With Stefano back and an upcoming murder, executive producer, Ken Corday, promises a spectacular fall in Salem. Yet viewers shouldn't worry - there's also lots of romance on the horizon.

Steve begins investigating Trent, while "Bo and Hope get to the bottom of this horrible man and uncover a secret. Also, something unexpected happens to Bo and Hope as detectives on the force, based on the police's handling of the lock down. Someone is going to lose a job, and someone is going to get a job."

"The hardwiring Stefano had done to John starts to short circuit. John starts experiencing physical, emotional and intellectual side effects. He's not ready to be treated by a psychiatrist, especially Marlena, so Kayla starts to help him. Marlena realizes there may be hope to bring the old John back, but it's not so easily done."

"Kate is diagnosed with a severe illness. She'll be in denial for a while. During all this, Chelsea realizes Daniel is never going to figure into her life, long term." Look for Daniel to gravitate back to Kate. "The actors have an amazing chemistry, and we're rolling with that."

A power struggle kicks off for the DiMera empire. "All the dogs are fighting over the kill here, but the forces of good, even if they're somewhat tainted like John, EJ and Tony, are all on the same side against the monstrous Stefano."

Fed up with Stefano forever alluding the police, "Abe takes matters into his own hands."

"Trent is removed from the equation in the Max/Stephanie/Melanie/Nick/Chelsea story. Nick develops feelings for Melanie, but she's a loose cannon. Not really keen on making anyone her friend. There will be a murder down the road."

Sami won't be pleased by the result of her war with Lucas and will turn to EJ for support, but he's preoccupied with Nicole, who had to deal with skeletons in her closet being exposed.

A happy, albeit, catastrophic, event occurs in late October/early November. "It affects Sami, Lucas, Nicole, EJ, Chloe, Philip and Morgan." Morgan isn't ready to forgive Philip and "He still has feelings for Chloe. He'll be torn. There will be tension."

Daytime Royalty

Comings and goings:

Terrell Tilford (Dr Carrington): The GL vet, (ex-David) returns as Theo's doctor on Sept 5.

Roscoe Born: (Trent Robbins): Look for the actor to exit the show in late September, but sources say he'll pop up in flashbacks after that.

Sneak Peeks:

Victor aligns with Stefano

Morgan reunites with Paul

Chelsea decides to move on without Daniel

Nicole tells John about Trent's weakness

Lucas invites Chloe to the Horton cabin

Sami fumes over the verdict in Allie's custody case.

Next week:

Sami gets arrested

Bo and Hope have a romantic day

John grows jealous

Melanie confronts Trent

Nick is in harm's way

SOD/SOW Tidbits

VICTOR AND STEFANO!?! Have these two ever shared a scene in their history on the show?

VICTOR AND STEFANO!?! Have these two ever shared a scene in their history on the show?

Until recently, they had only had a handful of scenes together.

Ken Corday.....always on the case.

I'm very interested to see Aniston and Mascolo in scenes together. They are two actors from Days where they could read the phone book and have me totally sold..Were most of their previous scenes from the 80's? I only know of one scene between Victor and Tony and that was sometime in the mid 90's when he was Andre..

I'm very interested to see Aniston and Mascolo in scenes together. They are two actors from Days where they could read the phone book and have me totally sold..Were most of their previous scenes from the 80's? I only know of one scene between Victor and Tony and that was sometime in the mid 90's when he was Andre..

The one scene I remember was a made-up flashback scene where Victor told Stefano he would not cross him.

I'm sure there are more, but until recently, to the best of my knowledge, they were not on-screen together.

This all sounds OK.

not great by any means, but not awful either.