By 
Under Pressure
Much like Aiden, Ben Weston is just one pinprick away from emotionally bursting. While the former is just planning a copycat murder, the latter is seemingly suffering with the guilt of committing the original murders! I say maybe because no one is quite sure what’s going on with Ben as he seems to be constantly deluding himself. A while ago, I hypothesized that maybe there was more than one Necktie Killer before Ben was revealed to be the culprit. Though he may have one body, I’m beginning to wonder whether his psyche is split in two instead.
Ben had been living pretty well since he put Chad Dimera in a coma. The latter had figured out the former was responsible for the murders and confronted him. Unfortunately, Ben was able to subdue Chad and keep quiet the only person who could ruin his plan. This week Chad finally awoke from his coma after suffering through dreams of Abigail and Ben’s marital bliss. Unknown to him, Ben and Abigail Deveraux are across town arguing over the reward money for “turning in” Chad. She thinks the money is dirty, like blood money while he figures it’ll help immensely for the huge expenses that babies can bring. From my understanding, colloquially blood money is more so the money paid to the victim’s family from the offender. It’s obvious to anyone, even Ben that Abigail is only trying to turn away from the money because she believes Chad innocent. I agree with Ben, I would take the money and run considering neither of them have real careers or really an interest to advance. Diapers and daycare really can get pricy! Abigail though has heard enough, especially when Ben mentions one of her loved ones dying and them getting an inheritance being the only way they’ll get this lucky again. Does he want her magical Irish land plot too? Or is Will, the cousin that Ben killed, going to leave Abigail a chunk from his royalty checks in his will?
Either way, the most important part comes right after this in my opinion. Ben gets extremely worked up when Abigail turns to leave (does he already know she’s seeking out Chad?) and he violently snatches her up. Both parties look frightened in that moment, but it’s Ben who later laments over being just like his father Clyde Weston and how much he hates himself. Is it possible that Ben is suffering from a dissociative disorder? He’s spent the last weeks pretending that he hadn’t been strangling people all about town, lying to everyone and most importantly himself to shift the blame onto Chad. Now he’s seeing his father’s old abusive ways in himself and he can’t take it. Jordan held an immense grudge against Clyde and rightfully so, considering he sexually abused her. Ben accepted him back into his life a lot more easily but what exactly did he sweep under the rug to do so? For him to be seeing Clyde in himself as he commits these killings makes me think he’ll be carted off in a straightjacket soon. Maybe he’ll convince himself that it was actually Clyde who did the killings in the end. In any case, Ben doesn’t seem like he’ll literally be able to take the blame upon himself which means he’s really got nothing to lose. Abigail better watch out.
Designing Women
Now Theresa Donovan, Nicole Walker and Kate Roberts’ office (or Brady Pub table) work was not a main point in this last week, but it did stand out. At least for me. I understand that with all the anniversary, serial killer and wedding hoopla, there isn’t much time to devote to the Basic Black revival just yet. Some of the aforementioned storylines have been interesting but ultimately not as interesting as they would seem to be on paper, especially the serial killer story (I want more deaths!), but I think this one has infinite potential. All three of these women are bad in their own rights; they’ve done a lot of questionable deeds throughout the years but this is one big positive move they’ve all made together, and I think that should be celebrated. For a long time, DAYS could not have two women in a room without one being catty for almost no reason but with Kate, Nicole and Theresa they’ve actually toned it down. Well, just a bit.
Kate has been immersing herself in her work to keep from breaking down over the loss of her grandson, Will Horton. When she’s in business mode, we as viewers have seen that she can have a very strong one track mind that leads to her success. Anyone in her way had better watch out! Theresa had begun to learn that first hand after being more or less demoted to an assistant by the experienced businesswoman, even though she too owned a stake in the company. During a meeting, Nicole gives Theresa a secret pep talk about standing up to herself. The only way Kate will ever acknowledge Theresa as more than a young fish out of water is if Theresa stands her ground – which she does! Kate wants to send Theresa on another coffee run and in a very simple, but very effective way Theresa tells Kate to get off her own ass to do it. From the look on Kate’s face, one could tell that Theresa had just earned some respect – just some though, like an iota. There was also some cute The Devil Wears Prada gag thrown into the dialogue but I can’t recall it at the moment.
Basically, the three women managed to come together without clawing each other’s eyes out. Now this is still very much a soap opera, so the peace can only last for so long but it was very heart-warming to see them encourage one another. Now just give us more!
This coming week on Days of Our Lives, The Bicentennial Gala begins, Abigail discovers the truth about Ben, Hope and Aiden’s wedding begins, Steve and Bo finally make it back to Salem and Sami returns to town with new information on EJ!
As usual, if I missed something you really wanted to talk about or if I missed something important in my recap, let’s start a discussion! Comment below, tweet me and let’s chat!
Photo credits: JPI Studios. All images are licensed for use.
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