Michael

I miss that set so much. This 'townhouse' set is so bland and without character. It's wild that we've had this set for longer than we had the penthouse!

2006-07 was that weird period where they were trying to figure out the budget but hadn't yet. They had John in that coma for a while after EJ shot him, and they were constantly side-lining the vets for months on end, either to save money explicitly or to test how the show would run without them. So I fully believe that John was supposed to be out-out when they killed him off in 2007. The culmination of all this was when Tomlin instituted the new production model in 2008, which led to the belt-tightening and the exits of John, Marlena, Steve, and Kayla in early 2009 (onscreen).

Just like going from Theresa to Eve to Nicole to Kristen to Chloe to Kristen (or however it all went) was not healthy! Eric Martsolf manages to sell just about every pairing, but boy does this man need to learn to be single.

Kristen and Marlena had an episode's worth of scenes a week or two ago where Kristen came to Marlena's office, invited her and John to Grandparents' Day at Rachel's school, and went on and on about how she still loves Brady. Marlena had a hilarious reaction after Kristen finally took a breath, something along the lines of, "Thanks for saying all that." Totally deadpan. So Kristen herself put the bug in Marlena's head.

Both Ryan Carnes and Van Hansis are in their 40s.

No, the last time she appeared was when her father Daniel died. Are you thinking of Chelsea, Bo's daughter?

Melanie hasn't been in Salem since 2016. But yeah, Mia and Melanie are in the same age group as Chad, Will, Gabi, and Abby, so it wouldn't make sense for either to be the mysterious mother. I also don't think it would make sense for Melanie (who was on perfectly good terms with Chad last time she saw him) to do something this insane when she also has a grandmother, aunt, and sister in town. And she would be more familiar with the players involved. I still wonder if there's a way the mother will turn out to be Konstantin's daughter, given that John was randomly connected to this whole thing by being found in the Poplar Bluff "apartment."

I don't think Leo Howard could plausibly play Will, who's supposed to be around 35 and has a daughter who's at least 10, but he could probably be JJ or Joey.

I have vague memories of this, but Tripp inherited all her money when he first showed up and then donated it as evidence of his redemption? Something like that. So when she came back from the dead, she didn't have any. But I might be misremembering or combining details.

Oh good, more scenes about Ava's revolving door of a job search. Girl, get on LinkedIn and leave us alone!

He's a P.I., so I got his drift even though Steve isn't technically a police detective.

That's my guess, too.

I don't think she was even aged much. She was born in 1990 and came back in 2006 as a late teen/young adult -- I think she was supposed to be, like, a 17-year-old race car driver and then she went to college at Salem U in 2007-08. She's basically the exact right age she should be now, but we just missed so much of her life and they kind of kept her in stasis between 2011-2022 other than establishing that she lived in Seattle and then adding Everett to her backstory. But she kind of nets out age-wise. Same with Abigail, actually.

I agree and ALSO, it looked like something CB's Gabi would've worn. Yay continuity?

I also don't get the sense that Fiona ACTUALLY gives a sh*t about Xander. She plays nice and cutesy with him and Sarah and Victoria, then is immediately like, "Get me away from these a-holes so I can have a drink." There's a strange gap in how she's being depicted. They also have really not given any space for Xander to process that he's Victor's son. No one asked any questions, Fiona hasn't really recounted how it happened, etc. It's bizarre how they move SO quickly through some stuff but spend forever on little random things.

My point was that it isn't "nearly rape" if both partners consented and there was no coercion. It was a consensual encounter in which one partner took the more dominant/aggressive role and the conversation that displayed consent took place offscreen. "Nearly rape" would be if Gabi had almost assaulted him but the encounter was stopped before anything actually took place.

I think you're misreading the way that played out. Gabi was verbally seducing EJ in the living room. Then they cut away to other stories and picked up with them in the bedroom. EJ had gone upstairs with her. She was the aggressor, but she didn't "nearly rape him." He made an offscreen decision to go up to the bedroom with her. They made it a "reveal" instead of showing the decision-making moment play out in order to end the week on a shocking cliffhanger rather than a scene that simply showed the culmination of an already-made decision.

Oh, totally. I just remember that when they cast Mansi, they made a big point of announcing her as playing ABIGAIL and everyone was calling her ABIGAIL very pointedly for a while, and they'd all called her Abby 95% of the time a few years prior.

Not really. What happened was that she was always "Abby" as a child and during her time as a teen in the mid-00s, but when they cast Kate Mansi in 2011, they rebranded her as "Abigail" because we already had Gabi in the teen set. That loosened up over the years and really tailed off once Gabi went to prison in 2014, and after that, they just used Abigail/Abby pretty interchangeably.

Jennifer Landon did take that weird short arc on Days in 2017, so maybe her taking this isn't as insane as her primetime credits would suggest...

I really, really like Cherie. I liked Camila, too, but this casting has invigorated Gabi for me. It feels like it's aged her up (or maybe matured her?) in a way that works for the canvas.

Chad/Julie has been one of the bright spots of this absolutely dreadful last few years.

No joke, I had the same thought. It's weird in light of the Krista Allen casting AND the history with the Melrose lawsuit, but I could totally see Rinna as an age-appropriate Taylor. I also always thought they'd go after Kristian Alfonso for the part (which is also weird in light of the Hope/Billie connection).

This is... certainly not news I expected to come home and find today! What in the world.

Never seen these! Thanks for sharing. Alice refers to Tommy as "Danny" in that second scene, I think! I didn't realize that name ever made it to air.