Michael

I... thought the Solana backstory worked? I mean, an exposition dump of that nature is always tough, but there have been SO many news stories about exhausted and disoriented parents leaving children in hot cars for an entire workday, leading to their deaths. It happens a LOT. The legal cases surrounding those incidents have received a lot of coverage. I definitely couldn't watch the whole thing play out onscreen, but as backstory that adds depth, I find it pretty compelling. I even thought the acting was okay? I think where it faltered is that we had almost no buildup to this. We had two mentions that Javi previously had a child, and then BAM. A normal person would probably go to that level of histrionics in revealing a story like that, but we didn't have weeks of intrigue and near-misses and half-truths before the whole thing came spilling out. That, and the pretty static way it was shot, really undercut the whole thing. Greg Rikaart had a great expression as Leo when he hugged Javi and then looked over his shoulder with this "Holy sh*t" look.

When that long promo video came out, I was sure that Thaao was playing Andre in those clips and that there had either been a switch or Tony had just been Andre all along. But now I'm not so sure. I kind of think they just decided to write Tony being more devious, and Thaao is playing the same way he played Andre from 2015-17 because he doesn't have a damn clue who Tony actually is, since they retconned half his life away and the actual Tony has done so little of consequence.

Nice to have confirmation on who's playing him. Thanks for posting!

Thanks! I didn't realize they divorced offscreen between the '84 exit and that Doug return. I'm actually surprised/relieved they didn't recast Julie with someone cheaper.

I'm so lost on what was Sheila and what wasn't and who was where when... I know the recent B&B years are all clearly canon but it's weird she's so fixated on Finn with no thought about any of the other kids.

Yeah, I thought Bo/Gabrielle actually kinda worked and was liked!

It's stupid/insane but honestly more plausible than half the sh*t this show tries to sell us. It's an adjunct position teaching a film class, and he directed a bunch of television just in the past year. Him working at Titan-DiMera was almost a bigger leap.

Bill Hayes also had that weird 1986 return without SSH where he... became mayor or something? Did they explain why Julie wasn't around for that?

I like the position they've put Marlena in with this. I wish they were doing more exploration of what a quandary it is, how she's justifying this decision, etc. The idea of Marlena and Kristen aligned to keep a secret is a juicy one -- I wanted to see more of their history in the scene between them. Let Marlena remind Kristen that they're only in this position because of Kristen's parenting and how warped Rachel's norms are. Have Kristen assume that Marlena likes seeing Kristen locked up. There's a lot to play there. They downplay their history so much since the recast. It's like Kristen is... I dunno, Nicole, someone who's been involved with Marlena's child and has caused problems, not a personal rival.

Leo Howard is JACKED. Whew! There were some interesting glimmers with Sophia today, about how "that's another thing that didn't work out." I feel like they're going to use that sense of being lost and depressed to make her cuckoo over Tate, but it's so inconsistent with how she's been since the recast in particular. More than anything, she seems like she wants to be done with all these people.

My guess would be a lack of continuity, honestly. That earlier beat didn't feel to me like it was setting up a medication dependency storyline, though maybe I'm forgetting some other beats. That whole thing yesterday was so weird -- these people who are constantly getting shot don't keep Ibuprofen in the house?! It felt like it existed mostly just to lay down some "clever" dialogue. But maybe there was an actual point to it! Gwen really does seem to just be moving in and out of random scenes.

It doesn't feel like they even have story for Gwen. It's like they wanted to give EOB a job, so they made her be the one to have the necklace, and they're just moving her around town bothering people with no real narrative.

This is so cool to see, Jason! Thanks for sharing.

I have no idea why they never built an interior for Sweet Bits. It could function as a bakery/coffee shop with a little table and chairs or a window bar. They should also have something like that inside the bookstore. I love the IDEA of a bookstore (and I personally love going to one), but it's the type of set you're going to have to twist yourself into knots to get characters coming into to have interactions with people they wouldn't seek out on their own.

Ooooh, I hadn't logged in all day and was NOT expecting a headline this comedic to greet me!

I feel like the new writers completely moved away from a possible Shawn/Jada pairing, and I'm not sure why. Now we have Rafe, Jada, and Shawn all floating around as single people anyway.

When Kristen was posing as Nicole in 2019 and "married" the randomly-also-alive Tony to... get standing at DiMera or something, it was originally supposed to be Peter, I think. Then something changed. But there was a plan to bring in Peter at some point there.

I think part of the issue with the 80s troop is they kept killing them off or diminishing them. Renee was dead basically as soon as she was established as a DiMera. Megan only really existed as a Bope spoiler and then got killed off. Benjy was a kid who went to live offscreen. Andre "died" in that quicksand. So I agree in that they never really established strong, long-running half-siblings for Tony -- who himself vanished in '86 -- plus Joe was in-and-out a lot during that decade. Most of the "babymamas" were pretty irrelevant or unknown, too. Brenda Benet's death was a tragedy, and Lee was probably the one with the most future potential. They didn't really give a Stefano child a formidable mother until Celeste. Also agree that not bringing back Peter (who could easily be recast!) with kids of his own is a big miss. And we have Benjy's son, Steven Hawk, out there somewhere.

Totally. It feels like they kinda did that in the 80s, though? We got Renee, Megan, and Benjy alone (plus Andre as a cousin) between 1981-88. Then as soon as Mascolo was back in the 90s, we got Kristen and Peter as adopted children, too, plus Lexie was right behind.

They've done the "Stefano has ANOTHER kid!" thing way too many times. Especially since these kids who keep appearing can no longer meet him. Stefan, a grown-ass man who was allegedly a successful corporate raider, changed his whole damn name in honor of a guy he never even met?! I think they've missed out on multiple opportunities to give Tony, or even Andre, kids. It was smart to introduce a grown child for Megan when they brought her in. It's crazy that Stefano only has (I think) seven grandchildren, considering how many kids they've given him.

I thought the second part was better than the first. Angela is a top-tier addition. The way she and Porsha were going at it... whew! Drew is great almost because she's so bad at being a Housewife, or so un-savvy, or something. And I think this FOH role is perfect for Cynthia. She had more of a function this season than in her last few seasons holding a peach. I wouldn't be opposed to Kelli returning, though I don't think she's a long-timer. But I agree that Brit's spot needs to go to someone with the history and the ability to play this game with these women.

The whole "Queen of the Night" thing started during Possession 1.0. That's when Stefano was visiting Marlena at night (through her armoire?!), and her sleeplessness left her susceptible to the possession or... something. The Paris Underground stuff was an outgrowth of all that. Rachel Blake the Older is back in Aremid. They had Kristen helping her "get settled" offscreen. She and Rachel the Younger have talked about going to see her soon. One would think that leaving a deranged, homicidal elderly woman alone in a dusty-ass old house wouldn't be the best idea, but here we are. And yes, please send Gwen there. Maybe she can be Rachel's offscreen caretaker!

...are the meaningful and fun stories in the room with us?

Great news! I still worry about Peacock's viability, and what would happen to Days if the service were to go down, but I'm thrilled to know that Days will still be there in an increasingly turbulent and stressful world.

Thanks for the additional insights, Errol. One benefit of Days shifting to streaming has been that they aren't beholden to such exact episode lengths. We've gotten a few 45-minute-plus episodes since the move, but sometimes they're as short as 31-32 minutes. I think that CAN benefit the shows both creatively and financially.