‘Days of Our Lives’ Week In Review: Disappearing Acts

Out Like a Lamb

Aiden Jennings ended his run this last week as the sacrificial lamb to the demon known as Rope. Just kidding! Rafe Hernandez and Hope Brady are far from demons but they certainly aren’t likable humans anymore. Especially not together.

Photo Credit: © XJ Johnson/JPI Studios

This last week began with the latest incarnation of Aiden taunting Hope. He’d sent her an expensive gown, one that he wanted her to wear on their lunch date… in his hotel room. Hope’s apprehension to that idea made sense. Since secretly recording Hope as she confessed to murdering Stefano Dimera, Aiden has become increasingly creepy in his desperate attempts to win Hope over again despite her protests. She eventually decided to show up to Aiden’s room so he has no reason to leak the confession as he’s continued to threaten but she does the absolute least for him, not even eating the meal he’d set out for them. At least Hope remained strong on this occasion as it was becoming exhausting seeing her become a frail damsel in distress instead of the hero we all know her to be.

While Hope suffered on her date with her ex, current boyfriend Rafe discussed strategy with Roman Brady. The only thing they could come up with was taking the fall for the shooting themselves. Who says chivalry is dead, right? Rafe looked awfully proud of himself as he figured this would be the best way to help Hope, unaware that Aiden didn’t just know Hope had killed the Dimera patriarch but also had irrefutable evidence to prove so. Aiden played the tape for Hope in the hotel room when she decided to be difficult which got her moving again, this time to the beat of the waltz they danced at that strange gala so many years back. Aiden was keen to find that same spark they once had but once he tried to kiss her, Hope slammed down hard on the brakes. The afternoon had crossed over into major creep territory, a space that Hope had thought only Aiden’s son had occupied up until recently. She compared the two of them, vowing to not become a rape victim like her daughter had at the hands of Aiden’s son and – that broke him?

Of all the things Hope had said about him, being compared to his rapist son (whom he still defended and often ignored using the word rape) was what was what broke him down. In an extremely odd twist, Aiden decided to give up on his plot to get Hope’s love back, promising to leave her alone and even handing over the copy of her confession. Aiden literally had every single card in the deck and while he probably would have given up on making Hope love him some time down the line, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing him disturb her love life with Rafe time and again. It felt like this storyline had really just started to kick up but it instead petered out. Aiden and Hope returned to Salem PD together just in time to stop Rafe and Roman from confessing to the deputy mayor about their part in Stefano’s murder. Once there, Aiden resigned his position as the District Attorney so he could return to Portland to be with his son.

And just like everything was tied up in a perfect bow, right? Aiden vanished with one of the weakest exits on record and Rafe and Hope went camping in the park to celebrate! DAYS might be one of the only shows were I actively root against the heroes’ happiness. The only way I managed to get through those saccharine scenes of them in their tent or dressing up as Cleopatra and Antony later in the week was knowing there was no way they’d be happy for long.
While Daniel Cosgrove did his best with Aiden’s exit, giving viewers a glimpse of the sweet lawyer who fumbled into Hope’s life years ago, it just wasn’t enough. Aiden literally went in to this story like a lion and out like a lamb. Or so we thought. Somehow Andre Dimera got his hands on a copy of Hope’s confession, no doubt from Aiden who was the only person with it in his possession. When did he give over his copy or was it stolen from him? My theory is that tired of the back and forth with the dirty cops, Aiden passed the baton to someone who could really torment them to the fullest extent while he got to rest. I’m sure he was exhausted being used as a prop to make Rafe some kind of hero for the ages and just needed a break.

Andre did not disappoint either. For the first time in what felt like ages, DAYS made an effort to celebrate a holiday on the show. Characters went all out dressing up in costume for a party benefiting aplastic anemia in the Horton Town Square. There was also a ceremony hosted by the deputy mayor to celebrate the police officers who’d kept Salemites safe during the Siege of the Three Stooges. When it came Hope’s turn to accept her achievement award (Rafe actually stayed on stage even though his turn had passed…), Andre let the bomb drop. He’d set Hope’s confession up to loop through the square’s speakers, her voice echoing that she’d been the one who killed Stefano. What a way to end the week! In a confined space full of fellow cops, families and friends, a decorated cop fell from grace and there were many viewers extremely satisfied with it. Hope deserved to answer to her crime but how will she make it out now? Aiden probably laughed all the way to Portland from Salem knowing he no longer had to deal with this mess.
But for Hope, it was just beginning. Thank you, Andre!

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