The Devil's secret is out. Sort of, anyway.

After a harebrained scheme to drown Julie in the baptismal fountain went south, John confronted MarDevil, and the creature readily admitted it had possessed his wife.

Unfortunately, this story is nowhere near over, but at least John's making progress.

The Devil's behavior has been so ridiculous that I have to wonder if the reason Doug seemed to have dementia while possessed is that the evil spirit does.

It engaged in a ton of obvious nonsense that made it inevitable that John would realize something was wrong, if not all of Salem.

"Marlena" wore dark sunglasses while reading in a room that was almost pitch black, the Devil was eager for a movie to be made about itself that would get people talking about whether it was back in Salem, and it insisted on luring Julie to St. Lukes' church -- the one place in Salem where God's presence is probably most robust.

None of this makes any sense whatsoever. Does the Devil even have a plan beyond making Julie suffer by forcing Marlena to isolate Doug from the world?

It was predictable that John wouldn't hear anything on the tape and that Kayla would demand he forget whatever he heard.

But it wasn't a given that he would put the clues together and figure out that Marlena had been possessed again!

John: I want to be there for my wife, except for that I don't think you are my wife.
Marlena: I don't know what you're talking about.
John: You haven't been yourself since that session with Doug.
Marlena: Maybe I was upset. Doug has been a friend for a long time.
John: I listened to the tape.
Marlena: That was a total breach of -
John: I could hear Marlena clear as day but Doug was just static. At first I didn't understand, but then I got to thinking about it. Why she was so scared. Who had come back after 25 years. It's you, isn't it? I drove you out of her once and I'll do it again.
Devil: DON'T YOU SEE JOHN? THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO. YOUR PRECIOUS MARLENA HAS BEEN POSSESSED BY ME

• Permalink: DON'T YOU SEE JOHN? THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO. YOUR PRECIOUS MARLENA HAS BEEN POSSESSED BY ME

All too often, characters are made stupid for the sake of the plot, so John getting it so quickly was refreshing.

But I have to wonder what else the writers have in store for us with this nonsensical Devil plotline. It would be wonderful if John realized the Devil had possessed Marlena and banished it for at least another 25 years, but I'm not naive enough to think that's the end of this.

After all, Deidre Hall recently suggested that the storyline will go on at least through the holiday season, and supposedly Ben and Ciara's baby is the Devil's endgame here.

John knowing the truth is a good start, but will the Devil use Marlena's position as a psychiatrist to get John thrown into Bayview too? Or will it do something else crazy to keep him from doing anything about its evil plans?

And again, this would all be a bit easier to suspend disbelief on if the Devil had any connection whatsoever to Catholic theology.

Other than recoiling at Julie's rosary, it doesn't.

The Devil was eager to go to church to kill Julie and was not repelled by any of the prayers, religious symbols, or connection to God there.

It boasted to itself how fun it would be to desecrate the church again and how ironic it would be to drown Julie in the baptismal water.

That didn't make a lot of sense, but then again, there doesn't seem to be any priest working at St. Lukes Church these days, so maybe that weakens the church's spiritual powers or some such nonsense.

I'm mildly curious about what will happen now, but the whole story surrounding Abe getting shot is more compelling.

That whole thing also began ridiculously. We had a stereotypical mob member get into a fight with Jake over a gun that never should have been produced, resulting in Abe getting shot when he asked what was going on.

I hate that Abe got caught in the crossfire of this nonsense, but at least it makes for some good drama!

The scenes at the hospital with Paulina, Lani, and Eli were perfect.

I especially loved Paulina's response to being told she couldn't just go barging into the OR.

John: Have you heard anything about Abe's condition?
Eli: Not yet.
Paulina: I'm going to go find out.
Eli: Paulina. You can't just go barging in there.
Paulina: Let them try to stop me!

• Permalink: Let them try to stop me!

She and Julie are two birds of a feather and hopefully will comfort each other over both of their partners' plights.

Of course, Paulina going into the OR unmasked couldn't have been good for Abe's condition, but those sort of things never seem to matte in Salem.

Less pleasing was all this nonsense about Paulina's secret.

