Days of Our Lives Recap: Ciara Tells Claire The Truth
Jack Ori
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Ciara has been struggling with the aftereffects of having been raped by herself.
It's becoming more and more obvious that she is falling apart.
And in a powerful sequence of scenes on Friday's Days of Our Lives, Ciara finally broke down and told Claire the truth.
I'm not happy that the writers chose to demonize Chase and suggest that the Jennings family is all bad. Ciara even said so to Claire.
Don't you dare go meet that piece of... don't meet him anywhere! He's insane, he's just like his dad, he's dangerous!
Ciara
I'd have liked to have seen something else. Anything besides Chase becoming a rapist and Ciara attributing it to him being Aiden's son. I wish that one of these days, the full truth about Andre's involvement in the destruction of the Jennings family would come out.
Claire's extolling of Chase's virtues before she knew the truth was sad.. She was right. Chase, before being rewritten into a villain who has nobody in the world except Andre, was a sweet, quiet kid.
His transformation not only into a rapist but also a stalker who skulks around public places spying on Ciara and her family doesn't really fit his character.
I'm glad that the rape storyline is being handled responsibly, though. The reveal scene was extremely powerful. Everything from Ciara's nodding when Claire asks if she was raped to Hope walking in on the kids and wondering what was wrong was emotional, tense and interesting.
You are the most important thing. Nothing in this world matters except you.
Hope
I couldn't help thinking that if Hope had paid more attention to both Chase and Ciara instead of getting caught up in this stupid revenge plan against Stefano, maybe things would be different. Chase was clearly a troubled kid whose only guidance was coming from Andre.
Perhaps Hope could have done something to intervene before this friendship with Andre and Chase's decision to rape Ciara took place.
No what the hell am I supposed to do? And where the hell is Andre?
Chase
As horrible as what Chase did was, I couldn't help feeling sorry for him when his aunt in Chicago changed her mind about letting him stay with her. Now that Andre's in jail, the kid has nobody.
Once again it made me long for the Chase/JJ story that we never got.
I really don't understand why the Horton House is sometimes Hope's house and sometimes Jen's house. Whenever Hope and Ciara are there, Jennifer and JJ are mysteriously absent.
What was the point of having them all share a house if we don't get any scenes of Hope bonding with Jen or with JJ getting involved in Hope's family crisis? There was so much potential in them all living together, but instead the two families who share the house are isolated from each other and don't participate in each other's storylines.
It would have been fun to see Hope get involved with Abby's wedding plans. We need some more lighthearted scenes.
Instead, Abigail's wedding looks like it's going to be a catalyst for the second round of Bens craziness.
I'm all for JJ and Chad tentatively bonding, working together to help protect Abigail while not quite trusting the other one. That's what I had hoped would happen the first time. I'm also excited for anything that keeps JJ on my screen for more than 30 seconds at a time.
I'm not for Abigail being kept in the dark. As much as I love JJ, he is wrong to not tell her the truth, and if he couldn't, Chad should have after he left. Abby thinks Ben is an unpleasant memory and that's not good, not if he's on the loose.
I suspect JJ still doesn't understand the real reason Paige died and thinks he's preventing a similar tragedy. I hope it doesn't blow up in his face too badly. He still has a tendency to get too down on himself too quickly, and if Abigail is put in grave danger again he will never forgive himself.
Abby needs 24/7 police protection, hopefully with more competent guards than the one that was supposed to be watching Ava. Since Rafe has FBI contacts, this would have been a good storyline for him to get involved in, instead of this inane Hope cover up story.
Hope's reactions at the celebratory memorial for Stefano were interesting. It was clear that nobody at the table would care that Hope killed Stefano. Roman's comments that Stefano could only be dealt with outside the law and everyone's agreement that they wished John had pulled the trigger years ago drove this point home.
Yet Hope was squirming with guilt throughout the get-together and couldn't even bring herself to share a story about Stefano. It's amazing that she was able to keep it together for Ciara's sake the next day!
