Gabi finally got some comeuppance.
It wasn’t so much that she’d been arrested for attacking Jake with a syringe — she’s used to that and doesn’t get why what she did was wrong.
But on Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-18-20, Rolf double-crossed her, made fun of her, and possibly tricked her again, and it couldn’t have been more delicious.
Gabi is one of those obnoxious people who thinks she’s always right and the world is always wrong. It was particularly galling for her to insist that Ben “stole” the syringe she was using to illegally inject Jake with what she thought was a memory serum.
She truly didn’t understand at all why anyone had a problem with what she did or why she couldn’t demand the serum be returned to her.
And she had the nerve to grab potentially confidential patient information out of Kayla’s hand just to get her attention, too.
It looked like we were headed for another irritating round of Gabi listing all the ways she thought the world had wronged her after Lani and Eli stopped her at the hospital.
But for once, Gabi didn’t get the upper hand, and the look on her face when she learned that the syringe contained that hallucinogenic was priceless.
Her post-arrest scenes with Rolf almost made up for it, though.
Rolf confirmed what many viewers suspected: he set Gabi up. And their discussion about it was hilarious.
Gabi: Why are you doing this? Why are you lying?
Rolf: Because I don’t like you.
Rolf spoke for many viewers when he pointed out how stupid and gullible Gabi had been and asserted that he didn’t like her. And as an added bonus, he also called Stefan a knockoff of Stefano, which is something many Stefano fans felt from the beginning.
And then… Gabi just might have fallen for his nonsense a second time.
That’s right. After Rolf explained in excruciating detail exactly how he tricked Gabi, he implied that someone ELSE turned Stefan into Jake and Gabi believed it wholeheartedly.
Like Ben said, she’s desperate to believe Stefan is alive. But sheesh. Fool me twice, you know?
The Salem jails are astoundingly empty except for Gabi, Rolf, and Evan/Christian, too.
Sarah kidnapped Kristen’s baby, took off with her, and kidnapped Rex when he caught her, but so far no charges.
Kristen is in hiding and everyone knows Brady helped her escape, but no consequences for that either.
And Xander beat up a corrections officer and stole his keys but nobody cares about that.
Don’t get me wrong. If I were Xander, I’d want to beat up the guard too.
Xander: She sent her husband a suicide note.
Guard: So what? Women say things like that all the time but they don’t mean them.
The guard’s casual misogyny and dismissal of mental illness could have cost Maggie her life, and at the very least he should have erred on the side of caution to prevent a lawsuit.
And Xander did end up saving Maggie’s life. But still. You can’t go around beating up prison guards without SOME consequences.
Of course, arguably, Xander has become the poster child for no good deed going unpunished.
Sarah rejected him yet again, rubbed the lie that she had slept with Brady in his face, and became even more determined to make Xander’s life a living hell in retaliation for the lie he’d told to protect her.
And Brady managed to manipulate Victor into firing Xander, too.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Xander. Sure, he’s done some horribly violent things in the past. But he’s the do-the-wrong-thing-for-the-right-reason kind of villain nowadays, and Brady and Sarah’s attempt to ruin his life is heartbreaking.
Xander is motivated by primarily two things: his love for Sarah and his desire for Victor’s approval. He and Victor have been allies for a while now, and Victor fired him immediately after Xander saved Maggie’s life.
That totally sucks.
Also on the disappointing list: the way Maggie’s suicide attempt was handled.
In a way, I wasn’t surprised that Maggie went from suicidal to looking forward to going home in a matter of days, all with the support of her family but no psychiatric treatment.
That’s modus operandi for Days of Our Lives, after all.
But still, Suzanne Rogers is a Days veteran who has handled many meaty storylines over the years, and she deserved a more serious suicide story than the one she got.
That would have been much better than this annoying Brady/Sarah revenge story, too.
Brady somehow twisted things around so that Victor is to blame for Kristen being on the run. Um, no, while Victor’s behavior didn’t help anything, nobody forced her to stab him.
Brady sounded like a mini-tyrant, demanding that Victor fire Xander or else lose Brady forever — all while Victor is lying in a hospital bed, unable to breathe without assistance and looking pretty weak.
That’s not a show of strength, especially when Brady and Victor disown each other every other day anyway. It was petty and cruel to demand Victor eject the guy who has stood by him all this time for the one who wants to sabotage him to get revenge.
