Pans of the Week

Nicole comes clean with Brady. © jpistudios.com and NBC.com

Rumors and Reputations

No matter how angry or hurt you are, it is never right to shame a victim of any kind of abuse. In fact, that’s abuse itself! Brady was understandably scorned after finding out his girlfriend wanted his step-brother – and had him all night long. That’s probably the only part we could all comprehend on his end though. It must hurt like hell to have to lose this year’s love of his life but by no means did that warrant the bashing of Nicole’s twisted past.

Brady definitely did a lot for Nicole as her best friend. They shared a really great platonic relationship after their first romance fizzled, that’s why it pained me to see the last writers try and cement them as a couple. Much like when Daniel Jonas and Nicole were hotter as friends with benefits or Rafe Hernandez and Hope Brady as work partners, Brady and Nicole were best as buddies! I think that’s why I feel so strongly about him not trusting her, working against her and ultimately throwing her childhood abuse in her face! Snidely calling her an ex-porn star when her father raped and coerced her throughout that period of her life was just so low of him. More than a lot of people, Brady should know what impact that has had on Nicole’s life and while he may have been furious, one would think a former best friend would never go to such a level. Or maybe they’d at least regret saying it in the end, but nope!

What she was a victim of in the past and the woman she’s become are two separate entities, trying to reduce her back to that low point in her life just to feel superior in an argument? It shows exactly why I’ve always considered Brady to be one of the absolute worst. While he’s more interesting with these darker leanings, I still think that as a character he’s uninteresting and now unwanted. Now Nicole may be a lot of bad things but do not put her down for things that were out of her control at the time. I really wish she had stood up for herself more instead of crying, but we all know that’s par for the course with Nicole now. It’s a shame because referencing that bit of history like the writers did so well on other points of the show, would have elevated these scenes to something more emotionally gripping and not infuriating. I am also very tired of men in soap operas getting to railroad these women in the nastiest ways and getting away with it. It’s 2017, can we seriously move past victim shaming as a plot device?

Parents’ Day

Not only did we get to see Salem’s most iconic pairs of grandparents unite, but the end of this last week signaled the return of one of the town’s most ferocious mama bears. Sami Brady breezed back into town after Marlena updated her on the Will situation – now if only the teaser video for the week hadn’t spoiled all five seconds of that return!

So we get all this great emotional buildup from John, Marlena, Kate and Roman figuring out that Dr. Rolf was out their resurrecting their grandbaby to Paul pleading with John to prove that theory wrong only to bring us to this flash of a climax. While I was ecstatic to see the Sami Brady return, snatching up John’s shovel before the desecration of Will’s grave, this was a scene I’d already seen!

Sami Brady returns to Salem! © jpistudios.com and NBC.com

Recently, DAYS has been doing a lot better at keeping upcoming stories more or less under wraps. Tyler Christopher’s character coming in 2018 is still a mystery, Eileen Davidson’s return to Salem is still under wraps and so are the numerous other returns slated for the coming few months. I understand the need to hype up Alison Sweeney’s return to the soap, the show is looking to bring ratings back up after The Higleypocalypse but in that same vein, they could have either teased us a little less or given us a little more during the show.

But by no means is this a big complaint as no matter how mild Sami’s return may have been, we all know that she’ll make Salem wild soon enough. After uniting families and the community, turning them upside down with this canvas changing revelation of Will’s survival, Sami has shown up to continue stirring that boiling pot. If Lucas won’t listen to Kate, I know that teaming up with Sami to find the truth in all of this or even being told to sit out and let Sami handle it will probably calm him a bit.

Maybe it’s my Lumi heart and soul speaking, but I think Sami and Lucas will find themselves truly relying on each other in a lot of ways this time. For Lucas and his struggle with sobriety, finding someone that he can trust like Sami instead of preaching to him about his problems will be monumental in his recovery. Sami will probably feel more than a little stung after finding her step-father and step-brother digging up her son’s body which will probably make her a bit mistrustful of everyone else, maybe even irrationally so as Sami specializes in. Of course, none of this can happen too but it’ll be damn fun waiting to see!

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!