DAYS: The Glossing over of EJ Wells

[aMLCproduction]

I think EJ's bad deeds are being very much glossed over pushed under a rug,like we are supposed to forget and it bothers me. Hogan has taken his evil deeds to far.I'm an EJ fan. I want to see some redemption. Some regret. Some Payback.Some explanation. But so far, we haven't had any of that. His attitude towards Sami has been like someone flipped a switch. One day, he was tormenting her at her hospital bedside. The next he was promising to protect her. Regardless of if he actually shot John, he certainly intended to do so. That's pretty much been dropped. EJ torturing Steve - dropped. We see Steve interacting now with Tony and Stefano. Suddenly, EJ's not the evil bastard who treated Steve like a dog. And RAPED SAMI!! And was also the Black Gloved Hand last summer.Sending Steve to kill Shawn - dropped. And so on and so forth. EJ's crimes are simply being forgotten, as we move on to new, nice EJ. And that's not a very satisfying conclusion.

[IMissAremid]

They are glossing over Phillip's roid rage phase just as much if not more and I personally don't care because it was retarded that this show thought it a good idea to make EJ and Phillip one-dimensional baddies in the first place. I see this as Sheffer righting the wrongs of Dec-April and won't hold it against them even if a lot of it doesn't make any sense. The show is good enough now at least that I am fine with them not providing resolution to those craptastic stories they were giving us the first part of the year.

[dawn9476]

Phillip didn't try to kill or rape anyone. Yeah his obsession with Claire is being swept under the rug but if you knew she was going to stay with Phillip, he wouldn't hurt her intentionally unlike EJ, who raped Sami like it was no big deal and made it no big deal for several months.

[Keith]

I, too, have a problem with it. I don't care if people think the characterizations were a misstep, the sudden 'flip of the switch' is insulting to the audience's intelligence. Nothing new with this show, mind you, but it still bothers me quite a bit. Too many important plot points have been ignored simple because they were a "misstep".

[PhoenixRising05]

I agree with that. I do not feel the change in Philip is bad because he could be very well manipulating Belle to try to win her and Claire back. The only difference is that he isn't acting irrational and running around yelling at people. They toned him down quite a bit.

The EJ stuff is glossed over but not as bad as some think. They make note of it and have reactions but they aren't to the level of what they should be.

It's almost like Hogan took a break from writing from January to April and got back and May and said "What the hell happened? and then turned the ship on a different course. It's very glaring.

[IMissAremid]

It wasn't right what he did, but she did seduce him multiple times even after they broke up so I could see how he could get the wrong idea about her true feelings about what happened that night. Especially when she acted nothing like a rape victim in the months following what happened. Why would EJ make a big deal of it when Sami made no big deal of their bargain sex for several months but only worried about Lucas finding out that she had sex with EJ? BTW, I am not just talking about Phillip with Belle and Claire getting glossed over. IIRC he also assaulted Mimi at one point if he did not also have a hand in her and Max getting locked up in that basement place.

Sorry but I just don't think they are treating EJ's crimes any differently than any of the other people who have done bad things in Salem and in fact are punishing him just fine as far as this show goes. Yeah they forgot about the gloved hand crimes but we never actually showed him commit any of those crimes so I'm sorry if it's hard for me to get up any outrage over him not paying for them. He was with Sami when Eve Michaels was killed anyway and at other parts in that stupid story you saw the gloved hand spying on him so that was just a messed up storyline with them going away from their original plans for the gloved hand crimes to make them EJ. Just like so many storylines have been screwed up in the middle. They also forgot about the existence of the Phimi baby and characters like Abby and Jed Stark just disappear with no goodbye. It's just the way this show has been the last nine months with dropped plot point after dropped plot point.

The truth is no one pays for their crimes unless the actor just happens to get fired. Billie raped Bo yet she and Hope are friends now. John and Marlena sat down for a beer with Stefano at the Brady Pub even after all the murder plots and imprisoning and brainwashing and kidnapping on multiple occasions. Tony is having John and Lucas into his home for chats after orchestrating the SSK plot. Lucas framed Sami for a murder he committed and attempted to kill her yet they are married and supposedly in love. The list goes on and on.

