Days of Our Lives Warns Us to Beware of Greeks Bearing Grifts — Plus, the Baby Snatch That’s Right Under Our Noses!

Warns Us to Beware of Greeks Bearing Grifts — Plus, the Baby Snatch That’s Right Under Our Noses!

Days of Our Lives hit us with a genuine (if slightly forced) surprise team-up at the end of Friday’s episode and it’s one that may finally start giving us answers about the real contents of Victor’s will. This wasn’t the fastest moving week, but it did set up some big battles and twisted conflicts in the weeks (dare we say, months?) to come.  This weekend’s Day of Days should give us more of an idea about where some of these stories are going.

An Unlikely Pair

Oh, hey, my Spidey sense tingling over Konstantin was right! He is a scumbag who came to Salem to play Maggie and take her for all she’s worth! But while I mused that he knew something about Victor’s heir, I didn’t expect him to be working with Theresa. (Check out the link above for the whole story.)

But, how could we have thought of that? It’s very much going to be based on a flashback reveal of him having barged into the hotel room in Greece as Theresa was going through Victor’s suitcase. That’s something utterly random. Or is it? He and Theresa are each scheming to get to their own halves of Victor’s fortune, but was he ever a friend of Victor’s? Is he just some grifter or does he have a reason he’s targeting the Kiriakis family? Is all of this somehow his plan?

And what’s at the heart of the secret he and Theresa have about the will?? Something changed and we’re all expecting it to be the name of Victor’s actual son… but there could be more to it than that. I’m just not sure what yet (I mean, clearly from the fact that these two paragraphs are mostly questions), but Konstantin’s involvement adds a new layer.

Stubborn Love

I know a lot of fans want Xander and Sarah back together. And it’s clear we’re getting there, but the whiplash from these two is making my head hurt. They were so, so close to reconciling at the beginning of the week and then Xander, as usual, got in his own way. I can’t blame it entirely on him, though. Sarah’s bouncing all over the place from “Finding out the truth about Susan has changed things for me” (please…) to “How dare you! You’ll never get our daughter!”

There was no way the truth of Victoria’s parentage coming out would just go down smoothly and lead straight to a reunion, but “Xarah” is driving me a little crazy. Because they aren’t just angry with each other and going for each other’s throats. They’re fighting what they want, which is each other. They clearly both care about each other, they’re just too stubborn to get out of this custody fight now and their lawyers are pushing them towards their own worst impulses. They have to fight to win! But they don’t want to actually hurt each other… but that’s what they’re doing anyway.

The Baby Puzzle

In related news, this is how I like seeing Sloan! Underhanded and willing to fight dirty… but within the bounds of the law. She’s self-assured and cut-throat when it comes to her job, which is the Sloan we met. In her personal life, though, I think she’s about to get even worse and there’s going to be a whole lot more hand wringing over it. The conventional adoption means look like a no-go, and now the ingredients are just about all in place for Sloan to take Eric and Nicole’s baby.

There’s her guilt that she lost their baby, is keeping his other baby from him and is the reason they’re having trouble adopting. Then there’s Melinda determined to do “whatever it takes” to get them a baby so she can start her private practice off strong. And Eric was just waxing to Nicole about how adopting is all well and good, but he always wished to have a kid with some Brady features.

I’ve floated this idea before and while I can’t help but feel that there’s still some element missing, I can’t shake the feeling that before this is all over, Sloan’s going to end up with Nicole’s kid.

Into the Future

And speaking of taking kids that aren’t yours… Gabi and Stefan plotting together is par for the course. But Gabi suggesting they kidnap Rachel didn’t feel right to me. She’s a mother. OK, so she’s mostly an absent, scheming mother, but she still loves Arianna and knows how devastating having a child kidnapped and threatened would be, especially since she can’t have any more. I would have bought it more if Stefan suggested the kidnapping and Gabi was the one who said they should work with Brady to leverage Rachel, but either way, here we are.

But also, don’t actually send Rachel back to Brady. She drove me crazy when she was with him, but she just fits right in with the DiMeras. Her retort to Holly wanting to kill her for using her shampoo was perfectly aimed: “You just are worried that the boys won’t like you if your hair isn’t perfect. But they won’t like you anyways.”

Take that, Holly! And Rachel’s reaction to Johnny telling her that playing 20 Questions that one time was so much fun was, itself, fun: “I… guess so…” I never thought I’d become a Rachel fan but her attitude is the perfect way to handle the viper den side of her family.

As for Holly, she’s already scheming to break up Johnny and Chanel and one hundred percent taking over where Nicole left off. Teen storylines aren’t always for everyone, but I’m liking these additions and I can get into it so long as it’s not too juvenile. Holly teaming up with Kristen while Tate pines over her and Kristen makes him super uncomfortable by fawning over her “son” is a good start. Better than just dumping drinks on Chanel until she goes away.

They’re playing with history and with the characters’ legacies. These young characters already have potential to carry on Days of Our Lives into the next generation, and that’s something worth celebrating.

Stray Thoughts…

• Alex’s shout out to Julie’s Place was nice, but when was the last time we actually got to see it?

• I’m glad Clyde explained why he never got around to making his move with EJ and Susan, but meh. Forcing Ava to work for him just as Harris joins the police force and they fall for each other feels too obvious for me. But it should give them a chance to integrate with the rest of Salem, at least.

• The good news is, Dimitri’s still a DiMera, so he’s always got potential, but he and Leo are about to embark on storyline island. Now that they’re on the run, I have no idea how they’re going to integrate back into the rest of the canvas.

• Does “Nurse Leonia” just travel around with wigs? Where did Leo get that?

• Tate, buddy, your whole, “You’re the only friend I have in this town,” to Holly was a bit much. You met her once for five minutes. You’re not exactly reclaiming a meaningful friendship here by begging for her forgiveness.

• Maybe Days should do a spinoff called Pub Talk, where they can put all the characters who just talk about what’s going on at the pub. Marlena and Kate. Steve and Roman. Steve and Kayla. Make it an episode summary thing and give them an actual story for the main show.