Days of Our Lives Review: Coverups and Corruption
Jack Ori
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Abuse of police power is a serious issue.
In real life, people's lives have been ruined and families torn apart by police officers who misuse power, and police corruption causes massive headaches for administrators and PR representatives.
A soap opera like Days of Our Lives could tell some powerful stories about the inappropriate use of police power.
Unfortunately, in the past few years, Days has chosen to go the route of turning corrupt cops into heroes and suggesting that abuse of power is okay if the targets of violence are bad people.
That's why Raines was initially a breath of fresh air. He wanted to clean up the department and was the only cop to stand up to Hope's murder of Stefano and call it what it was.
Unfortunately, after that, he became a one-note character who hated everyone except Abigail and bullied JJ for no apparent reason.
I was glad to see him go, but his ignoble exit left a lot to be desired.
It made little sense that someone like Raines would turn out to be involved in a counterfeiting scheme, especially when his motive appeared to be padding his pension. It made even less sense that that person would turn violent, running over Abigail and holding a gun to Gabi's head.
I had a lot of problems with the Gabi/Raines scenes. First of all, Gabi's attempts to stand up to Raines came off as more whining and not using her brains at all. She was so annoying that I wished Raines would have thought to tie her up and gag her so that I wouldn't have to hear any more.
More importantly, all of a sudden Raines started talking like a stereotypical gang member. This didn't fit his persona at all and I thought it was a little offensive.
I'm not against there being characters who are violent, criminal or members of gangs. But I am against a character suddenly changing his patterns of speech and behavior to fit a stereotype that he has never fit prior to this moment, especially when that stereotype perpetuates the myth that black men are prone to violence.
I also found Raines' new dialect and behavior distracting because it was a complete 180 from the character we'd seen all this time. I can believe that Raines gave into the temptation to get extra money for himself, maybe. But this change was so extreme it could only be explained by a tumor or other brain injury.
I also was less than thrilled that Hope and Rafe played such a big part in taking Raines down. Raines was right about one thing: Hope and Rafe's involvement in Stefano's death disqualified them from commenting on anyone else's behavior in the police department.
In addition, JJ put together on his own everything that had happened, and all the reward he got for it was being shoved around by Eli for no reason. He was not present at the showdown.
That's a shame both because JJ is not used very effectively most of the time and because it would be better drama if both Eli and JJ helped rescue Gabi and she had to decide which one of them her heart belonged to later.
The rescue scenes could have been exciting. To an extent, they were, but did anyone doubt that Gabi would be rescued and Raines would be taken down?
I appreciated Eli purposely shooting to wound rather than kill, even though as a trained cop, Raines should have been aware that someone was not following orders and was still pointing a gun at him.
JJ: You're a rock star, sir.
Abe: I don't think anyone's ever called me that before.
The best part of this sequence was everyone congratulating Abe on helping take Raines down when he finally came out of jail. Unlike most of the cops on this show, Abe deserves everyone's admiration. He's so highly moral that it's ridiculous anyone believed for a second that he was actually involved in illegal activity.
I especially liked JJ's comment. It was good to see him smile and to interact positively with Abe, and I thought calling Abe a rock star was a nice reference to JJ's own interest in music, which I hope to see make a comeback someday.
Unfortunately, right after that JJ and Lani came to take Raines away, and JJ purposely pressed on Raines' injured arm.
That was a more inappropriate police action.
Until this point, JJ has avoided being corrupted by writing that suggests that cops can abuse their power all they want as long as they only hurt bad guys, and I want it to stay that way.
Plus, showing a white cop hurting a black suspect doesn't sit well with me in a day and age where there's a ton of racial tension between cops and citizens.
Hattie [posing as Marlena]: It is my professional opinion that Andre Dimera is, without a shadow of a doubt, mentally incompetent.
Andre: What? What are you playing at?
Hattie: I'm a doctor, and I took an oath to help people.
Andre: Help? I don't need help!
Hattie: Not only is Andre Dimera mentally incompetent, but this man is a textbook example of a sociopath.
Elsewhere in Salem, Hattie came up with a bizarre plan to get revenge on Andre. Without Anjelica to keep her in line, she was destined to fail, and she did so spectacularly.
The press conference scenes were among the best this week. I loved Jennifer's bemused comment that she was sure Andre didn't call a meeting so he could announce Kate kissed Roman. Hattie's betrayal of him was a nice twist, though a bit short-sighted on her part since no one betrays Andre and lives to tell the tale.
I'm disappointed, though, that Andre didn't see through Hattie until he found himself imprisoned in Bayview with the real Marlena. Someone of Andre's intelligence and cunning should have realized something was wrong and been playing Hattie as much as she was playing him.