Even if EJ hasn't stood trial for John's shooting, they have made the character pay in other ways as far as the storyline goes. They have investigated him and questioned him about it and he has been in police custody multiple times but there just hasn't been enough evidence to make charges stick. He has had his heart broken and has seen the woman he loves marry someone else. He has been the subject of a murder plot (even if he found out about it at the end, Celeste came up with it initially and Sami did come very close to killing him). He has been punched, slapped and humiliated on numerous occasions by pretty much every person he has wronged. John has joked about killing him. Steve has beaten him up. He has lost his job and his company and his career and his reputation with this Mythic SEC deal and all his run-ins with the police. He is on the outs with his family because he is so obsessed with proving his love to Sami. And the word rape, which is the transgression most often bandied about by people upset about EJ's redemption, will be thrown around so many times in Monday's ep if you took a sip of a drink every time they said it you would be unconscious before you hear "And now for the second half of Days of our Lives in just a moment." Sure EJ is not going to prison anytime soon. But no one on this soap goes to prison. So I am just curious exactly what you people want to happen to EJ that would satisfy you that he had suffered enough? Nothing short of death would suffice for some people I'm sure, even if other characters they root for have done just as many bad things or some even worse.

[PSPCindy]

ICAM IMissAremid.

I find it puzzling that some are so determined that EJ pay when it seems he is paying daily in a number of ways, yet some characters have never paid for past crimes. Yet that is the soapy truth that happens when characters stay on the show. PattyCakes and BonBon got away with everything under the sun until the curtain came down on their respective runs on the show.

I'm wondering myself what would be enough punishment for EJ, according to some. I think it would prove interesting. For me, I hope he is finished paying, but I think more punishment is on the way. Will the blood lust abate then? I'm betting not.

[ANDREA LOATHES REILLY]

When is that piece of [!@#$%^&*] Sami going to pay for ALL of the things she did? We can start with kidnapping Belle and putting her on the black market. Then we can move onto her rape of that moron Austin and the drugging of Carrie and Lucas.

Please! The list is endless!

ANDREA

[Days4Life]

EJ is just the latest in a long list of Salem residents who haven't repented or paid for their crimes. The one that bothered me the most was Jan kidnapping Shawn, drugging him, locking him in a cage, deceiving him into a sexual relationship, manipulating him for months, blackmailing Mimi and then....nothing. Belle actually felt sorry for her! Kate has done a lot of bad things, including drugging Sami and Brandon, but what happened to her? She was yelled at by Roman and then....nothing. Sami has done more evil than everyone else put together and most people love her. The list goes on and on. With EJ, I do believe he's sorry for bad things he's done but rather than put it into words he's trying to fix things through his actions. That's the way some people do, when it's hard for them to express themselves verbally. I always felt his motivation for his crimes was trying to live up to the Dimera image and please his father and now through his feelings for Sami he's had his eyes opened to what his life had become. He wants to find a way to be a Dimera and a good person, very much like Tony used to be (I think that's one reason Tony hates him; he's bitter and jealous that EJ has a chance at the life Tony had and threw away).

On Friday EJ betrayed his family; that's a pretty big step towards redemption in my eyes.

[Ponz]

I don't think punishment is the main issue. People are objecting to the total 180 Hogan has pulled with the character. EJ was written as an unrepentent sociopath for 5 months and then the moment Tony arrived on the scene, he became the "noble" Dimera peacemaker and voice of reason in the family. He had great fun terrorising a pregnant Sami and now we're supposed to buy his disapproval that Tony is doing the same thing? Much as I enjoy EJ being slapped and punched on a daily basis, it doesn't make this transformation any more credible.

The fact that he was written cartoonish from January to April is no justification for the "flip switch". Good writers deal with the consequences of their mistakes. It's lazy, plot-driven writers who pretend that those mistakes were never made.

