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Days of our Lives has not been amazing in a long while. Yet this week was tolerable, but only just so. They’re extremely lucky to have the two or three storylines they have at the moment pushing the show to be interesting, while extremely unlucky to still have a few dangling on the edge. Why can’t we get rid of Paige and Clyde all in one fell swoop? Thankfully, it was mostly the interesting stories that were front burner this week in Salem, USA. Let’s check it out!
Serena’s pie is full of secrets
Just who is Serena Mason? Seriously, who is she? And why has she shown up in Salem and why should we care about her? Viewers already took note through the writers’ heavy handed means that Serena is the “good girl” foil to Nicole Walker’s “bad girl.” Basically she is Eric Brady’s ideal woman all tied up in one neat redheaded package. We’ve yet to see her interact with Nicole so we’re not sure if she too believes in her good girl persona but it’s every bit evident that the writers will set up Serena to look like the best of best that deserves to be with saintly Eric. And Marlena approves of her, so that should count twice as much!
I digress with my sarcasm, but it’s just hard for me and a lot of loyal Days fans to try to understand why Nicole is seemingly always tortured by all of the worst obstacles in life. Now an academically decorated journalist is not the worst obstacle she’s come across but, Serena has so easily implanted herself into the hole that Nicole once filled is. We know, we know… Nicole claims to have moved on with Daniel Jonas and Eric claims to enjoy his alone time now but none of us viewers are really buying that garbage. But no matter how many fans of the Ericole pairing keep screaming for more, it feels like we’re just being ignored by the writers of the show.
This week though, Eric met with a t-shirt clad Serena in her hotel room to deliver one of Grandma Brady’s famous pies only for her to spin it into an actually applause worthy sexual innuendo. Apparently Eric Brady had multiple slices of Serena’s pie before joining the priesthood, so much that he always came back for more! There’s no doubt that Serena wants him back. She hasn’t been shy about that since arriving in Salem but Eric just doesn’t feel ready yet and has fled from her every advance. Though the women in Eric’s life are dramatic opposites, they both have that drive when it comes to snagging the man that they desire which is sure to make this love triangle interesting. There was also an interesting bit where Serena learns that Nicole had been snooping around in her room from an upset Eric. This news has the journalist wiping the cold sweat off her brow because Nicole hadn’t managed to crack what was in her safe. Must be something incriminating enough to shatter Serena’s image! Please don’t have anything to do with a European casino. But just as long as they don’t keep using Nicole’s bad points (like bribing cute bell boys to break into Serena’s hotel room) to prop up Serena, then maybe this storyline could keep us interested. Oh, and as long as Nicole doesn’t have to date Dr. Dan! Do you root or even care for Serena yet?
Gabi must get GAP denim care packages in jail
Not to mention that this prison visiting room was just a University Hospital room painted lilac, but how great did Gabi Hernandez look in her downtime from her life sentence? Not only was her hair perfectly bouncy but her denim prison garb was really on trend, she looked like she had just stepped out of a GAP catalog and not a cell. I was sort of beside myself with how happy I was to see Rafe’s little sister return for the guest stint that continued into this week considering she was never a favorite character of mine or really anyone’s but then it hit me… When Gabi left, the young adult scene in Salem took a pretty big hit leaving us with just Abigail Devereaux as the sole female in the crew. An almost entire year of nothing but Abigail has really worn me thin.
Gabi was a complicated character, settled somewhere in between being a good girl and a crazy girl considering all of the town wide messes she’s caused in her last few years, but at least she was interesting to watch. Abigail nearly sucked all of the life out of the young adult scene on Days until Melanie Jonas returned and Gabi made this appearance. They’ve really got to stop writing Abby as her mother and make her into the wild sex kitten with daddy issues that we all know is locked up inside of there! But back to Gabi.
Since going to prison for killing Nick Fallon, we thought we’d seen the last of Gabi, but it was a really nice treat to get to see her interact with her daughter and two fathers, not to mention the heartfelt chat she had with big brother Rafe. The two of them always played out their sibling scenes very well to where they really felt believable and that continued on this past week with Gabi expressing her concern about her brother’s current standings. The last time we saw Gabi this week showed her having a heart to heart with Melanie whom the last time she’d been busy plotting to steal her boyfriend and accidentally got her kidnapped and blew up the entire town. It’s been two years since then and Melanie has moved on and they hope to move on with their friendship again.
Her last guests to visit are Sonny Kiriakis and Ariana, but there’s no Will Horton in sight. At first this alarms everyone but Sonny reassures the women that he just has an assignment he can’t get out of. What he doesn’t tell them is that he and his husband had recently gotten into a fight over Sonny draining their joint bank accounts to open up his “Southside location,” and though they’d put a patch over the wound, they were still treading on unsteady ground. Luckily for Gabi, Ariana cannot talk yet or she would have spilled all the secrets and sent her mother back to her cell in tatters over her daughter living in a splintering home. Will not being able to make it to see Gabi was either a move made while still being angry or something more calculated to push himself closer to the subject of his assignment, Paul Narita. Whatever the reason was, Gabi is sure to get an earful in her next visit as the two husbands hurtle closer and closer to a relationship black hole.
Chad rats out Rafe
Rafe Hernandez has to know by now to not mess with a Dimera, even if he is a baby Dimera in training! Chad Dimera’s return to town has set him up as a new pseudo-villain, an anti-hero of sorts (though we’ve yet to see much heroism) and he showed just how underhanded he could be by getting Rafe fired from the Salem PD. In a plot move that had seemed trivial at first that had Rafe investigating Chad hoping to pin him for something to keep him away from Jordan Ridgeway (a little late to try and get her back, don’t you think?), I never thought it’d be anything more than a weird hiccup in Days’ storytelling which happens a lot. But I was wrong because this week Chad actually used that unauthorized investigation to dig up his own dirt on Rafe which he promptly planted right on Roman Brady’s doorstep. It took no time for Roman to read over the anonymous letter and slam his fist down (figuratively and literally) which ended with Rafe losing his job. A lot of people have problems with the character Rafe Hernandez, citing him as boring but this might be the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to him! So far, all we’ve known of Rafe is that he’s a cop. There hasn’t been much else for him to do on screen but be that upright citizen who just so happens to also be a superstar officer, but now he’s been stripped of all of that so just how will that change him? Maybe there’s potential for a little bit of the bad boy side of Rafe coming out for us to see. I just know that I can’t wait to see how all of this plays out, hopefully the writers stick to it and give Rafe the meat he deserves to chew.
Once again, these recaps are not blow for blow recaps and contain a lot of my own feelings toward the storylines this week. Use my points to kick off a conversation. Comment here or tweet me if you agree or disagree with me, I want to know what the readers have to say. Your input is what makes this all the most fun. See you next week!
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