Days of Our Lives Recap: Playing With Fire

Days of Our Lives only aired for two days this week, as it was pre-empted for Memorial Day and again for the French Open.

A lot happened in just two episodes. Nicole's dangerous game with Deimos pit her against Kate again, Hope struggled with her feelings after Chase was stabbed, and Joey took Steve's advice to mean that he should do the stupidest thing possible and get himself arrested for Jade's sake.

Let's start with what didn't happen, though. Last Friday's show ended with JJ lying on the floor after being punched by Rory, and for all we know he's still there since we didn't see this storyline at all. I realize it was a short week, but it would have been nice to see what happened next.

JJ is a legacy character played by an extremely talented actor, yet the writers seem determined to make him a background character. A couple of weeks ago, he contracted a supposedly deadly virus. after which he fought for his life entirely off-screen. Then he apparently healed quickly, went back to work, got into a conflict with former best friend Rory... and promptly disappeared.

Hopefully his story will continue where it left off next week, though the way things are going, it would be unsurprising (and very disappointing) if next time we see him, it's a different day altogether and our only clue as to what happened is Gabi talking to Eduardo about it.

Also missing was Jennifer, who saw Jack's ghost at her AA meeting last week and has not been seen since. Her storyline is realistic and relatable and I would have preferred to see some time devoted to it during this short week than to the storylines that were front and center.

Dario: I still think you're playing with fire.
Nicole: I've been playing with fire my whole life.

Permalink: I've been playing with fire my whole life.

A lot of screen time was devoted to this ridiculous Nicole/Deimos/Kate triangle. Nicole is an amazing character -- a strong, take-no-nonsense woman with great investigative instincts and a tendency to get into trouble. Why she's stuck in this ridiculous fight over Deimos is beyond me. There are so many more interesting ways to use this character.

She's got a complicated semi-friendship with Jennifer that should have factored into Jen's addiction storyline, she could drive Hope nuts by helping Rafe investigate Aiden and making Hope worry that in the end Rafe was going to end up falling for her least favorite Salemite, she could look into what's going on at Shady Hills Mental Hospital...

All of those stories would allow us to see Nicole's brain and heart rather than just her ability to get a man into bed.

Anyway, so Kate showed up in Deimos' bed, then promptly replaced his insistence on a pre-nuptial agreement with a condition of her own: never talk to Nicole again. Naturally, after an annoying conversation with Dario about how much she detests Deimos, Nicole called him and made a last ditch effort to seduce him.

It appears the race is on to see who will marry Deimos first, and who -- if anyone -- actually cares about him rather than getting married for the sake of pursuing some other agenda.

I didn't think about what you need, or what you don't need, which is someone who is ambivalent and confused.
Kayla

Permalink: I didn't think about what you need, or what you don't need, which is someone who is...

This silly non-relationship between Kayla and Fynn almost went to the next level, as Fynn began kissing Kayla. Kayla stopped their makeout session because she was confused and ambivalent.

The only way this makes sense is if Kayla's behavior is entirely driven by her subdural hematoma. Her symptoms seem more like stress migraines than anything else; could her head injury be causing her to be deluded about who she's in love with?

It makes no sense that she threw away the love of her life and is now hooking up with her most incompetent employee while her son is missing.

You don't find yourself by running away.
Steve

Permalink: You don't find yourself by running away.

After breaking into a souvenir shop to get Jade a crystal, Joey finally woke up and decided that a life of crime wasn't for him. He disregarded Jade's wishes and went back to the commune to get his backpack, where he ran into Steve. Unfortunately, he also ran into some cops.

Steve was right that running away wasn't the answer. The deeper issue is that Joey appears to have been willing to throw his entire life down the drain for Jade. So far she hasn't shown any redeeming values. She loves doing illegal things and disapproves of Joey having any connection with his parents at all.

Jade might be pretty, but if Joey is this willing to destroy his entire life for her sake, he has very serious problems and if he ever gets out of this mess Steve and Kayla had better put him in intensive therapy.

Anyway, Steve encouraged Joey to take responsibility for his actions, so Joey jumped into the middle of a confrontation between Jade and the cops and showed off his new tattoo, then confessed to driving the getaway car. He was arrested while Steve watched from the closet.

This didn't seem to be Joey taking responsibility for his actions as much as it did more self-destructive behavior in the name of protecting Jade. Perhaps Joey's karma is catching up with him since he wasn't arrested for Ava's murder, but his behavior hardly made him sympathetic.

The writers appear to be going for a rehash of JJ's storyline back in 2013, where JJ acted out for months because of emotional problems following Jack's death and was left with deep regrets and a criminal record that interfered with his ability to move forward. The problem is that JJ was actually sympathetic.

Joey is not -- he's just idiotic, and this story is not working at all.

They said they've known since I was five. They were just waiting for me to figure it out.
Henry

Permalink: They said they've known since I was five. They were just waiting for me to figure it out.

There were some sweet scenes between Paul and Henry. Henry developed a crush on his mentor and asked him out, then made inappropriate comments about how teachers and students sleep together all the time when Paul gently told him they could not have that kind of relationship.

I wish we had seen more of their relationship on-screen. It would have been nice for Henry to have had a reaction when Paul was in the hospital and for there to be scenes of the teens talking and Henry fantasizing about Paul.

In addition, it would have been interesting to actually see Henry talk to his parents rather than hearing about their acceptance of him off-screen. I also felt like it was too easy for Henry; it seems like no matter how unaccepting anyone's parents are on this show, they come around as soon as their kid verbalizes that they are gay.

Unfortunately, it's not always that easy in real life and a storyline about someone struggling with it would be moving and relevant.

Finally, Hope struggled with her feelings after Aiden's son Chase was stabbed. These scenes were really well done. There was a ton of chemistry when Hope grabbed Aiden's hand and a ton of pain when she realized she couldn't support the father of the kid who had raped her daughter.

Aiden is right that Chase needs psychiatric help. Putting him in a mental hospital does not negate his crime nor mean he is advocating Chase bothering Ciara.

As for Ciara, she needs to stop being ridiculous. Her crush on Chad is going to go nowhere, and if she had a competent therapist instead of Marlena she would realize that. In addition, there was no reason for her to go to the hospital and stare at Chase. The police guard that was supposedly outside the door should have chased her off.

Did you enjoy this short week of Days of Our Lives? What storyline are you most looking forward to when it returns?

Weigh in below, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for our Round Table Discussion!