil Redhead: Rebecca.
• The Faceless: Alistair Crane with his first actor (voice of Alan Oppenheimer). It got taken to ridiculous extremes when he'd be in a room with other characters, and the camera would constantly show a view of his chest. Later actors in the role did in fact show their faces for the camera.
  • The Blackmailer also remained faceless for a good portion of the storyline. Then it was revealed who it was (note: We're not using "it" as gender neutral).
• Face–Heel Turn: Sheridan in the last two seasons. When the show first started she was arguably The Woobie and the Big Good of the Crane family, but during the last two years of the show she became very manipulative.
  • See also: Julian (after a Heel–Face Turn following Timmy's death), Beth (she started out as Luis's long-suffering high school sweetheart and quite literally went crazy when he dumped her for a second time), and Fox (he went from something of an Anti-Hero to a straight-up manipulative bastard).
• Fainting: Like in Days of Our Lives; if a woman faints, she's usually pregnant.
• Faint in Shock:
  • Ivy faints when it's revealed that Sam, not Julian, is Ethan's father. An angry Julian demands she awake.
  • A newly pregnant Grace faints and falls down a flight of stairs when she finds out that Sam had previously had an affair with Ivy. Though she ultimately survives the ordeal, her and Sam's unborn son, who was to be named Jack, does not.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress
• Fanservice
• Fanservice Pack
• Fate Drives Us Together: Another trademark of the series is its pre-occupation with the concepts of fate and soulmates. For the run of the series, the show established a few couples as "fated" and, with few short-lived exceptions, never mixed up any of the relationships. Some of the early "fated" couples were considered to be those of Luis and Sheridan, Ethan and Theresa, Miguel and Charity, and Chad and Whitney. Common indications of a couple's status as "fated" include (but are not necessarily limited to) Tabitha's desire to split said couple up, an unshakable love that survives numerous break-ups and relationships with third parties, and/or an ability of one character, or perhaps both characters, to "sense" when his/her "soulmate" is in danger, as well as having shared past lives together in the case of Luis and Sheridan. However, this is now subverted as despite the fact that each of these couples has existed as a storyline since the first episodes, the show seems to have given up on the "fated" or "destined" angle as it approached its end. Ethan and Theresa are still in love and marry in the final episode, but Miguel is now in love with and marries Kay (not Charity), Luis falls in love with and marries Sheridan's niece Fancy, while Sheridan's formerly presumed dead husband Antonio returns to Harmony alive and well. Whitney left Chad after finding out about his affair with Vincent, and Chad later was shot dead by his father Alistair, leaving Whitney widowed and pregnant with their second child.
  • Although much was made of Charity and Miguel's intense connection and soulmate status, it could be argued that Kay and not Charity was Miguel's designated soulmate. Charity repeatedly experiences prophetic dreams in which Miguel ends up with Kay, and after an entire episode in which nearly the entire cast talks nonstop about an superstition that the person they end up holding at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve is the person they will spend the rest of their lives with, Kay is in Miguel's arms at midnight. In the series finale, they are married.
• Feeling the Baby Kick: When Luis tried to be supportive of his ex-girlfriend Beth's pregnancy, he wants to feel his baby move at one point but he never does. Understandably, this was impossible since Beth was pretending to be pregnant by using a bag of sugar in an effort to keep him away from Sheridan, who was genuinely pregnant by him but unsure if he or his brother Antonio was the father.
• Female Gaze/Male Gaze
• Feuding Families: The Cranes and the Lopez-Fitzgeralds.
  • And when the Lopez-Fitzgerald family shrunk significantly circa 2005-06, the Cranes took up a soon-forgotten feud with the Bennetts.
• Filler: It's amazing that so little can happen in the space of one hour of TV. Conversations that should take at least ten minutes in real life were often stretched out for days on end, just so the screenwriters would have time to wring out plotlines. They really needed a lesson from non-US soapies.
• First Girl Wins: Theresa and Ethan discover a photo of themselves as children showing a young Ethan giving a young Theresa a teddy bear. A few years later, he and Gwen, both twelve years old, first meet at a mixer their boarding schools held.
  • For the longest time, Miguel and Kay appeared to be set to be an inversion of this since they'd been best friends since childhood and Miguel seemed far more interested in Charity, but eventually the two ended up together—a later conversation revealed that Miguel had had a crush on Kay as well (meaning that her feelings were NOT unrequited, as she'd thought).
• Flirty Stepsiblings: Chad and Whitney. Although, it turns out their not related.
• Fond Memories That Could Have Been: In the aftermath of Gwen and Ethan's daughter, Sara's, stillbirth, Gwen grieves for their daughter when she envisions a child Sara consoling her. She then visualizes them attending The Nutcracker Suite as a family, Sara about to attend her prom, and her and Ethan getting her ready for her wedding.
• Foreshadowing: There are constant heavy anvils that are dropped about what is to come.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: The show left Soap Wheel for this.

