As much as I'd love for Kristen to get over Brady, and for that to finally be done with, Idk about her and Xander.

If anything, I suspected that Xander might cheat with Stephanie after he finds out that Sarah knew. Maybe even have them be a couple for a little while before he and Sarah find their way back to each other.

Stephanie needs her strength back, and that means getting her away from Alex 😂😂

Edited April 24, 2025Apr 24 by AbcNbc247

33 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

Plot driven. They needed a more experienced actress according to Eric M

Thanks. I just find that so hard to swallow. I seem to have strong likes & dislikes when it comes to child actors. My favorite child actor is James on GH. My second favorite absolutely was DAYS Rachel before this new recasting. I cannot imagine that they're writing some new kinds of material which will be more challenging, so guessing they didn't like what they were getting. I will be interested & watching .... 

-- If Xander cheats, let it be with anyone but Kristen. I cannot stand her, and I don't want her near Xander.

-- Today's show was fine -- especially the heavy involvement of Kayla -- but having Kristen throw a glass of water at Xander to get his shirt off didn't work. It didn't make sense.

-- The fundraiser idea was fine, but the execution was a little lame. Not enough crowd energy, not enough going on. All I could do was look at all the balloons the DAYS budget approved.

-- I did think it was odd that Kayla rushed JJ out of EJ's hospital room. Why couldn't the guy answer more questions?

I don't know why everyone is jumping to Xander needs to cheat as payback for Sarah's lies. She didn't cheat on him and they love each other, it's not a reciprocal response. Let's hope a new writing team has Xander realize why Sarah felt she had to lie and (eventually) forgive her. And Philip cause I love them as brothers.

5 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

I don't know why everyone is jumping to Xander needs to cheat as payback for Sarah's lies. She didn't cheat on him and they love each other, it's not a reciprocal response. Let's hope a new writing team has Xander realize why Sarah felt she had to lie and (eventually) forgive her. And Philip cause I love them as brothers.

I agree with that. Carlivati's knee-jerk response was always to have the injured party cheat with someone else, and that trope is tired.

20 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

I don't know why everyone is jumping to Xander needs to cheat as payback for Sarah's lies. She didn't cheat on him and they love each other, it's not a reciprocal response. Let's hope a new writing team has Xander realize why Sarah felt she had to lie and (eventually) forgive her. And Philip cause I love them as brothers.

While I agree that Xander doesn't need to cheat, it looked like that was the setup based on today's scene.

However, I disagree with your take on Sarah.  She lied because she didn't trust Xander to run the business on his own.  She can defend it by saying that Philip had a right to a percentage of the estate.  But, her motivation was that she didn't want Xander to hurt Philip, nor did she want him to turn into a megalomaniac.  Both of which are just another way to say that she doesn't trust his base instincts to know right from wrong.  And that's bad. 

If I were in the same preposterous circumstance, I would think it was worse than cheating that my wife shared information with all of my friends and family, because she doesn't trust that I wouldn't hurt someone.  The mother of my child doesn't trust that I have my family's best wishes at the fore. --  Then, I'd buy my own condo and stop living with my step-Mother.

 

Edited April 24, 2025Apr 24 by j swift

16 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

I don't know why everyone is jumping to Xander needs to cheat as payback for Sarah's lies. She didn't cheat on him and they love each other, it's not a reciprocal response. Let's hope a new writing team has Xander realize why Sarah felt she had to lie and (eventually) forgive her. And Philip cause I love them as brothers.

I don't think anyone said Xander NEEDS to cheat.  There were just some things that happened with Kristen today that planted the seeds.    

What Sarah did was worse than cheating IMO.  She let him lose half his business and willingly has lied to him and brought others in on the plot.  I don't know why we should think Sarah is absolved from being a known liar just because Xander is as well.  The excuse is that she thought Xander might resort to violence is not indictive of a healthy marriage or relationship.  

5 minutes ago, j swift said:

While I agree that Xander doesn't need to cheat, it looked like that was the setup based on today's scene.

However, I disagree with your take on Sarah.  She lied because she didn't trust Xander to run the business on his own.  She can defend it by saying that Philip had a right to a percentage of the estate.  But, her motivation was that she didn't want Xander to hurt Philip, nor did she want him to turn into a megalomaniac.  Both of which are just another way to say that she doesn't trust his base instincts to know right from wrong.  And that's bad. 

If I were in the same preposterous circumstance, I would think it was worse than cheating that my wife shared information with all of my friends and family, because she doesn't trust that I wouldn't hurt someone.  The mother of my child doesn't trust that I have my family's best wishes at the fore. --  Then, I'd buy my own condo and stop living with my step-Mother.

 

Lol.  Same.

54 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Lol.  Same.

