Days of Our Lives Review: Did Victor Kidnap Tate?
Jack Ori
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The Kiriakis family took sides as Victor was arrested for helping to kidnap little Tate.
A powerful family at war with itself makes for great soap drama, and Days of Our Lives delivered this week. Less exciting was Jennifer's inexplicable relapse and Ciara's attempt to seduce Chad, but at least Ciara got some comeuppance when she walked in on Theo kissing her best friend!
From the beginning, there were signs that Victor was involved in little Tate's disappearance. He had a motive -- the kidnapping conveniently discredited both Summer and Theresa, the two women he wants out of his family for good.
He had a track record of this sort of stunt, having done something similar when Claire was a baby.
And, being Victor Kiriakis, he always has means, even after Deimos supposedly took all of his assets.
There was so much evidence that Victor did it that it made it unlikely that he had anything to do with the kidnapping. Of course, this is the same show that painted a million clues that Ben was the Necktie Killer or that Gabi killed Nick, so the obviousness didn't mean anything.
Anyway, after an investigation that could have been better written, Brady found a burner phone in the alleged kidnapper's hotel room along with his infant son. There was one number in the phone. When Brady dialed it, Victor answered and Brady hung up, crushed.
This underwhelming evidence (seriously, Brady doesn't recognize Victor's number on sight?) was enough for Brady and John to rip Victor from Maggie's bedside after her surgery and take him to jail on suspicion of murder.
Despite the silly setup, this led to some strong drama on Friday when Brady and Sonny faced off about Victor's guilt or innocence.
You don't have facts. You have opinions.
Sonny
Sonny is right -- Brady has scant evidence, and despite Brady's claims that he doesn't want to believe Victor is capable of this, it seems like he's not trying very hard to think critically.
Sonny is always at his strongest when standing up for what he believes in, and his impassioned defense of his uncle to all who will listen was fantastic to watch. I found myself saddened all over again that Will is gone. It would have been wonderful to watch him and Sonny investigate this together.
There's no need for you to defend yourself.. Roman's so sure he got his man he stopped thinking.
Justin
Justin defending Victor is a brilliant soapy move. He is at his best fighting against the legal system instead of trying to be part of it.
However, his attitude towards Roman is more than a little hypocritical. About a year ago, Justin was so determined to put Chad Dimera away for the serial necktie murders that he refused to entertain any suggestion he was mistaken and was both aggressive and obnoxious in how he conducted himself.
Sorry. I have a lot doing somersaults in my head. Like, Victor kidnapping Tate.
Nicole
Deimos is another too-obvious suspect, and it's unfortunate that this situation seems to be a catalyst for a bunch of lovemaking between him and Nicole. Nicole is right that they are moving way too fast. Why couldn't she have thought of that before things got hot and heavy on the couch?
Hopefully Nicole will not have another miracle pregnancy, although if she does she needs to be allowed to carry this one to term. In any case, one accidental Deimos baby is enough.
I told you not to mess with the guy. Deimos is one endless supply of bad news.
Philip
Chloe and Philip's plan to pass off the baby as his could be interesting. This was done before, of course, with Nicole hiding EJ's baby from him, but Philip and Chloe have always been a great match, and Kate is unparalleled as a villanness and antagonist for them.
Kate was positively frightening when shredding the flower in the Square and I'm eager to see what she's got in mind. Why couldn't this have been the cliffhanger scene before the two week hiatus instead of whatever lackluster nonsense aired that day?
Not so great this week was Jennifer's relapse. Many people who struggle with addiction relapse, of course, and Jennifer's gritty scene in the hotel was realistic. But this whole storyline has been riddled with problems from the beginning.
First of all, there wasn't enough buildup. For the past several months, Jennifer's addiction was mainly off-screen, from overuse of pills to attending meetings.
There was nothing on-screen to suggest she had ever bought pills off the street before, so the revelation that she had was a bit shocking. Last we saw, she had been begging doctors for more -- when did her MO change?
It also defies explanation why Jennifer was left completely to her own devices. It was only after she was brought home that Julie revealed she'd been worried ever since Jennifer left. There were no scenes with Julie before this to suggest their was a problem.
Also, since nobody but Sonny was waiting at the hospital during Maggie's surgery, the rest of their family should have been involved in looking for or worrying about Jennifer, but they were all mysteriously absent.
It felt like this was contrived drama to make it so that Chad would have to continue to fight for Thomas. There was no reason for him to decide to give custody to Jennifer to begin with and no foreshadowing that she was going to relapse.
This isn't good storytelling; it's not logical and comes out of nowhere.
Jennifer's speech at her AA meeting later was heartfelt but it sounded like something she would say six months later, not an hour after getting clean again.
It's really a shame because this could be a powerful, relevant storyline if it wasn't so rushed. There are just too many missing beats and it makes addiction look like something that just happens rather than an illness that has definite reasons and warning signs.
The worst storyline of the week was Ciara's declaration of love for Chad. This girl is so self-absorbed, bland and useless that I can't believe she's supposed to be Ciara Brady. Little Ciara was such a spitfire and delight to watch, but this newly aged Ciara adds nothing of value and is one of my least favorite new characters.
Ciara seems to have no concept of Abigail being her cousin and no real understanding that she is presumably dead and that people who love her are upset about that. All she cares about is that she has an opportunity to be with Chad.
Thank God he shot her down, though hopefully it's not so that he can be the next one to have an affair with Belle. Belle is much more likeable while trying to navigate the line between mother and attorney than she is with her wishy-washiness when it comes to Philip and Shawn. Another affair story is the last thing she needs.
Anyway, Ciara was ridiculously insensitive, not to mention delusional. She took Chad's blunt rejection of her to mean that someday he will admit he loves her. She completely deserved walking in on Claire and Theo's kiss.
Ciara can't have it both ways. Theo is not her go-to guy; he's her safety net so she won't be alone and she dumps him whenever something better comes along. Theo deserves someone who makes him their first priority, not just an option, and that seems way more likely to be Claire.
Theo also gets bonus points for being the one and only person to point out that JJ is probably suffering too from the loss of his sister. They'd better not be going for another storyline where JJ loses someone and is promptly ushered off-screen to grieve in private.
Casey Moss is an amazing actor who could rock some grief scenes if he were ever allowed to get any and JJ's jarring absence -- again -- is beyond irritating.
What did you think of this week's Days of Our Lives? Was it worth the two weeks' wait? Weigh in below!
Don't forget to check in on Sunday for our Round Table discussion!
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
