It was an ordinary week in Salem.

Nancy threw clam chowder at Craig when he confessed he'd been cheating on her, Abigail woke up to discover she was Kristen's prisoner, and TR Coates tried to get to know Lani while Paulina wanted to rush her out of town before that could happen.

Days of Our Lives during the week of 1-31-22 brought the drama, but the lead-up to the Olympic hiatus wasn't anything special.

Craig's admitting to Nancy that he not only had cheated on her but had done so with a man and had been keeping it secret for years that he was gay was the highlight of the week.

Nancy: We can get past this. I love you. You love me. You just need to promise this will never happen again.
Craig: I can't do that.
Nancy: Are you saying you're in love with her?
Craig: Nancy, I'm cheating on you with a man.

• Permalink: Nancy, I'm cheating on you with a man.

Although this couple hasn't been on-screen together for over two decades, Nancy's pain over this revelation was perfect, as was Craig's confusion.

In the space of a couple of hours, he went from saying he wasn't bi but wasn't gay to admitting that this man wasn't the first he'd had feelings for to confessing that he'd suppressed his sexual orientation for years to try to build a happy life with Nancy and their children.

This type of story is not easy to pull off. Craig and Nancy have been a loyal, loving couple for years, and there were few indications in earlier storylines that Craig's heart didn't fully belong to Nancy.

So if not written correctly, it could feel like a manipulative retcon or agenda-driven writing.

For the most part, it didn't feel that way. I wish Craig and Nancy had been in Salem for longer before this reveal, though.

It would have been even more compelling if we'd taken this journey with Craig, starting with him fighting feelings for this man he met and culminating in his awareness that he'd felt this way about men all his life.

The way it was done felt a bit like coming in on the tail end of a story, but the writers and actors did a great job with what little they had. ous

For the most part, Days of Our Lives avoided using the revelation about Craig's lover being male for shock value. Some characters were over-the-top surprised (yes, I'm looking at you, Brady!), but the drama felt much more organic than the Chanel/Allie story.

Although there was no super-strong Craig/Nancy cliffhanger, I'm curious as to where these two go from here. They've had 30 years of marriage, but Nancy would be well within her rights to feel that she didn't want to live with Craig's lie for one more second and file for divorce.

And, of course, we need to meet Craig's boyfriend at some point. I hope that it's someone reasonable for a man like him. These persistent rumors that it's Leo Stark are disturbing. Leo is annoying, obsessed with Sonny, and way too materialistic and shallow for someone as worldly as Craig.

Those viewers who dislike the idea of a Brady/Chloe pairing might be disturbed by how strongly Nancy is pushing those two together, especially since Chloe is leaning on Brady to help process her grief over her parents' marriage ending.

The thing is, though, it would be boring if everyone in Salem had the same opinion. Other storylines, like the Aiden fiasco, have suffered from this problem where EVERYBODY had the same point of view even if it didn't make sense for their character.

Nancy has always been strongly opinionated and a bit of a busybody, so it's not surprising that she'd emphatically insist that Chloe should forget her missing-presumed-dead boyfriend and hook up with Brady instead.

It's no different than a much younger Nancy discouraging teenage Chloe's friendship with a plus-sized girl because she was afraid it would hurt Chloe's social standing. No one said Nancy is RIGHT about her opinions or that viewers have to agree with her, but this is who she is.

It's understandable, too, that Chloe would lean on Brady. After all, he's been her friend a long time, and her emotional intimacy with him triggered Philip's jealous rages in the first place.

I'd rather she turn to Nicole, who is ALSO her best friend, but Chloe might think Nicole is busy with her own problems.

She wouldn't be wrong, either, considering this silly Rafe-on-trial story.

Days of Our Lives isn't good at finding evidence that makes any of these false arrest stories make sense. I still have no idea how three convicts claiming a cop that didn't interact with them planted evidence translates to probable cause to arrest Rafe, but this is Salem, I guess.

Thankfully, that story was mostly back-burnered, though Nicole and Allie had a bizarre conversation about it in front of the Pub.

Nicole wants Allie to keep it to herself that Ava might have returned to her previous bad behavior, which means that Allie now has to contend with two relationship-destroying secrets.

