Thank goodness Jennifer finally came to her senses... sort of, anyway.

Because of the world's most unnecessary secret, she convinced herself that Jack and Kate were having an ongoing affair without any evidence whatsoever, leading to an aggravating set of scenes with Julie and later with Lucas.

But on Days of Our Lives during the week of 12-14-20, Jennifer finally got that straightened out and took a baby step toward reconciliation, though it was annoying that she still acted coldly toward Jack.

Cheating is hard to overcome, but in this case, it should have been a lot easier than it's been.

First of all, Jennifer's attitude towards it lacks empathy whatsoever. She was in a coma for an entire year, and Jack was heartbroken that she wasn't waking up, so one night he got drunk and had sex with the friend he turned to for comfort.

Was it his most shining moment? No. But it was understandable and certainly not the crime of the century.

But what has Jennifer done ever since she found out about it? He refused to talk to him and whined to anyone who would listen that Jack "lied for an entire year" because he didn't tell her about this indiscretion straight away when she got out of the coma.

When exactly was he supposed to do that? As it was, she'd missed a year's worth of life and was devastated to learn that Adrienne had died. Did she really want him to dump more bad news on her at that point?

Also, it was a big jump from his supposed lie to conclude that he was having an ongoing affair with Kate! 

It happened that Salem's top three investigative reporters -- Jennifer, Jack, and their daughter Abigail -- all got bamboozled by Gwen's super obvious manipulations, which beggars belief. But even without that, Jennifer has jumped to those absurd conclusions before.

In late 2013, she decided that Daniel was sleeping with Theresa and broke up with him over it, only to learn from JJ some six months later that Daniel had been pretending to have been there that night so that JJ wouldn't go to jail on a probation violation. 

Then, like now, she was a victim of both her own insecurity and someone keeping secrets from her for no real reason. But it would have been nice if anyone had reminded her of how totally wrong she was then while she did it all over again now!

I was surprised that she accepted Saul's insistence that Jack wasn't at the Salem Inn that night. She was so paranoid I was sure she'd find some way to convince herself that Saul was mistaken or in on it.

Frankly, that was the more disappointing route to the end of this silly story. Lucas confronting Kate would have been soap opera gold, as always.

But maybe Days of Our Lives is saving that for when Jake and Kate's affair finally comes out.

That's what annoys me most about this dumb storyline: There is no reason for Kate to hide her sexathon with Jake, and her secret is causing a ton of trouble for everyone else.

Jennifer thought Kate was sleeping with Jack, while Chad thought Abby was sleeping with Jake, and that misunderstanding could have been cleared up in two seconds if Kate copped to the affair.

She's allowing fear of Chad's disapproval to control her, and I don't get why. She's had lots of questionable boyfriends that Chad hasn't liked before, and this nonsense makes her appear weak when Kate is generally one of the strongest women in Salem.

It also opens the door to a hell of a lot of slut-shaming. I lost count of how many people pointed out that Kate loves to jump into bed with just anyone, usually accompanied by a smirk or a snide tone. 

Julie stopped just short of calling Kate a tramp. That was uncalled for.

Also, if anyone would use their brains at all, Gwen's scheme would totally fall apart.

Jennifer, Chad, and Abigail have all chosen to confide in Gwen, a virtual stranger, about their marital woes. Who does that? 

And more importantly, if they compared notes, they'd see what's what in a hurry! Gwen keeps failing to give Chad messages from Abigail about where his wife is, encourages Chad and Jennifer to believe their spouses are cheating and says the exact opposite to said partners that she says to the targets of her scheme.

Gwen also encouraged Abigail to drink, go into Kate's room without permission, read that letter, and now open a Christmas gift that was not meant for her.

Abigail, for her part, is contributing to this nonsense by not communicating with Chad. She leaves messages with Gwen when she could text Chad directly, and then when he fails to get said messages, she accepts his anger and suspicion and never once mentions that she expected Gwen to tell him where she was.

That's all that has to happen because Gwen always agrees to relay Chad's message and then turns around and says she hasn't seen or heard from Abigail.

Plus, her attempts to seduce Chad are not exactly subtle: touching his arm, holding his hand, and announcing that they are under the mistletoe and then waiting for a kiss.

How does he not see what she's trying to do?

This latest ploy may have gone too far, though (we hope!).

Gwen pushed Abigail to open a gift not meant for her in front of half a dozen witnesses, including Tony and Anna. Tony doesn't suffer fools gladly, and Anna had already been, to use Jake's term, a "nebby nose" who had been fishing for info about Gwen for the last half hour.

