First, Days of our Lives gave a proper showing at the Daytime Emmys, with wins for Eileen Davidson, Eric Martsolf, and Chandler Massey. All three were so well deserved, and I just giggled with excitement when their names were called!
Second, Haley Pullos (General Hospital's Molly) and Chrishell Stause (our very own Jordan) were lovely enough to join Soap Central's fearless leader, Dan Kroll, to conduct some really great red carpet interviews that will delight you/make you totally unproductive at work for at least an hour or so. You're welcome.
Third, Kassie DePaiva works at DAYS now! Excuse me, I meant Kassie DePaiva is working it at DAYS now as Eve, and I loved every minute of it. Even if you've never heard of Eve before, it didn't take long to get the main points. Eve lost out on two guys to Jennifer, and badly. Jennifer is one of the few characters on soaps to have two legitimate "loves of her life," and other dudes can't seem to help themselves from falling in love with her too. I mean, when the guy who literally put your heart back in your chest to save your life is at best third on your list of great loves, you're doing okay. It's no big wonder that Eve doesn't exactly worship at the church of St. Jen.
But now, Eve's clearly crazy about her daughter and wants the absolute best for her. Telling young, impressionable Paige to stay away from Aunt Theresa was probably a smart move on Eve's part. You get the feeling that Eve would do just about anything to get the money to make sure Paige can attend Stanford.
And that brings us to Jack. It turns out that part of Jack and Eve's annulment agreement was that Eve would get half the proceeds of all his long-form work. This means that half of the money from his book is to go to Eve. Ha! I love it.
Jennifer, of course, was ticked because Jennifer tends to be that way when leggy blondes try to stand in her way of making decisions for her men. But I don't think Jennifer has much power here. Jen and Jack were not married at the time of his death. Abigail was an adult. J.J. was still a minor but is an adult now. Therefore, it seems to me that unless Jack had a will specifying that Jen gets to make decisions on behalf of his estate, Eve should have served those papers to Abigail and J.J. They're the ones who would be making decisions about what happens with Jack's money.
Now, is it horrible to take money away from veterans? Oh, yes. Yes it is. And if Eve was marching up to the charity and demanding they write her a check, I'd have an issue with it. But the problem is that Jen was making decisions for money that wasn't hers. The beautiful thing that she chose to do with it doesn't mean that it belonged to her in the first place. I also don't think it's right for Jen to tell Eve that Jack's respect for veterans is more important than Eve's desire to send her daughter to college. If someone were to tell Jen that she couldn't provide her children with something, I don't know that that would go over so well. So, I'm #TeamEve all the way on this one.
But really, that wasn't too hard of a sell. Jennifer's been on my nerves for weeks now. This week's example came in the form of her ridicule of both E.J. and Sami when Abigail fessed up to her maid of honor title. It was all, "Oh, Abigail, you're such a saint for lowering yourself to give charity to those sad, horrible people." Ugh.
Funny, I could have sworn that Jennifer was all smiles when she helped Sami pick out a wedding dress. And she has to know the depths to which Nick sank to make Sami's son's life hell. I can't wait for Jen to find out what Abigail did. That way all of this "Sami is a total loser" stuff can go out the window. I'd like to hope it's not replaced with a pile of "E.J. manipulated my daughter" stuff, but I'm too much of a realist for that.
Oh, but the secret is on its way out! I loved that Sami and Kate met to go over their plan. I'd like to know more about what's in this for Kate. There are tons of possibilities -- revenge, money, power, her daughter's namesake company -- that Kate could want. I thought it interesting that Kate wanted to make it clear that once Sami gets what she needs, Sami's going to dump E.J. Sami didn't exactly say no. But the two of them did giggle over Sami's move to make Abigail the maid of honor. Make that, the three of us giggled.
I like Abigail. I really do. But I don't feel for her at all when she laments about how hard it's going to be for her to stand up for a wedding, knowing that she slept with the groom. See, Abs, that's one of those things you should have thought of before you literally flung yourself at the groom. Plus, two people -- including Sami herself -- gave Abigail an out for the wedding, and she didn't take it.
As for E.J., he's at least as much to blame for the affair as Abigail is, maybe even more because Abigail wasn't the one in a relationship. Still, it's hard not to feel a bit bad for him. He's shown tons of remorse over the affair and loves Sami to bits now. He asked Abe to officiate, practically begged Marlena to attend, and asked Will to be his best man.
The last one was the best, proclaiming that he'd been in love with Sami for "eight wonderful years." Only E.J. DiMera can describe two attempted murders, kidnappings, and other crimes as "wonderful" when it comes to courtship. But when it's Sami we're talking about, I get it. And I like it. Has E.J. paid for his transgression? No. And I suspect that's coming à la Sami. But has he suffered for his transgression? I could argue yes.
LOOSE ENDS
I received a lot of feedback last week, including a text from my own mother, from people who were sure that Jack would turn out to be Paige's father. I'm happy to report that we can cross that one off our list, since Eve told Paige that Eve and Jack never consummated their marriage. Whew! I wasn't one for seeing J.J. kiss his half-sister!
Sadly, I guess I have to cross Frankie off the list, too, since Eve said that she'd made mistakes with "Frankie and Paige's dad." But to end on a positive, Dr. Dan is off the list, too, since they didn't recognize each other when they met last week. Though, she does look a little different now... *wink*
I was happy to see Kate shut down Rafe's nonsense about how he didn't do enough for Gabi. As Kate said, Gabi had support coming from every direction. Rafe did nothing wrong by her.