The memorial was a nice tribute to Stefano. I don't like the idea of celebrating someone's death, but really, how else was the show going to pay tribute to Stefano Dimera? None of the people involved would have come to his funeral.
It was interesting to see Abe celebrate since a couple of weeks ago he told Lani that he wasn't going to look the other way if Hope and Rafe did something improper to Stefano. Lani appears to be interested in continuing to investigate.
I hope so, because I don't think Roman's disappointment in him is enough of a consequence for Rafe's behavior.
Roman's got a lot on his mind, with Steve covering up Joey's murder of Ava on top of Hope and Rafe's coverup of Stefano's murder. I was pleasantly surprised that Roman caught on so quickly and that Joey told Kayla the truth.
I'm glad we didn't have to wait months for these secrets to come out. The question is, what happens next? I don't buy Belle's idea that she can get Steve off on self-defense. I know the law works differently in Salem than everywhere else, but there was no imminent threat to Steve's life.
In other legal news, Eric is becoming even more of a pain in the neck. He is portrayed by a fantastic actor who has been given horrible material for several years. Are we supposed to be rooting for Eric to get that 14 year jail sentence? The way he's acting is making me feel the longer he's away from Salem, the better.
I'm not at all convinced that Jennifer has a drug problem. I am convinced that she has a memory problem, which may go hand-in-hand with the pain she is suffering. I am also convinced that Eric's new addiction is bothering everyone in town about Jennifer's so-called problem.
If Eric really wanted to get sober, he would go to AA meetings by himself regardless of what Jennifer was or wasn't doing. He wouldn't refuse to go just because she didn't show up and he wouldn't be so insistent that he's the only one who will ever notice she has a problem.
If Jennifer did have a problem, I think her son the former addict turned cop would definitely notice, as would Brady, who is also a former addict. Theresa and Hope had some concerns when they saw her, which were dealt with by never having those characters interact with Jennifer ever again.
I also think it is not Eric's job to save Jennifer and that he could do with more attention on himself and less on her.
Also in the realm of silly and annoying is this Summer storyline. I don't like the whole premise. I have no interest in Daniel guiding Brady from beyond the grave because they now share a heart. I would much rather see Daniel be alive and participating in his own storyline.
I have little interest in Summer and I tend to agree with Theresa that she's some kind of con artist. The way she is obsessing over Brady is creepy.
I think Summer is going to try to make it look like Nicole and Brady are having an affair to cause trouble with Theresa. That way she can swoop in and take Brady for herself.
Theresa was 100% right. You don't invite some woman you don't know to share a home with your infant, and that goes double if said woman is known to be unstable.
The only good thing about this storyline is that Nicole is back in investigative mode. The rest of it is unnecessary and uninteresting.
Finally, another secret came out as Victor told both Caroline and Maggie the truth about Deimos
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Maggie, I'm not afraid of many things, but I thought if I told you I might lose you.
Victor
Victor's fear of losing Maggie is definitely his weakness, and Deimos undoubtedly will try to exploit it. Victor's secret wasn't too hard to guess. The only question is whether Helena's death was ever really an accident.
Afterwards, Victor confronted Deimos in a bizarre manner. We all know Victor can be violent when crossed, but what was the point of branding Deimos with the knife, then leaving? Even worse, why did he leave the knife in Deimos' possession?
While Victor was confronting Deimos, his son was trying to get his relationship with Belle under control.
Okay. You couldn't go another minute without coffee. You made some. Now what? Do I get an answer?
Philip
I don't blame Philip for being annoyed. Belle really is all over the place. She wants to have fun, then she wants to make her daughter happy. The one thing she doesn't want is to be in a committed relationship.
I wish Philip would give up on her so we wouldn't have to endure more of these conversations about where their relationship is going
What are your thoughts on this week's Days of Our Lives? Was there a storyline you loved or hated? What's your favorite memory of Stefano?
Share 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.
