Michael

What a thrilling preview. "These people face challenges." How exciting!

Ashford and Brooks overlapped for about two months in fall 1993, but I don't think they interacted -- or, if they did, it was only in passing. Jennifer only got involved with Peter after Ashford's Jack left town, and Jack's return as Valley was tied into realizing that Jen was with Peter.

Yeah, it seemed like that, but the plan was so silly and muddled, and like we said above, he was... acting like a DiMera, just like his crazy mother was. I had the same thought about Johnny. They could've fully made him an anti-DiMera.

Right! A line from Jack to Steve would've made sense. This could also be more (semi-illogical but understandable) fuel for Jennifer and Jack with regards to the custody case. Chad was just kidnapped by someone who terrorized them for years. Why would they want Thomas and Charlotte exposed to that? I might be dense, but I'm not understanding exactly what Peter's plan was. He wanted to eliminate the other DiMeras in order to... get revenge for being neglected? He didn't bother coming home for almost 30 years! And I know he's bitter that he did prison time for his crimes while "the other DiMeras get away with everything," but most of the people he kidnapped weren't criminals. Tony, Chad, and Theo are "good DiMeras." Kristen was LITERALLY IN PRISON for like the 15th time when he nabbed her. EJ's a bastard who has gotten away with a lot, yeah, but he was the last one abducted. Meanwhile, Stefan and Jake waltzed in out of the fog and had homes in that mansion and chances at the CEO spot within like a year. Peter could've had that if he had made a mild effort. It doesn't help that they haven't (I'm two days behind, so maybe this is a yet) explained where the hell he was for all this time.

The biggest red flag for me was when Peter referenced EJ sleeping with Abigail and didn't acknowledge that she used to be his stepdaughter, that she's Jennifer's daughter, etc. They just breezed right by it. Even if they're not going to go there, a simple "Abigail was a good soul, so you must've manipulated her" would've been something. Not to mention that Peter is probably Jack's most significant non-familial antagonist ever -- a single line about "Thank god he's not able to hurt anyone right now" would go a long way. They keep calling the unit that Rachel and Sophia are in "the adolescent unit," which... Rachel is 10 and Sophia is over 18, so that's not a thing! I get that they want them to interact, but it's silly. Of course, this is Bayview, which told Brady that he could hang Christmas lights in Rachel's room. Yeah, I'm sure those pose no safety threat at all in a psychiatric ward...

I think part of the reason this Peter stuff hasn't landed is because his motives and goals are so murky. He's super anti-DiMera... so he goes and does the most typically DiMera thing (kidnapping and trying to kill his relatives in an unnecessarily convoluted manner). It's so flat and goofy.

This DiMera crypt thing was, like, a bust of comical proportions. But the fallout of the crisis has done some effective things. As this past week went on, the material got stronger. Thursday and Friday were genuinely pretty good! I agree that Ari should've been at the Horton celebration. Why did they even bring her on?! She hasn't had a story in, like, seven months. I feel like she and Jeremy are largely just there to have people with the last name "Horton" around. And poor Shawn, too busy working to attend his family's celebration. I wish they'd just said he was in Hawaii with Bo, Hope, and Ciara's family.

I have a cross-country flight Monday, so I'm saving this past Wednesday's ep through Monday's to download off Peacock and watch in-flight to pass the time. But I'm eager to see DG as Peter.

Yeah, I don't understand Maggie's function at Titan. They made such a big deal out of Xander and Philip sharing the CEO spot and now Maggie just... has power as well? At some point, the Brady Pub got the twangy music cues that they used to use for the Cheatin' Heart, too. That's been bugging me!

I like the idea of the trivia night as a gathering spot for folks, but I can't deal with long-ass scenes of Roman on the microphone.

I'm pretty sure that's Wes Ramsey at 1:52.

It would be a good twist if Rachel LIKED the idea of Sarah and Brady so much that she actually supported it.

The baby was named when Roman was believed to be her father.

I thought they navigated the budget and productions issues decently. As was said above, I'd rather have had five days of visitors and memories than one single episode. I enjoyed this a lot more than the 50th, which had higher highs but much lower lows (like half of Salem being picked off right around the anniversary).

Sami unleashed Jan Spears on Belle & Shawn again when she got Jan sprung from the institution to testify against Nicole in... 2020? Whenever they were all arguing over Allie's baby, I think. That reignited the Belle/Sami animosity. Then Sami caught EJ & Belle in bed together, and it's been like this since.