It's an unfair position to put Allie in, even if Allie isn't exactly innocent here. Her one-night stand with Chanel was her own doing, but this other secret isn't.

Tripp wants to propose to Allie, but what are the odds that he notices her strange behavior soon and investigates, only to find out about the cheating rather than about his mother becoming dangerously unhinged again?

Whatever happened to Ava wanting to be a better person for Tripp's sake, anyway? When he finds out what she's been up to, he's going to feel betrayed by both his girlfriend and his mother, and then what?

That said, Tripp's desire to marry Allie now is not a great idea.

Days of Our Lives loves to put couples together only to tear them apart at their weddings, usually because of some secret. It's happened recently to Abe and Paulina, and we don't need a rerun of that.

I don't trust the soap not to go down the predictable route, either. Just once, can we have a wedding between two people who are deeply in love and take a break from the drama during the wedding day?

Soap weddings used to be gorgeous, beautiful affairs that were exciting for a couple's fans as well as their on-screen friends and family. Now, though, 99 percent of them are shams designed for the drama of leaving someone at the altar. Ugh.

Also, with Ava being this crazy, what will happen when she finds out that Allie cheated on Tripp? Paulina's desire to ruin Johnny financially on her daughter's behalf will be nothing compared to what Ava might do!

It might be more compelling if Allie's conflict over Tripp and Chanel seemed genuine. But instead, Allie and Chanel's hookups have all been random and mostly Chanel's idea.

When Allie DID sleep with Chanel, it seemed more like a rerun of Rafe and Nicole's fear-fueled indiscretion, completely with Allie deciding to keep her distance afterward. And it only happened at all after Allie pulled away from a kiss, tried to go home, and then offered to sleep on the couch to keep Chanel company.

Chanel pushed Allie to do more than Allie wanted to do every step of the way, and after saying No about 15 times, Allie randomly gave in.

That's not a love story; it's the premise for a lesbian porn movie.

DAYS' first woman-woman couple deserves more than that, and so do viewers who are hungry for bisexual representation.

Speaking of Chanel, did she really need to tell TR her entire family tree?

Telling the truth at Paulina's wedding was bad enough. But Chanel felt guilty about keeping that secret and was under the Devil's influence.

What was her excuse this time?

I'm surprised Lani took it all in stride as well as she did, too. As soon as TR left, I thought she'd give Paulina a hard time about having kept this unnecessary secret and told her a ridiculous cover story.

TR treated Paulina so violently that Paulina hid Lani's existence from him for over 30 years, and his claim that he's changed doesn't make any of that wrong. But Lani deserved to know who TR was so that she could protect herself and her family.

At least that was all semi-realistic drama, unlike the Kristen stuff or Johnny being possessed by the Devil.

The doppelgangers and over-the-top schemes have been the weakest aspects of Days of Our Lives during the last few years, and now we have them both at once.

The Devil's shapeshifting ability is just as irritating as Kristen's endless supply of masks, and it doesn't help when its victims act like idiots.

Yes, Gabi, I mean you! Gabi had no reason to walk off in a huff and then turn to Johnny for comfort. She could have confronted Jake about what she heard. Maybe she'd have learned she was mistaken and maybe not, but at least she'd be acting like a strong, intelligent woman.

As for the Kristen storyline, Steve's comment about how many people might be on the island summed it up nicely.

It is a typical Dimera story at this point -- both Kristen and Andre tend to banish their enemies to islands -- but it's silly anyway.

Among other things, Kristen is monitoring half a dozen phones so that she can send fake texts and wasting time trying to convince victims to shut up and enjoy being stranded in Paradise.

Her conversation with Abby was especially silly. We all knew she wasn't going to shoot Abby, so she might as well put the gun away, and the whole point of the interaction was to catch up viewers who might have missed any part of this evil plan.

Can we not, please?

That said, there are some intriguing aspects to this. It still has a very gothic feel to it, and Sarah's switching back and forth from desperate to get away to acting like Kristen is her best friend was all sorts of creepy.

I wondered if Sarah was playing Kristen. Also, is the "him" she wants to get back to Xander or has Kristen brainwashed her into thinking it's someone else?

It's your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue, SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you think!

Hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? Be sure to 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 on weeknights after 8 PM EST/5 PM PST. The next new episode will air on February 21, 2022.

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.