DAYS: February 2013 Discussion

[WorldTurningDays]

I want to hate Nick but for some reason just can't do it. I find him wanting to raise another man's baby as hard to believe, and in general find the overall story lacking. Now it seens that the writers will explain away Nick's phobia through a prison rape which still does not explain why he is so determined to steal Will's kid.

In the back of my mind, I feel like Nick is actually gay. The writers will never go there given the rape story but he seems to actually have a fixation on Will.

[jfung79]

First my opinions on the past few days of the show:

Nick doesn't want to "raise another man's baby," he wants a stable family with the girl he loves, Gabi. Why is it so hard to believe that he would want to raise the child of the woman he loves and wants to marry? I don't think we're supposed to hate Nick; he is a three-dimensional character in a dark place right now. I actually think at times when Will was beating himself up to Lucas or saying how he trusted Nick, Nick looked like he felt guilty for what he was doing.

I still don't think they will go there with the phobia being about a prison rape. I am taking the stabbing at face value right now.

I'm glad Chloe was a little guilty on Friday and Ann asked her if she had second thoughts. First sign I've seen that she might move on from her fixation. Soap twist of Parker really being sick was predictable, but good drama anyway. How aggravating that Maggie missed Parker being sick while she was there and also ran out on the babysitting! LOL. As Chloe said, "Thanks for nothing."

Funny to see Julie spilling the beans about Nick's stabbing and the non-damage control making-it-worse that she kept doing.

I like that Will still trusts Gabi and Nick so much, and that Gabi still trusts him and wants to help him. Gabi was trying to get Sonny to forgive Will on Friday (although that disintegrated because Sonny still hates Gabi because of the Melanie thing). Gabi also honestly thinks that Nick is trying to make things work for all three of the parents.

I am less happy with the Brady/Kristen story now that Kristen seems to not have any feelings for him at all and it's all about the revenge of leaving him at the altar. Hopefully the writing will shift again ... I think it has to or it's too cut and dry, after what is probably the inevitable moment of her eventually getting Brady to propose to her ... At some point she will want to get married and he will find out she was planning to trick him and he may leave her at the altar, *or* they may end up both getting married after all.

There have been some great lines the past few days -- "I don't ask my friends to take paternity tests."

I love how Johnny wanting a bigger FBI jacket that seemed almost throwaway (although I did note it in my post saying Johnny was kind of manipulative!) has become a semi-important point showing how the characters of Rafe, EJ, Sami, and Johnny view their relationships to each other. LOL. Glad EJ is okay with Rafe still being part of EJ and Sami's kids' lives. Sami was overreacting but I did think she had a point too -- Rafe did seem to be using Johnny a bit the other day trying to get info about what Sami was doing, questioning him about the sleepovers she had arranged.

Regarding the "flashbacks," yeah, the younger Massey isn't as talented as the older, but still, it was okay, child actors are usually not that great.

What is Lucas and Chloe's history? It's hard to figure this stuff out on wikipedia and soap sites. I saw someone mention they used to be married. It seemed like part of the reason he is mad at her because of something she did to his brother Philip too. And Lucas and Nicole?

I enjoyed Victor toying with Nicole. I guess she tried to have him killed at one point? Wow. I would have thrown the book at her. Why is she getting away with what she did with the files? The "How many angels can you fit on the head of a pin?" thing I didn't get; I had to look up what it meant on Wikipedia. Funny the reference made Toups automatically know Richard Culliton had written the script.

I am glad Kristen didn't press charges, and that Kristen called a truce with Nicole. No doubt part of it was to look good for Brady. Don't know if Kristen was playing mind games, but I also enjoyed her pointing out that Nicole still feels something for Eric. Funny that Eric is totally oblivious. Poor Nicole, I think she needs to find another job. It's believable she would feel that way. I also liked Nicole's warning to Jennifer about Chloe ("Don't give her anything she could use against you."), and how Jennifer got through to Nicole by asking her what would really make Daniel more happy.

Enjoyed the Kristen/Jennifer scenes. Kristen is probably going to help a little with the Chloe situation further down the road and also Jennifer may help Kristen see how hurtful and bad it would be to leave Brady, in some way, at some point. I don't blame Jennifer for lying to Chloe about where she and Daniel were going.

Didn't like Daniel doing the macho punching of the guy harassing Jennifer. Just take Jennifer with you and call security. Media glorification of casual violence like punches and slaps, just having the cheap dramatic moment and not showing any of the the consequences (unless Daniel's surgical career really is affected!), always annoys me.

T was funny on Friday with his reactions. And aww, everyone was mad at him.

