Most of this week's Days of Our Lives involved everyone panicking after three violent criminals escaped from prison and began wreaking havoc in Salem.

Victor's nephew Xander joined forces with Clyde Weston and Roman's 1980s partner turned enemy, Orpheus, to turn what should have been a happy occasion into a terrifying experience.

Orpheus showed up at the Kiriakis mansion, where he promptly took Eve hostage while she was waiting for Theresa to arrive for her wedding. Meanwhile, Xander broke into Theresa and Brady's townhouse and attacked Theresa while she was getting her wedding dress ready for the big event.

Orpheus might have seemed like an odd choice for a villain, since he was last seen about 30 years ago and many viewers don't know who he is.

However, he has strong reasons for his horrible activities and his malice is borne of pain, which makes him an extremely compelling villain. He clearly sees himself as superior to Clyde, who he is barely tolerating, and who knows what he thinks of Xander.

Xander and Clyde also have strong reasons for their hatred of various people in Salem, although for them it's more about not wanting to be in jail than anything else. Orpheus' hatred comes from the pain of losing his wife, making him not unlike Deimos and his pain over losing Helena.

Who said you can't go home again?

Orpheus

• Permalink: Who said you can't go home again?

Of course, Orpheus was supposedly killed by John back when John was believed to be Roman, and he has refused to explain how he ended up alive and in prison. The story behind that would have added an interesting touch to this prison break, but it doesn't appear to be important to the writers.

In any event, Orpheus seems to be aware that Roman killed his wife and John "killed" him and is therefore after both of them. Oddly, he was happy to take Paul hostage and threaten to kill him but had no interest in Brady -- the son that John actually got to raise.

Presumably Eve just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as she had no connection to Orpheus' past.

Xander was the creepiest of the three villains. His attempt to strangle Theresa was bad enough, but his phone call in which he revealed he was stalking Nicole sent chills down my spine!

Then there was the way everyone else responded to the crisis.

Some people were incredibly selfish, mainly people whose last name was Hernandez.

Gabi complained that her cop boyfriend JJ's attempt to monitor text alerts about the criminals' whereabouts took away from giving her his undivided attention.

Not only was JJ doing his job, but Clyde Weston would likely target Gabi to get back at both JJ and Rafe. But that thought never seemed to cross her mind at all.

Meanwhile, across town, Rafe fretted over whether Aiden would find out the truth about Stefano's murder and that appeared to take precedence for him over the investigation into the escaped criminals.

And, of course, the convicts wouldn't have escaped in the first place had Eduardo not decided that attacking a prisoner who supposedly threatened his family was more important than just getting the prisoners to where he was supposed to take them.

Apparently selfishness is a Hernandez family trait. It is not an attractive one and it makes both Rafe and Gabi less rootable both as individuals and as members of a couple.

Gabi's behavior towards JJ this week was absolutely atrocious.

JJ has gotten the short end of the stick for years. He's often treated by the writers as inferior to the rest of his family. His mental illness issues were written as criminal behavior, his rape by Eve was written as consensual, and now Gabi's mistreatment of him is written as if we are supposed to be sympathetic to her.

Gabi has not let go of the fact that JJ didn't lean on her for support when he lost his sister, and spent her time this week punishing him for it by not telling him about important issues in her life and picking fights with him.

When she wasn't doing that, she was busy flirting with Chad and JJ interrupted them just as she was about to try to kiss Chad.

Many viewers took exception with JJ saying he didn't think Gabi should take a job with Chad. However, he has legitimate reasons for his concerns. It's not insecurity when you see someone about to cheat on you and then are concerned about it.

JJ was wrong to lash out about Chad's background but he was 100% right to be concerned about Gabi's proximity to his rival.

Gabi's behavior is exceedingly immature. If she no longer wants to be with JJ because she lacks the empathy to understand that not everyone handles grief the way she would want her partner to, then she should break up with him.

Instead, she is trying to get Chad interested in her while simultaneously causing arguments with JJ. It is almost as if she lacks the courage to end the relationship and is hoping to get him to do it for her.

This is borderline abusive and JJ deserves better. The more Gabi behaves this way, the more inclined I am to agree with Julie that he should end the relationship, though Gabi's behavior towards Nick has nothing to do with the reasons.

If Gabi wants JJ to trust her and confide in her, this type of behavior needs to go and she needs to become a person he can trust.

JJ has always had massive trust issues and has a hard time being vulnerable and expressing his emotions, often using anger to hide his pain.

He has some wrongheaded idea that men shouldn't cry or be emotional despite being a deeply emotional person. Before his character was rewritten to have no interest in music, he expressed those passionate feelings through his music, which is what caused Paige to fall in love with him.

And now he continues to have difficulties being vulnerable and instead of being supportive and understanding of how hard this is for him, his girlfriend is endlessly punishing him for it while wishing he would be more open with her.

This is not the way to create a rootable couple, at all.

Rafe isn't much better. He is so jealous of Aiden and fearful of Hope's secret being exposed that he'd rather Aiden not be given a heads-up that Clyde Weston is back in town and is putting the cover-up of Stefano's murder above the manhunt for the convicts.

Think about what you're saying. Ben killed four people, including my grandson. There is no turning this around, especially not with Chad's son.

Kate

• Permalink: Think about what you're saying. Ben killed four people, including my grandson. There is no...

Clyde's attack on Kate was one of the highlights of the week because it allowed Kate to finally show some humanity.

In recent months, she has been someone who would stop at nothing to get what she wants. This is part of Kate's personality, but it's not all of it, and without the human side she just becomes cold and callous and not entertaining to watch.

Kate's relationship with Clyde never made any sense. She should have been aware from the beginning how similar he was to Curtis Reed, who had abused her, and got out before it really got started. It also never made sense that when she dumped Clyde he didn't retaliate.

These scenes fixed both of those problems. I loved seeing Kate confront Clyde about his abuse of Ben and of her and point out that his son killed her grandson and there was no way to change that.

One step at a time? Sweetness, I don't know if we have that kind of time anymore.

Steve

• Permalink: One step at a time? Sweetness, I don't know if we have that kind of time anymore.

Across town, Steve and Kayla reconciled... sort of.

Kayla was still pretty obnoxious post-surgery but hopefully that will go away as she recovers. Steve attempted to protect Kayla from Orpheus in his own way, which she resented.  John gave Steve some good advice while Marlena gave some to Kayla.

The most annoying thing about this was Kayla taking her oxygen mask off so she could try to run away. This happens all the time on this show. Oxygen is not optional, and it would be nice if just once, a hospital scene where someone needed it was not written as if they can live without it for a few minutes.

Finally, the teens whined about college and fulfilled every negative stereotype about the millennial generation.

Claire refused to let Abe take her home so that she could take photos of herself on her phone. The only good that could possibly come out of this annoying set-up is if JJ comes to get her and they bond over music while he's prevailing on her to have the sense to stay home until the crisis is over.

Was there a storyline you loved or hated on this week's Days of Our Lives? Weigh in below!

Don't forget to check back in on Sunday for the 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.