Into the new millennium, more new characters were introduced, including Lindsay's (Catherine Hickland) sister Melanie (Darlene Vogel) and her husband Colin (Ty Treadway).
Jill Farren Phelps and Megan McTavish left in early 2001, and they were respectively replaced by new executive producer Gary Tomlin and new head writers Lorraine Broderick and Christopher Whitesell.
Another story involved Viki returning to her former split personality Niki Smith to block out the painful memory of being raped by Mitch Laurence (Roscoe Born).
Another storyline was Antonio (Kamar de los Reyes) having a one-night stand with a woman who turned out to be his fiancé Keri's (Sherri Saum) mother, Liz (Barbara Niven).
One of the most appreciated storylines of the second Malone/Griffith era was Marcie Walsh (Kathy Brier)'s struggle with her self-esteem and her love story with Al Holden (Nathaniel Marston).
But a write-in campaign led by Marcal fans convinced ABC to rehire Marston, in spite of his character having died on screen.
Unknown to her and Cristian, John was an undercover FBI agent working on a bust to trap Walker Flynn, Mitch Lawrence's brother who had been paid by Todd to use his face as a cover.
To the detriment of ratings (which fell to an all-time low in the summer of 2004), much of the action revolved around new characters: Antonio's brother Tico (who married Jessica Buchanan), stepsister Sonia, and mother Angelina.
On the day he was to remarry Blair, Todd was kidnapped by the crazed Margaret Cochran, who in a homage to Stephen King's Misery, tied him up for weeks in a secluded cabin while he recovered from his injuries.
A storyline played out in 2005 in which Nora's (Hillary B. Smith) new husband, politician Daniel Colson (Mark Dobies) was revealed to be Paul Cramer's murderer.
A racist arsonist began targeting Llanview, causing the death of Ted Osbourne and the catatonic state of Evangeline Williamson.
Due to the threat of Lee Ramsey, Todd set plans to move his family to Hawaii, forcing Starr to have one last special night with Cole.
Tess ran off and gave birth to a stillborn baby while confronting the illusion of her mother Viki's alter, Niki Smith.
She lost her virginity to Rex and wound up pregnant, but he left town and never knew about his son, who was raised by war hero, Brody Lovett (Mark Lawson).
When Wayne Landers and Pamela Stewart end up murdered, and Jared is the prime suspect, he goes on the run but Natalie has faith that her husband is innocent.
While Jessica and Natalie are lured to Napa Valley, where they find Jared and are held hostage by a still-alive Mitch Laurence, who has dug up Nash's corpse.
Dorian announces that she is in love with her gay campaign manager, Amelia, and they plan to tie the knot along with 21 other same-sex couples, which includes Nick and Kyle.
He blackmails Dorian into firing Bo Buchanan as the police commissioner and Nora Hanen as the District Attorney at the Mayor's Ball on New Year's Eve.
Gigi's sister, Stacy Morasco (Crystal Hunt), arrives from Las Vegas as an ex-stripper and sets her sights on Rex: sleeping with him, faking a pregnancy, miscarrying that baby, sleeping with Oliver Fish to get pregnant again, making Rex think she never miscarried, and making Stacy's ex-boyfriend Schuyler Joplin (Scott Clifton) think the baby is his.
Markko's teacher, Robert Ford (David A. Gregory), begins to seduce his girlfriend, Langston, and Cole gets a new project partner named Hannah O'Connor (Meghann Fahy).
Cole later goes to prison himself for killing evil serial killer lawyer Elijah Clarke (Matt Walton), (who was married to Blair Cramer at the time, and is the brother of con artist and beach bum surfer Ross Rayburn (Michael Lowry, Billy Warlock), who is also Dani's adoptive father) because Cole thought that he kidnapped Starr and Hope.
Eddie comes to town after Nate had stolen a hidden suitcase full of money to give to her broke mother, and crashes at his sons' Ford and James' apartment.
Eddie is later hired by Clint to kidnap Nora and hold her hostage at The Minute Man Motel to avenge her for cheating on him with his brother and her ex-husband Bo.
Natalie sleeps with Brody after Jessica gets tortured by Mitch Lawerence and gets amnesia, thinking she's still in high school and dating Cristian, and John is still with Marty.
Rex ultimately decides to give his father Gigi's heart in exchange for The Buchanan Mansion and the entire family fortune.
Cutter then told Rex to hand over the entire fortune to him in exchange for getting his wife back when he tried to show him a picture of Gigi on his cell phone.
"Billy Joe" Wentworth's fortune which led to him to commit suicide when Cutter and Kim where kids, which caused them to both wind up in the foster care system.
Kim refused to help his brother after he betrayed her and framed her for his crime despite the fact that he told her the truth about Stacy/Gigi, and that he found their now wealthy mother back in Rio.
Allison Perkins then confronts Viki and Clint at Llanfair where she reveals she orchestrated the entire breakout and is no longer under Mitch's spell.
return, and a mysterious tattoo organization cult that involved Jeffrey King (Corbin Bleu), a freelance reporter and internet blogger for The Banner, and Allison Perkins' wealthy businessman brother Carl Peterson (Ron Raines) that was after both Victor Jr., Todd, and their families.