Sarah claims that she is new and improved, but vengeful Sarah 2.0 isn’t much different than whiny Sarah 1.0, except she’s more hypocritical. She complains every chance she gets that Kristen is emotionally unstable and unable to take care of a baby properly, but she’s really talking about herself.
She’s also drinking too much despite being angry that Maggie supposedly killed her baby after drinking too much, yet nobody suggests she may have an alcohol problem. But that’s nothing new either.
And this “pretend” relationship is bound to turn into real love, at least until Kristen comes back.
Brady has been down this road before — anyone remember Eve? Or how this Gabi/Stefan mess began with her and Brady concocting a similar scheme?
How about we don’t go there again? The current writing team has this annoying habit of grabbing on to one story idea and doing it over and over, usually with the same characters, and that needs to stop.
It’s boring and predictable. And what worked the first time might not work so well the second, tenth, or fifteenth time.
Sonny and Will are a case in point. I’ve complained over and over about their repeated storyline. Will and Sonny are separated, Sonny hooks up with a loser, Will returns, and the loser goes nuts. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Thankfully, the latest iteration of that cycle is over with now, as Sonny’s jailhouse visit put an end to the Sonny/Evan storyline.
It would have made more sense to offer Evan a reduced sentence in exchange for both confessing to his role in Adrienne’s death and giving the cops info on where to find Orpheus, but that would have required lawyers instead of a visit from an ex-boyfriend, so it didn’t happen.
In any case, hopefully this is the last we’ve seen of Evan and the last time Sonny gets involved with an idiot while waiting to reconcile with Will.
The Zoey storyline came close to being more interesting, though. The writers finally remembered that Marlena raised her for a bit and that motivated her to stop Orpheus from messing with Marlena and John.
Too bad that was part of such a contrived set-up, though.
There was no reason whatsoever for Rafe to allow Zoey unsupervised time with David, and Orpheus’ attempt to choke her, followed by his tying her up, was at odds with his claim that he’d do anything for his children.
Afterward, it seemed like she and Rafe were headed for a relationship, complete with Hope’s jealousy and suspicion of her.
But then, just as she was becoming rootable, Zoey made the harebrained decision to lie about having heard from Orpheus and run away to do his bidding. What?
The John/Orpheus scenes were equal parts tortorous and ridiculous, especially when they involved little David.
There’s no way that a toddler who was scooped up from the only home he’s ever known by someone who tied his babysitter to a chair would be okay with any of what was going on.
David should have been freaked out of his mind by Orpheus, especially after being brought to a warehouse where John — who I’m sure he’s met before — was tied up too.
Instead, the kid seemed perfectly happy and content and was even wandering around the warehouse playing by himself.
If that wasn’t unrealistic enough, John tried to get the little boy to untie him, and David wasn’t scared at all when Orpheus returned and acted menacingly toward John.
Have any of the writers ever met a two-year-old before? Sheesh.
The rescuers’ half of this was just as silly. Marlena assembled a whole team of cops to listen in on Orpheus’ ransom demand, but nobody attempted to trace his call during the ten minutes or so he was threatening never to return John because he knew they were around.
Instead, they all argued with him over the phone and then Marlena sat around waiting for him to call again.
Nor did Hope and Rafe bother to tail Zoey when they knew she was lying to them about where she was going.
The cops on Days of Our Lives are always incompetent and always need citizens to do their jobs for them, but this really took the cake!
Speaking of which, is everyone still awake after watching Ben and Ciara sample wedding cakes?
These scenes would be romantic if the couple had anything going for them except for their perpetual honeymoon. Their wedding isn’t payoff after a long struggle to be together. It’s just another day in the life for them. Yawn.
Finally, Chad and Abigail made a decision about her treatment.
Their constant arguing about whether Chad should go with Abigail was irritating, and Marlena should have talked to Abigail privately instead of just cheerleading for Chad.
Then again, Marlena should have been more of a part of this story from the beginning — again, mental health issues should involve psychiatrists.
Clearly, this is Kate Mansi’s exit story. At least it didn’t end with Abby disappearing off the face of the earth this time, but couldn’t the writers have found some other reason for her to be off-screen than this unnecessary and unrealistic repeated mental illness story?
She could have gone to visit JJ to get away from Gabi for a bit or, since she’s supposedly an investigative reporter, followed a story to another country.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought about Gabi’s arrest, this latest kidnapping, and all other things Days of Our Lives.
And don’t forget to check back on Sunday for our Days of Our LIves Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.