I can feel a Sonny/Will reunion happening within a week or two. Sonny was about to suggest it himself when Will was giving the key back and Will was saying he hoped they could still be friends and Sonny agreed they would always be friends, then Will shut it down and self-flagellated saying Sonny had moved on before Sonny could say more. Those were great scenes. Valentine's Day is also around the corner and that order Sonny made hasn't been cancelled yet.

Second some general responses to some things that have been discussed in the thread the past few days:

Regarding the discussion further up the thread about the Sami/Austin/Carrie story, it brought in ratings and everyone who knew anything about soaps knew about it, but to me as someone who didn't watch Days, it came across as the same never-ending story with rather questionable acting from a frequently shirtless Austin Peck (who got a lot better by the time he was on ATWT). James Reilly was able to get away with that then, but when he tried doing the same never-ending stories with the same shirtless characters forever on Passions, it no longer worked, and it is not a style of writing that would be suited to today's soap environment or viewership in my opinion.

The idea someone here suggested (I think Toups) about EJ and Sami and Rafe, with brainwashing and amnesia and stuff, seems rather soapy and plot-driven. It doesn't seem to fit the addictive, compelling, character-driven, realistic style of the Days I have fallen in love with of 2013. I could see the writers making it work because they are that good, but I'm glad the show is probably not going to do anything like that. I think Sami should choose someone and stick with him. At this point, I don't find it believable that Rafe and Sami could ever get back together. I can see Sami and Lucas reuniting eventually though.

Glad most people like the Will/Gabi/Nick story and like how it's shaping and revitalizing the show, even someone who posted that they don't like the characters of Will and Gabi! I think the writers can get years of story out of the characters and the situation, including Sonny, but not in the same story fighting over custody.

[Cheap21]

They used to be married and she cheated on him with Daniel. Its why he hates Daniel and wants him away from Jen.

[dc11786]

In regards to Nicole and Lucas, Kate paid Nicole a large sum of money, one million dollars I believe, to marry Lucas so that Lucas could appear to be providing a stable home for Will during one of Sami and Lucas' custody battles. This was around the time Nicole had been dating Eric Brady. This was around the turn of the century.

In 2008, Chloe and Lucas hooked up when Lucas was under house arrest after being released from prison for shooting E.J., which appaently he didn't really do. Sami hated Chloe and Lucas together, which bonded Chloe and Nicole (who was seeing E.J. at the time). Chloe donated bone marrow to save Kate Roberts' life and fell in lust with Daniel in the process. Chloe and Daniel started an affair, and when Lucas realized the truth, he fell off the wagon and went and confronted Chloe in a drunk stupor. There was a gas leak at the Daniel's apartment and Lucas ended up getting caught in an explosion. Chloe begged God to save Lucas' life and promised to stay with him if he lived. Lucas never died, you could clearly see his chest moving and Daniel later told Chloe there was no signs that Lucas died. Chloe was legitimately to dumb to find Lucas' pulse. Anyway, in March, Lucas and Chloe eloped and around the same time, Kate learned the turth about Chloe and Daniel, who she had been sleeping with prior to Daniel and Chloe's hook up. Chloe tried to be faithful to Lucas, but she eventually slept with Daniel again. Kate decided to punish Chloe by poisoning her and setting Daniel up to take the blame. In August, Chloe fell into a coma and Daniel was arrested (which brought Justin Kiriakis back to town). The whole affair was exposed when Chloe fell into a coma and Lucas began drinking again, which led to another stint in rehab. Lucas and Chloe divorced around the time he returned from rehab in late fall 2009 and Lucas left town in January / February 2009 without really resolving his issues with Chloe.

[frequentsoapfan]

The only good thing about the story for me was Nicole and Chloe's new friendship and Kate posing Snow White with the apple.

[Cheap21]

Oh snap, I didnt realize that was Chandlers brother in the flashback. I was confused bc I was wondering if that was Chandler or not but it didnt quite look the same. I wasnt watching then so I also wasnt sure if it was an old flashback but that confused me bc I was sure it was a different Will during the original story. Good use of getting his brother to play a younger him.

Gabi is such a bitch. I hated when she told Sonny, she's giving Will a baby, something he can never do

Thats a GOOD pic of him. Never seen him look better

LOL....this bitch

[Soapsuds]

It's scary they look like twins...lol They need to make Gabi a bitch again...nicey nicey is not Gabi. I havent seen Friday's show yet. I just hate how they dumb down Gabi with Nick. She is an evil bitch yet she cant tell or notice what Nick is pulling off??

Sigh..Freddie looks hot in that pic...what happened to him????

[jfung79]

Thanks for the info, dc11786 and Cheap21!

I have a feeling I would like Chloe more if I had seen her back then, and that I would dislike Daniel instead of mostly liking him as I do now. Wow, Daniel and Kate were together at one point?

