Days of Our Lives Review: The Past Always Catches Up
Jack Ori
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Salem is a city of broken hearts, and people's loves often die in bizarre, violent ways -- until Days of Our Lives decides to bring them back.
During the week of 10-22-18, Nicole appeared to perish in a fire, putting an end to a farfetched storyline about a miracle resurrection drug and a laboratory full of previously dead baddies that Kristen Dimera was trying to bring back to life.
Nicole's tragic death may lead to a ton of drama, but I doubt she's dead at all.
We've gone down this road too many times before for her death to be believable.
Every classic supercouple has gone through a presumed dead storyline. Jack Deveraux probably holds the record number of inaccurately reported deaths, but Hope, Marlena, Steve, and Will have all been presumed dead at one time or another and then showed back up at the most awkward time possible.
DAYS is determined to give Nicole and Eric supercouple status, so why not them, too?
The set-up is perfect for a return from the dead later on, too. Nicole's death was not shown on air; viewers saw her surrounded by flames and next saw a firefighter give Eric her necklace (which had somehow survived the blaze intact) and telling him he was sorry that there were no survivors.
Nicole could have escaped or been kidnapped by Kristen, who also supposedly died in the fire, since it didn't sound like her body had been found.
I'm sad to lose Nicole because she's yet another one of my favorite characters to allegedly bite the dust, but it's hard to invest tears in her demise when it seems so likely she will be returning someday.
I'm more mad than sad about any of this. No pun intended, but I'm burnt out on all these character deaths!
The writers rarely write anyone out in any way other than killing them off, then inevitably scramble to find a way to bring them back when the actor becomes available again or fan demand for the character's return is high.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to write characters out without killing them so that they could come back whenever the story calls for it?
I think it would have been poetic justice for Nicole to have had no romantic interest in Eric because he didn't believe in her enough to go looking when she first left town instead of believing her lies about not loving him anymore.
That would have been Eric's karma for dumping Jen so quickly when he heard Nicole might be available despite having promised her a billion times that Nicole was in his past!
And it would have been more in line with Nicole's strong, take no-nonsense character than her giving in to blackmail not once, but twice.
It was also strange for Sami to be the voice of reason. She kept encouraging Eric to make reasoned decisions instead of taking stupid risks for Nicole's sake or saying things to Brady he might regret later.
It might even have suggested character growth on her part if not for the fact that she'd taken the same stupid risks to rescue a guy who might or might not be EJ thirty seconds before discouraging Eric from doing the same thing.
I did love their conversation anyway, though. Eric and Sami have that special twin bond, and we don't see it often enough.
Eric has always been portrayed as the "good" twin, but it was obvious the two of them aren't as different as everyone thinks. They both have an impulsive streak and a bad temper -- it's just that Eric hides it better when not caught up in some crazy drama around his love life.
I've never been an EJ fan, but at this point I'm hoping the mystery patient turns out to be him, because it would just be cruel for Sami to have saved some random guy that has nothing to do with her.
Now that Xander has also supposedly perished, though, I'd love it if Paul Tefler were recast as EJ. I always thought he had the right look, sound and attitude, and the way Xander treated Nicole wasn't much different from how EJ treated Sami back when he was a villain who forced her to have sex with him rather than the love of her life.
I'd still rather have Sami be part of this baby Bonnie mess than Chloe, though.
Chloe and Mimi were frenemies back in the Last Blast era in the 90s so pitting them against each other again is a nod to history. I get it.
But Sami and Lucas have two kids together and have always had each other's backs, so it makes little sense for her to have never crossed paths with him since her return to Salem.
He should have been concerned about everything going on surrounding Marlena's shooting and she should have been worried about this baby thing.
And with Belle defending Bonnie and Mimi, Sami being on Lucas' side would be a natural source of the kind of drama that only Sami can bring.
Sami already has a grudge against Belle because Belle insisted on following Marlena's Advance Directive, on top of the fact that these sisters' hatred for each other goes far beyond basic sibling rivalry.
Plus nobody does protective quite the way Sami does. Compared to what she'd do, Chloe's attempts to stand up to Bonnie and Mimi are nothing.
Maybe if I'd told Rex the truth in the first place, none of this would have happened. But it's too late now. That ship has sailed.
Mimi
Mimi must have been away from Salem for far too long if she thinks the one night stand she had with Rex and her resulting pregnancy are going to stay secret for long.
Every secret someone keeps eventually blows up in his or her face. I wish that just once, someone would remember that.
And if Mimi and Chloe dropped the decades-old grudge against each other, Chloe might tell her how well it worked out when she tried to keep her one night stand with Philip to herself, including the way Parker's paternity kept getting switched.
I like Rex so far, though. He's the best part of this story, and I'm glad Kate has yet another son putting her in her place about her nose being too much in his business.
