Two people with brains in one week!

On Days of Our Lives during the week of 11-27-23, Nicole refused to let go of her knowledge that Sloan and Eric's adopted baby is her supposedly dead one, while Steve confronted Konstantin with some inconvenient truths.

After all these years of loving this show, I'm not foolish enough to think either of these stories is anywhere near over. But this is a great start.

The most disappointing part of Steve's storyline is that his investigation was off-screen.

I know Days of Our Lives' budget is tight nowadays, which is one reason the soap often uses the tired soap trope of using dialogue to fill us in on things we should have participated in. Still, Steve's retelling wasn't nearly as impactful as learning the truth firsthand along with him.

John and Steve working together is always fun, and Days of Our Lives would have gotten bonus points for traveling to an exotic location. They had some characters visit Greece not long ago, so they might have already had the sets they needed.

And even though viewers know that Konstantin isn't a good guy, the info about his rivalry with Victor is new. So viewers got cheated out of making up their own minds about what the locals had to say since all we got was hearsay.

Still, Steve and Kayla's conversation was entertaining. The way they discuss things is one of the reasons I love this couple.

Kayla: I don't think we should say anything to Maggie if you're not 100% sure.
Steve: How about 90%?

• Permalink: How about 90%?

Kayla wanted to give Konstantin the benefit of the doubt and rein in her often-impulsive husband, while Steve tried to use humor, logic, and his sense of loyalty toward Maggie to get Kayla to see his point of view.

There were no winners or losers in this conversation. They both had valid points, and Sarah showed up just in time for them to ask her to spy on Konstantin for them -- not that it worked.

Unlike Steve, Sarah didn't see Konstantin's obvious scam for what it was.

In her mind, he rescued Victoria from a kidnapper. Even after Steve pointed out the coincidence of this happening thirty seconds after she warned Maggie to be careful of Konstantin, she was far from convinced that anything was shady. But where does this story go from here?

Steve confronted Konstantin in front of Maggie, leading to Konstantin telling another big lie that Steve didn't believe. But Maggie kicked Konstantin out anyway, offering to fund his ticket back to Greece so that she could get rid of him and the danger he supposedly brought upon her family.

So if Steve's goal was to get rid of Konstantin, mission accomplished -- even though he and John don't know it yet and are continuing to investigate so they can protect Maggie.

Maggie seemed more like herself for the first time since this story began when she asked Konstantin to leave. She spoke to Victor like this all the time when he did stupid crap that she didn't want to put up with.

She shouldn't need protecting. She's a strong woman who was every bit Victor's equal for over a decade. He often lamented that he couldn't get away with anything around her.

I get that Maggie's judgment is clouded with grief, but come on! She's one of TV's most badass women, equal parts compassionate and shrewd, and Steve's insistence on protecting her would be insulting if she wasn't written as oblivious for the story's sake.

Konstantin can't slink back to Greece. It's too risky for him.

Theresa knows he came up with the idea of forging Angelica's signature on the letter about Victor's son. She also knows that he blackmailed her into kidnapping Victoria.

None of that absolves Theresa for her part in these schemes, of course, but she could easily flip on him once he's on the other side of the world.

She's not connected to what happened to Nicole's baby, so EJ probably would be willing to make a deal with her to get her case off his desk. She likely wouldn't do jail time, and Maggie might forgive her eventually.

So if Konstantin returns quietly to Greece, he could be in serious trouble. Plus, Maggie can't pay off non-existent mobsters, so the jig might be up sooner rather than later.

There has to be a twist in this -- some crazy thing he does that allows him to stay -- but I can't think of what.

The smartest thing would be to kidnap the baby and demand to be let back into Maggie's life in exchange for her safe return. But since he already did one kidnapping for hire, he can't get away with that anymore.

But Konstantin will pull some trick, which'll likely involve another con job or using leverage on someone to force himself back into Salem.

This story is made all the more frustrating by Alex walking in on Theresa and Konstantin, arguing but believing Theresa's lies.

Alex's role in this has been to stand up for Theresa and exchange barbs (and punches!) with Xander. And now Alex and Theresa have had sex, most likely to make it more painful when Alex learns the truth.

It's a running joke among some Days fans that there's only one Salem Brian, as only one character appears capable of intelligent thought at a time. But this week, we got two, though Nicole's realization that her son is alive is based more on her mother's intuition than rational thought.

Nicole's thought process is clouded by postpartum depression and grief over the alleged loss of her baby, but we got some glimpses at the old investigative reporter version of Nicole.

I hated the idea of Sloan stealing Nicole's baby. It was unnecessarily cruel and felt like a rerun of the Mackenzie/Rachel baby switch story. Plus, I find grief scenes over people who are not dead to be tedious, especially since it's something that happens frequently in Salem.

But now that Nicole has realized that Sloan's adopted baby and her late son are the same, I'm glued to the screen whenever this story airs.

Ari Zucker and Dan Feuerriegel have been knocking the grief scenes out of the park. Still, Nicole's determination and EJ's attempt to console what he thinks is a delusional wife have taken it to an even higher level.

EJ's determination to protect his family and comfort his wife makes it even more painful to realize that these two are probably headed for a split for the sake of drama. I wish that EJ and Nicole could stay together even after it's out in the open that the baby is Eric's.

