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Days of our Lives spent the week proving once again that emotional stability is mostly a rumor people tell themselves while standing in the Brady Pub pretending to enjoy the clam chowder. Kristen somehow turned attempted murder discussions into foreplay, Paulina found herself losing Abe in slow motion after helping save Lexie’s life, and half the town kept making life-altering decisions over coffee like they were choosing curtain fabrics instead of detonating relationships.
Meanwhile, Steve and Kayla quietly celebrated 40 years together while everyone around them continued behaving like they were trapped inside a very expensive pressure cooker.
Kristen and Xander turned revenge into a contact sport
Kristen began the week trying once again to convince Xander to kill EJ, which honestly felt less like a plan and more like part of her daily wellness routine. Xander shocked her by refusing repeatedly and insisting that therapy had changed him. Salem does enjoy handing characters personal growth right before they immediately make terrible decisions somewhere else. Kristen clearly found his restraint irritating, but not irritating enough to stop flirting with him approximately 30 seconds later.
Their scenes somehow became even stranger once Kristen tied Xander up, and the two launched into one of the more unexpectedly aggressive hookups Salem has produced in a while. The whole thing ended with Xander dislocating his elbow while trying to free himself after Kristen wandered off without much concern for his condition. Sarah eventually had to pop the elbow back into place while barely disguising how ridiculous she found the explanation involving an “overzealous workout.”
By Thursday, Kristen and Xander were sneaking around again while Gwen unknowingly listened to Kristen hint about her mystery man. Kristen practically glowed during those scenes because nothing excites her quite like almost getting caught. Then Friday arrived, and Xander finally learned exactly what Gabi had done to Titan. Surprisingly, he kept his temper under control and admitted he probably would have made the same ruthless move himself. That was not forgiveness, though. It sounded more like one shark quietly respecting another shark while still considering whether to bite.
Abe, Paulina, and Lexie reached the point nobody wanted to face
Lexie’s return continued tearing through Abe and Paulina’s marriage all week because the situation became impossible to ignore once Lexie decided she was ready to reclaim her life completely. Kayla encouraged Lexie to talk honestly with Abe, but Lexie already seemed convinced Paulina’s place in Abe’s life should disappear now that she was alive again. She did not even bother softening that position much once she finally met Paulina face-to-face.
Paulina did everything she could to keep the meeting civil, but Lexie came in carrying years of grief and very little patience for the woman who built a life with Abe while she was gone. She questioned Paulina’s mistakes, her choices, and whether she had ever really stood beside Abe the way he needed. Nobody raised their voice, nobody lost control, but the whole conversation felt strained in that very Salem way where people keep speaking calmly while their lives quietly crack apart underneath them. Paulina eventually agreed to step aside for Abe’s sake, though her warning to Lexie not to make her regret the decision made clear this was not some peaceful surrender.
Theo unexpectedly complicated matters further once he revealed that Paulina was the reason Lexie was alive in the first place. That changed the emotional math completely because suddenly Paulina was no longer simply the woman standing in Lexie’s place. She was also one of the people responsible for giving Lexie another chance at life. Even Theo struggled emotionally once Paulina actually packed her bags and prepared to leave Abe. By Thursday’s final scenes, Paulina walked out despite Abe begging her to stay, and Salem lost one of its strongest couples because death apparently no longer counts as a permanent interruption around here.
Stephanie and Alex kept trying to pretend everything was manageable
Most of Stephanie’s week involved trying to stay supportive while quietly realizing she felt completely overwhelmed by how fast everything had changed. She loves her husband, but becoming an instant stepmother was clearly not something she had emotionally prepared for. Alex did not exactly help matters since he kept treating the situation with the bright confidence of a man who thinks emotional chaos can usually be managed with heartfelt speeches and adorable stuffed animals.
Stephanie also made a few decisions this week that felt questionable at best, including casually tossing a gun into a living room drawer as though Salem had not spent decades cycling through kidnappings, break-ins, and accidental shootings. At the same time, she talked Alex into skipping Tripp and Wendy’s wedding in China because she believed Kelsey needed immediate bonding time with her father, even though the trip itself hardly sounded permanent. That logic felt shaky considering the trip was temporary, but Stephanie clearly feared that missing even a small part of Kelsey’s early life would damage Alex’s connection with his daughter permanently.
