The Phoenix is rising again... or is he?

The pre-Thanksgiving cliffhanger on Days of Our Lives revealed that "Stefano" was now the spitting image of Steve Johnson, minus Steve's iconic eyepatch.

The question is whether Stefano is a brainwashed Steve, or has been given plastic surgery to look like Steve. Either way, this story is due to heat up during the week of 12-2-19.

The spoiler video makes one thing clear: whoever this man is, he believes himself to be Stefano.

Stefano/Steve looks at the portrait Gina has made of him and comments that he has Steve Johnson's face, then later speaks in a faintly Italian accent.

Has Steve been microchipped with Stefano's essence or been brainwashed?

Only time will tell what's going on with this story, but hopefully it will end with Steve and Hope both getting restored to their true selves and Steve reuniting with Kayla.

Meanwhile, there's a lot of other stuff going on in Salem during the week of 12-2-19. Check out our full list of spoilers below.

John and Marlena suspect Stefano sent Marlena those flowers.

It wasn't going to be long before John and Marlena began putting the pieces together.

They know that Stefano never stays dead long and that he has an obsession with Marlena and that Sami didn't send her those flowers.

Before the time jump, John was helping Jack investigate what happened to the flash drive Jennifer had. And Marlena thinks Hope is not acting like herself.

So will they also figure out that Hope has been transformed into Princess Gina?

Justin and Kayla take a big step forward together.

In a flashback, we learned that Justin helped Kayla move into a condo.

And Kayla then came to Thanksgiving dinner.

So, logically, the big step forward has to be them moving in together.

Hopefully, Kayla will find out about this Steve/Stefano thing soon and get to work trying to un-brainwash Steve.

That would make this rushed new relationship with Justin worth it.

Ben tries to stop Clyde from hurting Will.

The writers lack creativity when it comes to prison stories.

Whenever someone is in prison, they run into an enemy from the past who decides to beat them up.

Now it's Will's turn, and Clyde is the bad guy after him.

The good news is that Ben standing up to Clyde on Will's behalf should solidify Ben and Will's friendship.

Besides, spoilers say that Clyde will be sent back to solitary confinement despite having paid off a guard, so Ben will probably be successful in protecting Will.

Evan pulls Sonny into a kiss.

No surprise here. These two have been moving into romantic territory since they met.

But Sonny is still married to Will, even if Will has taken him off his prison visitor's list.

So will Sonny reciprocate when Evan goes for a kiss, or will he pull away?

And if Sonny does go for Evan, how long will it be before Will gets parole and reappears in Salem?

Gabi sends Eli to Rome to thwart Chad.

Um... okay.

What does going to Rome have to do with Chad?

It looks like a plot point to get Eli to the monastery where Lani is about to take her vows.

Spoilers say JJ will also head to Rome in search of Kristen, so will Eli find Lani and JJ together?

JJ is desperate to find Kristen.

The time jump has done JJ's character no favors.

JJ was magically transformed back into the angry, substance-using JJ of 2013, except this time he's high on pills instead of weed and out for revenge on Kristen.

And now he's searching for her, which is better than overdosing on whatever those pills are he keeps taking.

Hopefully, this won't end with JJ murdering Kristen. Talk about character assassination!

Eric is willing to share custody of baby Mickey...on one condition.

Most likely, Eric is going to demand that Xander stay out of Mickey's life. He's been demanding it since the second he found out he is Mickey's biological father.

Sarah is an idiot if she goes along with this for one second.

She is the mother and could get full custody easily, leaving Eric out in the cold if he wants to play manipulative games.

Xander has been raising the baby for six months and losing a primary caregiver this young can cause psychological damage, but Eric doesn't seem to care about that.

Get a lawyer, Sarah! Work this out in court instead of giving in to emotional blackmail.

"Hope" offers resistance to Abigail's attempts to investigate Jennifer's fall.

It's too bad JJ is on drugs instead of helping investigate. 

His instincts are much sharper than Abigail's, and if Gina tried this with him, he'd probably see right through it.

Hopefully, Abigail wakes up to something being off about "Hope."

Her investigation so far shows that "Hope" was the only one there when Jennifer fell so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Lani comes face-to-face with someone from Salem.

With Eli headed to Rome for reasons unknown and JJ searching for Kristen, there's no surprise here.

The only question is which one of her two exes she will run into first and what the interaction will be like.

Lani running away to the monastery in the first place was ridiculous.

All she had to do was tell someone about Gabi's threats.

Will she develop a backbone at this late date or will she run away from her surprise visitor?

Gabi and Chad go head-to-head in their battle for control of Dimera Enterprises.

Yawn.

These constant power struggles over Dimera Enterprises are uninteresting, and these two ex-lovers have been investigating each other forever.

Will they stay enemies, though?

Or are we in for round 3 of Chad/Gabi?

That's all the spoilers we've got, Days of Our Lives fans.

Now it's your turn. 

Give us your best theories as to what's going to happen and let us know what you most want to see.

Want to chat about already aired episodes of Days of Our Lives? Check out our Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Tables.

Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.

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.