Let's also never forget, that left to her own devices, she never would have let Xander know that he was Victoria's father.  Which was convenient, given that he found that he was the sole heir to a fortune less than one year later...

I mean, at least Theresa was honest about being a gold digger.😎🤑

Side note: I know we're supposed to feel compassion for Sarah, I am just teasing.

Edited April 25, 2025Apr 25 by j swift

11 minutes ago, j swift said:

Let's also never forget, that left to her own devices, she never would have let Xander know that he was Victoria's father.  Which was convenient, given that he found that he was the sole heir to a fortune less than one year later...

I mean, at least Theresa was honest about being a gold digger.😎🤑

Side note: I know we're supposed to feel compassion for Sarah, I am just teasing.

I don't feel much compassion for Sarah.  She's obviously a smart woman, but never thinks things through and generally makes horrible decisions on bad instinct.  

Xander isn't better, but he owns that part of his personality a lot more.   He feels so lucky to have such a 'good' woman like Sarah in his life.  He doesn't realize she's toxic as well.  

I am not knocking Sarah because she's just a soap character and has flaws.  I don't think the show acknowledges how many times she lies and manipulates on a smaller scale as well.

Kidding Sarah made me realize how few women are Days are allowed to have moral flaws without becoming evil.  Ava on GH and Phyllis on Y&R are both Neutral Evil: (Selfish and ruthless, willing to harm others to achieve their desires, without necessarily being bound by rules or chaos).  But, I would argue that historically Salem has had a lot of cads like Alex Marshal, or even Tony Dimera, but very few morally gray women. 

Other than Anna, I can't think of many women in Salem who weren't either chaotic evil or Lawful (Jada)/Neutral (Stephanie)/or Chaotic (Gabi) good. - the lawful to chaotic scale is based on valuing the rule of law over personal desires.

Edited April 25, 2025Apr 25 by j swift

Recasting Rachel with Alice Halsey was a smart decision. She's a natural. I already like her better than Abigail Klein and whatever the hell Annalynne McCord thinks she's doing. However, I did laugh when she was talking to JJ and spit out how she "didn't want to talk about it at all" only to go back to her acting like she's 12.

EJ has always been a bastard, but this new leaf he's supposedly turned over makes him creepy to me. This probably is only a coincidence, but I thought it was a relief during the Kristen/EJ scenes that no mention was made of the being brother/sister/siblings.

Legit question, have Maggie and Chad had literally anything to do with each other before today? Still, props to the ol' girl for knowing a million dollar piece of ass when she sees one.

Kayla was great this episode, but why does she have her hair styled like early Barbara Windsor Peggy Mitchell?

Like jswift, a missing beat to EJ's shooting is JJ relating to Johnny how he felt when he learned his father was a rapist of his own aunt, or at least EJ having the audacity to ask JJ how he moved forward. Something. 

Edited April 25, 2025Apr 25 by Bright Eyes

So the episode was overall fine with a lot of emphasis on Kayla, but I'm confused over people shipping Xander and Sarah.  They seem to lack chemistry and her mousy hair and punch-able face makes me seriously question the decline on casting beautiful and appealing women to play characters on the soap.

I think the change in head writers will first be noticed in the initial day to day episodes, but I don't think a change will be apparent in the long term story plan for awhile since they have to finish off Ron's story threads that are ongoing.

Is the show thinking of pairing Chad/Cat?  

6 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Is the show thinking of pairing Chad/Cat?  

That was never not the plan, so far anyway. What the new writers do is anybody's guess. I did feel when Stephanie popped up and ushered Charlotte away that it felt like they could be hinting at that relationship potentially being revisited.

Also, forgot to mention, as cringe as a lot of the fundraiser was, the part where Charlotte got sad because she thought someone was going to take Chad away forever did touch me emotionally, which I was happily surprised by.

Edited April 25, 2025Apr 25 by Bright Eyes

11 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

So the episode was overall fine with a lot of emphasis on Kayla, but I'm confused over people shipping Xander and Sarah.  They seem to lack chemistry and her mousy hair and punch-able face makes me seriously question the decline on casting beautiful and appealing women to play characters on the soap.

I think Linsey Godfrey is a very objectively attractive women, but the mousy hair and punch able face comment did send me lol.  You obviously want to slam on her looks, but I do kinda agree her grandma styling with the smallest tops ever are kind of off putting.

3 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I think Linsey Godfrey is a very objectively attractive women, but the mousy hair and punch able face comment did send me lol.  You obviously want to slam on her looks, but I do kinda agree her grandma styling with the smallest tops ever are kind of off putting.

I've ragged on her a bit myself, but I've come round to her with this story. She can be frustrating, but I never denied that she was a good actress and she's been especially great all the times she's hoping to God sh*t doesn't hit the fan.

Edited April 25, 2025Apr 25 by Bright Eyes