Jack Ori
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Kate Roberts is something else, isn’t she?
One moment on Days of Our Lives during the week of 6-16-23, she’s ordering a hit on Megan. The next, she’s inserting herself into a conversation that falls squarely into none-of-her-business territory.
Even so, she’s one of the best parts of some otherwise stale stories. Thank goodness for Kate!
Although Roman’s softened her somewhat, Kate has always had a hard edge, and that’s not changing any time soon.
She’s also the queen of butting in, whether she’s poisoning Chloe to get back at her for cheating on Kate’s beloved son or telling Eric to have that baby with Sloan already.
Kate’s speech to Eric was almost inspiring. There’s something to be said for plunging into chaos and living fully, even if it means living on the edge.
The problem is that this decision doesn’t just affect Eric and Sloan. A baby is a life, not a doll or plaything, and Eric’s right that they need to be financially and emotionally prepared to bring their child into the world.
And in this case, there are other problems. For one thing, Sloan kept it secret that she swabbed her DNA instead of Eric’s to contribute to Nicole’s paternity test.
And for another, what about genetic diseases? Ages ago, Jennifer almost didn’t have children with Jack because she was worried about passing on her mother’s schizophrenia; more recently, JJ feared he had inherited a tendency toward abusing women (specifically, via rape) from his father.
Now, Sloan’s desperate to have a baby with Eric, yet nobody’s brought up the elephant in the room: her brother is severely mentally ill and almost killed Abe, Paulina, Chanel, and Talia because of it.
In real life, this type of mental illness is extremely rare; nevertheless, if that’s what Colin has, Sloan and Eric should be worried about whether it’s inheritable and how to protect their child from developing similar tendencies.
This isn’t to say that they shouldn’t have children (let’s not have a rerun of that nonsense with Ben and Ciara, please!), but someone should at least mention this concern.
Sloan: You have to admit, everything Kate said made sense.
Kate: Well, I always make sense.
And did either of them wonder why Kate was putting her two cents into this decision that does not concern her? She’s married to Roman, which makes Eric her stepson, but still.
This advice-giving session must have been a welcome distraction for Kate, who was busy trying to rid the world of Megan — while Megan secretly plotted to use Harris to dominate her enemies.
This Megan story’s gone off the rails. She’s a great villainess, but throwing EJ and Kristen into the secret room was unnecessary and silly.
First, I don’t know why Nicole bothered asking Stefan anything. If someone’s missing, checking the secret room should be their loved ones’ first stop.
Everyone ends up there sooner or later, so why bother looking elsewhere? Bad guys are forever stashing their victims there while forgetting that room doubles as a wine cellar, so invariably, someone who needs a bottle wanders into the crime scene for whatever reason.
Kristen’s reason for visiting the wine cellar was ridiculous. She wanted a bottle of Sloan’s favorite champagne to bribe Salem’s most aggressive attorney so that Sloan would take her custody case.
Um… okay. Sloan isn’t bribeable, and Kristen has plenty of money to pay her. Talk about random decisions that lead to bad places!
These secret room scenes happen so often that it’s not entertaining anymore! It’s only been about a month since Kristen knocked Stefan out and tied him up in the secret room, so why do we need endless scenes of Kristen and EJ being held there, thanks to Megan?
This kidnapping situation throws a monkey wrench into EJ’s plans to support Nicole through her pregnancy, but other than that, there’s no point to any of this. Sure, EJ and Kristen bonded, but I don’t blame EJ for being cynical, considering that Kristen would have done the same thing Megan did if she’d thought of it first.
Megan’s other storyline isn’t much better than this. She is determined to get Dimitri to marry Gwen so he can get his inheritance. That’s all well and good, but can she stop texting when they’re about to have sex?
Megan constantly sends Dimitri texts reminding him he’s running low on time and has to marry Gwen soon or he’ll lose the fortune she wants for Secret Nefarious PurposesTM.
That’s not obsessive or anything. Sheesh.
Megan is a strong villain. She’s witty, capable, and utterly devious. And EJ is usually pretty sharp. Both of them deserve a better story than this nonsense!
And in what universe does EJ not have the brains to get AWAY from Megan before alerting Stefan or anyone else? People in Salem must stop announcing their plans to expose bad guys to their enemies’ faces!
This trope is second only to publicly announcing secrets on my list of things that need to go.
Harris is also a character in search of a decent storyline.
He’s the town pariah for no good reason — the 12 hours he kept it secret that Bo was alive pales compared to his teenage behavior toward Eve –and now, Kate wants him to kill Megan while Megan wants to re-brainwash him into doing whatever she wants.
This will be a mess. Can it be a mess that’s over quickly, please? And can we get Harris into a more reasonable storyline, like rekindling his high school relationship with Eve?
