Paul continued to run amuck on Days of Our Lives.

He ran away, held Sonny at knifepoint, and then threw him against a rock before JJ and Chad subdued and restrained him.

Unfazed by the life and death situation they were in, Lani whined to Eli about JJ having things other than having sex with her on his mind while Gabi and Chad once again decided that having it was the solution to the crisis they were in.

This is a soap opera, so there's plenty of room for outrageous situations and even for love to blossom in the middle of a crisis. But this island story does not work for the same reasons it hasn't worked since it began.

The point of being on the island should not be to showcase how wonderful a couple Gabi and Chad are. If they, or anyone, are to be together, it should be something that happens seemingly accidentally while everyone is focused on finding a way to get home.

Instead, this couple is the first priority of whoever is writing this story. 

It doesn't make sense for this to be the focus and it makes the island story seem scattered, illogical, and not terribly interesting.

And it isn't even original, since this is the third time that Gabi and Chad have declared their love for each other and had sex because they were trapped in a dangerous situation. First they took off all their clothes while trapped in a panic room, then they took them off while trapped in a cold meat locker, and now they took them off while trapped on an island.

I really don't want to watch some serialized porn movie in which Chad and Gabi find one unlikely situation after another to have sex in, and I certainly don't want to see it when they could be helping their island mates stay alive and get rescued.

Lani: Nothing like being trapped with someone for days to test the limits of compatibility, right? I mean either you're gonna get closer or you...
Eli: Or?
Lani: I'm just thinking about JJ and me and that maybe we're not on the same path about where things are going.
Eli: Really? Hmm, that's odd. I mean, any relationship I've ever been in has been totally smooth sailing.
Lani: I know. I know. It goes with the territory.
Eli: Well, I'm just teasing you. Look, just because it happens a lot doesn't make it any less frustrating or hard. So tell me about the different pages you and JJ are on.
Lani: Well, in a nutshell, he's all about taking things slowly, living in the moment.
Eli: Which is code for not ready to commit.
Lani: Right. But the thing is, if we don't get off the island, that moment could go on forever. Then again, our time together could be cut short and none of that seems to be giving JJ any sense of urgency to just move things along.

• Permalink: Right. But the thing is, if we don't get off the island, that moment could go on forever....

The other so-called love story on this island is utterly obnoxious. Lani went on and on about how JJ's lack of interest in having sex every time she snaps her fingers proves he is unable to commit to her. In fact, his refusal to have sex, according to her, means all he cares about is having sex with her and not having a relationship!

Trying to understand that gives me a headache, so I'm not going to bother. However, Lani should be feeling insecure. She and JJ are only together because she raped him and Gabi shamed him for it. SInce they've been together, she's done nothing but try to insist they have sex whether he wants to or not.

Why would JJ want to be with someone who attempts to repeat her rape of him over and over and over? Lani's problem appears to be that when sober, JJ is not so easily controllable.

And if Eli thinks Lani is wonderful and too good for JJ, then he must have been bitten by that mosquito too.

Again, they are on a desert island full of poisonous mosquitos that turn people violent and nobody knows where they are. Everyone should have things other than sex on their mind.

The island must also be full of rocks that have magical properties, as both Sonny and Gabi survived having an encounter between their head and a rock with no serious injuries.

Gabi had a headache (maybe she heard herself whining for a little bit) and Sonny had blood on the side of his head, but otherwise they both were fine.

The Sonny situation was especially silly. Chad and JJ held a gun on Paul for about two seconds while he ranted violently, then put their guns down and Paul threw Sonny against a rock. While this was going on, Gabi tagged along to scream at Paul not to hurt Sonny and generally freak out.

Christopher Sean again did a great job as Paul. But I wished that Paul was being depicted as having PTSD for some legitimate reason, as his symptoms looked a lot like someone struggling with this illness.

If it were a real PTSD story, DAYS would finally be depicting mental illness respectfully instead of using it as a plot point, adding to stereotypes, or characterizing people with mental illness as weak.

But instead, Paul has "Jungle Madness" and is depicted as randomly violent. This doesn't do anything to advance awareness of real mental illnesses.

Back in Salem, Jade took a break from harassing Joey to make a sex tape of Claire and Theo when nobody was looking.

I was glad Claire pointed out multiple times that she felt violated by this, because no one else seemed to care. Abe was more concerned about the fact that Theo had sex at all than the fact that it was filmed without his consent.

As a cop and the parent of a child with Autism, he really needs to get his priorities straight.

