DAYS: Discussion for the month of November

[JackPeyton]

In real life i would agree.

On a soap opera where is a DiMera? No.

Of course he loved her. he was torw up about the lies Nicole told to manipulate him. He was sad. We seen it. As he told Chad he cant let himself care and he couldnt let himself be in a fight because he would lose and he couldnt take that so he shut off and shut down.

They did have Sami hammering home the point.

[DRW50]

Another moment where I was really blown away by AZ's performance was when she talked about how she could never have children, then she got pregnant, and it had to mean something, and she couldn't keep going after she lost that baby.

Her work, along with some solid writing, made me fall for the miracle baby/miscarriagepalooza cliches which have wrecked a lot of soaps over the years. It was such an incredibly moving scene, and I felt just awful for Nicole. And for AZ too, given that she is in her last term.

[JackPeyton]

I couldnt agree more.

Zucker has just gone above and beyond what i think anyone ever thought she could.

[Rakesh]

OMG, I've tried to stop myself from saying this for a very LONG time but I can't stop myself this time. Taylor (Mia) is killing her scenes (NOT in a good way!!!) with Nicole. This young lady will need to step it up in the acting department if she wants to have a career as a decent actress. I'm not trying to be mean at all... someone had to say something.

[Rakesh]

AZ is kicking ass on DAYS! Her excellent acting is the only reason I've been feeling bad for Nicole. Ali did good too, but AZ has been the true star in the baby switch storyline.

[JackPeyton]

I think she has done good.

Not OMG AMAZING!!!! but not bad either.

Yes, she has been awesome.

I feel Ari has had much more to play than Ali tho. Ali's only two big beats were losing grace and confronting Nicole.

[ChiTownBoi03]

Bricole but boy...if I was Mia I would have been wishing i'd brought along a cup of hot, scolding Starbucks.

[Toups]

Yeah, I didn't feel anything for him. When Sami handed Cydney to EJ, all I kept saying, was "Bastard!" LOL Like I would feel happy for him now that he has his daughter back because he found out she was his flesh and blood. Yeah right. How can EJ do that to his little girl, someone who he raised, fed, held her in his arms when she cried, and loved for the first 9 months of her life. Yeah, I can understand him being upset, and maybe you can THINK that she's no longer yours, but the instant you look into her little eyes and hold her, that feeling should disappear - you love her no matter what, blood or not. She's your little girl. Until I see a scene with EJ and Cydney where he talks to her and apologizes, and feels ashamed, to her for throwing her out, I can't look an EJ/Cydney scene without thinking that he threw her out. I need that redemption scene, with EJ crying, saying he'll never forgive himself for doing that to her and that from now on, he will try to be the best father to her. Kick Nicole out all you want, but your baby girl?

Word to what NorrthCafe said below...

[Ann_SS]

EJ is scum. What kind of man throws a baby that he raised into the streets? If he had tossed out Nicole and kept Sydney, I would share his joy in finding out that she is his biological daughter, but as things stand he is dead to me.

Another good Days episode. Mia isn't played by the strongest actress, but I liked the confrontation with Nicole anyway.

I'm worried about Victor. Who knows what Brady will do with the truth.

[JackPeyton]

But she wasnt his baby girl. At that time all he knew was that this woman lied to him, manipulated him, and forced him into something he didnt want based on a lie about a baby. The only reason he was with her and raised sydney at all was because Nicole lied about having his baby. Nicole did this. Its her fault. ALL of it. Moreover she let him do it by not telling him the truth when he found out she lost the baby. EJ once again had to grave for a child he didnt even know he had lost and on top of that couldnt deal with trying to hold onto Syd knowing he would lose her to Chad.

Im not saying that kicking Sydney out was right, but at the same time he is a lawyer. he is a smart man. he knew he didnt have a chance in hell of keeping sydney. Nicole bought that baby. He had no legal connection, no leg to stand on. He would have lost her no matter what so he shut off.

The simple truth is if Nicole hasnt been so selfish and didnt put herself before this baby she supposedly loves so much it wouldnt have happened.

[dc11786]

There is certainly a disconnect somewhere in the writer's process because things, occassionally, get lost from story projections to outlines to scripts or whatever the process is. For instance, it was never clarified how Stefano learned Sydney wasn't Nicole's daughter, but he had investigated Baker before Victor had him kidnapped. Obviously, this is how he learned, but this information was never divulged. Similarly, I'm sure there was a greater explanation to how Stefano marrying Kate was going to exonerate her of her crimes involving Chloe and Daniel.

The scene between Vivian and Carly was bizarre mainly because the whole thing went down in Bo and Hope's living room. Yes, there was no real meat to the scene. A couple of barbs exchanged and Bo busted it up. I also wish that Vivian was more menacing, and less comical, but that's just something I'll adjust to.

Wasn't Mia involved with Dr. Baker? Wasn't that how Mia and Nicole were introduced? Yeah, she wanted to make sure her daughter was in a good family, but she also made a choice to pursue a career as dancer rather than be a mother to her child. Her return to Salem wasn't precipitated by some great love for her daughter, but because her dance career flopped. I just don't feel for Mia, but that's my feeling regarding Mia in general.

