Days of Our Lives Recap: Rivers, Romance and Repeats
Jack Ori
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This week's Days of Our Lives mostly centered around the aftermath of Kate's losing her temper with Deimos after catching him trying to seduce Nicole. Kate took advantage of Deimos hitting his head and falling in the river to accuse her rival of murdering him.
This could be an exciting storyline if only Kate, Gabi and Sami hadn't thrown Nick in the river about two years ago, only for him to show up alive, well and ready to get his revenge a few months later.
Kate's evidence was exceedingly flimsy -- so much so that both Roman and Rafe saw right through it. She filmed Nicole fighting with Deimos and made sure the police found an earring Nicole had dropped at the scene.
The earring proves nothing because it's already known Nicole was there. It's not like they found it in the river next to Deimos' body. Plus, it should have Kate's fingerprints on it since she was touching it without gloves on and Kate should have grass and mud stains on her clothing from kneeling down to doctor the scene.
If this were Law & Order: SVU, the district attorney would be saying, "Get me something I can use if you want to move forward with this case."
This being Salem, Nicole was briefly arrested and even needed a lawyer to get her out of the interrogation room despite absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing except a claim by someone the cops all thought might be guilty themselves!
Kate: 'Right.' No thank you?
Aiden: You know, for what it's worth, I'm not very happy about doing this.It just so happens I need the money because my son...
Kate: Too much information. You got what you want, I got what I want. We're done.
Aiden: Not quite yet. This doesn;t get out, you realize that? This is a one-time thing. No followups.
To make matters worse, Kate managed to manipulate Aiden into forging some documents for her to prove that she and Deimos were married. I don't see how that helps Kate's case. Inheriting all of Deimos' fortune via marriage would give her an even stronger motive herself than her jealousy of Nicole, wouldn't it?
I also don't like that Aiden did this. With Hope deciding to give him another chance, the writing is on the wall.
It seems that the writers are under the mistaken impression that viewers enjoyed months of Nicole agonizing over the secret of shredding documents Eric claimed not to care about, then made the town pariah when the secret came out. Most likely the same thing will happen to Aiden just as he is about to renew his vows with Hope.
In any case, the forged documents do nothing positive for Kate so they are entirely unnecessary. Plus, if Nicole can prove that that was the ring Deimos attempted to give her moments before, Kate's whole scheme falls apart.
Maybe you should have some breakfast to go with that gallon of champagne.
Dario
It was nice to see Dario supporting Nicole. This is a much better role for him than all that nonsense with Summer earlier in the week. Very few people were excited to come back from a hiatus to see Dario and Summer hook up, and Summer immediately trying to get Brady away from Theresa while Dario went to hang out with Nicole didn't do them any favors either.
Dario was a surprisingly level-headed and calming influence on Nicole. For the first time, I actually believed he was related to Rafe.
Instead of going out with Mami Hernandez's friend while Hope is busy experimenting with Aiden, Rafe should give Nicole a try. Their chemistry during the interrogation scene was off the charts, and a Rafe/Nicole/Dario triangle would be an actual hot storyline.
I hope Deimos Kiriakis is okay, not because I like the guy, but because if he is dead this thing is gonna get very ugly very fast. It's bizarre. I have a feeling it's gonna end badly for someone. It could end badly for you, Kate. Have a nice day.
Roman
Roman's intelligence was a nice surprise. He's often written as simple and doesn't seem to be all that bright most of the time. I was impressed that he saw through Kate more than once so far! It was nice to be able to cheer Roman on for once.
What doesn't make any sense is that nobody has brought up the similarities between this storyline and the Nick story. Kate has said over and over that Deimos MUST be dead because he fell in the river. Roman or Rafe needs to remind her of what happened the last time she tried that.
I don't know where this will lead me. I don't know where any of this is going with Aiden. But I did love him. I married him. Then I hated him. I have to see where this goes. I have to see it through. I have to. So I can move on with my life, to see if we can get back what we lost because of Stefano or to find out that we never can.
Hope
Hope had a very special dream episode in which she talked with Bo, Zack and even Larry Welch to figure out what she needed to do to get back on track with her life.
These standalone episodes are excellent tributes to veteran characters and supercouples from the past. They are much more satisfying than the actual 50th anniversary show, which included faux Aiden's attempt to kill Hope.
Hope's dreams were poignant. There was much more chemistry and interest between her and Bo than there was during his short stint in Salem prior to his death, and the scenes with grown-up Zack made me cry.
It was clear that Hope's problems began with Zack's death and living her life in memory of both the husband she lost and the son she lost will make her stronger again.
Hope's decision to try again with Aiden after the dream was bittersweet.. I love this couple and would like to see them last, but the storyline feels like an obstacle for Hope and Rafe more than an actual reunion.
The continued rewrites to Aiden's character to make viewers question whether he's really a good guy and the problem of Chase having raped Ciara make it seem they are not end-game here.
I'm hoping I'm wrong, though, because Hope and Aiden still seem so right together.
My heart did break a little for Rafe, more because he never gets anywhere with his love life than because I think he and Hope should ever have been more than friends. I hope he's not going to get obnoxious about investigating Aiden in order to prove that Hope's with the wrong guy.
Finally, there was some more silliness at the commune. Steve got Joey out on bail and took him to Fynn's hotel room. If spending time with Fynn wasn't punishment enough, Kayla yelled at him on the phone.
Then Kayla and John spent a ridiculous amount of time yelling at Simone and Jade about how they corrupted Joey and have no idea what life is about.
I was waiting for some disaster to befall Kayla and John so that they got stuck there and never made it back to Joey and Steve. There was absolutely no reason to keep arguing with the crazies. All they needed to do was inform local police of the commune's activities while driving back to the motel.
At the motel, Joey announced in a monotone that he didn't want to disappoint his parents and was going to change his ways, cementing for once and for all that this storyline is a far inferior version of JJ's decision to get off drugs after Theresa overdosed.
Kayla and Fynn mutually agreed to end a relationship that had never begun. Then Kayla collapsed again outside Fynn's motel room.
It remains to be seen what will happen with this, but it seems this silly storyline is not quite over yet. Hopefully Fynn will give Kayla emergency treatment and then the Johnsons will be on their way home.
So what did you think of this week's Days of Our Lives? Do Hope and Aiden really have a chance? Did anyone enjoy Dario and Summer's hook-up? Are you excited about Kate's latest scheme?
Weigh in below and don't forget to check back on Sunday for the Round Table Discussion.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