Claire: Tell Theo the truth, Jade. That sex tape was all your idea!
Joey: Sex tape? What sex tape?
Claire: Oh your friend decided to plant a camera in a room where she knew Theo and I were spending a romantic afternoon. And it recorded everything.
Joey: Why would she do that?
Claire: To help me get famous.
Joey: What?
Claire: Oh, you know, she figured that if it worked for Kim Kardashian, then why wouldn't it work for me? So she did it without me knowing. And then she uploaded it to my computer. Or at least she thought she did, but she uploaded it to Theo's computer by mistake.
Joey: Wow.
Claire: When she told me about it, obviously I was horrified. And I thought I deleted it, but... Guess who Theo loaned his computer to and guess who saw it? Theo's dad and my Grandma Hope!
Jade: I told you to empty his trash.

• Permalink: I told you to empty his trash.

I was pleasantly surprised that Jade admitted to making the tape right away. I was sure this was going to drag on for weeks or even months, with Claire becoming the town pariah until it was discovered that she didn't make the tape.

Claire's response constituted some of her most powerful scenes. She and Theo both pointed out that they had tried to befriend Jade and that her behavior was a deal breaker.

I wish that Claire had brought up Ciara's rape and how this wasn't much different. I'd mainly like to forget that awful storyline, but this was the perfect time to point out that while what Jade did wasn't rape, it made Claire feel just as violated as Ciara did after Chase raped her.

Steve headed to New York in search of "Sebastian Howard," who turned out to be Angelica Deveraux.

 

Steve: Hmm... what? No family photos, huh? [sits down at desk] No pictures at all. What am I missing?
[Anjelica comes in]
Anjelica: Looking for something? Steve Johnson.
Steve: Anjelica Deveraux.
Anjelica: Hey Patch. It's been a long time.
Steve: Not long enough.

• Permalink: Not long enough.

I loved hearing all the references to Jack, but I'm not really sure why Angelica is popping up out of the woodwork to make trouble for Jen and Adrienne at the paper.

It also irked me that Steve was worried about Adrienne because of Sonny being missing but seemed to have no concern about JJ being missing.

If DAYS were written properly, Steve and JJ would be very close. Steve is the closest thing JJ has to a piece of his father, and his uncle would undoubtedly feel a need to watch JJ's back since Jack isn't here to do it himself.

But instead, it's often written as if Steve and JJ are strangers and Kayla reacts the same way to JJ.

This makes little sense considering that part of the reason JJ broke the bookstore window all those years ago was in an effort to stand up for Kayla 30 years after his father had raped her.

In the past, JJ was written as angry that his family left him out of everything and desperate for connection with that family -- which he found to a degree with Kayla. Now, he's written as if he calmly accepts that he is nobody important and that he shouldn't be treated as part of the family at all.

That's not maturity. That's the writers deciding JJ should be used as wallpaper and ignoring his emotionally rich backstory in favor of pushing him onto the backburner.

Kate entered a marriage with Andre for the purpose of becoming CEO of Dimera Enterprises. It turned out she has influence over Judge Duncan, the same judge who presided over Chloe and Nicole's custody battle.

Leaving aside the fact that it's not the judge's place to question whether someone really wants to get married before signing a legal document, it makes no sense that Kate had power over her and hasn't wielded it til now.

Kate took Nicole's side in the custody battle, wanting Chloe to lose baby Holly forever. It seems to me that if Kate had influence over this judge, the custody hearing would have been the time to cash in. Yet she did not.

These kinds of plotholes make it appear that the writers are making up the story as they are going along.

Finally, Abby considered going to the Dominican Republic to get a quick divorce so she could marry Dario.

Abby seemed to have no concern that her brother was missing except when it was a convenient excuse for not rushing into marriage with Dario. Then she suddenly couldn't do it because going out of the country while both JJ and Chad are missing felt wrong.

This kind of selfishness does Abigail no favors and has to stop. JJ is her younger brother who she has always been overprotective of. She should have more of a reaction to him being missing than it being an afterthought while she tries to decide between Chad and Dario.

The Chloe storyline took another irritating turn, as Chloe insisted that baby Holly would just get over not being around Nicole because she was the mother of record.

Nancy became the latest person to try to talk some sense into Chloe, who continually threw tantrums and attempted to rock the baby so frantically I was worried she'd end up with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

No wonder the show never mentions Joy, Chloe's younger sister who has not been seen on-screen since she was a baby. Chloe is acting immaturely enough to still be a teenager, so what does DAYS need to cast her teenage sister for?

Finally, Nicole and Brady were both given community service after Chloe made a surprisingly decent speech about Nicole at her hearing. Nicole is back to berating Eric and living with Brady,  though Holly is with Chloe instead of with the mother who won't shake her to death.

It was nice to see a moment of warmth between the two women, even if it was short-live. Likewise, Nicole seemed to have made her peace with Eric while they were trapped and now is back to hating him.

What did you think of this week's Days of Our Lives?

Weigh in below, and don't forget to check back on Sunday for the Days of Our Lives 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.