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Photo: NBC.com
Pans of the Week – Dead & Gone
Andre DiMera is finally dead! The entire town of Salem should be rejoicing, though I do understand the hesitation since this is his third death? Fourth? Even with Dr. Rolff supposedly six feet under, who knows what witch doctors the DiMeras might have in hiding ready to bring back the suddenly mild to wild DiMera son. While I am happy that the character is gone, I still have a few complaints.
Firstly, the build up to this murder mystery was so rushed. It took about a handful of episodes for everyone to suddenly want Andre out of their lives again. The best part was discovering that his kindness to Abigail DiMera, love for Kate DiMera and friendship with Chad DiMera were all a rouse to get to the top of DiMera Enterprises. That’s the Andre we know, ruthless and with no desire to forge relationships unless it gained him something in the end. But still, that was so tame compared to what we expect from the character. If all of his years of promised reform were lies, then shouldn’t he have exhibited the same (fun) psychopathic behavior in the past? Why didn’t he take over DiMera to delegitimize it again, pick back up the funneling of drugs into Salem or something? Yes, this was a turn back to where the character should have been but it wasn’t’t enough. Certainly not enough for someone to want to kill him with Tony DiMera’s urn. Great-grandma Kate should have tried to kill him the second he came back in 2015 for hanging her from the rafters by her neck! But instead she loved him… I digress.
Oddly enough, the best part of this whole whodunit was Anna DiMera and Roman Brady reconnecting. Roman supporting Anna no matter if the evidence points to her being the murderer is honestly sweet, the two share a deep history and a child together. Even after decades of craziness, they want to protect one another! Plus, Leann Hunley is a true treasure as the slightly kooky Anna. I think she’s going to be in for a shock if it prove true that Tony is actually alive! Do we believe for a second that Thaao Penglis’ exit didn’t leak six months beforehand? Not to mention all of the Tony name-dropping, Anna’s full on discussion with the urn, the mysterious note in her purse and Andre’s shift in behavior recently just pointing to the fact the more gentlemanly DiMera might be involved. Could the dapper Andre of days past have been Tony all along and his recent turn been the result of a switcheroo? Who knows! I am surprised more hasn’t leaked out in regards to this story though. Kudos on that, I guess!
My Own Worst Enemy
Lani Price continues to make bad decisions, poorly thought out decisions. She makes it hard for me to even want to root for her as the only young black female on DAYS! You know how black people love to root for other black people, but damn. It’s getting difficult. This last week, after deciding to not abort her baby, Lani cried when Eli Grant confronted her – just to ask for answers and pledge his support… Yes, she pretty much just cried.
Photo: NBC.com
I have to hand it to her, I do like that she has no bad intentions about trying to pass off this possibly black baby as her white boyfriend’s but funnily enough, I think I’d prefer if she did. In this mixed up love quadrangle, everyone is very buddy-buddy with each other which means you either root for everyone or no one. During Eli and Lani’s chat, he mentioned the fact that she was always keen on playing the hero to protect everyone else thus making herself vulnerable to pain. That could explain the constant stress and tears, yes, but we don’t see enough of that! If not a villainous move, I’d love to have seen more of Lani being a martyr who makes bad decisions for herself in order to protect others. It would be an interesting character trait for a character who doesn’t have much character at all!
Valerie Grant putting two and two together about Eli and Lani is an interesting development. Not only is this pregnancy moving fast, but this secret is being exposed at rapid speed too which makes me think it’ll lead up to something in February sweeps. I hope so! As of right now, this quad with four beautiful people and three great characters is just a bit too drowsy for me.
With that said, I’d love for DAYS to do something like Hollyoaks did just a year ago. A white character named Leela gave birth to what she thought was her white husband Cameron’s son. There was an odd bruise on him that made them question if the hospital had abused their child! Gradually, that bruise spread until the pale baby became darker and her one night stand with a black man named Louis was revealed. Imagine if Lani’s baby came out pale making her think she’d won the karmic lottery only to have the baby’s pigment darken over time! I do still hope the baby is JJ Deveraux in the end, not that he needs a baby right now. We’ve all learned too well that babies do not fix real life or soap opera relationships at all!
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!
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