Jack Snyder

Jack Snyder came to Oakdale in 1997 to investigate James Stenbeck. After helping to put Stenbeck behind bars, he decided to stay in town and got a job at the Oakdale PD. Jack also got reacquainted with his family. Not long after arriving in town, he went with his cousin Holden to Montana. There he met Carly Tenney and his life would be changed forever. Jack and Carly didn't get along at first; in fact they couldn't stand each other.  They also couldn’t deny their attraction to each other. Their true feelings for each other became apparent when they investigated dirty cop Teague. During the investigation, Jack and Carly got trapped in a cabin where they got closer and discovered that they had feelings for one another. After returning to Oakdale, Jack wanted to continue the relationship slowly; however Carly was desperate to get married and she dumped Jack to marry Hal Munson.

Reeling from his breakup with Carly, Jack was all set to leave town when he met Julia Lindsey. While helping Julia escape from her controlling fiancé, he fell in love with her. In the meantime, Jack found out the truth about Carly's marriage to Hal.  She would inherit a huge trust fund from her sister, Rosanna, if she married a man and had a baby by him by the time the year was out. Disgusted, Jack told Carly to come clean with Hal. Hal learned the truth himself and divorced her  Carly did become pregnant and with the assistance of Jack and Julia, she gave birth to a son, Parker New Year’s Eve 1998. Soon after, Jack's relationship with Julia ended when he found out she lied to him about killing David Stenbeck. Eventually Carly and Jack could no longer deny their feelings and they made love. He dumped Carly again soon after when he found out that she lied about her son's paternity, and that Hal not John was the baby's father.

Jack eventually decided to give Carly another chance if she could go 1 month without lying. With Jack's support and understanding, Carly won the bet and Jack proposed to her on Christmas.  The day of their wedding, Carly arrived at the church and told Jack that she was leaving him to pursue a business opportunity in Paris. A disgusted Jack wrote off Carly forever. Months later, Jack would learn that the reason Carly left was because she was being threatened by Winston Lowe, a man she married in Hong Kong. However, by now Jack was married to Julia and decided that he was better off without Carly and her lies anyway.

Jack couldn't deny his feelings for Carly and in 2001, after Julia their baby, Jack finally confessed to Julia that he still had feelings for Carly.  He vowed to stick by Julia,  but he couldn't stay away from Carly. Jack's devotion to Carly drove Julia over the edge and she tried to hurt Carly first by alerting Craig that she was spying on him and then by killing Carly's prized horse, Flashdance. Jack, concerned about Julia's state of mind insisted that she check herself into an institution and get help. Though he tried to protect Julia by keeping her crimes from the police, Jack's plan backfired when Julia became increasingly unstable and she later went after Carly. Luckily Jack was able to stop Julia from killing Carly and she was led away by the police. Jack was finally able to be with Carly, but the whole experience with Julia scared Carly and she turned away from him.

Just as their relationship started to improve, vindictive Barbara Ryan and her husband James Stenbeck had Carly and two other women (Emily Stewart and Rose D'Angelo) kidnapped and carted off to a "spa" in a remote region of Europe, where they were held captive and forced to be research subjects in a deranged scientist's experiments in manipulating the aging process. The women were eventually rescued by Jack, Hal and Paul Ryan (Barbara's son).

Carly finally married Jack Snyder in 2002, though it was a stormy relationship. On the eve of their wedding, in a moment of drunken abandonment after a fight with Jack over Craig Montgomery, her shady business partner, she slept with her ex, Mike Kasnoff, which later caused considerable drama for Carly and Jack, as well as for Mike and Carly's cousin, Molly (who was seeing Mike at that point). Though they survived that ordeal, they also had to contend with Jack's obsessed, psychotic ex-wife, Julia Lindsey, who had in the past kidnapped Jack, raped him, attempted to kill him, and escaped town. A "cured" Julia arrived shortly after Jack and Carly's wedding with her therapist and a baby in tow, claiming it was the product of that rape. Jack and Carly discovered that Julia had stolen that baby, and she escaped once again. Carly soon discovered she was pregnant with Jack's baby...or possibly Mike's, from their one night stand. She tried to lie about the paternity and Jack found out, but he eventually forgave Carly and vowed to love the baby no matter who the biological father turned out to be, and after the birth of the baby girl, Sage, they renewed their vows in the place they had met many years ago- Montana. After the ceremony, Carly and Jack received the paternity results- Sage was Jack's daughter after all.

