Days of Our Lives Review: Another Legacy Character Gone

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Why can't Days of Our Lives' writing team think of any way to write out major characters besides killing them off?

Since 2015, a record number of characters have met grizzly ends. Characters are shot, strangled and stabbed with alarming frequency.

Besides the gruesome and unnecessary murders of Will, Paige, and Serena (only one of whom was resurrected by the new writing team), that year Bo succumbed to a brain tumor three weeks after shooting Aiden and Daniel died in a fatal car crash.

More recently, Andre was bashed in the head, apparently sacrificed for this nonsensical Dissociative Identity Disorder story.

And just as Abby remembered killing him on Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-7-18, Kate shot Vivian in self-defense.

This is uncreative, unoriginal, and annoying, not to mention depressing.

Andre and Vivian are two of my favorite legacy villains who deserved better send-offs than accidentally being killed during a fight

One or both of them could always come back from the dead later on, and probably will, but still. 

Enough killing legacy characters. There has to be some other way to drive story forward and write out characters who are no longer needed on canvas.

Marlena Counsels Kate - Days of Our Lives

I know Vivian's last scene was of her body being injected with some drug that it was implied could bring people back to life. But I've seen that one too many times now and it doesn't lessen the pain, since the character is not alive now and may never return.

That's exactly what happened when EJ Dimera was killed and then Kristen injected him with a similar drug. It was four or five years ago, and he hasn't been seen since.

It's time to retire this silly plot device, which wouldn't be necessary if the writers would stop killing characters off for no apparent reason.

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Part of my annoyance with this whole thing comes from the fact that we got a watered-down, significantly weaker Vivian this time around. Vivian's wit was always on par with Victor's, which was why seeing the two of them together was fun. But Vivian, as originally written, was also fearless and loyal to the people she loved.

We saw very little of that this time. It was almost as if she was brought back for laughs and nothing more. 

The dialogue made plenty of references to her burying people alive, but the brazenness that allowed her to do that was mainly gone. She was terrified of the Gabby alter and her fireplace poker, and she was easily subdued and dragged away by Stefan.

Sadly, it was only in her final scenes with Kate that she displayed an ounce of the fire that made her such a compelling villainess in the past.

She and Kate didn't waste any time throwing around accusations and counter-accusations, and it was classic Vivian for her to tell Kate she was going to use the bullet meant for her late husband to kill her.

If Vivian had to be killed off, I guess a fight to the death with her arch-enemy was the best way to do it. But given all the needless deaths on this show and that she's yet another legacy character being given a less than stellar send-off, I didn't like it.

I'd have preferred to see Kate take her up on her offer to work together to unseat Victor. I can just imagine the scheming and double-crossing that would have gone on, as both women would have merely pretended to be on the same side as the other but really planned to get all of Titan's profits for themselves.

Marlena, Vivian, and Kate - Days of Our Lives

Vivian's death does at least lead to an interesting story for Kate. I'm curious as to why she's so emotional over this.

Kate is generally unflappable and lacking in conscience. She orchestrated throwing Nick Fallon in the river, framed Daniel for poisoning Chloe, and engaged in countless other murders, attempted murders, and other serious crimes, all without batting an eyelash.

So while Lauren Koslow is giving an excellent performance as a shocked, traumatized Kate, it doesn't make much sense that she would shed a tear over Vivian, much less be so upset that she touched the blood stain and then wondered why she soiled her hands.

Sometimes when you follow your heart, you go places where you really shouldn't go.

Kate

Kate's scenes with Lucas shortly after Vivian's death were interesting. Kate has this annoying habit of treating Lucas like he's 14 years old, and this was no exception. But this time I got the strongest sense that she was talking about herself, not her son, when she said that following your heart only gets you hurt.

Imprisoned in Mexico - Days of Our Lives

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Jen Lilley continues to shine in a story that never should have been written, for her or for anybody.

Theresa: There's a door on the first floor with a broken lock. If we jimmy it we can get out easily.
Chloe: So what are we waiting for? Let's go.
Theresa: We can't. I keep trying to tell you, if we escape, Mateo will kill our families. When he wants something, he'll go to any lengths to get it, and he has a lot of reach, all the way to Salem.
Chloe: So we're not the only ones he could hurt.
Theresa: He made it clear to me a long time ago that if I ran, he'd kill Brady and Tate. So even though it would be easy to escape, we have to stay here and get more evidence to bring him down.

I still can't believe that Shane would give his blessing to some plan to allow Mateo to rape his daughter over and over while she gathers evidence against him. Shane is an ISA agent who loves his kids, and I don't buy that he couldn't or wouldn't stop this before it started.

The plot developments in Mexico got sillier and sillier, too.

