Days of Our Lives Round Table: Sex and Secrets in Salem

Chad couldn’t stop thinking about Gabi, Roman took on a new job, and Claire pushed Theo to have sex this week in Salem.

Our TV Fanatics Jack Ori and Christine Orlando are joined by UhSir and Villa281 from MyHourglass a Days of Our Lives fan forum to debate Abe’s opinion on JJ and Lani, Kate’s advice to Chad, and whether Nicole and Brady will ever make it out of Salem after this week’s Days of Our Lives.

Should Chad be honest with Abigail about his feelings for Gabi, or is Kate right, and is telling her the truth just hurtful?

UhSir: I agree with Kate about this. If he's serious, Chad needs to do everything he said about making things work with Abigail, except for telling her about his feelings for Gabi.

Telling her will not only hurt her but it will also cause her to not be able to trust him. Plus she will immediately consider him to be guilty of all of his suspicious behavior lately.

If he still can't let go of his feelings for Gabi, then he can tell Abigail and leave her. But to tell her now and expect everything will be okay is selfish and basically just asking for Abigail's approval to fail.

Jack: I think Chad and Abby should have this conversation in a marriage counselor's office (not Marlena though!).

Secrecy just makes it more likely Chad will act on those feelings, and Kate's advice tends to backfire so Chad should be very careful about listening to her.

Villa281: I think before Chad can be honest about his feelings he needs to figure out what exactly he feels for Gabi. Maybe it is just me, but Chad seems very confused like he is not certain what exactly is going on

Christine: I’m with UhSir on this one. Telling Abigail will do more harm than good.

If Chad intends to make his marriage work, then he needs to put all of his efforts towards that. If he can’t, then he should tell Abigail, but simply telling her he has feelings for Gabi but will ignore them just seems hurtful.

Rate Roman as the new Brady Pub bartender.

UhSir: On a scale of 1 to 10 I give him 1,000! I'm excited that he's finally going to be able to flutter his social butterfly wings!

Jack: I love Roman as a bartender, at least with the one customer we've seen! It suits his country sheriff persona better than being in charge of the police department. And he and Rafe can trade stories since Rafe used to run a nightclub.

Villa281: I guess he did a good job, I enjoyed his interactions with Kate. But in all honesty it has been years since I had a real interest in Roman.

Christine: I love it. Roman has been practically nonexistent in stories for a long time. It's wonderful that he will finally get to interact with people on a regular basis, and giving common sense advice does fit his personality.

Does Abe have any right to tell JJ and Lani who they can date?

UhSir: Tell, as in ordering, no. Expressing his opinion, yes. I love Abe, but he was out of line.

Jack: No. I hate this pairing but they are both adults and Abe has no right to tell his daughter's potential boyfriend that he doesn't have permission to date her.

What Abe should be doing is having a serious talk with Lani about her inappropriate sexual behavior not just towards JJ in the past but towards every man in the Salem PD without making it about whether JJ is right for her or not.

Villa281: I feel like that whole scene was very contrived. I understand Lani is his daughter, and he feels protective, but she is hardly an innocent little lamb.

Christine: Abe has no business being involved in any of this. Lani is an adult and Abe didn’t even know her a year ago. If he thinks she shouldn’t be with JJ, he can talk to her about that, but he’s basically sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.

What do you think of Claire pushing Theo to have sex for the first time?

UhSir: I try not to think about Claire at all. I can't stand that she's using Theo. What happened to the initially bubbly and caring Claire? We have had zero explanation of why she suddenly became a self-absorbed, vindictive twit.

Jack: I didn't like that at all. First of all, the idea that all guys just want to have sex all the time is nonsense and Theo didn't seem sold on the idea.

Claire is doing it to keep Theo and Ciara apart, not because she is in love and wants to express that to her boyfriend, which is gross.

Also they should have done it in the bedroom, not the living room where three other people have to walk through on their way in. Roommate etiquette 101 guys.

Villa281: I am not a big fan of the pairing, but I did find it a little bit ironic that it is the girl trying to convince the boy. I think Claire should be more conscious to the fact that sex is probably even more complicated for Theo due to his autism. I thought she should have been a little more sensitive with the matter.

Christine: Ugh! This story is kind of stomach turning. Why have they turned Claire into a selfish brat who cares about no one other than herself. The rush to have sex for all the wrong reasons was horrible.

The only upside was that they actually discussed using birth control; with all of the unplanned pregnancies in Salem, that was a huge plus.

Will Nicole and Brady ever make it over the border with Holly?

UhSir: Please, No! I'm hoping now that Dr. Lee has seen Nicole's disguise (and I'm sure he has told Eduardo), Eddie and his resources will close in on them licketysplit.

But in reality, I have given up because there is no way to save any of the characters being sucked into this black hole of a story. I'm hoping Victor continues to stay out of it and holds on tight to Maggie.

Jack: Probably. Dr. Lee was almost as bad at telling anyone as he was at medical ethics, and 99% of Salem thinks Nicole is justified and will probably ignore her presence if they see her.

Villa281: Hopefully, I mean I really want Nicole to be able to raise her own daughter.

Christine: Why are they still in Salem? Brady is a rich man with his own jet. Nicole used to be a smart, resourceful person, yet the two of them combined can’t seem to find their way out of the darn state. It’s just stupid all the way around.

What was the most disappointing storyline this week in Salem?

UhSir: The continued utterly unredeemable destruction of both Nicole and Chloe.

Jack: I've been trying to block those awful Rafe/Hope scenes out of my mind ever since they happened. Joey/Jade and Claire/Theo are also serious contenders for bad story this week.

Villa281: I don't like the whole Nicole versus Chloe over Holly storyline. But one particular scene that really got my blood boiling was when Hope introduced Eli as her cousin. Eli is not Hope's cousin he is her grandnephew!

Christine: Seriously, Rafe pretends someone has broken in, breaks things, and gets in the tub. That’s a little creepy. The show is working way too hard to try and make these two look cute and it isn’t working.

What was your favorite quote, scene, or story this week on Days of Our Lives?

UhSir: Quote: Kate "I hope you're up to date on your inoculations."

Scene: Roman declining the invitation to Kate's pity party.

Jack: I loved Roman telling Kate that she has a thing for violent jerks. I also really liked Julie, Hope, and Jennifer telling Eli family stories.

Villa281: I like the party Julie threw for Eli introducing him to all of the Horton's and the talk of history.

Christine: I appreciated that they revisited the biracial history of David and Valerie. That was a huge, controversial storyline at the time and NBC took on a lot of hate mail for telling it, and then ended the romance because of it.