Brady's desperate to get Kristen out of his and Rachel's life, and that means he's about to screw everything up.

Kristen's already setting the groundwork for Rachel to have  serious mental health issues. Brady acting crazy isn't going to help.

But according to spoilers for Days of Our Lives during the week of 7-17-23, Rachel will walk in on Brady holding Kristen at gunpoint in a last-ditch effort to get his daughter back!

Brady's behavior is understandable, misguided as it is.

He's gotten horrible advice from Marlena and Belle, suggesting he'll lose custody to Kristen and her non-existent lawyer because he "let" her disappear by sending her to a sleepaway camp she ran away from.

He believes them, and in Salem the law works differently, so he feels backed into a corner. He doesn't want Kristen to continue manipulating Rachel and doesn't see any legitimate way to stop her.

No wonder he pulls a gun on her!

Still, this can't end well. It'll only give Kristen legitimate grounds to seek full custody, not to mention that Brady could go to jail if Kristen reports the crime to Jada.

And that doesn't even begin to cover the damage it'll do for Rachel to walk in on this.

The most frustrating part of this is that it could all have been avoided if anyone had bothered to parent Rachel appropriately.  The most she ever gets from Brady is a half-hearted order to go to her room, followed by reassurances that he's not angry.

Rachel needs to experience adults' anger and disappointment when she misbehaves.

She also needs to understand the truth about Kristen and why Kristen and Brady will never live together again. There are ways to do this that are empathetic and supportive but also set firm boundaries, but no one is doing that, and that has left the door wide open for Kristen to manipulate her.

Now both her parents have been violent toward each other and Kristen can use this latest misdeed to manipulate Rachel further. Ugh.

Please scroll down to get more details about this and seven other Days of Our Lives spoilers for the week of 7-17-23,

Rafe and Paulina become concerned when Lani is a no-show.

Lani's decision to rescue Abe herself without informing Jada or asking for backup is one of the worst decisions she's made yet.

Abe likely doesn't remember who Lani is. He's also heavily sedated and dreaming he's on Body and Soul.

There's no way Lani pulls this off before Whitley arrives home and takes her prisoner too.

And with her due back in prison in a few hours, that's bad news for Lani -- although she IS wearing an ankle monitor, so maybe she'll be found quickly.

Steve and John break into Jerry’s apartment.

Steve and John are on somewhat of a wild goose chase here. While Jerry did help Whitley with her ridiculous plan, he's not the person who kidnapped Abe.

Steve shouldn't have listened to Whitley's obvious lies. He should also have informed the police and let them deal with Jerry.

Hopefully, though, he'll at least get a clue to where Abe is really hidden from this misstep.

Brady rips up the custody agreement.

Brady should have signed the agreement, gotten Rachel back, and THEN ripped it up.

That would have been so much more satisfying. But he couldn't delay gratification and did it too soon.

Now Kristen has the upper hand because Rachel is still missing. No wonder Brady decides to pull a gun on her!

Belle and Jada connect over the search for Rachel.

This should be interesting, especially considering that Belle is Eric's half-sister and Jada is his ex-girlfriend.

Hopefully, their connection will be about something else than whether Eric was stupid to dump Jada!

Still, these two characters haven't crossed paths much recently, and it's always fun when people who don't know each other well end up working together.

Brady is in trouble after Kristen reports his threat.

Unsurprisingly, Kristen'll spin it so she's an innocent victim.

Brady's behavior was illegal and violent, but not fully unprovoked.

Still, he should face some consequences for his actions. But so should Kristen, who kidnapped her daughter.

And what about Rachel, who probably won't even be questioned by the police about why she ran away and who told her to hide in the mansion?

Maggie walks in on Justin and Bonnie talking about keeping Sarah’s secret.

Sarah's pregnancy news should be hers to tell, not Bonnie's and Justin's.

But since they had to follow the annoying trope of talking a bout it in Maggie's house, they'll have no choice but to tell her when she wlaks in on them.

Will Sarah come back to Salem once the news is out? With Philip on his way home, moving Xander away from Chloe and back to Sarah might not be a bad idea.

Eric and Sloan take a big step.

Eric and Sloan already took a big step by deciding to try for a baby. Checking their pregnancy test results isn't that huge.

According to spoilers, that test will be positive.

That makes Sloan the third pregnant person in Salem. Most likely someone will either lose a baby or somehow all these babies will get switched at birth despite being conceived at different times.

And what'll happen if Eric learns that Nicole's baby is his or that Sloan submitted her own DNA instead of his for the paternity test?

Marlena offers a piece of info about Whitley .

Marlena will tell Kayla that Whitley was once her patient.

Undoubtedly, she can't say anything else because of doctor-patient confidentiality, much to Kayla's chagrin.

But she may have some insight into why Whitley took Abe and what her next step is, so once she reveals that she's Whitley's doctor, she will face a lot of pressure to divulge more.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts and theories!

If you'd like to chat about already-aired episodes of Days of Our Lives, check out the latest Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekdays at 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST.

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.