SOD better nominate Maggie Horton as the most rejuvenated character this year because she has been integrated into the stories so well in the last year involving her ties with her family and her own history. Never did I think I'd hear the names Don Craig or Janice Barnes mentioned on this show ever again, but Maggie has spoken of both of them in the last year or so.

When Tomlin wrote for "Search for Tomorrow," he was in charge of helping revamping the show in the final year after Henderson was flooded. In one of the interviews, the producer at the time mentioned they had built combination kitchen/living room sets because they wanted the drama driven by the characters in their natural habitats. I think that is what Tomlin is doing on "Days of our Lives." The story is back in the living room of the Kiriakis mansion, the Dimera home, Bo and Hope's, Maggie's kitchen, and Sami's town house. I think it is help to present the character driven drama. As someone said above, it's bizarre to watch Mia crying in the middle of the pub. Everyone seems to be working toward creating this intimacy.

The also were dealing with the interference of Sami in their love lives. Nicole with E.J. and Chloe with Lucas. I LOVED bitchy Chloe who didn't take sh$$^#$ from Sami. That was hilarious. The only time I've enjoyed Nadia Bjorlin. Why they don't play into this more I'll never know...

See this is why I cannot stand E.J.; he's a pompous jerk. Nicole has loved E.J., but it has always been a one-sided love. For me, this is why this whole thing has been devastating. Everything she has done was for him and he didn't even seem to care.

I hope Brady will wait for Nicole. I just hope she arrives home in time for Arianna to find her way into E.J.'s bed and then another round of fighting can begin.

I thought Ali was at her strongest when Sami allowed Nicole to hold the baby one more time. Sami was strong, angry, but put Sydney first. It was such a touching moment. Ali's strongest. Did the baby playing Sydney cry when Sami took the baby back from Nicole? I thought I heard her, but I did love the emphasis on the bond between Nicole and Sydney.

Other comments:

- I thought the Bo and Hope fight was good. First Bo jumped to conclusions and then Hope got unreasonable about the secret. I did like how Hope deduced the fact that Carly is still in danger and that she actually did kill Lawrence.

- Adrienne has finally sent Justin divorce papers. I liked that scene. I'm curious if Adrienne will rear her head now that Judi Evans Luciano is free from "As the World Turns." Not that I want a reunion, but it would be nice to visualize their current relationship.

- I really liked Nathan declaring he would be willing to fight for Melanie. I'm SO behind this couple. Stephanie's fantasy about Nathan was bizarre. Nathan seems to view Stephanie/Nathan as platonic and I'm fearful Stephanie might be made possessive and uneven. I don't see where this story is going and really wish Stephanie would join her parents in Africa

[Toups]

EJ could've been a man, a true father, but instead he chose to be a prick to his daughter. Screw legalities, LOVE her unconditionally. I wish they could've played the Edmund card here. We don't know much about EJ's life in England, but I'm going to assume Edmund loved EJ and EJ loved Edmund. EJ could've factored that in too in his feelings about Cydney being his daughter - blood or not. Say for some reason, Johnny turns about to Lucas', is he going to throw him out too and refuse to be part of Johnny's life? Yeah, he probably will.

Rafe is more of a man than EJ can ever be. He doesn't need to hold a gun to have sex with someone, and he doesn't care about biology - he loved Grace and planned to adopt her. That is a man, that is a father.

[classicmoment]

Just watched the Sami/Nicole confrontation on the baby switch reveal and I'm extremely impressed. Especially by Ari Zucker, a very layered performance as Nicole brought herself to admit what she has done to Sami

[IMissAremid]

EJ may be a bad dude for all he's done and he certainly was selfish in not fighting harder for Sydney just because he didn't want to deal with the hurt of possibly losing her to Chad, but...

Rafe being so gung-ho about wanting to illegally adopt Sami's baby that he had fraudulent adoption papers drawn up after ONE DATE with her will always be weird. They weren't living together at the time; Rafe had told Sami absolutely nothing about his family or background; they had made no plans for custody arrangements and had no plans to make any sort of long-term commitment to each other AND the show even had Rafe saying the man he believed to be the baby's true biological father, EJ, was a good dad. Sorry, Rafe planning to adopt Grace in that situation doesn't make Rafe a real man or... as the show insists he is now... a hero. It makes him weird.

[IMissAremid]

ICAM! Nicole can cry her crocodile tears all she wants that all she was trying to do was make sure EJ had his baby, yet when push came to shove and the choice was whether to keep up the lies and keep the baby for herself or own up to the truth and ensure the child had a relationship with at least one biological parent, Nicole selfishly chose to keep the lies going because she thought her miscarriage entitled her to this baby.

Besides, it's not like the show wasn't doing some serious plot-point writing in having EJ kick out the kid in the first place to make sure everybody realized EJ was in the dark about things and because there wouldn't be much emotional impact to the story if oh this big secret comes out and guess what EJ... you are STILL the father.