A year later, Jack would find himself in a perilous situation while trying to protect Carly's cousin Molly. After having helped rescue Molly from a mobster named Starziak who feared she was going to testify against him, Jack offered to let her stay in his house since she had no where to go and feared for her life. Molly's fears seemed grounded when Starziak found her at the Snyders and went after her. Fortunately, Jack and Carly arrived home in time and Jack was able to subdue Starziak. Jack took the criminal away himself. However, in the car, a fight ensued and the car went into the water! Days later, Jack would wake up in a hospital with no memory of who he was. Jack met a dark haired nurse named Julia Larrabee and was convinced she was his wife. Julia did nothing to contradict him, and the two bonded. However when he made the assumption that her son, J.J., was theirs, Julia revealed that she'd only gone with his assumptions because his doctor asked her to.  Soon after, Jack was released, and Julia let him stay with her and J.J and promised to help him find out who he was. Staying with Julia, Jack quickly fell in love with this woman and her son. While bonding with Julia and JJ, Jack would periodically get flashes of a vivacious blonde but had no idea what those flashes meant. Then came the arrival of Julia's abusive ex-husband, Les who threatened to take JJ away. Having an instinctive need to protect his new family, Jack talked Julia into marrying him. So, after obtaining a fake ID, under the name "Jack Jackson", Jack and Julia married. Weeks later, Jack was startled when Julia suddenly insisted that they had to move immediately.  After driving all night, Jack and his new family stopped at a hotel. That night, Jack would be shocked to find a police badge in Julia's possessions.  It was his badge with the name Jack Snyder! Shocked, Jack confronted Julia the next morning with the fact that she knew his identity. However, Julia maintained that she'd only found out the day before when she left the hospital.  Jack went out and came face to face with a blonde who immediately recognized him--Carly! Unfortunately, Jack had no memory of Carly at all. Although Carly tried to jog his memory by showing him a family picture and telling him about their past, he still could not remember anything. Not feeling anything for this woman in front of him, Jack only wanted to return to Julia and was shocked when Carly told him that Julia had known who he was, that she'd been to their house in Oakdale.   Jack took Julia aside and demanded the truth. Caught, Julia tearfully confessed that she'd learned of Jack's identity much earlier but kept quiet since she'd fallen in love with him. Jack forgave Julia. So, Jack went back to Oakdale, and brought Julia and JJ, with him. Knowing that Jack considered Julia his real wife, Carly went to court and had Jack declared incompetent and had him placed in her custody. After weeks of Jack being hostile towards Carly, she tried to make him remember their past by tricking him into going to Montana. There she discussed their past and started reciting their wedding vows. Jack started remembering them too and his entire memory came flooding back!  Jack still had a problem since he cared for both women. As Jack struggled with his choice, in the end Carly decided to make it easy for him and signed divorce papers. However, to her delight, Jack had already made his decision and tore them up. Months later, Julia was tragically murdered by her ex-husband, Les, and Jack and Carly were granted guardianship of JJ.

In 2004, Carly's sister Rosanna, whom she had finally forgiven and formed a sisterly bond with after having fought bitterly with one another for most of their lives, was involved in an accident which put her into a coma (from which she still has not emerged). At the time of the accident, Rosanna had been attempting to adopt the illegitimate baby of homeless teenager, Gwen Norbeck. Carly and Jack decided to take the baby and raise him until such time as Rosanna could emerge from her coma and take him. In the mean time, however, Gwen had decided that she wanted her biological baby back, and Carly and Gwen spent the next several months battling fiercely over the child, with Carly drugging Gwen (cleverly arranging so that town matriarch Nancy Hughes would witness the events) to make her look like an unfit mother; the scheme backfired, and Gwen was awarded custody, but not before it could be revealed that Carly and Gwen were in fact half-sisters (they shared the same father, Ray Tenney). It was later revealed, however, that the baby thought to be Gwen's was actually the child of Craig Montgomery and Jennifer Munson, whom Craig had switched at birth; Gwen's baby, Billy, had in fact died shortly after birth in causes attributed to poor pre-natal care. This trauma brought Carly and Gwen closer, where they were able to put the bitterness and animosity of the custody battle behind them and love one another as sisters. The strain of the sisters' custody fight took its toll on Carly's relationship with Jack, however. In an uncharacteristically shady move, Jack buried evidence that would have implicated Carly as having drugged Gwen, and when this was found out, Jack was suspended from the police force. Carly tried to help Jack win his job back through an ill-conceived, convoluted scheme, but it only exacerbated the problem, and eventually the marriage collapsed.

