Days of Our Lives Recap: Lunatics On the Loose
Jack Ori
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This was an exciting week on Days of Our Lives.
Theo went off the rails, John's plan to rescue Joey didn't quite work, and the bad guys escaped yet again.
Meanwhile, there was a lot more nonsense on the Rafe/Hope/Aiden front, while Sonny had a falling out with Chad and Gabi was actually nice to JJ!
The Joey kidnapping story could have been a great story. A crazy criminal with a grudge against a bunch of legacy characters is always exciting and interesting.
Except for this is Joey we're talking about. Joey's fear and attempts to escape were all very tepid and assisted the storyline in falling flat.
In addition, the rescue itself was really ridiculous.
He's got my boy.
Steve
One of the worst aspects of this story is that JJ and Steve finally get to share scenes -- and there is absolutely no acknowledgement of the fact that JJ is Steve's nephew! Joey isn't just Steve's boy; he's JJ's cousin. Once again, the story that is staring the writers in the face has been sacrificed in order to ensure JJ stays in the background.
It makes less and less sense every time they misuse JJ. Casey Moss is one of the most talented actors in the current cast and is more than capable of pulling off JJ being involved in a high stakes rescue of his young cousin.
JJ is the type of guy who easily would have sacrificed his own freedom for his cousin's or, being a relatively new cop, he might not have had the experience to successfully take on the bad guys and found himself taken hostage as well.
Either way, Steve would have had additional guilt over what happened if his nephew as well as his son were in danger, but the writers chose to ignore this relationship altogether.
Instead, JJ had a few stock cop words to say to Steve that didn't fit his character at all and Clyde escaped by running away when JJ pulled out his gun and told him to freeze.
These incompetent cop storylines where the bad guy just runs away have got to go. I know it's been a staple on this soap for years for the cops to be idiots, but it's possible to have a compelling story where they are also smart and this whole thing just looked silly.
There were some high points to it, though. Theo losing it over Abe's being shot was truly great work. He really was acting on pure emotion and didn't know what he was getting into. He very easily could have got shot or kidnapped himself.
Don't bring yourself down to their level. Thugs use violence to get what they want. That's not us.
Roman
Roman's comment about violence being inappropriate made me laugh. He's involved in covering up Hope's murder of Stefano. How can he say with a straight face that only thugs use violence?
The whole cover-up story makes me long for the 2004 era Roman who believed that there had to be one set of rules for everyone, including family. The latest development -- Aiden's blackmail of Hope -- doesn't help anything.
I have no problem with Aiden recording Hope and Rafe's confession. Hope is a murderer and Rafe is helping cover up a crime. The whole Salem PD except for Lieutenant Raines, JJ, and probably a few random uniforms is completely corrupt.
Blackmailing Hope is another story. Aiden is way too good for her and I'd prefer to see him take his concerns to Raines in Abe's absence and let Hope and company suffer the consequences.
Many viewers are now praying that Aiden is murdered. I don't want to see that -- one bogus, violent,. and uncalled for death per character please -- but I want the assassination of his character to stop.
The whole Aiden/Hope/Rafe saga is especially aggravating now because the town is in the middle of a crisis, with three crazy and violent fugitives on the loose, yet all three of these characters' priorities are misplaced.
Hope pointed out to Aiden that she's in the middle of this investigation, but I didn't see her and Rafe doing much investigating. Rafe kept calling her with leads while she was arguing with Aiden and then put the investigation on hold to go confront Aiden himself.
Chad: It was business. It wasn't personal.
Sonny: It wasn't personal? I asked you. I practically begged you as a friend not to do it, but you did it anyway. How is that not personal?
Meanwhile, Sonny had a spurious conflict with Chad. The main purpose of this argument seemed to be to give Sonny an excuse to go talk to Paul.
Sonny's anger at Chad doesn't make sense. I don't agree that if the roles were reversed, Sonny would have put his friendship with Chad over what was best for his business, and it seemed like an odd thing to be so angry about.
Sonny and Chad have been friends a long time and if they need to fight, it should be over something important, like taking different sides on Hope having Andre falsely arrested. (After all, she is a Kiriakis by marriage). This was silly and contrived and didn't work as a vehicle for Paul/Sonny to get together because it made no sense.
Another thing that made no sense was Nicole's continued support of Deimos. Nicole hid her baby from abusive EJ -- why would she take the side of abusive Deimos now just because his sadness over not having a child reminds her of her miscarriages? She should be firmly on Chloe and Philip's side on this.
I was glad she at least told Victor to back off of Chloe and Philip.
Nicole's accusing Victor of creating Xander was a bit confusing.
It's true that Victor didn't help anything with his abuse and neglect of Xander, and problematic behavior doesn't develop in a vacuum. On the other hand, if Xander didn't have psychopathic tendencies he wouldn't have become so violent.
Philip was also treated poorly by Victor and other than not telling anyone about the girl who OD'd in his room, he doesn't behave like that.
I was also wondering what Marlena got out of that discussion other than all the proof she needs that both Victor and Nicole are lunatics that don't deserve her respect.
Finally, Gabi called JJ her hero when he arrested the thugs that were bothering her, but it fell flat because she's keeping a major secret from him.
It was a little odd that JJ didn't hear the thug announce that Dario had hired him, but maybe he was hyperfocused on cuffing the other suspect. But for Gabi to not tell him what Dario did is absolutely hypocritical.
Gabi took weeks to forgive JJ for not talking to her while he was in Miami looking for his presumed dead sister. Yet ever since she's kept one secret after another from him. A few weeks ago she talked to everyone but him about her problems and now she's covering up that her brother hired the person who kidnapped her.
Maybe that secret doesn't directly affect JJ, but it's yet another example of Gabi not talking to JJ about important things in her life while taking forever to forgive him for not talking to her for a few days while in the throes of grief.
It's getting harder and harder to root for this couple when Gabi is so insistent that JJ be the only one to do all the communicating.
What did you think of this week's Days of Our Lives? Are you enjoying the fugitive story? What's your favorite piece of fallout from their presence? Are there any storylines you could do without?
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.
