By 
Days of our Lives ended its November sweeps with high emotion and kicked of December by setting up more exciting storylines to continue into 2016. We dealt with the loss of a major character that’d been in fans’ lives for decades as well as the reintroduction of old favorites to the scene. A month later and DAYS is still delivering on its promise to keep us entertained. Almost every day this week was strong, with the duller scenes dealing more with too much repetition than with bad story. Call out my bias for the show or whatnot, but I’ve been consistently in love with DAYS since the creative turnover. There’s no 100% soap opera and by no means is the show perfect, nor is this the exact idea that I had in mind when it came to a 50th anniversary year of story but the show is once again enjoyable.
Now onto a few highlights from Salem, USA this last week!
Week in Review for Days of Our Lives episodes airing November 30th – December 4th, 2015.
Cabin in the Woods
Now, I always do my best not to complain in any of my weekly reviews especially when it comes to DAYS, my favorite soap. During times when all I had to look forward to as a viewer was JJ Devereaux moping about over his father’s past indiscretions or what was Sonny Kiriakis, I always managed to find the upside but I am beginning to lose patience with the Necktie Killer climax. Again, compared to this time last year, the storyline was far more riveting but it still had its share of pitfalls as well.
Abigail Devereaux was still locked up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere this week. For someone who’d just given birth to the world’s biggest premature baby and in record time, she still seemed to have her wits about her. Instead of further agitating her unstable fiancé, Ben Weston, with more shoddy escape attempts, she seemed keener on trying to soothe him. Ben had just killed the midwife who delivered his son to keep their location secret and was set to do the same to Abigail before she talked him out of it, reminding him that their son would need to nurse from her to survive.
Then comes the back and forth that I could have sworn we saw a week ago – or was it the week before that? Though gripping and well acted, the writing for these cabin scenes have begun to leave a lot to be desired. Ben has gone from being complacent with Abigail to slutshaming her at gunpoint every other day; which just might be a part of whatever illness has suddenly begun to plague him – or it could just be that the story is running on a loop. The monotony of it all is finally broken up this week when Chad Dimera bursts into the cabin. Back home in Salem, all of Abigail’s family seemed to think it was normal not to hear from the family oriented young women during this time of turmoil for her family except for her ex, Chad. Utilizing resources from his budding cop buddy Rafe Hernandez, Chad tracks Ben and Abigail to a town called Mammoth Falls where a midwife had recently gone missing. Poor, poor Wendy.
Of course now with Chad in the picture, no amount of sweet talking from Abigail is able to talk Ben down from exploding. First he’s got a gun on Chad, then the gun’s on Abigail then he’s got the gun and is holding the baby! If he’s not intent on killing someone, then I don’t know what he intends to do but for some reason Chad and Abigail continue to hope that reason will work on Ben. Now it’s at this point that what’s meant to be the climax of this serial killer story really begins to escalate, proving that all the weeks of slow burning were kind of like the climax before the climax. Ben kicks up the flames a couple notches by restraining both Chad and Abigail to the bed and lighting it on fire, leaving the two lovers (as Ben continued to chillingly call them) to roast together.
Even though I wished for this to have happened maybe about a week ago, there is absolutely no way to deny that this week’s scenes made for exciting TV. Once the weak link in the triangle, Robert Scott Wilson has made tremendous steps up as Ben alongside consistent performers Billy Flynn and Kate Mansi. Ben was manic, Abigail was panicked and Chad was desperate – and each viewer could feel all of these feelings thanks to the great actors in these scenes. And all thanks to spoilers, we know that this may just be the last we see of this cabin. Finally.
Any thoughts on the Chabby reunion? Do you too think the story was a bit too repetitive?
Dark Places
This week marked the final farewell to one of DAYS’s most beloved characters, Bo Brady. Though gone to everyone else in Salem, Hope Brady has still been catching glimpses of her deceased husband but not as a benevolent spirit. In what I think is one of the best uses of supernatural elements this show has done in a while, Bo’s ghost has been appearing to Hope as a manifestation of her guilt for “abandoning him” when he needed her most. For someone who’s been through so much in the last few days, it’s a bit crazy for Hope to be blaming herself for what happened to Bo but she can’t seem to let it go. In fact, she’s out for blood to make up for it. This last week, Hope was ready to up and leave Salem in order to track down those responsible for Bo’s imprisonment. Her husband’s funeral aside, all she could see was carrying out that revenge.
Not even Steve Johnson was willing to help her as he knew how much of a task it’d be to track down the perpetrators after they scattered. But Hope stands firm against Steve, eventually getting him to give her information on Claudia who masqueraded as Britta Englund’s daughter to lure Bo to Mexico. Ciara Brady caught her mother with gun and suitcase in hand and couldn’t even take the thought of Hope flying off on some adventure at a time like this. It’s the apparition of Bo that convinces Hope to stay in Salem to lure Claudia to her instead. Claudia shows up in Salem under the pretense of receiving an award for helping find Bo, but she’s soon taken in for custody by Hope who learns that the cell behind Bo’s imprisonment was far more complicated than she might have imagined. Just for talking to Steve back in Mexico, Claudia had her thumb cut off and for that she was a bit uneasy about doling out more information but she does cooperate with a sketch.
The Martin house has been turned into a bed & breakfast by Doug and Julie Olson and their first guest just so happened to be the doctor who tortured Bo in Mexico. Why this man came to Salem? Who knows. Maybe he arrived to gloat and celebrate his success of finally killing the man who seemed invincible. It’s a bad move on his part as Hope tracks him down pretty quickly through his logging onto the public Wi-Fi at the old mansion. Things escalate incredibly quickly after they take Dr. Seth Malcom down to the station, questioning him briefly but that soon ends with Hope playing Russian Roulette with him as the only participant.
It’s great seeing Hope’s tough side resurface again, not just her playing the ignorant blushing fiancée but the super cop that we all know and love – but there’s so much sadness to this character revival as well. Hope is really hurting but she’s shutting out everyone that could help her because what she thinks is the ghost of Bo, is urging her to push forward with this dangerous mission. She doesn’t even seem to be heeding Rafe Hernandez’s warnings anymore, a partner she grew to trust greatly during their time on the force together. He may have stopped her from shooting the evil doctor in the head but there’s no way this is the end of Hope’s descent. Not when there’s a persistent ghost on her back.
What do you think about Hope going from hero to anti-hero? Are you worried about where she’ll go next?
Comments