EJ had it exactly right.
His response to the latest babynapping story on Days of Our Lives during the week of 12-11-23 was something everyone in Salem should be thinking: why are babies getting stolen so frequently?
Was the latest twist supposed to make Sloan more sympathetic? If so, it failed — but hopefully, we’re one step closer to wrapping up this awful story.
The grief over a not-really-dead baby continued to be tedious despite stellar performances. The audience knows the baby is alive and that the DNA test failed because EJ isn’t the father, so let’s get on with the reveal already.
The ashes scene would have been heartbreaking if the baby were genuinely dead and if the grieving parents had chosen a more meaningful place than right outside their front door.
Instead, Nicole has to pass the baby’s supposedly final resting place every time she leaves the house. That can’t be good for her mental health, and repeated flashbacks of her saying goodbye to her son certainly aren’t good for viewers’!
Am I the only one aggravated by the constant insistence that “you can’t argue with DNA test results?” Salem is known for its inaccurate DNA test results, and no one knows that better than Nicole and EJ.
It never made any sense for those two to accept Dr. Pierce’s word that their baby died and was cremated, and accepting these test results at face value doesn’t either.
These two are among Days of Our Lives’ most intelligent, shrewdest characters. Why have they suddenly become stupid?
The writers also need to stop teasing us about the possibility of Sloan confessing. We know she won’t. People getting interrupted or backing down from an intention to confess is a tired soap trope, and doubly so in this case.
Most viewers want this story to end already and don’t care how it happens. Either let Sloan confess for real or let Leo reveal the truth posthaste.
Sloan doesn’t seem interested in the baby beyond ensuring that no one finds out she stole him from Nicole. She rarely spends time with him, leaving most of the daily parenting tasks to Eric, and is always running around doing damage control.
Please don’t judge me. I know I shouldn’t have left my baby alone.
Sloan
No wonder she left him alone in the Square just long enough for a gloved figure to steal him.
Eric’s family didn’t blame Sloan for her irresponsible actions, but I certainly do. There was no real reason for her to leave the baby unattended.
She could have taken him with her while she retrieved her wallet. He probably wouldn’t have woken up; if he did, she could have dealt with it. This is more of Sloan’s self-centered nonsense.
Also, the baby wasn’t hers, so I’d be happy if Nicole had him back in her arms. Nicole isn’t going to abuse Jude or harm him in any way, and she won’t make the mistake of leaving him unattended so that someone can take him.
It’s disappointing that Nicole turned out to be the babynapper. All of Salem will paint her as unhinged and dangerous, and she’ll once again be Salem’s punching bag.
I also have a feeling that we haven’t got the whole story. Leo was yelling loudly in a public place that the baby was Nicole’s — could she have overheard and decided to take action? Or did Leo steal the baby and give it to her?
Bottom line: we don’t know how she ended up with the baby or how EJ will react. He’s unlikely to want to turn his wife in, though he may be angry that she did this without telling him.
I’m also not convinced that Nicole set out to steal the baby when she decided to go for a walk. And how will the writers get around the repeated insistence that Nicole couldn’t have kidnapped the baby because her car is in the driveway?
Many unanswered questions are here, but will Days of Our Lives provide satisfactory answers? Let’s hope so!
Leo’s involvement could be a red herring. Maybe he did find an abandoned stroller in the alley by the park. But the threatening subtext to his conversation with Sloan about it suggests otherwise.
This not only needs to make sense soon but has to lead to the beginning of the end of this awful baby switch story. I can’t wait, though I’m dreading the fallout of the reveal that Eric is the baby’s father.
EJ has been so supportive of Nicole throughout this ordeal. I didn’t like the idea of EJ and Nicole as a couple because of their violent history, but now I love them together.
I don’t want Nicole to throw that way for judgmental Eric. But Eric going into wrathful mode with Sloan should be fun, so there’s that.
Of course, Sloan could throw Melinda under the bus, but it’s anyone’s guess if that would work.
Meanwhile, everyone else in Salem got into far more mundane drama. There were some nice scenes between Steve and Jada, though they would have been stronger if the anniversary of Marcus’s death hadn’t been entirely random.
Jada never talks about her father, and Steve rarely checks in with her, so it was all too convenient that she blamed her upset over learning Eric had a baby on the sad anniversary.
Still, these were the throwbacks to the past that Days of Our Lives has been in sore need of lately, so I’ll take it.
THe nonsense that happened after the Marcus reminiscences is another story.
Jada’s mostly innocent in that. She drank with Stephanie but tried to get her to stop and didn’t participate in flirting with Harris or insisting he stay during the multiple times he attempted to excuse himself.
I’m not sure how Harris ended up in bed with Stephanie. It was a random storyline that has been done too many times before on this soap.
I hope that this is a case of both people being drunk and not one where Harris took advantage of Stephanie, and then all of Salem blames her for it. It was bad enough when that happened with JJ and Lani; we don’t need a repeat with Stephanie and Harris.
Days of Our Lives has been trying hard to make Stephanie the victim in this mess with Chad, but neither one of them looks great right now.
Chad shouldn’t have bought out Gwen for firing Everett, especially since he turned around and rehired him. And his response was obnoxious when he thought Stephanie and Alex were fooling around.
Still, Stephanie is far from innocent.
She seems to like having two or more men paying attention to her at a time and never sets boundaries with her ex-boyfriends. She also continues to view Chad’s late wife — who was supposedly her favorite cousin, as competition and has no empathy for Chad’s struggle with grief.
And Everett came to town to stalk Stephanie before a job fell into his lap, so we can cut out the claims that he moved here to work at the Spectator any time now.
Stephanie will probably sleep with Everett next — are we headed for another who’s-the-daddy story?
I liked her conversation with Tripp, except she didn’t listen to anything he said. Instead, she called Everett. The more she spends time with him, the more I hope she finds out he was two-timing her with Jada.
Meanwhile, Brady criticized Theresa while failing to use common sense with his son.
All this time, he’s been adamant that Tate must work to pay back the 50K damage he caused at the boarding school. But now, he gave him a gold card so Tate can impress Holly.
Talk about missed messages! Tate acted like he was joking about jetting off to Paris with Holly, but he would have done it on his father’s dime if she’d agreed.
Tate finally came to his senses about Holly and stormed off, but how long will that last? Holly’s a master manipulator, and she needs Tate to help her mess with Johnny and Chanel.
Tate’s told her twice that Johnny is far too old for her and has a girlfriend, but does anyone think for a second this is over? I certainly don’t!
It’s also worrisome that Johnny seems oblivious. Chanel’s warned him about Holly a billion times, but he keeps shrugging off and insisting Holly has no feelings for him.
There’s no way this ends well.
Theresa isn’t spending any time with her son. It’s more important to her to convince Alex she doesn’t just want him for his money — and it’s working.
The two are getting closer, sexually and emotionally, only for them to be twice as devastated when the truth comes out.
They have no story and are in a holding pattern til then, where they have lots of sex but do little else.
And finally, what’s wrong with Paulina?
She has a history of panic attacks, so I could be overreacting, but she seemed ready to have a heart attack.
If she does, Chanel will feel guilty about leaving her to go on her date with Johnny, while Holly might gain a foothold while Chanel is too busy dealing with her mother’s health to be with Johnny for his anniversary.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you think of this week’s episodes.
Don’t forget to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekday mornings at 6/5c.
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.