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Days of Our Lives ended October on a high and kept climbing right out the gate into November! This is generally par for the course with soap operas but with Ron Carlivati leading, I can only imagine that from here on out, it’ll continue being wild. And I love it! Salem is creepy, kooky and all together ooky for a standalone episode full of murder, ghosts and elephant statues but even that didn’t prove to be the highlight of the week.
The best part of this last week in Salem was seeing familiar faces return to familiar places while other characters hinted at maybe going a different direction. There is nothing like great character driven drama, so when characters are penned right, everything else just falls into place!
With that said, let’s check out some of my picks and pans from the week of October 30th, 2017 on Days of Our Lives!
Picks of the Week
- Everything She Wants
Eve Donovan – well, maybe Kiriakis now – is back in Salem and I’m surprisingly so happy about it. First off, the fact that Kassie DePaiva had a clean bill of health is the best news ever. After losing my grandmother to cancer this last June, I know how hard the battle against it can be, so Kassie has my utmost respect and love for her win! Then there’s the fact that Eve seems to be back in true form once again, making the character an absolute delight to welcome back into our lives.
I had really hoped to hear the last of Deimos Kiriakis when Nicole Walker fled Salem under the suspicions that she’d killed him. He was poorly planned character in many bad storylines that I just wanted washed away – but then Eve shows back up claiming she had a quickie marriage to the youngest Kiriakis brother. Yes, it was far-fetched but it was a way to bring back Eve that kind of made sense for the character. Her daughter, sister and father aren’t in town so she really had no connection to Salem save for this new tie to Deimos. I just wished he’d never come up again.
On multiple occasions this last week, Victor Kiriakis accused Eve of manipulating Deimos into marrying her so she could have his money. Then each time, Eve neither confirmed nor denied it but with her moaning theme song in the background and that perfect DePaiva smirk, it’s clear that gold digger Eve really did come back in full force. I was so scared she’d just return to town to fill in the weepy void that Nicole left behind but instead, she’s sultry and unapologetic as the character was always meant to be. There is such a desperate need for a tough woman to strong arm her way into the petulant boys club known as the Kiriakis family. If DAYS doesn’t want to give me back my Chelsea Brady as a high powered executive keen on staking her claim in Titan, then I’ll gladly take Eve.
This last week also saw the return of another excting lady to the DAYS canvas! Eileen Davidson jolted back onto our screens as Susan Banks – or did she? A shotgun wielding (and poorly so) Susan confronted Sami Brady, Marlena Evans and John Black at the home of her Elvis impersonator boyfriend. They’d just stumbled on a room with the letters EJ above the bed and of course Sami went even more ballistic than usual.
Watching the two of them spat was utterly hilarious, especially with John and Marlena doing their best to remain calm and collected in the background. From Susan, we learned that after EJ died, she spiraled into a haze of revenge and contracted Dr. Rolf to raise Will from the dead so she could kill him instead. Sure, Jan! No amount of hysterics would make Susan want to work with the vampire associated Wilhelm Rolf, not in a million years! Not to mention, the always clever Susan’s words had a much stronger bite to them this time… could she actually be someone else? I think all signs point to Susan actually being Kristen DiMera in a wig and fake teeth, the opposite of their famous 90’s storyline. We saw Kristen inject EJ’s body with that same serum years ago, it’s not that far of a guess to think she herself was resurrected by Rolf and has been working with him ever since.
But why rope Will into this mess? Any thoughts?
- Owner Of a Lonely Heart
Photo courtesy NBC.com
Having Paul Narita find Will and keep it secret from Sonny Kiriakis is set to be the most interesting thing this couple has ever done. While, I still don’t ship them and still don’t feel any chemistry or passion when the characters together though, this tension has me exhilarated to see what’s next for them. That’s mainly because I’d love to see something totally different from these characters outside of being lovey dovey soulmates; these characters need that.
One of my favorite scenes last week was right before Paul noticed Will behind the bar in Memphis. Lucas Horton gave Paul a stern talking to over his umpteenth drink, warning him how nice guys will always finish last. Up until now, Paul has been nothing but incredibly patient and supportive while Sonny obsessed over his ex-husband. The poor guy even sat bedside vigil to his injured fiancé so that when he awoke, he’d be calling out for another man! Even though he clearly had had far too much and wasn’t going to stop for anyone, drunken Lucas was king some pretty sagely points. Then in classic soap opera form, the ghost haunting his relationship appears right before his eyes and he’s left with a major decision.
The way this story is being written reminds me so much of love triangles from the 90’s in soap operas. The interlopers in popular couples tended to not mean to be bad people or do bad things, but after losing one too many times, they realize that playing dirty for love still keeps you in the game. In fact, Sonny, Will and Paul’s saga reminds me a lot of Marlena, John and Kristen. We always forget that Kristen wasn’t always a villain but she fell into it after making one too many poor decision while thinking with her heart first. Now in 2017, we have three gay men in a similar predicament with true love on the line. Could stumbling upon his fiancé’s not so dead husband lead Paul to a dark path too? I hope so!
Also, I have to give a quick kudos to the set design team for making that bar look and feel different from anything in Salem, which really helped this story along! Let’s re-purpose that set and bring it home once the Will mystery is solved!
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