That was as stupid as anything else, but hopefully, Tony and Anna catch on and confront her.

Even better would be if Kate decided it wasn't worth losing her Christmas bracelet to Gwen and confessed to the truth in front of everyone.

While everyone was busy celebrating Christmas a week early, viewers got an early present with the Ava and Charlie scenes across town, at least until Charlie kidnapped Ava.

The reveal that Charlie wasn't just Ava's private investigator assigned to Tripp, but her often-neglected son was one of the most well-done Days of Our Lives has had in a while. While many viewers predicted that Charlie was both the real rapist and Ava's son, the emotionality of these scenes made them must-watch TV.

While it's disappointing that Charlie is yet another nice guy who turns out to be off-the-charts violent, his transformation was creepy, and his motivation was solid. This was a refreshing change from the make-it-up-as-you-go-along motivations for characters such as Gwen and Theresa.

I am sorry that you feel hurt and that Tripp got taken away from you. But I'm your son too.

Charlie

• Permalink: I am sorry that you feel hurt and that Tripp got taken away from you. But I'm your son too.

Charlie is damaged beyond repair by being tossed aside by his selfish mother in favor of Tripp, the son she never really knew and who could do no wrong in her eyes. He was in so much pain during these scenes that one could almost root for him and Claire even though he's a bad guy and she deserves better.

It creeped me out when he lay on top of an unconscious Ava, too, almost as if he was going to have sex with his poor excuse of a mother.

In some ways, her kidnapping is her karma. She knocked Kayla out with a candlestick, kidnapped her, and used the threat of killing her to force Steve to have sex with her.

But still, it stretched the boundaries of belief to have Charlie manage to transport her to his apartment and tie her up in a chair without her waking up or anyone noticing.

Then again, Salem suffers from the massive Kitty Genovese effect. Neighbors never notice anything or else don't want to get involved.

Tripp was probably smart to go to Steve instead of the police when he suspected something, too. Knowing Salem cops, no one would care if Ava was hurt because of the bad things she did in the past.

Steve and Tripp's conversation about Ava was honest and sweet. Steve did his best to balance his concern for his son and dislike of Ava with the understanding that Tripp needed and wanted to get to know his mother.

Too bad the same couldn't be said about Steve and Allie's conversation.

I had mixed feelings about this. Tripp is innocent, and that truth needs to come out, but at the same time, this storyline continues to focus far too much on how hard it is for Tripp to be accused of rape and not enough on Allie's trauma.

Sure, it gives lip service to rape survivors by having characters say things like they know this is hard for her or that they're aware they shouldn't have told anyone that Allie was raped.

But Allie invariably says that it's okay when her boundaries are violated so that we can get on with the business of focusing on other characters. She even told Steve it felt good to talk about her rape!

I liked that she pointed out that she was too drunk to consent -- the first time DAYS has acknowledged that this is a thing instead of blaming drunk people for "cheating" -- but that wasn't an issue when Tripp made up a story about having slept with her in that condition.

And why did she doubt her memory now when she didn't doubt it the five other times she went over this?

I wish that Days of Our Lives had taken Allie's rape seriously instead of using it as a plot point.

A story about a young woman who was raped while drunk, can't remember it, can't get justice because of it and has to file a civil suit instead while dealing with massive trauma over the experience would have been a powerful, relevant story.

But instead, Days of Our Lives again trivialized the issue of sexual assault to tell the story of how hard it is to be falsely accused of rape.

Elsewhere, the Xander/Philip/Sarah storyline continued to be silly. All of this spying and counterspying is unnecessary, and with Ava out of commission, will Philip even have to worry about her anymore?

I did laugh at Chloe's telling of how Philip got involved with Ava, though.

Brady: So Mimi broke Philip's heart?
Chloe: More like she broke his wallet.

• Permalink: More like she broke his wallet.

It looks like Chloe is moving toward some sort of affair with Brady, or maybe a triangle between him and Philip, though I don't know what will happen to Sarah and/or Kristen if that happens.

There are three couples stuck in limbo right now: Brady/Kristen, Nicole/Eric, and Rafe/Hope. Kristen is in jail and the only one of the three missing partners to currently be on canvas, but unless Days of Our Lives is planning on recasting Eric and Hope, they're going to have to undo those relationships.

I've always shipped Nicole/Rafe and would love to see them together, but they need to be free to do so. Nicole cheating on an absent Eric with Rafe would be all kinds of sucky, especially after how judgmental she's been over other people's affairs recently.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of the lead up to Christmas in Salem!

Hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? 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.