The storyline worked best whenever Stephanie stopped pretending she was fine. Her scenes with Brady at the shooting range and her conversations with Alex showed somebody genuinely trying to adjust while secretly panicking underneath it all. Friday softened things slightly once Alex gave Stephanie a sentimental gift before the wedding trip, and the two parted on relatively solid ground. Still, Joy remained nearby, Theo continued showing interest in the entire situation, and nothing about this arrangement looked remotely stable long-term.
Gabi’s choices finally blew up her entire life
Gabi spent the week trying desperately to clean up multiple disasters at once. First, she attempted to pay Liam to leave Salem permanently with Gage, offering him $150,000 and promising to smooth things over with Julie regarding his literacy tutoring deal. Liam agreed surprisingly quickly for somebody supposedly worried about leaving his parents behind, which probably should have raised more suspicion than it did.
At the same time, Gabi found herself caught between Philip, Theo, and Tony’s offer to run DiMera. Theo clearly still has feelings for her, and even Philip noticed the tension during their awkward encounters in the square. Then Anna stepped in like a chaos tornado wearing expensive jewelry, and accidentally informed Philip that Gabi was responsible for planting the bug that destroyed Titan’s position.
That revelation detonated everything immediately. Philip threw Gabi out and informed her he knew the full truth about her betrayal. Tony became furious with Anna because he realized Gabi would now never trust his CEO offer, and Gabi herself seemed resigned to losing nearly everything at once. Friday brought one final twist when she confessed everything directly to Xander and prepared for an explosive reaction. Instead, Xander calmly informed her he understood exactly why she did it while also making clear he intended to hold onto that grudge for a very long time.
EJ kept tightening his grip while everyone else scrambled around him
EJ spent much of the week maneuvering around threats to both the hospital and DiMera while subtly reminding everyone he usually stays three moves ahead. Kayla informed him that the hospital board planned to file formal complaints regarding his experiments, but EJ remained convinced nobody else could keep the operation financially alive if he got pushed out. That confidence only increased once he realized Xander no longer had the resources to buy the hospital himself.
His scenes with Cat also carried an odd energy all week. The two discussed Sami, Sydney, and EJ’s plans for his medical project while circling each other cautiously. Chad and Belle, meanwhile, attempted romance in the town square, though their date felt polite more than passionate. Even the show itself seemed unconvinced that sparks were flying there once EJ and Cat wandered into the scene and instantly shifted the atmosphere.
Thursday also produced another excellent DiMera family fight once Kristen demanded to know why she could not become CEO herself. EJ’s expression while holding his coffee mug during that argument probably said more than half the dialogue around it. Tony eventually informed EJ that he was still not trustworthy enough to run DiMera despite EJ suddenly volunteering for the position after learning Gabi was out. That left EJ frustrated on multiple fronts just as his family situation continued to implode around him.
Salem slowed down long enough to remember its history
Steve and Kayla’s reminiscing scenes brought a different energy to Friday’s episode because the show paused all the betrayals and relationship implosions long enough to focus on a couple viewers have spent decades growing up alongside. Their conversation at the Brady Pub moved through old adventures, old weddings, disguises, family memories, and years of history while the flashbacks did most of the emotional heavy lifting themselves.
The scenes worked because they trusted the emotion to come naturally. Steve and Kayla simply looked back on the life they shared while preparing to head off to Tripp and Wendy’s wedding, and the memories covered nearly every chapter of their story together. From old adventures and overseas chaos to raising their children and surviving years of heartbreak, the scenes quietly reminded viewers how much history these characters still carry with them.
A lot of anniversary episodes end up feeling like the show’s desperately waving old clips around while dramatic music screams at everybody to cry. This did not. Steve and Kayla just sat there reminiscing about their lives together while getting ready for the wedding, and the stories naturally drifted from old adventures to family memories to all the heartbreak they somehow survived without either of them ending up permanently buried beneath the DiMera mansion.
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Join us next time when another long-lost relative appears out of nowhere, somebody destroys their personal life between bites of pie at the Brady Pub, and Salem continues operating under the collective agreement that hidden tunnels, resurrection science, and emotional breakdowns are all just part of normal civic life.
Days of our Lives is available on the Peacock streaming app.
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