G to H

• Gambit Roulette: Alistair Crane appeared to be quite the master of this. At one point, he staged Theresa's execution by using sedatives and an open coffin. Theresa woke up briefly, threatened Ivy and Rebecca, then returned to sleep just long enough for Pilar to notice that her body had moved. She then snuck out of the coffin, but was taken back by an unseen person, and then the coffin caught on fire. The body burned, but Alistair then revealed that the "body" in the coffin was actually a lifelike wax dummy, and the real Theresa was alive and well.
• Gender-Blender Name: Sheridan and Whitney are identified as being unisex names.
• Gold Digger: Ivy could be seen as this. Also, Theresa.
• Grand Finale: Passions had it's official series finale in 2008.
• Grandparent Favoritism: Played with regarding Alastair. He treats everyone he knows like crap including and especially his own family members, but he has taken a shine to eldest grandson, Ethan, a smart and charming lawyer, and feels he is a much more suitable heir to the Crane fortune and business over the alcoholic playboy Julian. That is, until it's revealed that Ethan wasn't his grandson due to a one-time fling that Ivy had with her ex-boyfriend Sam right before her wedding to Julian.
• Gratuitous Rape: Within one calendar year, so many characters were raped that it was referred to as the "Year of the Rapes", diluting the seriousness of such a crime. Adding insult to injury, only ONE of these stories was handled even remotely seriously, with the victim in question (who was reacting to having been raped a second time) fearing intimacy and dressing shabbily, etc. All other victims went on with their lives within days as though nothing even remotely traumatic had happened, while their attackers went free, or in at least one case, attacked his victim multiple times during the course of an abusive marriage.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Theresa and Gwen. Until Theresa's sudden sainthood and Gwen's sudden full villainess treatment after the jump to Dish, they both were equally good and evil and their good traits were easily defined. Theresa loved her family and was supportive of them, and Gwen supported her own circle of friends and nurtured the family she wanted to build with Ethan. In fact, before they went to war over Ethan, they were pretty good friends. But when both women decided to have Ethan at all costs, their obsessive behavior came out in full-swing.
  • And ironically, both dealt each other physical and emotional blows over time, but the reactions from other characters was different. People forget that before Gwen stabbed Theresa in a drug-induced state in the hospital, Theresa first stabbed Gwen when her pregnancy hormones got out of control. People excused Theresa's actions because of her risky pregnancy, but Gwen was denounced as evil even though she'd just been put through an emotional ringer and conflicted medication in her body triggered her episode. When Gwen allowed Rebecca to call CPS on Theresa, Gwen and Rebecca were unfeeling villains, yet when Theresa posed as their surrogate and later raped a drugged Ethan— and it was found that baby Jane wasn't Gwen's—everyone excused her actions as being a desperate mother who was wronged and needed justice.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sheridan. She is a kind and good-hearted woman despite being a Crane. That is until the final two seasons when she changed dramatically and embodied her Crane name.
  • Charity. She is the embodiment of goodness and kindness.
• Happily Married: Sam/Grace and T.C./Eve (until both marriages fell apart). Later on, Ethan/Theresa, Luis/Fancy, and Miguel/Kay are this.
• The Heart: Sheridan and Charity.
• Heel–Face Turn: Julian, Kay, Tabitha.
• Heroic Bastard: Chad, who was conceived through rape and is the son of Liz Sanbourne and Alistair Crane.
  • Ethan. He's the long lost illegitimate son of Sam Bennett and Ivy Winthrop-Crane and was conceived when Ivy was married to Julian.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Theresa and Whitney, Luis and Hank, Sheridan and Gwen, Ethan and Chad, Grace and Eve, Sam and T.C., Ivy and Pilar, Kay and Simone.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Liza Huber (Gwen) and Daphnée Duplaix Samuel (Valerie). Samuel was largely kept off screen during her pregnancy, though, while Huber graduated from holding bags and files in front of her stomach and wearing all black to sitting on a bed with a humidifier in front of her obviously pregnant belly and being filmed (often unsuccessfully) from the chest up only. Ironically, it was later explained within the series that during Gwen's time off screen while Huber was on maternity leave Gwen had actually found out that she was pregnant and given birth to her son Jonathan.
  • Eventually subverted with Lindsay Hartley (Theresa) and McKenzie Westmore's (Sheridan) respective pregnancies. While some attempt was initially made to hide both actresses' pregnancies, the characters were both eventually made to be pregnant.
• High-Class Gloves: Many of the female characters often wear gloves when they dress up or are going to a formal event.
• High-School Sweethearts: Luis and Beth, Miguel and Charity.
  • Also: Sam and Ivy, Ethan and Gwen.
• Hunk: Ethan, Luis, Antonio, Chad, Fox.

