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When You’re Good to Mama
Hattie debuts and immediately realizes Rafe is dull.
DAYS fans can hoot and holler for more realism in storylines, but the promise but a good doppelganger every now and then is usually alright for us. Especially when that doppelganger is a fun familiar face showing up again. Hattie Adams, the women who bore a slight resemblance to Marlena Evans back in the day has returned to Salem as Hope Brady’s new prison mama. And honestly, this was something many of us didn’t even know we wanted – and needed! Hattie was very much a burst of light to Hope’s drab new prison life.
Thanksgiving would be Hope’s first holiday behind bars for murdering Stefano Dimera. Her gorgeous son and dopey daughter paid her a visit, lamenting that they couldn’t all be together on the holiday this year especially now that their father is gone too. To commemorate the year since his tragic passing, Shawn and Ciara Brady gift their mother with a photo and a leaf from the oak tree they planted in his memory. I think I would have found the scene more touching if Bo wasn’t brought up as an afterthought or as a motive for putting Hope together with Rafe Hernandez. “Bo trusted Hope to me…” or anything along those lines never fail in making me gag. Funnily enough, Hope left the leaf and photo behind when visiting hours ended, a sad little metaphor to her relationship with Bo in recent years, huh?
The next time the viewers see the family photo is when T-Boz of TLC fame is presenting it to Hope all torn up. In probably the wildest casting news ever, DAYS landed an R&B legend to join in on their Orange is The New Black-lite storyline. Once again, I had no clue that I needed this but I am so happy to have been served. T-Boz’s Sheila is something of a top dog in prison and her goal is to let the former cop know that she likes no snitches, no cops and definitely No Scrubs! With a trusty sidekick, Sheila attempted to cut Hope’s computer privileges short by force only to find herself in the middle of a scuffle when Hope’s cop mode turns on. There’s yet another surprise when the fight is broken up not by a guard but by Hattie Adams, one of the many iterations of Marlena we’ve seen over the years. She debuted as a screwball waitress, then a trashy mass murder suspect and now a prisoner. To say the least she’s been through a lot and we’re still not sure why or how most of it happened, she always just seems to appear and disappear when needed for a story.
From what we’ve seen so far, Hattie seemed to be even above Sheila on the prison food chain. That will be a huge asset to Hope from the start has a big target on her back for being a cop; much like her first go around in prison going on six years ago. We’ve seen this before with Hope, there’s just no Heather Webber from Port Charles to torment her or an organ harvesting ring but the torment of the once decorated cop is all the same. I can’t say that I have much sympathy for her this time. When a crime is committed, there should always be a suitable punishment no matter if the perpetrator is from an esteemed family or had a good reputation most of her life. Hope did the crime and has to pay the time, it’s just an added bonus to see her getting bullied a bit. I’m surprised Rafe doesn’t have some kind of tracking device on Hope that alerts him whenever she’s in trouble. I was almost waiting for him to try and break into the prison to rescue her. On the outside, it’s all he’s focused on right now, spouting off about promising Bo to take care of her as if he’s her ultimate savior. He’s even prepared to utilize dirty methods to try and get her out of prison. Just tone the desperation down a little, it’s not ever going to be cute on him.
Sheila and her sidekick promised they weren’t done with Hope even though Hattie offered to have her back. The most hilarious part was that the only thing she wanted in return was a shot at Roman Brady once she was out. I mean, to each their own right? This new partnership is sure to be an entertaining one; probably the most entertaining Hope has been in a very long time. You can tell Deidre Hall is having so much fun playing Hattie, someone so completely opposite of her usually collected Marlena. The only thing that would completely top off this wild new arc would be if Adrienne Johnson’s doppelganger, the also gaudy mess of a woman named Bonnie Lockhart showed up behind bars too. Now that would be hilarious. I can dream though.
Decision 2016 Continued
Adrienne is having a rough turkey day.
So Adrienne still isn’t sure which man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, so much so that she slept soundly through the night and kept them held up through Thanksgiving while she thoughts. Not much happened this week that we didn’t see last week though. DAYS fans are all happy to see some of their favorite veterans front and center, but I do believe they could have cut some of the rehashed hotel room scenes for times’ sake. Give us more Thanksgiving celebrations instead!
So after dozing off with Lucas Horton and Justin Kiriakis waiting on edge for her decision, the three of them got into a bizarre argument about teeth grinding. First Justin accused her of doing it, Adrienne denied then Lucas agreed with Justin on the teeth grinding. Somehow the scene was a little cute but really just a little. I’m assuming it was just a filler scene to illustrate the similarities between the two as we’ve seen so much of the differences. This of course only further frustrated Adrienne, prolonging her decision.
The most annoying part about dragging out Adrienne’s decision is Sonny Kiriakis hanging in the wings trying to influence it all. Shouldn’t he be – well, what does he have to do other than this? Sonny is a character who has always fallen flat for me but this most recent return isn’t much of anything, is it? The writers have a grown man doing the tried and true angsty teenager plot, coming between his mother’s newest romance to bring his parents back together. Everyone involved in his triangle is a grown up, they don’t need their own grown up son to influence anything. But I guess repressing feelings for your past love makes you desperate for romance of any kind, even if it means living vicariously through your parents’. Gross.
The tone of the scenes switches up mid-week when Adrienne collapses right before revealing her choice of man. Classic! She’s promptly admitted to Salem University Hospital where after several rounds of testing there is a diagnosis for her. We viewers have yet to find out exactly what is ailing her, but it’s pretty clear it’ll be breast cancer. For the last year the topic of Jo Johnson’s struggle with breast cancer has come up between Adrienne, her brother and friends. Will the diagnosis change her mind about which man she wants to be with? I’m still no fan of Lucas and Adrienne together but let’s say it is cancer and let’s say her chances of survival of grim, I hope she chooses to spend what time she has left with her newest love, experiencing new life situations and adventures. There’s no time to regress!
But again, we still aren’t sure what Adrienne might be sick with and breast cancer is no longer the definite death sentence it once was. Ideally, I would love to see DAYS do a story on living with cancer. Watching UK soap operas we see characters with mental disabilities, physical disabilities and everything in between. US soaps? All of these diseases tend to have a magical cure that’ll take a few months to track down. The hospital is an integral part of Salem, USA so let’s utilize it by crafting a true, honest medical story. No more hunts for cures for the disease that’s kinda-sorta Alzheimer’s, but more of the relatable struggle that is living with illness in 2016.
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.
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