First, Theresa wasted an entire evening insisting Chloe tell her about Brady and Eve instead of making any effort to escape. When that didn't dissuade Chloe from wanting to get out of there, Theresa revealed that all they had to do was jimmy a broken lock on an unguarded door -- but she refused to do it because Mateo might hurt her family.

Seriously? She's being held by an idiot who doesn't bother to lock the door to his hideout, but refuses to escape, and we're supposed to see this as some noble sacrifice?

Plus, during an earlier conversation she said she couldn't get close enough to Mateo to get evidence on him, but now she knew of an existence of a locked box in a locked room that had all the evidence they needed, if only they could steal the keys..

And when Chloe agreed to this plan, Theresa immediately pointed out again that it was dangerous. For some reason, Mateo would only kill his hostages if they stole info that could lead to his arrest, but would kill their families if they walked out without harming him at all.

None of this makes any sense. The writers seem to be making it up as they go along, and every new development is more ludicrous than the last.

Victor Defends Theresa to Maggie - Days of Our Lives

Theresa finally got the evidence she was looking for, only to be confronted by Xander.

I'm guessing that Victor sent him. But if Victor had the means to get Theresa safely home at any time, why wait til now?

And why were Brady and Tate in so much danger that she had to leave in the first place? Mateo may have reach, but so does Victor, and there's no way in hell he'd let some drug lord close enough to his grandson and great-grandson to cause any damage.


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This whole on-again, off-again relationship between Brady and Eve could be romantic and interesting, if only it wasn't rushed for the sole purpose of creating a Theresa/Brady/Eve triangle.

Eve went from being suspicious of Brady to in love with him and afraid he would reject her in the space of two Salem minutes. It sort of made sense, but not really.

Eve's change of heart might have come from the fact that Brady nearly died. She probably feels guilty because his heart failure happened when they were in the middle of fighting over whether or not to get back together.

But her insecurity comes from the fact that he's still in love with Theresa, something that nobody worried about until Theresa started talking about escaping from Mateo. 

Brady dreamed that Theresa was at his bedside instead of Eve. He hasn't mentioned or thought about her in months, so why have this dream now?

Victor bringing Theresa back to mess with Brady and Eve is the only part of any of this that doesn't seem to have come out of nowhere.

Victor had developed a grudging affection for Theresa and admired the sacrifice she was willing to make, though it would have been nice if he'd done something about it so she didn't have to leave.

He and Maggie both have negative history with Eve who, among other things, once ran over Maggie's eight-year-old daughter while driving a stolen car and nearly killed her. And Victor, much like Theresa's description of Mateo, stops at nothing to get what he wants.

Still, though, all of this conversation about Theresa coming back and Victor suddenly wanting to tell Brady the truth about her departure is all too conveniently timed. I know that's how soaps roll,but just once I'd like the foreshadowing to be natural instead of hitting viewers over the head with announcements about what's going to happen.

Chad Gets Through to Abby - Days of Our Lives

One of the highlights of the week of 5-7-18 is that the DID story appears to be over. 

The climax of this story wasn't handled any more realistically than any of the rest of it.

The idea that Chad loves Abigail so much that he can break through layers of dissociation to get to her may be romantic, but it's also ridiculous and unrealistic, and Marlena should have been supervising his attempts to help his wife.

Instead, she looked confused when Hope suggested a psychiatrist should be in charge of assisting a mentally ill suspect to remember her crime!

Meanwhile, Abigail was able to stay in control for most of her trip down memory lane and her alters only appeared to help her out.

Laura was suddenly committed to helping Abby understand the truth instead of hiding it from her, and Gabby reappeared only to announce to Stefan that she was dying and that she was grateful for the short time they had together instead of fighting for control.

None of this bore any resemblance to how DID works in the slightest, and Abby was integrated so quickly that the entire thing felt pointless.

Afterwards, she headed to the police station, where she eagerly confessed without a lawyer present or even being read her rights. Then, despite the fact that she had just confessed to murder, she was released into her husband's custody on the condition he not let her out of her sight because "jail wouldn't be good for her."

What? Jail certainly isn't good for Gabi, but nobody seems to be in much of a hurry to get her out despite the fact that another woman confessed to the crime that put her behind bars!


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Finally, Will and Paul shared some cute scenes together... and lay in bed reading Rolf's diary.

I think this whole resurrection drug story is silly, and Will definitely should not be reporting on a story he is personally involved in, but I'm enjoying Will and Paul as a couple.

Roger seems like a decent guy, too. I liked him encouraging Will, though it would have been nice if he'd given the guys the diary right away instead of taking 20 minutes to get to the point.

What did you think of Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-7-18?

Whether you loved or hated Vivian's death, the DID storyline, or the latest developments in Mexico City, I want to hear from you!

Drop your comments below, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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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.

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