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From lighting changes to more vivid colors in new sets and old friends reuniting, Days of Our Lives is coming alive once more. Viewers have yet to get into the great new material promised by showrunner Ken Corday, but the changes have certainly begun. Overall this week was not bad at all; the pacing was even, the rough spots smoothed and my finger didn’t even itch to press the fast forward button. Even though major stories have yet to really pick up in Salem, I was still entertained watching the host of non-stories from the last few months coming to a close.
Love is blind
DAYS fans are still a week away from the promised creative turnover, but it seems that some characters have finally begun to awaken from their long TomSell slumber. For the longest time, Kate Roberts has been barreling through town mostly as a caricature of herself from about a decade ago. When I began to watch DAYS, Kate was something of a force on the show, she was cold to a certain degree and over the top nosy, but she was aware of her surroundings and had control. Since Clyde Weston came into her life, Kate was considerably dimmed down and though still in everyone else’s business, she was seemingly blind to her own.
Kate confronts Rafe about his feelings for Hope.
Finally, there was a glimmer of the Kate we’ve all come to know and love this week. After giving John Black a little warning about his son Paul Narita, advising the late in life father to in turn advise his son to respect Will and Sonny’s marriage, she headed over to her grandson’s apartment only to find Marlena Evans there instead. A week ago, Marlena urged Kate to trust her intuition about her beau which must have struck a chord with the ever stubborn CEO. Since that conversation, she began to really take notice of how secretive and sneaky Clyde could be which in turn had her reflecting on herself. The longtime friends and sometimes enemies agreed that Kate had a long history of questionable taste in men – from Stefano Dimera to the short-lived but still very slimy Ian McAllister, Kate has never been one to choose men well. There have been a few good ones in the batch and hearing her lament on loving and then losing Rafe Hernandez (one of the “good ones”) was particularly sad. Though an odd pairing at first, the supporters behind the pairing of Rafe and Kate deserved a lot more than what the showrunners gave them. After rolling out her romantic history, Kate finally admits that she thinks Clyde might be as dangerous as everyone had warned. Marlena unfortunately cannot disclose anything as she’s been his therapist for some months now, but by her simply saying that she’s happy Kate is finally learning is most likely more than enough. Leave it to Marlena to throw some of that trademark wise Buddha shade! Kate shows her appreciation and thanks Marlena for lending an ear before leaving, ending the scene that probably had me the giddiest all week. Even though it was short and simple, seeing these two legacy characters interact over something that did not involve their kids, grandkids or great-grandkids’ lives was an amazingly refreshing change of pace. I’m not sure if this was a part of the re-write of TomSell material, maybe paving the way for Clyde’s downfall, but I applaud whoever it was that decided to get Marlena and Kate’s friendship back on our screens.
No matter how smart and intuitive Kate has always been, it’s unfortunately a very real cycle for abused women to fall for men similar to their abusers of the past. Many DAYS fans have pointed out similarities between Clyde and Kate’s baby daddy, Curtis Brown, over the last few months, wondering why she couldn’t see them for herself. She later shows up late to a date with Clyde and he proceeds to lecture her like a child, his true colors blazing before he ultimately cuts Kate off to take an important call. Visibly appalled, Kate thankfully stands up for herself, refusing to continue being glanced over by Clyde. He leaves after she cancels their plans for the night and in comes Rafe, cheekily wondering what the lovers were fighting over. Kate throws a curveball by calling Rafe out on his (please be ill-fated) feelings for Hope Brady. Though the former detective denies it, his former lover claims to know him well enough to see. Again, her intuition is brought into questions when Rafe brings up Clyde’s charming guise, warning her again about her boyfriend to which she tries to brush off until Clyde actually shows up. It’s awkward at first but Rafe dismisses himself, leaving the two alone. Clyde tries again to make nice after his earlier verbal abuse but Kate shuts him down, once again canceling their plans and leaving him behind.