In addition, I don't think committing people to mental hospitals is as easy as Hattie announcing she thinks this person belongs there. I would love to see Days treat mental illness and treatment for mental illness seriously instead of contributing to negative stereotypes that make people who need it reluctant to seek help.
That aside, I'm very interested to see what Andre will do to get out of this predicament and get some revenge of his own. Andre in crazy mode is always fun to watch and Thaao Penghlis is one of the best actors on the show.
Marlena: John, shock therapy is quite safe nowadays. It's even used to treat extreme depression sometimes.
John: Side effects?
Marlena: Well, there's, um, memory loss sometimes.
John: So it could wipe out everything?
Marlena; Well, uh, yeah, that's always possible. I'm thinking that's what Hattie has in mind.
John: No way that's gonna happen. We've made a lifetime of memories, Doc, and we've got a hell of a lot more to make.
It looks, though, like we're in for another last-minute rescue since the orderlies at Bayview are blindly following Hattie's orders while their boss is away and are setting up electro-shock treatments for John and Marlena designed to give them amnesia.
I'm glad someone finally figured out what was really going on. Hope seems to be much smarter when she's not hanging on Rafe's every word.
Now if only someone would figure out that Bonnie isn't who she claims to be either...
The thing I dislike about this storyline is that it requires most of the other characters to be completely clueless.
It's so obvious that Bonnie is not Adrienne and Hattie is not Marlena. Their personalities are not even close and their voices don't sound quite the same as the people they are impersonating.
Bonnie came on to Victor at the end of Friday's show and is continually saying negative things about Maggie. How can Victor and Justin think that this is Adrienne?
Meanwhile, Hattie's cell mate Sheila was released from jail after being rude to Adrienne, who somehow got her to agree to take a card to Justin.
Apparently, Sheila also can't tell the difference between her enemy and a lookalike. I doubt she is actually going to keep her promise to Adrienne, which means that unless someone wakes up soon, we're going to be stuck with this ridiculousness a while longer.
Chloe: Are you okay?
Lucas: If that's code for, am I sober, yes I am sober. I didn't drink today. I just wanted to come by and thank you for helping me with that Anjelica mess.
I'm glad Lucas turned up sober at Chloe's and I hope that continues. It's no secret how much I hate that Lucas threw his sobriety away over "Adrienne" breaking up with him.
I also wish Parker would spend some time in Salem with his mother instead of on the phone with her. Keeping him off-screen just makes Chloe continue to look like an absentee mother.
Brady and Nicole shocked me by actually managing to have an honest conversation. I wish we'd had more of these earlier. Of course, Eric was hanging around looking sad when Nicole and Brady were talking. Nicole then told Brady she wants to continue to work with Eric now that her court mandate is finished.
I am not a fan of this triangle at all. I'm glad Nicole's forgiven Eric for driving drunk and killing Daniel because her bitterness was not good for anyone, but I'm not into Eric and Nicole Round Three.
In any case, I wish the writers would decide who Nicole is going to be with and put her with one of these guys. The constant back and forth is irritating and is not good drama.
Finally, Kayla and Steve had another big fight about Tripp. Am I the only one who is more on Steve's side than Kayla's?
Tripp's behavior was reckless and he almost killed a few patients and ruined Kayla's career before taking her hostage. I agreed with her a few weeks ago that he should pay for all that.
But the rest of this is ridiculous.
Kayla keeps insisting that if Steve loved Joey he would have stopped him from confessing to murder because parents don't want their kids to go to prison.
The idea that Joey actually committed murder -- never mind that he was so consumed with guilt over it that he would have self-destructed if he didn't confess -- doesn't seem to have registered with her.
She kept insisting that Joey was only her son because Steve didn't continue helping him cover up a murder and that Steve chose Tripp over Joey by allowing Joey to confess.
Joey is over 18, murdered someone, and finally did the right thing by confessing, and Kayla is continually throwing tantrums about it.
What happened to the strong, level-headed Kayla who set firm boundaries and didn't let her kids get away with excuses for bad behavior?
Meanwhile, Tripp moved in with Claire and Theo, and Claire's interest in him made Theo jealous.
I like Claire and Theo as a couple and I'm enjoying seeing a mostly normal plot for what's left of the teen set. I hope it doesn't devolve into yet another flat love triangle in which the writers make it clear who we're supposed to root for.
What did you think of Days of Our Lives during the week of 9-4-17? Are you glad Raines is gone or would you have preferred a different ending for him?
Weigh in below, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for the Days of Our Lives 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.
