Days of Our Lives Review Week of 10-7-19: Desperate for a Miracle
Jack Ori
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Julie lapsed into a coma after her outing at Doug's Place, while Gabi struggled to accept that Stefan was gone.
This was a classic soap dilemma, full of high emotion that tugged at viewers' heartstrings. Even in the age of Dr. Rolf and his miracle drug, there was nothing anyone could do for Stefan, and his heart seemed like Julie's only hope of survival.
But when the Hortons sent one person after another to talk to Gabi on Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-7-19, it seemed like, for lack of a better word, overkill.
The Hortons were desperate for Stefan's heart, so desperate that when they heard it might be a match for Julie, they collectively lost their compassion.
Even JJ, who as an EMT should have had training (if not direct experience!) in how to talk to scared, grieving relatives of severely injured people, got overexcited and wanted to tell Doug right away!
The entire clan thought they'd found a miracle for Julie and couldn't wait to get started.
Weirdly, after learning the news, JJ disappeared altogether and it was as if his family forgot he existed until he got a brief mention on Friday.
Eli told Lani that it fell upon him to ask Gabi for Stefan's heart because Doug and Hope were not good choices for this endeavor.
Neither he nor Lani ever considered whether JJ might be a good person to ask.
It would have made the most sense for JJ to do this if anyone was going to.
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Not only had Gabi saved JJ from suicide after he, too, shot someone who did not deserve to get shot, but JJ's first girlfriend and true love was murdered!
So JJ was in a unique position to give Gabi some compassionate support while also telling her what Julie meant to him and how much he wanted to save Doug from suffering the same fate.
Instead, Eli's pitch failed, and that was not a surprise.
Eli didn't express much, if any, compassion for Gabi. He got straight to the point, which was that his grandmother was dying and could use Stefan's heart.
No wonder Gabi angrily turned him down!
After that, several people came to see Gabi. Will and Sonny. Doug. Rafe.
No matter how well-intentioned they all were or how right they were, I couldn't blame Gabi for feeling like no one really cared about her feelings and that everyone was pressuring her.
I don't even like Gabi or how she behaves most of the time (including during this story), but the way the Hortons handled this was ridiculous!
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Her decision to force Lani to beg for Stefan's heart led to an incredibly obnoxious scene where Gabi came off as cruel, vindictive, and ordering Lani around just for the sake of holding power over her.
But at the same time, she might have reacted differently if everybody and his brother didn't keep bothering her!
Of everybody, Doug's plea was the most emotional. It was also the most authentic, heart-centered, and unselfish.
Doug didn't ask Gabi for anything, instead expressing empathy for her situation and even admitting that Julie was wrong in how she's treated Gabi over the years.
And when he expressed his pain over losing Julie and told Gabi that he would not judge her if she chose not to give Stefan's heart to Julie, Gabi didn't react with anger, but with tears.
If only Gabi had been left alone after that, maybe she would have decided on her own to donate Stefan's heart instead of taking the opportunity to unleash all her anger on Lani.
As for Lani, she treated Gabi like a hostage-taker, pretending to go along with her nonsense so that she could get her to release the heart.
Lani is not my favorite character, nor is Gabi, and this confrontation between the two women was more obnoxious than entertaining.
And Gabi certainly seemed petty as she rattled off Lani's perceived sins, which mostly consisted of dating men that Gabi had rejected.
At least when Jennifer tried to do the same thing at Julie's bedside, Jack put a stop to it!
Since Lani got Gabi to agree to donate the heart, there was no need for JJ to go bother Gabi.
So why wasn't he with the rest of the family as they waited for Julie to be prepped for the transplant?
The writers use him as little more than a background character most of the time.
There's absolutely no reason for him to be excluded from family storylines or to be given a few token lines and an explanation that makes zero sense for his absence.
It's a shame, because Casey Moss has shown time and time again that he can handle heavy storylines and has made JJ into a complex, interesting character -- but since Paige's death in 2015 he has been excluded from stories where he should play a central role more often than not.
Other than JJ's unexplained absence from it, the Julie storyline has been beautifully written -- except now Hope has had this weird encounter with Dr. Rolf.
If it had to be a choice between messing with Hope and resurrecting Julie, I guess messing with Hope was better because a miracle cure such as Rolf's injection would have ruined the reality of Julie's situation.
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It's unclear exactly what Rolf did to her besides rant at her while she was unconscious and steal Julie's rosary.
But the current writing regime LOVES doppelganger stories and it's been almost a month since Kristen was forced to give up pretending to be Nicole.
So the chances are that somehow or other, Rolf's mysterious injection led to Hope being switched with the evil Princess Gina or gradually beginning to believe she IS Gina.