End of the line
Whoever thought there’d be an end in sight to DAYS gay love triangle – then quad – then triangle again? If spoilers are all taken into account, we’re well on our way to finally getting the straw that breaks Sonny the proverbial camel’s back. Not too long ago, even Sonny Kiriakis himself described WilSon as a boring couple and if the characters themselves know then imagine how the viewers feel having to watch every day!
Two weeks ago, Will Horton finally learned the age old method of keeping one’s enemies closer as he began to play nice with Paul Narita. Unfortunately he’s still not as skilled as his mother is with schemes so instead of temporarily getting away with feeding confidential information to Derrick for weeks at a time, he was only innocent for a day or two. Will trusting Derrick to keep anything confidential is much like the town of Salem trusting Will to keep anything confidential, it’s an extremely bad idea. All it took from Paul’s end was a little more prodding for the former mouthy bellhop to sing like a canary. Will really chose the wrong accomplice for this stunt; all of this happens right after Will had suggested that Derrick take his seduction slowly with Paul instead of just hopping into his bed too. Paul confirms what Derrick and Will have known all along, that he’s not really into Derrick – and we all know that Sonny’s the reason for that. Why anyone is even fighting over him, I’ve yet to find out… but I digress!
There’s no going back for Derrick as Paul seems more than done with him after the reveal, but he’s only just begun with Will. With his personal secrets now out there, I expected Paul to go the brute route and track Will down for a old fashioned fist fight but instead there was talking. At first a little underwhelming, but it was nice to see the two young men discuss their issues in a mature fashion. I also loved that Will eventually owned up to him trying to set Paul up out of jealousy over his connection with his husband. Usually Will either flat out denies his own wrongdoings or tries to downplay it but with Paul, he took full responsibility after finding himself talked into a corner. Those off-screen therapy sessions seem to be doing wonders for Will Horton as he even refers to himself as crazy during the heated talk with Paul. They go back and forth, Paul insisting that he knows Sonny is unavailable but never denying his love while Will desperately tries to find a real reason to support his desperate actions – basically everything we’ve seen for weeks now. It’s when Will returns home to Sonny that a shift begins. Immediately, Will fesses up to his husband about leaking Paul’s therapy files to Derrick to which Sonny has an extremely cold reaction. From what the promos for next week have shown us, this might really be it for the snoozefest of a couple.
My only issue with WilSon’s potential breakup is that it’s ending Will’s series of schemes on a mild note. Will became more and more desperate with each attempt to keep his husband near. Instead of Sonny ending their relationship over details of his ex-boyfriend’s childhood dreams leaking (more like still in love with said ex-boyfriend), the entertainment value would have been much higher and more shocking if Will had hired those anti-gay hecklers from the club two weeks ago! The outage from all sides would have been marvelous and certainly would have cemented Will as the top schemer his DNA is forcing him to be. Sonny and Will potentially ending over this is almost as bland as the couple themselves.
Either way, Sonny Kiriakis will be leaving town this coming week as Freddie Smith’s contract comes to an end. I’m excited to see Sonny go as he’s a character I’ve never felt any sort of attachment to, except for that slow burning distaste in the background. My hope is that with this departure that Will and Paul find themselves back in each other’s orbit for a reason not involving Sonny. Maybe a furious Paul follows through on his word to get Will fired for breaking his trust which would fire up Will and while emotions are running high, the two of them pounce one another for a hateful hookup that eventually leads to love. That may be extremely hopeful on my part but the potential story between the two could give birth to an extremely unique dynamic, one without Mary Sue Kiriakis.
This week on Days of Our Lives, Dena Higley and Josh Griffith’s material hits the airwaves, Aiden is viciously attacked by Clyde, John and Marlena grow even closer as well as Caroline and Victor.
As always, feel free to comment down below or tweet me if there was something I missed this week that you can’t not talk about or if you agree or disagree with me on other points. Your input is what makes this all the most fun. See you next week!
Photos and video courtesy of NBC.
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