I to J

• I Just Want to Be Special: Theresa, hence why she always dreamed about being part of a rich society.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• If I Can't Have You…
• In Love with Love: Oh boy.
• Ice Queen: Ivy. It's understandable considering that she was in a loveless marriage with Julian Crane for many years.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Sheridan is held captive by the crazed Beth, who wants to steal her baby and pass it off as hers. Already uncomfortable to watch, the scenes became even more disturbing with the knowledge that Sheridan's actress had suffered a miscarriage.
• Inter-Class Romance: Luis/Sheridan and Ethan/Theresa.
• Invisible to Normals: Culminating in the muggles not noticing when a volcano is erupting—despite the rumbling and the red glow.
• Jerkass: Alistair Crane. Also, Julian was this before his Heel–Face Turn.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Alastair. The guy is pure evil.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Julian, especially after he does a Heel–Face Turn.

K to L

• Karma Houdini: Almost the whole cast.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Luis in regards to Theresa oh so much.
• Knight Templar Parent: T.C. in regards to Whitney. Ivy in regards to Ethan. Pilar in regards to Theresa.
• Living Toys: Timmy.
• Long-Lost Relative: Too many to name. It seems to be a recurring theme on the show. Antonio Lopez-Fitzgerald, who had been living under the alias Brian O'Leary, is revealed to be the long lost oldest son of Pilar and older brother of Luis, Theresa, and Miguel. Liz Sanbourne is revealed to be the long lost adoptive sister of Eve Russell. Ethan Crane is revealed to be the long lost son of Sam Bennett and Ivy Winthrop-Crane, meaning that Ethan is actually a Bennett and not a Crane, even though Ethan has always identified with being a Crane his whole entire life. Chad Harris is revealed to be the long lost son go Alistair Crane and Liz Sanbourne (Chad was conceived out of rape when Alistair raped Liz when she was 14 years old; Liz gave Chad up for adoption). Beth Wallace is revealed to be the illegitimate child of Alistair Crane and Edna Wallace. Charity Standish is revealed to be the niece of Grace Bennett and the daughter of Grace's twin sister, Faith, therefore, Charity is the long lost first cousin of Kay, Jessica and Noah Bennett. Vincent Clarkson (also known to be the infamous cross-dressing blackmailer) is revealed to be the long lost son of Julian Crane and Eve Russell.
• Love at First Sight: Ethan/Theresa and Miguel/Charity.
• Love Dodecahedron: It seems that everyone is in love with everyone and that the entire show is all about love triangles, love squares and love rhombuses.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Theresa in regards to Ethan anyone?
• Love Makes You Dumb: Almost every single character has displayed being idiotic or dumb in the name of love at one point or another.
• Love Makes You Evil: Sheridan in regards to Luis in the last few years of the show.
• Love Redeems
• Love Triangle: Ethan/Gwen/Theresa, Sam/Grace/Ivy, Miguel/Charity/Kay, Chad/Whitney/Simone, Sheridan/Luis/Antonio, Luis/Sheridan/Beth.

