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This last week in Salem taught me that if I just tune out any talk about an elephant statue, I might actually enjoy myself! There was big drama that unraveled in a surprising way and more twists (than necessary?) for a love triangle that made the week better. Compared to last week, it felt like a definite step up in story. Let’s check out what happened on Days of Our Lives this last week!
You and Mommie Dearest
Finally, finally, finally! Since her character’s inception, fans of the show have been referring to Paige Larson as “Beige” – when not completely disregarding her. This week True O’Brien stepped up and out to show off those haters, bringing life to a character that (to no real fault of her own) had very little life on screen. Paige was painted as the extreme antithesis of her boozy floozy of a mother, Eve Donovan. But instead of making her interesting, the writers made her generic. After over a year of Mary Sue-like behavior, Paige exploded with a variety of emotions after learning about her mother and boyfriend’s betrayal.
JJ lays a trap for Eve.
Paige finally happened upon the truth about why her mother and boyfriend were always at each other’s necks. After months and months of their constant bickering, Paige came to know that the animosity was most likely from bottled up sexual tension that the May-December pairing only set free every other month. Jennifer Horton did a weird thing by offering to throw a birthday party for her young adult son’s girlfriend, so everyone was worked into an excitement about the upcoming function. Everyone except Eve who was feeling the heat after her sidekick, Cole planted drugs on JJ in hopes of getting him arrested. When that scheme failed, JJ used his innate investigation skills (Son of two reporters, right? Too much of a stretch?) to figure out that Eve was behind his set up.
As usual, the two fought it out, unaware that Paige was just in the next room listening to her boyfriend threaten to call the cops on her mother only for her mother to counter with revealing their affair. What happened next was different from the more recent Days reveals but in the end it was effective and not to mention exciting. After JJ leaves, the next thing we see is Paige revealing herself to her mother. To the audience it’s obvious that something is going on with the usually chipper girl, she’s much more stoic and quiet but Eve brushes that all off. It’s not until Paige yanks her mother into the most chilling forced hug I’ve ever seen that it all clicks for poor Eve Donovan.
Both actresses succeeded with their material this last week as viewers pitied both characters for opposite reasons. Until now, rooting for a Paige Larson victory was unheard of but viewers found themselves excited to see the former goody two-shoes unravel the mess that her closest friends and family had made around her. Paige showing up to her surprise party literally fuming was another stand out moment, chilling enough that it would not have been odd for Days to pay homage to “Carrie” with the party turning into an anger fueled bloodbath. Though the only casualty was a chocolate cake, Paige did her fair share of damage to those that she’d once trusted; even figuring out that Jennifer had a role in this hurtful situation.
I think one of my favorite parts to the explosion of this drawn out drama was that Paige did not discriminate. Far too often we see soap opera characters giving hypocritical passes to one character then shaming the next who does the exact same thing. Paige’s reactions were very realistic as she called out anyone and everyone involved (except Daniel who seemed too scared to speak up). I’m intrigued to see where the character of Paige goes from here as spoilers show that she won’t just be letting this affair go away so easily. Maybe with the help of Aunt Theresa, she can cook up some schemes for revenge? Either way, as long as “Beige” rests in pieces and the new and improved Paige is here to stay, all will be well. What did you all think of the big affair blow up?
Photos courtesy of NBC.
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