I don't know how we'd start any other place this week. We got the bed levitation scene! I'm pretty sure those were similar silk pajamas on Deidre Hall, too. Nice touch!
Despite my normal penchant for eye-rolling, and much to my own surprise, I'm still all in on this storyline! I exchanged texts with one of my friends who also watches DAYS and isn't enjoying this storyline. We came to the conclusion that she is too annoyed by the yellow contacts and the emoji cartoon on Marlena's phone to get any further. She gets frustrated with the unbelievable.
And she's not alone.
I get it. Lots of folks feel this way. My main tip to enjoy/love this storyline (because, you guys, we're doing this thing for at least nine more months) is not to look at this as a possession storyline but as a whodunit. This is a storyline with a couple of fabulous mysteries.
The first mystery is who is the devil's end target? Sure, the devil is anti-love/happiness, so it makes sense that he'd target happy couples. But it felt like Marlena wasn't the endgame from the beginning. She's the natural vessel for this storyline, but I'm not convinced the show would revisit the same target for the same reason. In the sequel, the villain usually wants to one-up the party he'd fought in the original.
I think most of us saw the Rosemary's Baby storyline coming with Ben and Ciara. And their baby seems to still be an ultimate candidate for evil influences. Both sides of Ben's gene pool seem pretty contaminated. (Earlier, I'd have argued for Ben's maternal side to be okay, but then I watched Jordan, so...) And while Ciara seems like the influential good part, she does have some Kiriakis roots, which shouldn't be ignored by the purple-faced-horned emoji.
Still, I can't help but notice that the same week Cin tried to make a baby, Chabby also got reacquainted in the biblical sense. One of the partners here is a murderer with mental illness. The other is a DiMera. This may be nothing. But it's worth mentioning.
The second mystery is who is going to realize the devil came back to Salem. John seems to be the main one to catch on. Julie is never one to count out. As soon as she can see Doug, she'll know something isn't right. Kayla's husband is a trained investigator, and Kayla's clearly having a hard time with admitting Doug. Or maybe Ben will realize that after Marlena remembered the devil was after him, she stopped to shower before going over to warn him. Listen, Mar, put a ball cap on and get out that door, now!
Additionally, this week officially tied both major storylines -- the possession and Johnny's movie -- together. When John told Roman that Johnny's script was all about Marlena's possession, Roman pulled out of backing Johnny's movie. And Johnny threw a first class hissy fit when he didn't get his way. He even stomped his feet and whined, "There's not enough time!" I'm assuming this means he's running out of relatives who own restaurants from whom he can get free meals. This guy.
But that meant Johnny had to find a new investor. Maybe the Salem P.D.'s pension plan is something tremendous, but does Roman have that much money that E.J. is the only other possible investment match? Either way, E.J. made a super smart (dirty, but smart) move to make starring opposite Abigail as his stipulation for investment. Johnny hasn't cared about any family member's feelings thus far, so I wasn't surprised he went along with this, too. I think E.J. is doing this more to get under Chad's skin than to rekindle anything with Abigail. And like I said, it was dirty, but it sure was smart!
I don't know why Abigail doesn't just get out of the contract, nor why Chad doesn't offer to kick in for Roman's share. But the pieces are in place here to make this interesting.
Loose Ends
Time to have a chat with my gal Nicole. She already got romantic with one questionable dude in an attempt to forget Rafe. How'd that work out the first time? At least E.J. is honest about his intentions here, but Nicole needs to know better. She's got to get over Rafe some other way.
True, Rafe is the one in the relationship with Ava, but Nicole's not off the hook here, either. I actually feel bad for Ava in this particular situation. She went about this the right way -- including asking both Rafe and Nicole about their feelings. And when he's with her, Rafe genuinely does seem to like Ava. So, he's leading her on a bit. (But to be fair, in the grand scheme of life, Ava does have some karma coming her way.)
Abe and Paulina are getting married in November Sweeps. Obviously, Abe can't perform the ceremony, so that leaves Marlena as the likely officiant. I'm sure nothing could go wrong there.
Philip and Ava are simultaneously blackmailing Jake and Gabi, respectively, with "proof" that Jake killed a man. Any one of these four claiming any moral high ground over the others is laughable. Still, adding Ava to this storyline is a great move, as I do like her with a harder edge.
HOT
Chanel had an all-around good week. I laughed out loud at her giving Johnny the side eye about offering her Black women's roles in the story, as well as casually mentioning they're her ex's mom and grandma. It's clear that she's mastered the art of cooking since 3 a.m. and still looking runway perfect. And she's getting Abe as a stepdad!
NOT
Chloemeister, sister, break up with that man! Not only is Philip possessive, but now he's punching people in the face. This is a bad combination! No stars. Do not recommend. Sure, Brady isn't helping things. And Brady is neither as innocent nor as generous as he'd like to believe he is. But Philip is off the rails. I feel slightly bad for Philip because he's always the second choice (save for Morgan -- shout-out!), but this behavior is exhausting. The only people who will be upset if they break up are the nice folks at 1-800-Flowers, with whom Philip clearly has a monthly retainer.
LINE OF THE WEEK:
Marlena (In conversation with Ben) "God forbid..."
Satan: "Don't bring him into this!"
Honorable Mention:
E.J. (to Chad, who is fuming that E.J. is going to play John) "Hey, you can play Roman!"
This was such a deep cut insult that only DAYS fans would understand. So very well played, writers.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
The devil is on this show right now, yet Gabi pretending to be nice was the scariest thing all week.
Since Johnny's "passion" project is always changing, why can't he make a movie about Celeste? A psychic hitwoman who is dating a mob boss has all sorts of possibilities...daahling.
I'm not trying to build a case for sainthood here, but was E.J. that terrible to Nicole during their marriage? I remember him being a bit dismissive of her because he was using her to forget about Sami (sound familiar?), but I can't remember him doing anything devious.
I like the idea of Ciara going back to work, and I love her at Titan! It's about time some female Kiriakis family members break up that corporate boys' club.
I don't' know why, but I thought it was weird that Kayla referred to Alice's house as "the Hortons'." I'm not sure what I wanted her to call it, but considering Jack and Gwen are the main residents there at the moment, it seemed like she should have at least called it "Jack and Jen's house."
Billy's Drake impression was hilarious.
I wonder how Lucas is going to feel when he learns the money he thought he paid for a film about how he's the love of Sami's life is now paying for a movie starring E.J., who's playing the romantic lead opposite Lucas' niece. Also, this whole thing is very on-brand for Lucas.
That's it for this week! Tony will be back next to make sure someone talks to Mr. Shin about those wacky DiMera brothers.
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