M to N

• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Sheridan.
• Magic Is Evil: Tabitha.
• Magical Security Cam: In one instance, the tape was faked, and Theresa still fell for it.
• Manipulative Bastard: Alistair and Julian.
  • Female version: Ivy, Theresa, Kay, Rebecca, Gwen.
  • Sheridan later becomes one in the last few years of the show.
• Meaningful Name: Various characters have names that happen to match their personalities.
  • Ethan means "firm" or "strong".
  • Theresa means "to reap" or "the reaper".
  • Ivy is is representative of the ivy tree and also Batman villainess, Poison Ivy. T.C. even referred to Ivy as this one time.
  • Grace and Faith is representative of their religious and angelic kind natures. Grace means "graceful" and Faith means "faithful".
    • Charity means "kindness" and "goodness". It is probably the most fitting for Charity as she is known to be the Big Good of the show.
  • Sheridan means "wild".
• Make a Wish: Theresa says the "Star Light, Star Bright" rhyme and makes a wish about Ethan while in LA.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Dark Forces, for whom Tabitha is a bumbling employee.
• Mind Screw: Plenty in the series, but none so much as the entire saga of The Blackmailer. It's the hermaphrodite/bisexual lovechild of Julian Crane and Eve Johnson/Russell, secretly raised and abused by Alistair and returned to Harmony to carry out his and his grandad's revenge. What does it looks like? BEHOLD◊!
• Missing Mom: Katherine Crane, Julian and Sheridan's mother, but then appeared five years into the show's run.
• Monochrome Casting: Averted, Passions boasted one of the most diverse casts on daytime, and furthermore, actually made frequent use of their minority characters rather then relegating them to the background.
• Mr. Fanservice: Ethan, Chad, Luis, Fox, etc. How about all of the male characters on the show?
• Ms. Fanservice: Theresa, Sheridan, Whitney, Kay, etc.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Luis in regards to Theresa, especially when it comes to Ethan. See Knight Templar Big Brother.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Grace Nancier is a transparent stand-in for Nancy Grace. Reportedly, Nancy Grace herself (a fan of the show) was approached to play the character, but didn't have the time to do so.
• No Fourth Wall: At the very least, it's as flimsy as hell. At one point, characters are watching Passions on their TV, and frequent cracks are made at the plot and some of the more absurd plot elements.

O to P

• Official Couple: There have been various pairings and couples that have occurred on the show's run. These include Luis/Sheridan, Ethan/Theresa, Chad/Whitney, Miguel/Charity. Others include Sam/Grace, T.C./Eve, Miguel/Kay, Luis/Fancy, Antonio/Sheridan, Fox/Theresa, Ethan/Gwen, Julian/Eve, Sam/Ivy.
• Offing the Offspring: Alistair killed Chad and unsuccessfully attempted to kill Sheridan at least a dozen times.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombie Charity. She's actually a magical clone (empowered by Tabitha's "friends in the basement") whose "zombie" status refers to the fact that the original Charity was placed in a very large block of ice. However, it didn't stop those in the know from referring to her as "Zombie".
• Parental Abandonment: Chad, by the Harrises as well as Liz and Alistair. Also, Martin in regards to the Lopez-Fitzgerald children or family.
• Parental Neglect: Julian and Ivy towards Fancy, Fox, and Pretty.
• Parental Substitute: Pilar for Sheridan. Pilar is a substitute mother for Sheridan.
• Pimped-Out Dress
• Plot Hole
• Preppy Name: The Crane family, the Hotchkiss family, Gwen's sorority sisters.
• Psychotic Love Triangle: Ethan/Theresa/Gwen.
• The Power of Friendship
• The Power of Love
• Pretty Boy: Miguel, with his long lashes, dreamy eyes and all.
• Psychic Power: Charity has premonitions.

