Pills, Chloroform, and a Private Island: Days of our Lives Two Scoops for the week of July 13, 2026

EJ began the week on Days of our Lives by threatening to maroon Kristen on a private island and ended it losing the hospital, watching his miracle drug collapse, and apparently planting pills in Holly’s belongings.

Also, Lexie was dying again, Theo was discovering that nearly every relative in Salem had joined a secret club devoted to withholding information from him, and Stephanie and Alex addressed marital trouble by sleeping under separate roofs with other people.

Additionally, Gwen celebrated becoming the hospital’s new owner for roughly eleven minutes before somebody grabbed her with a chloroform cloth, because Salem never permits a successful business transaction to remain felony-free.

Lexie Faced Another Impossible Goodbye

Lexie’s return should have been a miracle, but the week revealed that Dr. Rolf’s work had merely postponed the heartbreak rather than erased it. She told Marlena she was dying and insisted Abe and Theo could not know because she refused to make them watch her disappear again. Marlena respected the decision while clearly recognizing how impossible it would be to conceal, especially once Lexie began collapsing in public with increasing frequency.

EJ reacted to Lexie’s decline with genuine fear, but that fear only made him more dangerous. He briefly sounded almost reasonable while praising Lexie as strong, formidable, and the finest of the DiMeras, then returned to arranging Kristen’s permanent relocation to a private island. His offhand remark that no rogue group of scientists was available to help Lexie sounded ridiculous, although it also sounded exactly like the organization Salem will introduce six months from now beneath an abandoned bakery.

Kristen going to Marlena for help was another reminder that desperation can make even the most hostile relatives rediscover family ties. After years of treating Marlena like an obstacle, Kristen suddenly wanted her to protect Rachel if EJ followed through on his threats. Lexie later warned Kristen about the island plan while continuing to hide her condition from Abe and Theo, leaving everyone protecting someone, lying to someone, and somehow making the protection nearly as painful as the danger.

EJ Tried to Bury the Truth

The Smith Island cover-up became EJ’s most calculated storyline once Brady’s second water sample came back free of both arsenic and Coriseal. The clean result initially suggested tampering, but Julie had simply ordered the well decontaminated, leaving Brady without physical evidence and EJ free to keep presenting himself as Holly’s defender. As everyone knows, EJ’s kindness usually arrives with several concealed compartments and at least one emergency exit.

Sarah’s refusal to believe Holly became increasingly frustrating because Holly was already trapped in a nightmare where every attempt to defend herself sounded like further proof against her. Sarah saved her life but then treated her like a suspect, leaving Holly to bounce between gratitude, anger, and isolation. EJ used that opening beautifully by promising he believed her and calling himself family, even though he knew she had not willingly taken drugs because he was responsible for the poisoned water.

By Friday, Xander had correctly identified why EJ wanted Sarah removed from the hospital: she was getting too close to the truth. EJ attempted to fire her, only for Kayla to announce that his ownership was ending and Gwen’s purchase had been approved, while his Versavix investment was simultaneously becoming worthless. With control slipping away, EJ appeared to plant pills from Rita’s tiny envelope in Holly’s bag, and Tate found them moments later, setting up a brutal spiral in which Holly may be branded unstable, dishonest, and addicted by the man claiming to protect her.

Stephanie and Alex found new ways to make trust look exhausting

Stephanie deleting Joy’s voicemail was wrong, but Alex’s outrage came with a generous coating of hypocrisy. He accused Stephanie of jealousy and demanded trust, then spent the night in Joy’s hotel room because the nursing service he ordered for her would not arrive until morning. The practical explanation made sense, but Alex seemed remarkably uninterested in how the arrangement might look after condemning Stephanie for acting on fear, a contradiction that could hardly be ignored.

Joy did little to quiet Stephanie’s suspicions because she put on makeup late at night, smiled while listening to Alex care for Kelsey, and needed help loosening her neck brace while a shirtless Alex hovered nearby. None of that proves she caused the accident or planned the crisis, but it certainly suggests that she was willing to make excellent use of it. Stephanie’s theory that Joy deliberately caused everything was extreme, yet Joy’s behavior kept feeding the exact paranoia everyone was telling Stephanie to control.

Stephanie responded by drinking with Theo and inviting him to sleep at the apartment, creating the week’s other innocent but spectacularly ill-advised sleepover. Theo’s frantic attempt to escape became funnier when Stephanie praised him for being attentive and kind directly in front of Alex, who became oddly fixated on Theo’s underwear. Their eventual reconciliation was sweet enough, but Salem marriages built on promises of better communication usually begin stress-testing those promises before the next hospital coffee finishes dripping.

Theo Learned Some Truths About Honesty

Theo spent the week learning that Johnny, Abe, Lexie, and several other relatives were withholding information from him for what they considered excellent reasons. Johnny concealed EJ’s role in the arsenic disaster, Abe admitted making a deal behind Theo’s back, and Lexie decided to hide the fact that she was dying again. Each lie was framed as protection, but together they made Theo question whether anyone trusted him with his own life.

His confrontation with Abe mattered because Abe has long served as Salem’s moral compass, even though that compass occasionally wanders into a hedge and pretends it meant to go there. Theo called out the ethical problem directly, forcing Abe to acknowledge that good intentions did not erase deception. Abe apologized, and Theo offered another chance for Lexie’s sake, but the damage did not vanish simply because the conversation ended politely.

Lexie’s planned departure will deepen that wound if she disappears without telling Theo what is happening. She believes she is sparing him and Abe from reliving her death, but vanishing could leave them with guilt, anger, and unanswered questions that last far longer than the goodbye she is trying to avoid. The week repeatedly asked whether secrecy can still be called love when the person being protected never gets a choice, and Salem’s answer remained a hesitant yes followed by several months of emotional wreckage.

Stefano’s Chess Game Made a Move

Belle and Chad’s Verdi concert produced the week’s most elaborate mystery when a stranger handed Belle a program containing a coded message. The markings led them to use ultraviolet light on the lira, where they discovered another symbol and realized Stefano’s chess game was being played in real time. Someone knew they were investigating and was prepared to guide them toward the next clue at precisely the right moment.

The mechanics remain wonderfully absurd because Stefano apparently needed sleeper agents who could spend years waiting for a chess set to be opened, then immediately dust off a Verdi program and stroll into Horton Square. The idea stretches credibility, but it could become an entertaining science-fiction conspiracy if the show fully commits to it. Salem has accepted microchips, prisms, brainwashing, resurrection serum, and demonic possession, so an activated network of operatic chess couriers would hardly be the strangest municipal expense.

Rita’s unexplained disappearance added another layer because she left the mansion, returned without telling EJ where she had gone, and later produced the envelope apparently used against Holly. Gwen’s week also intersected with that widening danger after she defeated EJ, secured the hospital, and was promptly attacked in the park by a masked figure. Whether her captor intends to place her on the same island meant for Kristen or somewhere even less hospitable, her victory celebration has officially been postponed.

Join Us Next Time

Trending

Watch for Tate to attempt to explain why Holly’s bag spontaneously developed prescription medication, Kristen to check private islands for unfavorable customer reviews, and Gwen to discover whether chloroform was included in the hospital acquisition paperwork. Salem may also appoint a committee to determine how many secret agents can be hidden inside one chess set before the pieces become legally classified as studio apartments.

Days of our Lives is available on the Peacock streaming app.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback