By 
Reboot season has hit Days of Our Lives once again! Though it’s much too soon to say that this just might be the one to stick or that it’s even good at all, it is possible to say that this short week in Salem was pretty alright. This week the only thing that really made me want to throw my chair at a wall was Belle Black leaving for Hong Kong but we’ve since known Martha Madison is back taping at DAYS, so that anger was quelled pretty quickly. Higley and Quan are a writing combination we’ve yet to see, something that’s rare in the world of revolving head writers in soaps so no one is even really sure of what the new tone for the show might be. We’re all basically going into this blindly and hoping, praying that once and for all a majority of us could be blessed with storylines and characters we love. Not just that teeny tiny minority that seems to always be begging for more Daniel and Melanie Jonas. There were a lot of highlights this last week in Salem but here are a few of the ones that stood out to me!
Week in Review for Days of Our Lives episodes airing September 6th – 9th.
Aunties on Fire
Though these women are old enough to be grandmothers – even great-grandmothers now, I choose to respectfully refer to them as aunties. Lauren Koslow’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head when I mentioned wanting her as a grandmother at last year’s DAYS 50th anniversary signing, so I won’t make that mistake again! Ha! But back to those aunties, Kate Roberts and Laura Horton were extra fiery this week with both good and bad intentions backing those motives and what a blast it was to see! Especially when they were this close to ripping out each other’s hair!
Laura blew into town at just the right time, her daughter Jennifer Horton needed some serious support after falling off the wagon again on top of having Abigail Dimera’s impending funeral looming. There were lots of messes to clean up and grandma was in town to do just that. She was really a breath of fresh air among all the constant depressing Hortons we’d been left with; it was a shame to see her leave so quickly. Even though she was very rude to America’s bae, Chad Dimera… From the very start of her visit home, Laura hit the ground running by iving deep into the drama she’d been missing. Jennifer was very candid about her addiction to pain medication, telling her mother the whole truth which must have been a very big step in her recovery process. It was also nice to know that something this important wasn’t shared over a phone call, that the viewers got to see this moment between family and that Laura was so accepting. She didn’t want her daughter to torture herself over what wasn’t her fault, especially now that she partial to new information regarding Abigail.
Back wherever she lived (let’s be real, it’s probably Chicago), Laura had poured over Shady Hills and Abigail’s admission to the facility. In her eyes, her granddaughter had been subject to some form of malpractice by having her PTSD underdiagnoses and mistreated with medication that only worsened her anxiety with side effects. Horrified, Jennifer broke down upon hearing that her daughter wasn’t lost to her own mind much like her own mother had been for a time, like she’d feared. The two later went on to the Dimera mansion to visit Thomas Dimera. It was understandable that Laura was rude to Andre Dimera but Chad? I guess she blames him for sending Abigail to Shady Hills without really doing his research (something she mentions later on) but to be so outright cold just because of his last name? It wasn’t Chad that kept her locked up in a secret room in the mansion back in the 90s! Even while Laura was being rude, Jennifer remained mature, even reconciling with Chad over the new information about Abigail and Lucas Horton and Adrienne Kiriakis moving in to care for Thomas. They wanted to move on to better terms, for Thomas. Thus meaning this custody silliness that went too far has finally come to an end.
Laura was far from done though. She showed back up to the Dimera mansion, interrupting a heartfelt business oriented conversation between Chad and Kate. Chad crafted up plans to lead Dimera Enterprises back into the legitimate side to ensure Thomas’ future. Laura thought it an awful idea to trust Kate with anything, still very much bitter over the fact her husband’s mistress was thriving. Kate remained composed while Laura went on and on, even going as far as to blame Chad for Abigail’s death because he sent her to the dreadful Shady Pines. I was glad Kate was there, ever the champion for Chad because she shut Laura down for her insensitivity. He’s grieving over his wife and you berate him for his family (people who were strangers to him just six years ago) and his decision to ease his wife’s mental woes? It was completely unfair of her to say those things. I’m so tired of seeing my poor Chad breaking down! Laura even had the unfounded nerve to tell Chad he was becoming Stefano and Peter Blake. The feud between Kate and Laura was refreshing to see because history was finally being used again, even just touched on. DAYS has been plagued with “insta” everything from romances to villains to feuds, so seeing character fight because of their history together almost felt new. How odd.
After being neutralized by Kate, Laura decided it was her time to leave town. She checked in with JJ Devereaux who said there were no remains to collect from the Florida plane crash. Turning into Special Agent Dale Cooper, Laura left a message for her assistant Diane to check in with a doctor and to not take Abigail’s death at face value, not without a body.