Q to R

• Quirky Curls: Whitney.
• Rags to Riches: Theresa.
• Really 700 Years Old: Tabitha is this.
• Rescue Romance: Luis and Sheridan. Luis has saved Sheridan so many times, it's endless.
• Retcon
• Rich Bitch: Ivy and Fancy.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Many aspects of Passions story arcs are influenced by actual events... taken up to eleven. In one case, the Tsunami that hit Southeast Asia influenced a fictional Tsunami that hit Harmony... which is in New England.
  • The first episode mentioned that Sheridan was BFFs with Lady Di. The episode aired in summer 1999.
• The Runaway: Antonio (aka Brian).

S to T

• Screams Like a Little Girl: Ethan during the Hell in the Closet storyline. A demon attacks him and he lets out a very girlish high pitched scream.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Crane family motto. And how.
• Secretly Wealthy: Chad and Beth. both were revealed to be Cranes with both of them being Alistair's long lost children.
• Shipper on Deck: Chad is the BIGGEST Ethan/Theresa shipper ever.
  • Theresa is a Luis/Sheridan shipper and Chad/Whitney shipper. But she is the BIGGEST shipper of herself/Ethan, constantly telling herself that her and Ethan are "fate" and "meant to be".
  • Whitney seemed to be more anti-Ethan/Theresa in the beginning and advocated more for Ethan/Gwen being together but this was mostly because she feared Theresa getting hurt and getting her heart broken by Ethan.
  • Sheridan was a Ethan/Theresa shipper.
  • Tabitha advocated for Miguel/Kay mostly because she hates both Miguel and Charity and thinks that if Miguel/Charity get together, Tabitha would be destroyed.
  • Ethan is a Chad/Whitney shipper. Ethan is also the biggest supporter of himself/Theresa, going so far as to get jealous of every single man who shows interest in Theresa or even looks at Theresa and even managing to steal Theresa's own catchphrase - "it's fate".
  • Eve is also a Luis/Sheridan shipper and Sam/Grace shipper.
  • Hank is a Luis/Beth shipper.
    • Antonio also seemed to be a Luis/Beth shipper.
  • Charity seemed supportive of Ethan/Theresa.
  • Miguel supported and advocated for Reese/Kay in the earlier seasons and before Miguel reciprocated Kay's feelings.
  • Pilar is pro-Luis/Sheridan. also tended to be Anti Ethan/Theresa at the beginning, until towards the end of the series, after Gwen and Rebecca's blackmail threatens the entire Lopez-Fitzgerald family, she fully supports Theresa taking Ethan back from Gwen.
  • Luis is a Sam/Grace and Miguel/Charity shipper.
  • Although Simone is best friends with Kay, Simone seemed to prefer Miguel/Charity.
  • Julian first seemed to advocate for Ethan/Theresa, but later on, he supported Ethan/Gwen marrying instead (with Ethan having Theresa on the side of course).
  • Beth's mother, Edna, is a Luis/Sheridan shipper.
  • Rebecca is strongly anti-Ethan/Theresa and is the biggest supporter of Ethan/Gwen. Understandable considering Gwen is her daughter.
  • Both Sam and Grace are Miguel/Charity shippers.
  • Ivy seemed to support Ethan/Theresa since the beginning and believed that they were true love. At the end of the show, she fully throws her support behind Ethan/Theresa. she also supported Luis/Sheridan.
• Shirtless Scene: Every episode.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene
• Shout-Out: Buffy the Vampire Slayer did this with the show. Turns out Spike likes to watch it.
  • Spike and Joyce. They bonded over it. The fact that both shows experienced severe Invisible to Normals problems makes this even funnier.
  • In-show, Tabitha claimed to have been courted by Barnabas before his engagement, linking Passions to the other Supernatural Soap Opera.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Little Ethan came down with this. Or went up with this.
  • Marty is another example, going from two to seven-ish in the span of a year. Maria, interestingly, did the opposite; she was still a baby even four years after her birth.
• Stalker with a Crush: There are fans who describe Theresa as this. The shrines she made of Ethan and designing her own wedding dress hoping to marry Ethan are examples. Also, just check out her promo alone. Creepy.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Luis/Sheridan, Chad/Whitney, Ethan/Theresa, and Miguel/Charity. With the exception of Ethan/Theresa, none of the destined or fated couples ended up together.
• Tsundere: Luis and Sheridan were like this toward each other at first.

