DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Nick arrives at the beach to meet Willow, and a struggle for the hairbrush ensues. Willow falls backward, hitting her head on a log. When the EMTs get there, Willow is pronounced dead. The cops see signs of a struggle and tell Nick they are taking him in for questioning. Julie translates a letter written by Stefano's father, Santo, on his deathbed, telling his son he loved and lost a woman named Colleen because of a family in Salem. Santo wants Stefano to carry out his vendetta against this family — the Bradys. Sami begs Stefano to accept her offer for a truce in exchange for the stem cells. Stefano, however, refuses to take her deal until the wrongs of the past have been corrected. Sami and E.J. ask for an explanation, but all Stefano will say is, "Ask Shawn Brady." Lucas races to the DiMera mansion, followed by John. Claire is spotted in the arms of a woman who tore out of the parking lot in the South Pacific. The woman's backpack had a bumper sticker: "USADORABLE." Philip learns it's a beauty pageant for toddlers.

SNEAK PEEK: E.J. fights Tony.

The beauty pageant thing is too stupid.I am all for claire to return and this story,that started so well and turned into crap,will end.

Sounds good.

The beauty pageant thing is different but I'm not going to dismiss it yet. There are some ways it could be good, as was discussed in other threads.

These sound so good.

I'm open about the pageant. Its definitely different, and thats never a bad thing (well, except for stories like Virtual Eden, but thats another story entirely)

Beauty Pageant for toddlers?! LOL! HOAGIE IS SO WEIRD!

Toddler Pageants are pretty common.

Sad, but true.

But is it common to kidnap babies just to submit them in the pageant and win prize money?

Or did the kidnappers just happen to be avid pageant entrants?

But is it common to kidnap babies just to submit them in the pageant and win prize money?

Or did the kidnappers just happen to be avid pageant entrants?

Who knows. Maybe a deranged stage mother who lost her baby saw Claire, thought it was her daughter and kidnapped her.

Could Nurse Ali be coming back to Salem?

Beauty Pageant for toddlers?! LOL! HOAGIE IS SO WEIRD!

LOL. Yes he is. But for some reason I am not horrified by this spoiler. Maybe just because I'm so relieved Gabby is gone so we know this storyline definitely could be a lot worse.

But OMG for "EJ fights Tony."

Is this the swordfight Thaao talked about in his NBC blog?

Beat his ass, Tony.

The Claire thing is current (with the Madeleine kidnapping in Portugal), and I've read of cases like it before in the news. It's disturbing but it does actually happen. And I don't think Daytime is ready for them to do a social story about pedophiles kidnapping the grandchild of two supercouples to sell her on the blackmarket.