One more thing I wanted to comment on about this week's episodes, I love the irony of Lucas trying to figure out how somone found out about Will shooting EJ because it wouldn't be an issue if Lucas himself hadn't yelled it out in the park. It was also Lucas who commented in the coffee house in early January about the day Nick got out of prison, which is how Cameron figured out Nick wasn't the dad. In both cases, Will also added fuel to his own problems by talking about these things further and creating conversations that led to further chances for eavesdropping.

SoapSuds and Cheap21, I like that Gabi has both a nice side and a mean side. She and Will are loyal to each other. Even when he finds out about how she was kind of responsible for Melanie's kidnapping, I think he will be shocked and back away from her at first, but he will not stop being her friend for good. She didn't talk about the baby always connecting her to Will to Sonny until Sonny was attacking her character and the genuineness of her friendship with Will, and refusing her attempts to try to get him to see how much he was hurting Will.

I think Nick is really convincing, and I don't blame Gabi or Will for not seeing through it. Nick is not evil, and what he does is out of love, so it is easy to believe the truth of that love and have that obscure the lie of what he is saying.

As for Freddie Smith, nice picture but he is still good now too!

[Cheap21]

Daniel's literally slept with every one of his female patients. He's disgusting. He was even with Kate's grand daughter, Chelsea and I think he cheated on her with Kate

[dc11786]

Daniel and Kate dated right up until Daniel and Chloe slept together. At the time, Kate's cancer went into remission and she realized her relationship wasn't going anywhere so she called things off. Later, I think she admitted one of the underlining reasons she hated Chloe's affair with Daniel was her attraction to Daniel, the main reason being Chloe was married to Lucas, Kate's son.

I enjoy this current incarnation of Chloe making Daniel and Jennifer's lives miserable while using Parker. I wasn't a daily viewer during the Salem High DAYS so this Chloe and pre-Daniel Chloe when she was incredibly snarky to Sami and spent the day drinking with Nicole were the times I enjoyed the most. Nadia Bjorlin has limitations as an actress, but TPTB have managed to make her Chloe an integral part of the canvas. Despite the sloppy paternity reveal, though I suspect this may have always been in the cards, I feel like Chloe fits into the drama in Salem perfectly.

jfung, I was having similar thoughts about how the escalation of the events. I was thinking it was interesting how Sami has made it clear she wouldn't be against using Gabi's criminal history in court to help Will gain custody,but Will's unknown criminal activity will also be revealed. I've never been the biggest Sami fan, but I am really looking forward to Sami's reaction to all of this.

I love how just when the Nick / Gabi / Will story seemed to reach it's conclusion with the wedding, it beautifully transition into the second act of the story with the paternity and the onslaught from Gabi and Will's family members. While Gabi and Will's present actions aren't significantly dramatic, it's the reactions of Will's parents and Gabi's brother and fiancee that keep the story moving. It's an interesting move because it doesn't undermine the previously established characterization of Gabi and Will's relationship.

[Soaplovers]

I agree you have liked Chloe much more if you saw the real Chloe. I always viewed Chloe as her own worst enemy.. going all the way back to when she was goth girl.

I dont know why the show is trying to make Daniel happen. He would work better if he was just the resident doctor as opposed to being a leading man. Neither the character/actor is meant to be leading man. In fact, this is the second attempt at making Daniel/jennifer happen. When it didn't work the first time, the show decided that Jack was the reason it didnt work (never mind that the actors had no chemistry) and killed him off. Not only did Jack get killed off, but so did the essence of Jennifer's character, imho

[Cat]

I have been enjoying a lot of Days this week but while there are some episodes I watch, hooked, all the way through, others I just FF. Obvs Sami and her brood (Johnny!), EJ, the DiMeras, Kate, Marlena, Kristen, Will, Nick are made of win at the moment. But the following I have a real problem getting invested in:

-Sonny. He's kind of a bore, no?

-Daniel and Jennifer and Chloe. Well, obviously.

-Eric and Nicole. Am I missing something? I just cannot connect to this SL at all.

Also: are Abby & Chad still a potential thing?

[Cheap21]

Wow I honestly forgot about Chad and Abby. Yeah the show doesn't seem to have much investment here bc the triangle with Cam is moving WAY too slow for my tastes

[Soaplovers]

THIS! I'm intrigued to see how long it takes for the Abby/Chad/Cam to actually kick-start. Either stories happen at lightening speed, or move as slow as oil. I wonder what the perfect balance is regarding pacing?

[Ira]

I have been enjoying the hell out of this week. Layered storytelling hitting practically every scene. I still don't GAF about Daniel, but I'm invested in Jen again. I've always enjoyed her with an adversary, though I could've done without the soap thing of Parker really being in trouble. Like, we juuuuust did that with Marlena/Kristen/John. Also, Jen didn't really listen to Nicole! Lying is definitely something that can be used against her. Dumb broad.