Let's hope not! These doppelganger stories always end up being ridiculous, and this plot device is way overused.
Kayla: What special patient are you talking about?
Rolf: Didn't anyone ever teach you not to sneak up on an evil scientist when he is talking to himself?
Rolf has been great comic relief and his evil side is interesting, but this Hope story seems unnecessary so far.
Plus, since Hope is a cop with years of experience both with criminals in general and the way the Dimeras operate, she should have been more suspicious of his claim that she needed to follow him to his lab to get a miracle cure for Julie!
Also on the unnecessary list: the confrontation in the elevator between Jordan and Ciara.
This entire story has done nobody any favors
Ciara once again became a damsel in distress and needed Ben to rescue her, while Jordan has whined to anyone who will listen that it's not fair that they believe that Ben has been cured of his murderous impulses and don't believe she's been cured of hers.
And the elevator scene was pointless.
Ciara and Jordan are never going to convince each other of their points of view, so the conversation went around in circles.
Then the elevator miraculously became unstuck and Ciara and Jordan went their separate ways.
Technically, there was some movement in the story because Ciara skipped visiting her dying grandmother to go home and tell Ben that Jordan was bothering her and Jordan went home and told Rafe she had tried to apply for a job at the hospital but got stuck in an elevator.
But nothing changed as a result of this elevator encounter.
The story would have been no different had Ciara and Ben merely discussed how Ciara was still scared Jordan was trying to kill her while Jordan found some other reason to take a walk with baby David.
So why did Days of Our Lives waste viewers' time with this?
Meanwhile, Ben asked Victor for a favor regarding Jordan. Yeah, that's going to go well.
No matter how many times Ben emphasized that he didn't want Jordan killed, there's no guarantee Victor won't order someone to murder her.
In fact, Victor might think that solves all his problems. If Jordan is murdered and he can pin it on Ben, both of the Westons will be out of Ciara's life permanently.
This was the time for odd alliances, though. In addition to Victor/Ben, Eve ran into Vivian on Vivian's way out of town and Kristen befriended Jordan.
Eve and Vivian bonded over having both lost a child to violence, which was fine. Then Vivian advised Eve to stay in Salem and make everyone miserable.
There was no reason for Eve to listen to this ridiculous advice, but of course she did.
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Eve has become a one-note character who only cares about getting revenge on Jennifer, and now on Jack too. If anyone needs to hightail it out of Salem, it's her!
Jordan/Kristen is mildly intriguing.
Kristen wants to get Brady into her bed and there's nothing she won't do to achieve that, so she may find a creative way to use Jordan.
Or, if it turns out her pregnancy isn't viable (or Rolf made her think she's pregnant when she's not), Kristen may kidnap baby David for some illogical reason that in her mind translates to Brady bedding her.
I am sick and tired of all the psychotic golddiggers living under my roof.
Victor
In any case, a Kristen/Jordan alliance would be preferable to this nonsense going on at the Kiriakis mansion!
Victor was wrong to fire Brady for a non-work-related reason. But he was 100% right that Kristen is nothing but trouble and that Brady is getting sucked into her madness again.
There is no legitimate reason for Brady to move Kristen into the mansion.
Victor offered to pay for someone to look after her and the baby until it is born -- why did Brady reject that idea?
Either he's in rebellious mode and moving Kristen in to get under Victor's skin or he is denying his attraction to her or both.
What happened to his pact with Sarah to help each other stay away from their exes? Instead of ranting to Xander about running into Kristen in the hall, Sarah could have reminded Brady of all the reasons this is a terrible idea.
Sarah's insistence that she has to leave town so that Eric doesn't leave Nicole for the mother of his child is ridiculous.
She's not putting the baby's needs first at all. She's being selfish (on top of being ignorant of the fact that you can co-parent without living with your child's other parent).
Xander was right to call her on that nonsense. But who asked him to kiss her?
On TV, especially on soaps, an unwanted kiss is often portrayed as a super-romantic gesture.
It's not. It's unwanted sexual contact -- not nearly on the level of rape, but not cool either.
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I was glad Sarah pushed him away, but then she decided to immediately quit her job and leave town, which was nonsensical -- and didn't even manage to do that because she was needed to help with Julie's heart transplant.
So, Days of Our Lives fanatics, what did you think?
Should the Hortons have paraded into Stefan's room to push Gabi to donate his heart to Julie?
Is this Hope/Rolf story going to turn out to involve yet another doppelganger?
And who do you wish had left town: Eve, Sarah, or both of them?
Weigh in below, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion!
Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.
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.