They seem so much better for one another than Eric and Nicole.

EJ doesn't get on a high horse about everything Nicole does, and Nicole talks him down when he wants to go too far (most of the time, anyway.) Their last attempt at a relationship might have been the marriage from hell, but this one is the opposite, and I want it to continue!

Also, this running joke about Eric and Sloan not giving their child a name is ridiculous. At least Nicole won't have to change the child's name once he's back in her care since he never had one in the first place.

Thanks to Holly, Nicole got a DNA test, but we all know that won't be the end of this story. Sloan's already switched two previous tests, so what stops her from finding out at the last second and messing with the results yet again?

At least there's no reason for Eric to submit a DNA sample since the baby is adopted, but that might not stop the truth about who the father is from coming out.

Days of Our Lives often makes astounding leaps of logic, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is where we're heading. But either way, Nicole won't give up even if the DNA test says that the baby is not hers.

Although everyone thinks she's acting out of grief and not thinking clearly, the questions she asked Eric were reasonable.

That baby came out of nowhere hours after her baby was born and supposedly died, and legitimate adoptions have a paper trail demonstrating that the baby was given up voluntarily and the adoption is legal.

Meanwhile, Sloan's half of the story took a nonsensical turn. Dimitri's reappearance, attempt to blackmail her, and decision to turn himself in were all ridiculous.

Dimitri couldn't tell the police what Sloan had done without getting himself in trouble since he was a fugitive who was wanted for kidnapping the baby. So, there was no reason for her to worry.

Everything Sloan did made it more likely that the truth would come out, not less. Grabbing the phone out of Dimitri's hand only made Nicole wonder what the hell was going on -- she is not about to let that go even if a doctored DNA test 'proves' the baby isn't hers.

And now that DImitri's turned himself in for Leo's sake, what stops him from telling the cops everything in an attempt to broker a plea deal for himself? Sloan thinks she shut him up by shipping him to Statesville, but she may have done the opposite.

Plus, Leo will be begging her to represent Dimitri -- won't it look suspicious if she doesn't want to?

As for EJ, while his anger and desire for revenge are in character, he should also smell a rat.

EJ has been the victim and perpetrator of babynappings before. Nicole stole Sydney from him and Sami, and EJ used Anna to kidnap her back. EJ also made it appear Johnny was dead to get revenge on Sami once.

Nicole unmasked the last shady doctor, so she knows what she's talking about regarding these things.

EJ shouldn't be so quick to dismiss out of hand the possibility that his baby was also kidnapped. At the very least, he should devote some of his considerable resources to investigating Dr. Pierce to find out why the baby was 'cremated.'

Nicole's story also gave Holly a more likable side. For the most part, she's been a one-note character who only cares about breaking up Johnny and Chanel, but she cared deeply about Nicole's emotional state and came up with the idea of the DNA test to try to resolve it.

Unfortunately, she returned to this Johnny nonsense as soon as she made the arrangements. When she was with Johnny, she was milking Nicole's pain for all it was worth to get him to comfort her, and that wasn't cool.

Tate's choices were also disappointing. He didn't like what Holly was doing but went along with it because he didn't want to lose her friendship. That's the worst reason to do anything, especially things that go against your morals.

Tate: Holly and I are very open and honest with each other. If she had a crush on Johnny, she would have told me.
Chanel: Okay, well if you say that she's not crushing on Johnny, then maybe I was wrong.
Johnny: Here, let me record you saying that.
Chanel: Put that phone away or I'll shove it down your throat. And I said maybe.

• Permalink: Put that phone away or I'll shove it down your throat. And I said maybe.

And to make matters worse, once Tate was in, he was all in. He lied to Johnny and Chanel's faces, displaying no guilt or hesitation whatsoever, and participated in a scheme to drag Chanel away so that Holly could make her move.

It was incredibly annoying that Tate used wanting to get a job in the bakery as his excuse to get Chanel out of the Pub. Chanel already hired one idiot who sabotaged her business; she should be more careful about who she lets have access to her bakery!

It was also strange that she had to walk Tate over to get a paper application. Most job applications in the 21st century are done online.

Chanel has seen through Holly's nonsense so far, so hopefully, she'll realize what Tate is up to soon.

This story should not end with Holly winning, not even temporarily. Johnny is not only too old for her, but her manipulations are so obvious that they shouldn't work for a second.

Tate wasn't as disappointing as Chad, though.

This Chad/Stephanie/Everett thing is not a successful love triangle. Week after week, the only thing I feel about it is that all three people involved need to be single until they grow up.

Everett is Alex in a different body. We did this already, with Chad taking EJ's advice and telling Alex to stay away from Stephanie, then promising never to listen to EJ again when it blew up in his face.

Instead, Chad listened to EJ again; his mistake was even worse this time. He manipulated Xander into firing Everett even though Everett is a model employee and blaming Gwen for it. This is so that Everett and Stephanie won't work together anymore.

It's understandable that Chad didn't realize Everett would use his investigative reporting skills to get to the bottom of this nonsensical firing since all Everett's done so far is use the paper to write about how wonderful Leo is. But he should have known this plan would never work.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics! Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you think of this week's shows.

Don't forget to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekday mornings at 6/5c.

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.