Right now, Theresa/Brady and Jordan/Ben are running neck-and-neck for the most repeated storyline. This race is full of so many.... Sorry, I fell asleep there. Where were we?
Oh, yes, Rafe. Look, I took full notice of the grief beard and know that he's still in pain. But I'm really annoyed that Rafe is pushing Jordan away for not being honest with him when he just cheated on her with Kate! For the last year, Rafe's been humble, and his snark has been appropriate. (See: Julie) I credit Jordan with all of that. I don't want to see them split if that means the return of St. Rafe of Superior.
I really like Theresa. Not "like her" as in I'd want to hang out with her. But "like her" in the sense that she makes my favorite show more interesting. I love that she's known all along that Paige was her niece but kept that card until she needed to play it. I also can't wait for Theresa and Eve to find out how much they have in common when it comes to Jennifer. If they would want to invite Nicole to have martinis with them...well, that wouldn't be so bad to watch either!
Speaking of my gal Nicole, I hope that her presence at the bishop's door means that she's going to vouch for the evidence that Eric turned in. It's a step in the right direction. Which, for my money, is still back with Eric. It would mean that we'd finally get to see what Eric would chose for his life with all of the pieces in their proper places.
Three sketchy-looking dudes later, Kate finally found someone who recognized Jordan's picture. Of course, this all went down in a dirty, grit-serving greasy spoon in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Let's hear it for stereotypes, y'all!
HOT Emmy Edition!
I'm thrilled for Eileen Davidson and Chandler Massey. However, I'm not all that surprised. Eileen was the epitome of a soap goddess during her entire reign in Salem. There's no reason in the world for anyone to have sympathy for Kristen, yet I'd welcome her back every day and twice on Sundays if it meant I got to have the Lady Davidson back on my screen.
And Chandler does so much with every little nuance that he, perhaps more than anyone, is responsible for transitioning Will from a spoiled kid with an attitude to a solidified romantic lead on DAYS, protecting Will's legacy in the process. He earned every bit of those three Emmys.
But Eric Martsolf was the winner that had me clapping my hands so hard they started to hurt. He got up there with the charm of George Clooney and the humility of George Bailey and gave a touching speech, thanking his costars, family, and fans. It's a great reminder that these soap actors spend years in the business, cranking out more new material than any other genre, and the great ones really deserve all the recognition we can throw at them. You're all right, Mr. Martsolf.
NOT Emmy Edition!
The social media hosts of the Daytime Emmy red carpet show were terribly disrespectful. There's a way to be smart, funny, and cool at the same time, ladies. Look into it. Or, you know, just take a hint from Arianne Zucker, Finola Hughes, Kristen Alderson, or any of the other fun soap ladies who stood right in front of you and gave you a demonstration in good humor.
But the real "Not" goes to whoever thought it was good to run a Guy Wilson clip right before Chandler Massey won his third Emmy in a row! Poor guy had the looooonnnnggg walk up from the back of the room (Where did they sit him? San Diego?) to try to come up with a classy way to joke about this oversight. Good for him for being a sport about it. But, really, is it that much to ask that we get to see the reel that won him the Emmy, or at least, you know, a reel with him in it?
LINE OF THE WEEK
Sami (to Abigail): "I'll never forget what you did...for me." No one knows how to load a line like Alison Sweeney.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
When Abe said Sami is like a daughter to him, it reminded me of this fun fact: Abe was Sami's father-in-law for a split second when she married his son Brandon.
Kassie DePaiva's slight southern accent is the most charming little thing I ever did hear.
Aw! Ciara and Chase are friends now!
Jennifer's outfit went from Magic Bus-chic to Alice in Wonderland's prom. That weird apron over a formal evening gown?
Wait! Is that James Scott doing a "The More You Know" PSA?! First, I didn't know they still did those things. Second, how awesome is it that E.J. DiMera is giving us lessons on how to stay out of trouble? Love. It.
Paige was right. The blue dress was the much better choice.
I love it when Abe and E.J. are friendly, and I love it even more that Abe said that Lexie would be happy for E.J. She would!
Paige calls her "Mrs. Deveraux," but people at the hospital call her "Jennifer Horton." They need to pick a name and stick with it for Jen.
Remember when Jordan used to wear glasses?
I like that T is protective of Abigail.
I could have sworn that when Rafe was listing off women that he should have protected, he almost said Emily, which made me wonder if Ben was somehow involved with Emily's car accident. At this point, I'm just reaching for storylines that I'll actually care about. At least that's one loose end they never really tied up.
Don't all of you meet your daughter's boyfriend in your see-through top and matching bra?
Major cool points for the shot of Eve with Jack's picture in the foreground!
Good on Maggie for reminding John that she can't talk about Narcotics Anonymous.
Sami sure has a strong collection of futuristic space-age dresses.
I love that Gisele thinks Roman is the bee's knees.
New Blog Series -- Summer Lovin'
Last year, the talented @Tony_S_Days and I teamed up to present the Summer of Sinners blog series that paid tribute to the bad guys in Salem. So this year, we flipped the doughnut over to celebrate something sweeter -- the lovers! We're kicking it off with a list of those couples that should have been. Got some to add to the list? Be sure to let us know!
That's it for this week! I'm off to Branson, where I'll spend two weeks combing the Ozark mountains in search of whatever is such a big deal that it's taken one year and two Bens to come out. Wish me luck!
What are your thoughts on Days of our Lives? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