They separated in early 2006, and though each of them indicated at various points that they regretted splitting, they suffered from mixed signals and bad timing, they did not reunite. In the fall of 2006, Carly began a professional relationship with Australian bad boy, Simon Frasier, which soon evolved into an affair. This put her at odds with her friend (and Simon's true love) Katie Peretti, and Katie's husband (and Carly's ex) Mike Kasnoff.  Though Jack objected, due to Simon’s questionable past, Carly defiantly ignored his warnings. Unfortunately, Jack wound up being correct  Simon had secured a loan from a loan shark who was demanding payment. Ultimately, he and Carly decided to pull an elaborate jewel heist on Vienna. Though they were successful, Katie (with whom Simon had a one night stand) became suspicious and blew the whistle on the pair. Carly and Simon then went on the run to evade the police.

With Carly gone, Jack started to form a close friendship with Katie. Over the course of several weeks, they bonded. Then one day when Katie lamented to Jack about her love life, he unexpectedly kissed her.  As Jack was beginning to look on Katie as more than a friend so had Brad who made no secret that Katie was becoming close to him. Finally, Katie set the record straight that that was a lie and Jack responded by kissing her. This time, Katie did not ignore it and agreed to go on a date with Jack. As Katie and Jack’s relationship was progressing who should show up but Carly. Carly informed Jack that she and Simon were through; she wanted to come back for her kids. At the same time, the jewels of Leonia were returned and the prince decided not to press charges. However, Jack was far less forgiving and warned Carly that OPD still had her up on charges. He then told her that it might not be a good idea to see the kids since she might end up having to serve jail time. Carly talked him into letting her see the kids and he let them see her at the police station. Though Parker was wary about trusting his mother, JJ pleaded with Jack to help get Carly released. For his kids’ sake, Jack took pity on Carly and told her that he could get the DA to drop the charges if she claimed that Simon coerced her. Carly balked about lying at first, then agreed to gain her freedom.

At the same time, Katie was convinced that Jack and Carly would reunite. Jack assured Katie that he and Carly were over for good and made love to Katie. As Jack and Carly dealt with how her return affected the kids, Katie warned Jack that Carly was plotting to get him back. Jack assured Katie that he would not fall for Carly’s tricks. Later, the same night that Carly made a move on Jack, Jack found out about Brad’s scheme to ruin things with him and Katie by leading her to believe that Jack was going to propose. Deciding it wasn’t a bad idea, Jack did end up asking Katie to marry him. Though he and Carly did bond when they went on to Idaho to rescue a kidnapped JJ, Jack ultimately chose to stay with Katie. Not only that, but he decided to marry her right away. Within minutes of wedding, Jack was shocked to learn that Carly was dying of a lesion on her brain. Jack tried to make Carly’s final days as comfortable as possible. Finally he agreed to go with her to Montana. While exchanging fond memories, Carly asked Jack to make love to her one last time. Jack agreed. When he returned home, Jack found that he could not lie to Katie and confessed. A disturbed Katie immediately sought an annulment. Later, Jack asked Carly to marry him. Though Carly insisted that she didn’t want him to marry her out of some obligation, Jack assured her that he wanted to be with her and pushed for a quick wedding since there wasn’t much time left. Finally, on the day of the wedding, standing at the altar, Carly confessed to Jack and everyone in attendance that she was misdiagnosed: she was not dying. Jack was elated at the news; until he realized Carly had known and kept it a secret. Upset, Jack walked out on Carly and went straight to Katie. Jack begged Katie to take him back but she was stung by his betrayal and refused. Meanwhile, Carly tried to convince Jack that she did what she did out of love, since his actions proved that he still loved her.  Jack refused to give Carly another chance and Carly thought she had lost Jack for good.

Jack was miserable and continually tried to convince Katie to give him another chance. Jack’s frustration was obvious to everyone, especially Carly who bore the blame of everything that happened. Jack’s attitude didn’t improve when he learned that Carly was letting Kit Fowler, the woman whose house JJ was held hostage in, stay at her place. Carly tried to convince Jack that Kit was a good woman who truly wanted to redeem herself but Jack was unconvinced. Not only that, he refused to allow the kids to be at their mother’s unless Kit, and her felon boyfriend, Sam, were out. However, instead of doing so, Carly went into business with Kit, purchasing Metro. It was clear that Carly was trying to put back the pieces of her life but Jack wasn’t impressed; he was too overwhelmed with jealousy over Katie and Brad. At the same time, Carly and Kit worked feverishly to get Metro opened by New Year’s Eve. She even decided to donate a portion of the profits to the Oakdale Police Dept. Not only was the opening a hit, but Jack was very impressed. From that point on, Jack’s anger dissipated and she actually regained some of his respect.

Finally Katie was able to get through to Jack that things were really over between them.  Jack and Carly are once again becoming closer as they work together for their family and in particular to deal with increasing problems with Parker.  Jack has clarified that they are doing things as a family for Parker only.

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