[therethan4eva]

Its a soap..does anyone really go to jail. The only people who go to jail are the innocent ones. I love EJ I think he is okay..

[Antoyne]

Where'd he get his last name and why isn't he going by DiMera yet?

[Loretta3938]

“…One day, he was tormenting her at her hospital bedside. The next he was promising to protect her.” Actually, he returned to her room the same day while she was having breathing problems and helped her then. I don’t think EJ has done a 180. Some of these things have been gradually showing a different side of his character.

If EJ intended to shoot John but didn’t pull the trigger, it really doesn’t matter. It’s not attempted murder unless he fired the gun. As for EJ torturing Steve, that was a pretty lame storyline to begin with. When did EJ have time to mastermind Steve’s brainwashing…unless he did it after getting out of elementary and high school classes in the afternoon? Steve was “dead” for a lot of years that couldn’t logically include EJ’s participation. I wouldn’t blame the writers for wanting to forget about that. It would mean creating a whole backstory for Steve’s early “dead” years…something that would have to tie in the older DiMeras.

I still don’t buy that EJ raped Sami…and I did see that Dec. 29th episode. I’m sorry…but a rape victim does not willingly walk into the apartment of the man who raped her, especially when he is wearing not much more than a robe. If the writers wanted some of us viewers to buy this was a rape, they shouldn’t have written that…or scenes where she was kissing him while plotting his murder. I can’t put two and two together and come up with a rape here…sorry. Alleged victims do lie about rapes…just ask the Duke lacrosse players who were accused and run through the wringer before the charges were dropped. As for having EJ admit it…he would do whatever it took to get Sami to accept him again. I believe he is sorry because he knows she’s upset about it, but him admitting to it after vowing he never would tells me he was just letting Sami have her way on the subject.

As for the gloved hand, several people were wearing the glove…EJ told Patrick that. Will the writers straighten that out? Maybe not, since they appear to have dropped the storyline about Phillip and Mimi’s baby…which resulted from the gloved hand’s antics. A gloved hand also enabled Shawn and Belle to see the file proving Claire was their daughter. Not everything the gloved hands did was bad.

[Keith]

ICAM with Ponz here. I don't care about EJ being punished. I care about the fact that the writing did a total 180 in order to villainize Lucas in EJ's stead. Sami is not the only poerson EJ's terror has affected, and that's what makes it so very glaring. I'm passed the gloved hand stuff. That's not even relevant anymore, since Patrick was arrested. Everyone knows EJ did it, but charges wouldn't stick.

The fact is that EJ refused to be anything short of heartless towards Sami for months. Why not use that to showcase the character having built up walls after feeling betrayed by her. I, too, can see how EJ was confused on the night of the rape. Doesn't excuse his actions, but it explains his side of things. That night was a climax for their relationship, as they had now reached a potential point of no return. Now that his family is back, EJ's no longer in control of Sami's torture, and he knows he only would have taken it so far. And there, ladoies and gentleman, is your logical and character-based reasoning for EJ's sudden 180, but they prefer to just change him.

It's lazy writing, plain and simple. I could care less that inconsistency in writing is a habit for this show. I'm so over it, especially without a major writer change.

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

First off the matter of EJ "raping" Sami is not a set in stone issue. However I believe beyond a shadow of doubt that EJ did NOT rape Sami. But thats a whole nother discussion which has already been talked about over and over again.

2nd I don't think they've "glossed" over squat. If anything the writers keep throwing EJ's past in his face. How many times has Roman, Bo, John, Lucas, or Sami screamed at him for his various bad deeds? Everytime hes in a room with any of these people they don't give him a break at all.

That being said however I still forgive EJ. He did it for his father. He did out of love and loyalty. He's been trained to hate the Bradys (or at the very least not care for them). So why would he care about any of the things hes done to them in the past? Because he fell in love unexpectedly. And now hes realized just how true and deep his love for Samantha runs.

I look forward to an EJami reunion this year. Lucas can go whine somewhere else.