Credit: Peacock screenshot (4), Jill Johnson/JPI

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Sami and Vivian came and went, leaving chaos in their wake (though at least in Sami’s case, it was unintentional), but for all the drama, we ended the last full week of the old writing team’s tenure not on a bang, but a joke. But while there were some puzzling decisions this week on Days of Our Lives, we at least got some big moves and some entertainment.

War, What Is It Good For

I always expected a DiMera/Titan battle to be, you know, a war between the two families. What happened with Philip and Xander, though, has been pretty lackluster. Chad and Johnny couldn’t care less, EJ’s in a coma, Tony’s not back until the summer and Stefano is… wherever Vivian is holding him.

Kristen’s the only DiMera to even care. And while she’s borderline murderous over it (Really, Xander? If he’d called the cops on her for threatening to shoot him, he wouldn’t have anyone scheming behind his back.), we’re not getting the DiMera family closing ranks and fighting back against the Kiriakis boys. Yet.

I had a whole spiel about how disappointing this clash of the titans is turning out, but EJ’s waking up next week — which is earlier than I expected. Does he know who shot him? Will he remember? Is he going to accuse someone who didn’t do it out of revenge? This could be his opportunity to get revenge on people if he doesn’t remember who actually did it. Blame someone you hate.

If he’s got his full mental faculties, he’s going to wade into the Titan takeover. Maybe the DiMera/Kiriakis war will take off and Philip and Xander will have to make nice to fend off Kristen and EJ.

It already looks promising, from Xander’s reaction in not killing Philip, to them still talking next week, and Maggie urging Xander to have some compassion. The real problem, I’d guess, will come down the line from whenever Sarah admits she knew about Philip the whole time. That’s the betrayal Xander won’t be able to get past.

I mentioned last week that Vivian could be Sarah (and everyone’s) Get Out of Jail Free card. Sarah, Alex and Stephanie (and now Maggie, I guess) just need to sit back, let it play out and that’ll be that. Philip took the blame, even shielding Kate, so if everyone wants to just shut it, they’ll all be in the clear. Except… that Philip/Stephanie affair lie is probably going to bite them in the rear.

The End of the Line?

The Orpheus stuff this week was, er… interesting. Marlena and Steve’s plan seemed to go something like this: “We can’t get into the ISA to see Orpheus! Oh, wait, no, we’ll just put on lab coats and it’ll be fine.” Then, a short time later, “Kidding, we didn’t even need those, we’re back in our civilian clothes! No one cares!” I hope this isn’t the actual end of the search. If Orpheus is the only blast from John’s super spy past, come on. Give us something more. Plus, I want to see Marlena go undercover to infiltrate a black market in Minsk!

There’s no way they can just hand this over to the ISA and wait for word on John. Then again, with how thin they’re stretching these episodes, maybe it’s for the best to just wrap it up. The new writers start next week and it’s not over by then, so it’ll be interesting to see what direction they take this.

Also, I’m still kind of convinced Orpheus would have been able to take Marlena to John if she’d freed him. The way the show lingered on him insisting he was Marlena’s only hope felt pointed.

Shooting Watch 2025

Kristen’s out as a suspect, and now Ava and Gabi are in the Keystone Cops’ crosshairs. Ava’s gone gone, so this line of inquiry is pointless. And Gabi didn’t do it, I’m sure. That flashback they keep showing of her outside the DiMera house with a gun is 100 percent a red herring. But also, I really want them to keep that flashback going so we can find out what Gabi did do that night, instead of showing us the 1000th flashback to stuff we’ve seen.

More: Gabi’s daughter is all grown up

And Rafe — I thought that wiretap was just audio, but when he hooked it into his laptop, I started getting the feeling it was video as well. I don’t know if that was just my assumption or not, though. Either way, we saw the shooting happen. If it’s audio, we heard nothing but EJ talking. If it’s video, it’s probably trained on him and not the shooter. So I fully expect it to be a dead end.

Stray Thoughts…

• Xander reminded Philip that Vivian once buried Maggie alive. Her response? “Excuse me, but she was above ground the entire time.” She’s not wrong!
• Vivian and Sami leaving town together was… I mean, it was amusing, but why end the week on that? It’s not like these were giant exits. We knew they were just visiting for a short stint.
• Good for Rafe in coming clean to Jada right away, but what the hell is wrong with you, man? No, what the two of you did isn’t the same. Get over yourself. (Which I think he did, but a little too late.)

• Hey, we got a new DiMera set! Gabi’s office is a whole lot more impressive now and not just the CEO office reconfigured. And I think that’s the first time they showed the DiMera Enterprises office building and it’s as dark and foreboding as I would have hoped.
• At least Melinda’s never going to be shy of work if everyone who’s accused of shooting EJ needs a lawyer.
• I’m sure Sami’s coming back for John’s funeral again, but I wish we’d have seen her interact with more people. Like maybe we could have seen that lunch she, Johnny and Chanel supposedly had, maybe talked to Belle some more, spent more time with her dad…
• Maggie went a bit too easy on Sarah, but she had a point that Sarah would just be making herself feel better if she came clean to Xander. But also, she couldn’t point out that Sarah having that little faith in her husband might be a marital problem? Come on, Maggie.