If the Devil feeds off of evil, it certainly found fertile ground!

Although for some reason, the supernatural creature is obsessed with getting Marlena to let it fully possess her, there is more than enough evil in Salem to keep it satiated for years.

On Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-04-21, Philip's irrational jealousy, Ben's struggle with his fear of passing on a tendency toward violence, and EJ's attempt to control everyone and everything were only a few things the Devil might have loved to get its demon horns into, if only it weren't so stuck on Marlena.

Not that the Devil didn't do enough damage with what it's doing, of course.

The whole Doug getting locked up in Bayview story could have been so moving if only it were a realistic dementia storyline.

Instead, Julie thinks Doug has dementia, while everyone believes Doug hit her when she pointed out that such a thing was impossible.

And instead of putting up any fight at all, Julie decided off-screen to commit Doug to Bayview on Marlena's say-so. This was out of character and made little sense, especially since Julie was already aware that something was off about Marlena and that Doug was physically incapable of having hit her.

If they were going to go this route, they should have gone all-in and had Doug's commitment take place on-screen.

Those might have been emotional scenes that could have balanced out the silliness elsewhere in this story.

Of course, Bill Hayes might not have been available for a bit, which would require the writers to find some reason to write Doug out. But still, this felt rushed and like something that should not have been done off-screen.

Julie's explanation for why Hope wasn't returning also wasn't up to par.

Again, the writers needed to explain somehow since Days of Our Lives refuses to recast Hope.

But it didn't make sense that Hope would stay on the other side of the world because Doug is temporarily not allowed, visitors.

Even if she couldn't see Doug right now, wouldn't Hope want to be in Salem to support Julie?

I also have a problem with Doug being isolated because he's considered a danger to himself. That didn't seem realistic and again reinforced stereotypes, this time about how mental hospitals are terrible places that keep patients in solitary confinement.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to send someone believed to be suffering from advanced dementia to a mental hospital rather than a facility specifically for dementia patients, either.

Nor does it make sense that no one questioned why Doug went from perfectly healthy to so out of it that he's allegedly hitting Julie over the head within weeks.

This story is hard to take seriously anyway since it revolves around this silly Devil possession, but it would be a lot easier to suspend disbelief if any of the details were at all realistic!

If I were Marlena, I'd check myself into Bayview instead of committing Doug, too.

Marlena is hearing the Devil's voice all the time now, and it appears that no one else can hear it since Ben didn't when he was standing three feet away.

If Marlena doesn't want to believe she's been possessed again, she should suspect she's having a psychotic breakdown that was triggered by John constantly going on about how he doesn't want to open the door for a second possession.

She should, at the very least, seek treatment for this. Or at least tell someone what's going on.

Why she's keeping her conversations with the Devil to herself is beyond me. The Devil also apparently lacks logical reasoning skills, as telling Marlena that letting it possess her would allow her to do even worse things to people she loves isn't exactly a selling point!

Anyway, the best part of the week was Maggie's return!

Actress Suzanne Rogers is finally back after a medical scare that kept her out of commission for months, and she picked up where she left off as if she'd never been gone.

Maggie's half-amused, half annoyed reaction to learning about Victor's latest manipulations was classic, and she was her usual sunny, supportive self with Julie.

And she also confronted Philip about his bad behavior with Chloe. Hopefully, she can talk him out of continuing this unnecessary war with Brady. But even if she does, it's probably too late.

Chloe has been adamant that she doesn't want to go around in circles with these two, and I don't blame her.

No sooner did she finally get Brady to see the light than Phillip started up with the crazy, jealous behavior.

If Chloe hadn't walked in right then, he would have cut down the new tree that he planted to apologize for cutting down the old one.

Not only has he learned nothing from jumping to conclusions and acting destructively over and over, but at this point, Philip is becoming abusive.