Kate arrived at the park after receiving a call to meet; little does she know it’s an ambush by Deimos and Victor Kiriakis. They immediately tear into her, pinning the kidnapping of Tate Black on their former lover. Kate laughed it off at first as they piled on the circumstantial evidence in this goofy scene, but both Kiriakis men and the viewers knew she was guilty. It was a twist that was not of the unpredictable variety, a nice change for DAYS but having these two men bouncing off one another to get at her felt so beneath the both of them. It wasn’t clever, it wasn’t interesting, in fact it was pretty petty. They should have caught Kate in the act of paying off whoever drugged Theresa or come with more hard evidence, it was such an obvious way to tie up the old writers’ storyline with a quick, neat bow. The “daring” duo attempted to entrap Kate by telling her they had video of her setting up the crime and her accomplice was willing to testify against her but like the snake she is, Kate also had a backup plan. She threatened to call Interpol on the Kiriakises for smuggling artifacts from Greece to sell on the black market, a secret she’d discovered while living in the mansion. In a nice twist, Kate suggested that if everyone wanted to remain free, they find someone to take a fall for her crime of revenge.
Though there’s no confirmation to prove it, the way the story is already set up and the upcoming departure of a featured actor is leaning toward this – all I can say is, poor Jeannie Theresa Donovan.
Three Stooges
Photo Credit: © XJ Johnson/JPI Studios
I want to start this off by saying I wish the writers had gone with more high profile villains for this storyline. This week marked the return of some familiar dastardly faces all with a vendetta against our Salemites with one that spanned decades. Orpheus, Clyde Weston and Xander Cook returned this week, stuck behind bars but plotting a plan to burst free and rain down their vengeance on those who spurned them. Who are these people again? I know there were plenty of viewers who asked this question. Xander coming back is a nice surprise, he was a good villain, a sexy villain – everything we needed but he was alas, gone too soon. Funny how only a year ago he was the victim of a writing regime switch and a new one brought him back to canvas. Then there’s Clyde, child molesting hillbilly extraordinaire who managed to unearth the Dimera and Kiriakis families… somehow… Then there’s Orpheus. Orpheus spent a year as a villain on DAYS in the late 80s, seeking revenge on Roman Brady for accidentally killing his wife. He was killed then but he’s back now. Even after Ken Corday promised us no more returns from the dead! (Why can’t we use a revival wish on Will Horton?) Why these three returns? I cannot say that I’m sure just yet though it was interesting to see them interact; I’m going to need this storyline to provide some needed weight and meat to the canvas. Though we all know it’ll just be another rush job.
The tale begins interestingly enough, having Clyde request to see Marlena Evans, thinking he’d get a better psych evaluation from the good doctor. With a better write up, he believes he’ll get better treatment in lock up. Why Marlena would agree to do that when Clyde’s son drugged her in her own office, I have no clue but kudos to him for trying. She leaves after denying his request only to get spotted by someone she should be familiar with. Orpheus referred to her as the devil, a clever little nod to her time spent bedridden and green in the early 90s, and from there he and Clyde formed a bond over mutual hatred for all of Salem. With his internal connections, Orpheus promised Clyde he could make their dream of vengeance a reality. Using those connections, Milo Heart aka Orpheus gets Clyde set up as his cellmate so they could better plot their escape.
The two men go over the list of people they’d love to erase from Salem and once joined by Xander, the list grows from Chad Dimera all the way down to Theresa Donovan. All of the people who pushed them away and forced them into the cells they now called home, they wanted them gone.
Though these characters are not the ones I’d choose to rain villainous vengeance on Salem, the dynamic between the three of them could prove most intriguing over any revenge plot. Orpheus is clearly the man in charge, the one with connections and no qualms about shutting down the other team members. When Clyde was getting a little too close and too excited, Orpheus shut him down for his “homespun humor” which gave me a good cackle. Xander will undoubtedly be the muscle and hopefully with very many scenes to show that off and Clyde – well, as always, Clyde is the wild card. I would have loved to have had some build up to these prison scenes, some teasing that gave more background or added suspense for the viewers. By next week, these three will already be in Salem to act out their revenge and I’m already preparing my shoulders to shrug it off. Give me some slow burning suspense or heaven forbid, ramifications to this story that will last more than a month. If these men want to ruin Salem and succeed in even the smallest capacity then the writers have to mean it, stick by it while also making it mean something.
As usual, if I missed something you really wanted to talk about or something you felt was important, let’s start a discussion. Comment below, tweet me and let’s chat!
For a look at what’s ahead, check out our Days Of Our Lives Spoilers.
Comments