U to V

• The Un-Favourite: Fox, primarily in contrast to Ethan but also briefly to Chad.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Especially the Cranes.
• Unwitting Pawn: Everyone is this for and to the Crane family. The Crane family run the show and run the town of Harmony all the while destroying everyone's life as well.
• Uptown Girl: Played straight with Luis/Sheridan and inverted with Ethan/Theresa.
• Upper-Class Twit: Julian, Esme.
• Villainous Incest: Vincent not only rapes his half-sister (twice!) and has an affair with his uncle, but also has sex with his unwitting father while dressed in drag and later gives birth to his baby.

W to X

• Was It All a Lie?
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Theresa. Her eyes are so large, almost like a character from an anime or manga.
  • Sheridan's as well, which were a crystal-blue shade.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: More than a few ends were left loose when the series ended:
  • What ultimately happened to Charity, David, Liz, Spike, Martin, and Katherine was never addressed.
  • Julian's grudge against Antonio was never explained, nor was Antonio's plan to use an impostor to impersonate Martin.
  • Beth was implied to have survived the train explosion, but was never heard from again.
  • A dark secret in David's past, which Ivy used against him as blackmail material, was never revealed.
  • Perhaps most egregiously, Kay's rape of Miguel was never revealed to the rest of the cast and her character never faced any consequences.
• Who's Your Mommy?: After Theresa secretly had Gwen and Ethan's embryos implanted in her womb to get her son back from them, she later saw blood spottings and thought she had a miscarriage. In order to get her bargaining chip back, she disguises herself as Gwen, drugs Ethan's drink, and rapes him to get pregnant again. However, she discovers that she did not have a miscarriage after all and is pregnant with two babies (twins). Unfortunately, her uterus is unable to carry both and is told that one of them must be aborted. At first, she wants to abort Gwen's baby, but in the end, she decides to abort the weakest baby. Later, a baby girl was born. Theresa then tells Gwen the news that Gwen may not be the mother of the baby and Theresa does not plan to give the baby to her whether she is the biological mother or not. A DNA test is performed, and after some time, it is revealed that Theresa is the biological mother, devastating Gwen.
  • Beth pulls this with Sheridan and Luis's child Marty, though Sheridan knows Marty is her child. Not only does Beth kidnap Sheridan for the duration of her pregnancy, but she pretends to be pregnant to the entire town. So when Marty is born, Beth steals the baby and successfully passes him off as her own, and tries to kill Sheridan. Sheridan survives, but by the time she returns to town, nobody believes that Marty is her son. She's even institutionalized over the debacle.
• Wine Is Classy: Many characters are often seen drinking wine or champagne.

Y to Z

• Yandere: Beth turns into this in regards to Luis. And Theresa was this for Ethan, especially early on in the show.

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