He's going through that cycle of verbally berating Chloe, then saying he's been a jerk and apologizing. He even did the whole honeymoon phase of being on his best behavior and acting like he wasn't allowing Brady to get to him anymore, only to explode over an innocent hug.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so could Days of Our Lives please not act like this is acceptable behavior?

Chloe deserves better than either of these guys, honestly. Given Philip's behavior, he deserves to be broken up with, but she shouldn't run to Brady's arms, either.

Brady has been nothing short of obnoxious. Not only has he taken digs at Philip every chance he got, but he also tried to poison his young daughter's mind against her great-uncle just because he doesn't want to lose Chloe to Philip.

Meanwhile, when not fighting with Chloe about Brady, Philip has been busy acting like a pseudo mob boss with Gabi.

I'm glad he fired her. He should have done that a long time ago. But the threats he made if she didn't sign over her company to him sounded like he was trying too hard to be like Victor at his worst.

It's not a good look on him.

The entire concept of the mob giving an ex-member enough info to get another ex-member thrown into jail for life was ridiculous, too. Mob families don't work that way!

I suppose that the mob might have wanted to get some revenge on Jake for bowing out, but no mob boss worth anything would handle it this way.

It's more likely that someone would have put out a hit on Jake a long time ago, and if they wanted him to take the fall for murder, he'd have been forced into it long before Philip found out anything about it.

Also, what in the world did Gabi's story about her killing Nick have to do with Jake witnessing a murder and being able to stop it?

That seemed more like the writers wanting to shoehorn in Gabi's history than anything else. The two situations weren't remotely similar.

Gabi and Jake's support of each other is interesting, but Gabi making Philip the bad guy in this is unforgivable.

Philip was good to Gabi. They were friends and dated for a bit and parted amicably when they each went back to their true love.

But now Gabi is throwing tantrums about how horrible Philip is when she is the one who stabbed him in the back for no reason, destroying both their professional and personal relationships.

And no, Philip shouldn't have blackmailed her to get her company back -- he should have just fired her and let the chips fall where they may regarding Gabi Chic. But Gabi put all this in motion, not him.

This all makes Gabi even more unlikable than usual. She's willing to throw away almost anything to prove a point about Ava being bad for Rafe! And mess with someone who has been nothing but good to her, then blame him. Ugh.

Elsewhere, the Paulina/Abe scenes provided some badly needed romance. Too bad it isn't going to last.

This silly secret shouldn't kill their relationship.

Paulina has been blackmailed by her mother and sister into staying silent for over 30 years, Abe dealt with something similar when Lexie found out that HER aunt was really her mother, and Abe can continue to treat Lani as his daughter even if they don't share genetic material.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that the truth will come out at the wedding, causing Abe to leave Paulina at the altar and vow to never speak to her again -- over nothing.

Talk about manufactured drama! Sheesh.

Elsewhere, EJ and Rafe butted heads over EJ's date with Nicole.

That should have been the end of both EJ/Nicole and Rafe/Ava, but since the writers are determined to drag this out, it wasn't.

Nicole was unfazed by EJ's abusive behavior toward Johnny and Chad, instead insisting on him coming with her so she could help him calm down.

The implication was clear: Nicole can get through to EJ like no one else can, and maybe they're soulmates after all.

Again, it's Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Can we not put people and their former abusers together, please?

Finally, Ben and Ciara's baby drama would be a compelling storyline if it wasn't entangled with the Devil's stupidity.

Marlena provided the listening ear and safe space Ben needed to make his own decision. But then the Devil had to interfere and demand she push Ben in the wrong direction.

I'm sure it couldn't resist after hearing Ben talk about evil and dark sides and fighting his demons. But what I don't understand is why Marlena is beholden to it at all.

Plus, if it wants to possess Marlena, how is it going to have any power over Ben and Ciara's child? I suppose the Devil can possess two people at once, but it's been singleminded so far.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics!

What did you think of the possession storyline, Abe and Paulina's romantic evening, or everything else that happened?

Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know!

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Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV after 8 PM EST/5 PM PST on weeknights.

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.