Kate cracked me up with her defense against Rex's claim that she doesn't approve of her kids' romantic partners, which boiled down to her arguing that she would approve if only they chose people she approved of.
I don't understand how strong, overbearing Mama Bear Kate, who isn't above poisoning people she thinks have crossed her children and always gets away with everything she does to others, could be allowing Gabi to push her around in the awful gaslighting story.
Her scenes with Rex proved how out of character the rest of her behavior is. Even though I don't like Kate, when she's written properly she's a love-to-hate character, not just an annoying one.
I was glad that Chloe caught on to Bonnie's subterfuge, even if I did wish that honor had gone to Sami. But why is everyone else being so stupid?
It seemed to me that all Lucas had to do was take a video of Bonnie stumbling around drunk and forgetting she was supposed to be taking care of the baby and that would be the end of her custody case.
Evil characters take videos of people to blackmail them all the time, so why don't the good ones ever think of it when it would actually be useful?
Mimi's constant hanging around the baby and having a more than sisterly interest in who gets custody should be a dead giveaway to everybody what's going on.
And the fact that Rex not only feels a bond with the baby, but Mimi freaks out every time he mentions her belonging to Lucas, should clue him in to something weird going on.
And what is wrong with Belle? One week she's insisting it would be totally unethical to ignore Marlena's Advance Directive and the next she's agreeing to go to court to perpetuate a fraud.
Belle promising to defend Mimi against Bonnie's bogus threat to turn her in for a murder that happened at least 30 years ago would have made sense.
This makes none and just ruins Belle's character. Again.
At least the Bonnie storyline is just irritating. It's not offensive like the Stefan/Gabi/Chad/Abigail mess continues to be.
There were so many problems with the developments in that story during the week of 10-18-22 that it's hard to know where to begin.
Stefan's delusional dream that "Gabby" came to see him and beg him to get rid of Abigail for her was as boring as it was offensive.
Stefan and Gabby are not a love story. It is a rapist rationalizing his rape and the less we see of it, the better.
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This story about Chad deciding to have Abigail committed is full of inaccuracies that could discourage viewers with mental illnesses from seeking help, too.
It makes no sense that Justin could get a court order to involuntarily hospitalize Abigail without the testimony of a psychiatrist. The word of a lay person that "I think this person is dangerous" isn't enough -- a mental health professional is needed.
And even if Gabi's story were true, hitting someone over the head non-fatally during an apparent argument does not in and of itself meet the standard for danger to others required for involuntary hospitalization.
Plus, shouldn't the shape of her bruise in that photo prove she hit herself rather than being hit by someone else?
Storywise, it requires almost everyone to act out of character, too.
Jennifer "my kids are right even when they're wrong" Horton suddenly believes Kate's word over her daughter's.
Chad doesn't seem to be at all conflicted over making the heartbreaking decision to institutionalize his wife.
And unless JJ is playing Gabi, he's also suddenly been made stupid too for the sake of the story.
I really hope he is. Gabi's lies are obvious and it's bad enough Chad has turned into Mr. Oblivious without JJ doing it too.
JJ's been careful to say neutral things around Gabi that sound like he could believe her but has not directly supported her and told Abigail that he is on her side.
He's great at undercover work, so I'm cautiously optimistic that this is what he's doing.
He usually gets either no story at all or a terrible one, so I'd really like this one to break the mold.
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Abigail's solution to this whole thing was to divorce Chad and marry her rapist.
She seems to think she's using Stefan's delusions about Gabby to get him to help her, but she's playing with fire.
Stefan is the one who needs to be committed and any sign that Gabby is coming back to him will cause him to behave in unpredictable ways. We already had one rape that was magically turned into consensual sex in this story and we don't need a repeat.
Besides, why does Abby have to marry Stefan for this plan to work?
All she has to do is divorce Chad and give someone she trusts power of attorney.
This story is so awful that I was grateful for the silly Hattie/Roman/John/Marlena story.
I don't like the way DAYS is misusing its vets. Roman is involved in keeping Hattie neutralized, while Abe is reduced to yelling about parking spots. But both of these stories are far less grating on my last nerve than this Abby garbage.
If nothing else, Hattie's interactions with Roman are good for a few laughs, though the idea that she'll willingly go back to prison because he said so doesn't make any sense.
If Roman has to be involved in this nonsense, why not have him convince a judge to terminate Hattie's sentence early because she was so helpful or something?
And what's up with Abe? The Abe I've known and loved for over 30 years has far more important things to do than worry about someone parking in his spot.
Lani almost made me think she had learned something when she tried to explain to him that Sheila's behavior was a defense against getting hurt. Too bad she has an ulterior motive as usual.
She doesn't care about Sheila's need for a second chance. She just wants her away from Eli... even though she rejected Eli.
So what did you think, DAYS fanatics?
Hit the comments with your thoughts on Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-22-18, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for our 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.