This trope about someone having a massive secret that they try and fail 15 times to tell, only for it to come out in the worst possible way later, is overplayed and irritating.

And Paulina's given so many hints that Lani -- who is supposed to be one of Salem's top detectives -- should have figured this one out already!

Of course, since Paulina mumbled to herself while Lani was out of the room that she didn't know how Lani would react to learning that Paulina was her mother, there was a simple solution: say that a little louder!

I do have to wonder when someone WILL overhear enough to learn the truth since Paulina constantly talks to herself/the twins about it, and Abe and Lani have both overheard just enough in the past to be confused.

It was unsurprising, though unfortunate, that the news about Abe came just as she was finally about to tell Lani the truth.

If only people wouldn't start with these long preambles, they might get what they had to say out of their system before they got interrupted!

I'm also not sure what value the Devil saw in pushing Paulina to tell her secret. It seems to be getting sidetracked with causing minor trouble wherever it can and not following its plans, if it even has any.

Meanwhile, Ben and Ciara stayed in bed for far too long for a change.

This baby storyline seems to be their latest excuse for having sex 24 hours a day, though they took a break from that to hang out with Jake and Gabi for about 30 seconds.

The best part of that was Ben trying to convince Jake that wandering around with a gun and trying to threaten mob members with it wasn't the best idea.

Jake certainly lacked in common sense with this plan, though Gabi was even worse.

Gabi's plans never make much sense. She's been constantly poking at ex-mob boss Ava for months, then acts shocked and like she's an innocent victim when Ava pushes back.

She thinks that Philip's jealousy of Brady will somehow make Gabi the CEO of Titan. (Um, no, Ciara is more likely to replace Philip than some outsider.)

And now she seems to think that all she has to do is explain the situation to Rafe, and he'll let Jake go.

Jake was smart to demand a lawyer, but too bad he didn't call one instead of reaching out to his girlfriend, who will surely end up sending him to jail for longer with her idiotic plans.

Salem needs more lawyers. Justin is temporarily out of commission thanks to his own stupid, lovesick decision, and Belle is out of town, leaving nobody to represent Jake.

Or perhaps EJ could make a second career for himself defending mob-affiliated defendants since he's as close as you can get to being a mob boss without actually being in a mob.

EJ needs something better to do than wander around town bothering everybody, and Jake is supposedly his brother even if they hate each other.

So Jake being forced to depend on EJ might make for compelling drama.

Meanwhile, if EJ wants to continue to woo Nicole, maybe they should choose a different venue.

Julie's Place is full of bad luck for them, so I wouldn't go there a third time.

Of course, now Nicole secretly went along with Kayla's overly obvious plan to steal Kristen's number from EJ's phone, so that doesn't bode well either for this couple or Nicole's health and wellbeing in general.

EJ doesn't like being crossed, and he probably already knows that Nicole and Kayla were up to something. This can't be good.

I wonder if this is leading up to a Nicole/Rafe reunion.

With Gabi planning to whine about Jake's plight to Rafe, the commissioner could easily conclude that Ava is responsible for Abe getting shot because she started this Carmine business.

That's stupid, but it could happen, and if it does, he'll probably kick Ava to the curb out of loyalty to Abe.

And if EJ starts threatening Nicole, Rafe will be right there to protect her.

It's an obvious set-up, and I hope the writers will surprise us somehow, but right now, it seems like this is the direction we're heading.

Finally, whoever thought Bonnie and Justin were an entertaining couple needs to be told they aren't!

This whole Justin-in-jail story has been a ridiculous waste of airtime. Justin should have known better than to try to blackmail a judge, especially when he has an investigative reporter and a detective in his family!

Gwen saying there was nothing Jack could do for her didn't make sense either -- he could have investigated this judge easily. It's beyond me why he didn't say so.

Also, there's no way the cops would have allowed Jack to run from one to the other of the three suspects in custody to relay messages. That should have raised a ton of red flags!

It's your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics.

Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of the latest developments in the possession story, Abe's shooting, and everything else that happened on Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-18-21.

Eager for more Days of Our Lives chat? Check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV weeknights after 8 PM EST/5 PM PST.

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.