3rd Rock from the Sun
3rd Rock from the Sun
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3rd Rock from the Sun

It's what women are supposed to do: get married, have a bunch of kids, hire total strangers to raise them and then wonder where they went wrong

–Sally Solomon on being a woman

Sally Solomon is the sister of Dick and Harry Solomon and the Aunt of Tommy Solomon. She is the Lieutenant, Security Officer, and second-in-command on the mission.

At the beginning of the series, Sally didn't have a job outside of the unit and acted as the carer or nurturer for the family, which was apparently the typical womanly role. The irony of this is Sally does not have a nurturing bone in her body and was terrible at cooking for Dick, Harry and Tommy. Nevertheless, she proved to be the de facto head of the household and they quickly descended into chaos without her presence. By the end of the series, Sally became a weather reporter for the local news.

Sally has moved twice throughout the series. The first time was short-lived; while helping her friend, Nina move houses she joined her but was quickly kicked out due to their clashing personalities. The second time was when she moved into Mamie Dubcek's loft above the unit's apartment but once again left.

Personality[]

Sally had a very harsh and commanding personality, as the Lieutenant, Security Officer and second in command of the mission she used to be very austere and by-the-book towards guidelines, security protocols and the such but her time on Earth has sweetened her personality where she becomes more focused on "womanly activities"; shopping, cooking and the like instead of protecting the team. Sally used to hate her role as the woman of the family, believing there was no respect in the position for a war veteran and military officer and the only reason she obviously became the woman was that she lost a contest of some kind.

Eventually, Sally grew to enjoy being the woman. As by Earth standards, Sally has been considered attractive, she constantly uses sex to dominate men as well as manipulating her boyfriend, Don does what she wants. Realizing she was in the wrong about controlling Don, she agrees to abuse her power of being "hot" less.

A notable side of Sally is her relentless protection over the team and her readiness to exterminate anything that might jeopardize the cover. She is the only alien who is prepared to crucify a human and Tommy describes her as a "sadistic bimbo" because of this. Such examples of this are when she attempted to slaughter Mary Albright's brother in a cornfield after he states he was abducted, and the news reporter who attempted to do an article on the Big Giant Head and Vicki Dubcek's baby.

Despite her bellicose, self-confident nature, Sally, like most of the team, is credulous especially whenever it comes to Earth customs and socializing with humans. She has difficulty understanding metaphors, sarcasm and figures of speech and takes everything literally. She also has little tact and says what is on her mind whether it is rude or blunt or not. While all of the team possesses this trait, it's unknown if this is because of her lack of Earth knowledge or because of her impatience for everyone in general. She also is known to have the worst judgement whenever it comes to men. Though she openly dominates men and has no false modesty regarding her attractiveness, she failed to realize when Harry became a model that her dynamic with Don was that she was the attractive one, which even Don realized about the looks but Sally claims that she was out of his league, (which Don takes advantage of completely). Other examples include when she began changing her personality, appearance and beliefs after dating Seth and being unmindful that she was being sexually harassed by her boss (thinking she was harassing him).

Life on Earth[]

Sally's assignment is to find out what the life of a woman on Earth is like. In the episode Brains and Eggs it turns out Sally, a highly trained, decorated, combined combat specialist/military tactician, lost some sort of contest and therefore was made to be the woman. She sent in a complaint, and later switched bodies with Dick's. But she decided that she liked being the woman, and got to stay that way.

Instead of fighting and protecting like she is trained for, she is shopping, cooking, etc. Sally has a lot of self discipline, and does what she needs to do. Even though she is very "macho" she later becomes more ditzy and lazy. She for some reason generally doesn't like Mary Albright, who she simply calls "Albright". However, she does have moments where she shows solidarity with Mary, compliments her as "the smartest woman in the world," and displays a genuine fondness/friendship with her.

She mainly stays at home with her brother Harry or hanging out with her boyfriend Don Orville. She sometimes senses danger and goes into further investigation, but usually there is no threat. She believes she is the strongest in Rutherford, until someone else (Janice) comes into the police force and is stronger.

Relationships[]

Sally has a flirtatious nature and most of the men she meets fall for her. She has the ability to make men do pretty much what she wants. Sally uses this to her advantage.

Mr. Kevin Randall[]

Early on in the series Sally starts to date Tommy's teacher Mr. Kevin Randall, who Sally refers to as Mr. Randall because she thinks this is what sophisticated people do.

However, the relationship doesn't last as Mr. Randall finds her too dominating and overpowering, when Sally tries to become more subordinate and quite, she manages to anger Mr. Randall further as he believes her to be being manipulative. He breaks up with her over lunch. After talking it through with the family she tries to make amends by attempting to sleep with him, however this does not work and thus the relationship ends.

Don Orville[]

After Sally receives a parking ticket she goes to the police station thinking she has won $150, when the officer tells her she hasn't she starts shouting and officer Don comes out. Instantly attracted, he makes the fine 'disappear'.

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Sally and Don

She originally falls in love with Don exclusively because he is a police officer. When speaking to each other, they adopt a dramatic film noir mode of speech. Even though Don isn't considered good looking, Sally thinks of him as devastatingly attractive because of his uniform and job. She wants to be a good girlfriend to him, and sometimes thinks she's not good enough for him, or not pretty enough. Even though this isn't true, Don goes along with it and doesn't tell her otherwise in case she'll leave him.

Don is a coward, but dreams of being a hard-boiled detective. While he plays up the powerful "tough guy" act with Sally, deep down she knows what he's really like ( as seen in Season 2 Episode 25 "A Nightmare on Dick Street," when Sally has a nightmare that Don is actually a chicken and shoots him, only to regret it immediately after). Once it is shown he is a weakling and he wants to be a baker, she feels almost betrayed. They break up when it's finally time for her and the rest of the "family" to go home.

Although their relationship starts out shallow and based on misconceptions and lies, it develops into real love and friendship ( within the parameters of a goofy sitcom universe ), as seen in Season 4 Episode 13, "Sally Forth," when Don proposes and Sally has to look into herself. Sally tells Don that he is her best friend. She then tearfully explains that, despite her appearance, she's not mentally an adult and needs more life experiences before marriage. Don, in a rare showing of love over selfishness, understands and ( also tearfully ) tells her that he must give her her freedom, because he loves her so much.

Alternate Universe[]

In the two-part episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan" Sally is a famous column writer for a newspaper with her main topic being sex. In this universe she is dating Don Orville who happens to be Mayor of the city and married to another woman. After Sally finds out that he's married to some other woman she gets upset and tells Don off then is eventually swoon back to him.

Sally's character in the alternate universe is an homage to 'Sex and the City' ; She writes a sex column for a newspaper, she has an addiction to shoes, she smokes, she has the same fashion-sense as Carrie (and hair style) she even has a 'Carrie' necklace. At one point the group are seen gossiping in a restaurant with cocktails a la "Sex and the City".

Trivia[]

  • Her two best friends are Vicki and Nina. She also considers Marla as a close friend.

Gallery[]

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