Days of Our Lives Recap: Salem Still Under Seige
Jack Ori
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Blackouts are a soap staple. People end up having sex, fighting, and otherwise overreacting to having to share space during this kind of crisis.
On this week's Days of Our Lives, the blackout was part of a convoluted plan to kidnap Joey. Whether viewers care as much as the characters do remains to be seen.
The week began with many Salemites on high alert. All the Kiriakises moved into Deimos' mansion and Deimos insisted Philip invite Chloe there as well.
With Theresa and Chloe under the same roof as Victor and there being bad blood between Victor and pretty much everybody, these scenes were either going to be a set-up for a sitcom or a ton of drama and sniping.
We need to put the past behind us. We need to think about the future. We need to be men.
Brady
Brady was surprisingly mature. He appears to have a gift for making inspiring speeches to his family that has not been shown before. He was right, too -- if the Kiriakises don't present a united front, it'll be easy for Orpheus and company to pick them off one by one by exploiting their weaknesses and hatred for one another.
Sonny's reaction to the revelation that Clyde was behind his stabbing was surprising. He seemed to have no animosity towards Victor for keeping this secret for over a year. However, he did make the connection between Clyde and Ben.
That man tried to have me killed. His son killed my husband. I will not hide.
Sonny
I really liked hearing Sonny's strength and especially that he wasn't going to hide from the man who killed Will. Will has been forgotten for far too long, as if his death didn't matter at all, and it should. His death was unnecessarily brutal, and even more importantly, Sonny did love him.
Sonny wanting to confront Ben for what he did to Will has been a long time coming. If only they would take JJ off the backburner and let his anger at what Ben did to both Paige and Abigail out, there would be an interesting revenge storyline in the works.
Instead, JJ got treated badly by Gabi at the Square. She had no awareness or understanding that the three convicts being on the loose meant that she could be in danger, nor did she seem to appreciate at all that JJ was risking his life to keep her and the rest of Salem safe.
Instead, she was angry that he dared offer her a ride and angrier that he hasn't quit his job as a cop in the middle of this crisis.
And she wasn't even grateful that she has a cop boyfriend after she got stuck in the panic room with Chad.
Predictably, once Chad and Gabi were stuck together, the clothes started coming off. Chad, for his part, behaved honorably. He talked about his past relationship with Gabi and it was clear he meant for it to stay in the past.
Gabi, however, flirted with Chad throughout these scenes. Even her offending him with her crack about Dimeras was meant to be flirtatious.
And when JJ helped get the door open, she wasn't the slightest bit grateful. Instead, the kindness and empathy she'd shown towards Chad disappeared and she told JJ coldly she needed some air, not even bothering to thank him for helping her.
JJ's upset seemed more about that than the clothes being off. He seemed to understand that that was innocent, but Gabi is making it more and more clear that she's hoping he breaks up with her.
He doesn't deserve the shoddy treatment he's been getting from her and the more she keeps it up, the more I wish he would dump her and move on to someone who recognizes his worth.
It's a real shame, too, that JJ's scenes with his cousin Claire have been confined to him telling her not to be on the street and her giving him attitude. If the writers hadn't forgotten JJ's passion for music, he could be a great mentor for her.
She also is a lot like he used to be back when he was first finding his way to adulthood and it would have been nice to see him recognize and grapple with that.
Anyway, Gabi was not the only selfish Hernandez this week. Rafe took time away from searching for the convicts to snipe at Aiden. To her credit, Hope actually told him to stop butting in instead of accepting his nonsensical idea that she needs his protection. But Rafe kept on messing with Aiden anyway.
Isn't there something more useful Rafe could have been doing? For example, couldn't he call in his FBI contacts to aid with the manhunt or with protecting its targets?
The best part of the blackout was seeing Theo have an autistic meltdown as a result of everything that was going on. Theo's autism is rarely depicted on-screen, and these scenes were realistic, though he seemed to snap out of it very suddenly.
Chloe: Think of all the time you’ll spend with Parker.
Nicole: Wow. That’s below the belt.
Deimos took time out from this fearful situation to worry about the important problem of Chloe passing off Deimos' baby as Philip's. Philip and Chloe went to a clinic outside of town; Deimos didn't know about it as soon as he could have because Dario took a break from following Chloe to try to flirt with Nicole, who is still not interested.
Anyway, Deimos asked Justin to get him a court order for a fetal paternity test and showed up at the clinic. The idea of switching paternity results is the opposite of novel, as Philip pointed out once or twice before making the head-scratching decision to ask Kate for help.
Kate does not do things unless there's something in it for her, even if it's Philip who asks. Apprising her of this situation can't lead to anything good, and she can't be trusted to support Philip and Chloe's relationship.
It's also ironic that Kate just got through expressing her disgust with Clyde for, among other things, switching paternity test results to make it look like Thomas was Ben's baby, and now she's going to be doing the very same thing.
While Clyde Weston is still at large, you’re going to go out to lunch?
Andre
Kate and Andre's friendship, or whatever it is, is always entertaining. Seeing the evil Andre try to act like Kate's therapist is amusing. I had to wonder whether one of the Dimera mad scientists really did fuse Tony and Andre into one body after hearing Kate appeal to Andre to act more like Tony.
Finally, the bad guys used the blackout to somehow sneak into Steve and Kayla's house and bother a sleeping Kayla. They tied Kayla and Joey up and were shocked to find that Steve doesn't just comply with knives and guns being shoved in his face.
Steve had the definite upper hand the whole time and he's absolutely right -- Orpheus is going to turn on these other two clowns sooner or later and that will be their undoing. Orpheus does not appear to relish the role of father figure to these two impatient amateur crooks and there's no way this alliance can last.
For some reason the criminals decided Steve and Kayla weren't worth holding hostage anymore and absconded with Joey. This is the second time Joey has been kidnapped as the result of answering Jade's text in the last six months. In addition, many viewers would not care if Joey were never found.
Orpheus can call Joey "Patch Junior" all the wants, but Joey is nothing like his father. He is weak-willed as well as generally weak and comes across as not all that bright. While I generally don't wish harm on fictional characters, I can't say I'm all that invested in whether Joey is saved.
What did you think of this week's Days of Our Lives? Are you enjoying this escaped convict plot that seems to be dominating the show?
Weigh in below and don't forget to check back on Sunday for our 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.