Meanwhile, Shawn wandered around getting drunk, feeling sorry for himself, and threatening to hurt Megan — who promptly put her gun in his face and called him pathetic.
She’s not entirely wrong. This self-pity is hard to take, and it’s reminiscent of when JJ shot Theo without the question of implicit bias.
Belle pushing Shawn to go to therapy was a good idea, and so was her decision to go by herself. Unfortunately, that scene happened off-screen. as did Nicole’s visit with the high-risk pregnancy specialist.
These two scenes would have added depth and dimension to the story. Sadly, whether it was because of time or budget constraints, they were left to viewers’ imaginations.
It was especially disappointing that Nicole’s visit was off-screen after the build-up it received.
Nicole checked constantly for texts from EJ. Her emotions ran the gamut from worried to frustrated when he didn’t turn up for the appointment. And all the while, Kayla reassured Nicole that the doctor would still see her and that Nicole wouldn’t be alone.
But the most critical part of this story — the bit where the doctor interacts with Nicole — never materialized. We jumped from her being on her way to Nicole walking down the street afterward.
From the writers’ perspective, the story was that Nicole thinks EJ abandoned her, so we don’t need the actual appointment. But the story SHOULD be Nicole’s fears of a third miscarriage and desire to carry to term.
And even if the writers wanted to focus on EJ’s absence, wouldn’t it have been more potent if a rattled, scattered Nicole had to try to focus on the doctor’s words while upset that EJ wasn’t there to support her?
At least the doctor told Nicole that she could carry to term, but that reveal didn’t pack as much punch as it would have if we’d experienced the doctor’s visit along with Nicole. Skipping these scenes was a head-scratching decision.
Elsewhere, Leo tried to stop Dimitri from wooing Gwen.
I’m keeping my eye on you, Tall, Dark, and Dangerous.
Leo
Some viewers think that Leo wants Dimitri for himself. Still, the more interesting explanation for his behavior is that he knows that Dimitri’s presence will change the dynamic between Leo and Gwen.
Leo and Gwen are more like an asexual romantic couple than friends. They’re not interested in getting in bed with each other, but they are a couple in all the other ways that count — they give each other emotional support, protect one another from harm, live together, and spend their lives together.
How does that line-blurring friendship change if one of them starts dating?
This is more complicated than the usual triangle. When people get together romantically, friends often fall to the wayside, at least to a degree. People make their romantic partner their first priority and give them more time and energy than they do their friends, and that’s as it should be.
After all, spending more time with your best friend than with your lover suggests you’re not all that into said lover.
And when a friendship mimics a romantic relationship in many ways but sex isn’t involved, that change can bring up the same feelings one would have if their partner cheated on them.
As a primarily asexual person, I’d love for Days of Our Lives to explore this, but will they? Or will this go in the direction many expect, with Leo’s jealousy stemming from wanting to be with Dimitri himself?
Elsewhere, Abe started to question Whitley’s claims, but she easily deflected his questions with a half-truth, while Paulina panicked over the fact that Black Patch and the cops had no idea where her husband was.
Jackee Harry and James Reynolds are bringing their A-game to this, but can we please get Abe home already?
This is another goofy doppelganger story. There must be a better way to use these veteran actors than this!
There wasn’t much movement in the Wendy/Tripp story other than an off-hand comment from Wendy that accidentally revealed her real motivation for not making a decision already.
It seems like she’s either trying to rebel against her dad by considering Tripp or refusing to accept that she agrees with him about Johnny being a better match.
The other triangle on canvas is equally blah, but at least Chad got some time with Julie!
Julie has become this generation’s Alice Horton, giving younger people encouragement and advice with a smile and sometimes baked goods.
I know it seems impossible that you actually saw Abby, but who knows? What did Shakespeare write in Hamlet? ‘There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophies.’ Maybe you did see her. We’ll never know that, but I know one thing. Whether you imagined her or not, whether you told yourself the things you wanted to hear or not, I know she would want you to get on with your life.
Julie
The scenes between Julie and Chad were well-done, though Julie should have also let Chad know there is no timeline for grieving and only he can decide whether he’s ready to move on.
On the other hand, Alex had no business saying anything about Chad not having removed his wedding ring or Stephanie living in Abigail’s shadow.
He’s jealous and trying to cause trouble, and it needs to stop.
Predictably, Bonnie spilled Sarah’s secret to Justin and almost did to Xander.
Her scenes with Xander were hilarious as she tried to make every excuse for her weird behavior instead of telling Xander the truth.
But at least Anna made an effort (somewhat) to keep Nicole’s baby secret. Poor Sarah may return to Salem, only to discover that the entire town knows — and not from Leo’s column.
And could Bonnie have acted any more immaturely? She seemed like a middle schooler in her zeal to tell Justin about Sarah’s pregnancy.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you think of this week’s shows!
For even more Days of Our Lives chat, check on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekdays at 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.