Ugh. EJ just HAD to show up and ruin one of the most romantic Lumi scenes yet, didn’t he?
Some fans are thrilled that he’s back, but for those of us who ship Lucas/Sami, this was a real kick in the teeth.
But since Days of Our Lives during the week of 6-07-21 was pre-empted for two days, EJ’s reappearance was the best cliffhanger possible, no matter how aggravating it was.
So far, we’ve only had a brief glimpse of EJ, but if I were Sami, I would slam the door in his face.
Lucas made a strong, beautiful, and romantic case for why he and Sami should give love another shot.
.
Lucas: We’ve been in love since we were kids. And now we’re older and wiser. Well some of us are wiser. You weren’t too smart confessing to Charlie Dale’s murder.
Sami: It was smarter than faking a brain tumor.
Lucas: I’m not the one who had to dress up as Stan and pretend to be a doctor.
Sami: I had to do that to rescue you.
Lucas: You asked for help, I gave it to you.
Sami: This is where we always end up.
Lucas: Where we take our clothes off?
Sami: No. We’re bickering, This is all we ever do.
Lucas: No. What we have is magic. And I want to have it again.
His suggestion to Sami that if they can’t have happily ever after, they should go for crazily ever after was vintage Lucas and the type of assertion of true love that Days of Our Lives was once famous for.
Salem has been falling short in the romance department for a while.
The closest it’s come has been three or four people kidnapping Ben or Ciara to force them apart, which wasn’t romantic at all — just a ton of gratuitous violence on endless repeat.
But classic couples like Steve and Kayla, Doug and Julie, and Lucas and Sami help reverse that trend.
Lucas’ declaration of love, coming on the heels of his refusal to go along with Sami’s plan to have him spy on Nicole, was easily the best part of this short week in Salem.
And that’s another problem: EJ probably would have gone along with that nonsense without a second thought even though it was a terrible idea.
He and Sami always either did destructive things together or to each other, while Lucas is the only one who knows how to get through to her when she’s ridiculous.
Sami: I love EJ. How could I hurt him like this?
Lucas: I dunno, Sami. Maybe…
Sami: Maybe what?
Lucas: Maybe you’re in love with me too.
(Sometimes, anyway. As Sami pointed out, Lucas was the one who came up with that silly fake brain tumor idea.)
Hopefully, Sami has given up on that idea now. With EJ back in the picture, I’m afraid he’ll agree to it to win her back!
As Lucas pointed out, Sami was projecting because of her own guilt, but she never turns down an opportunity to get one over on Nicole, so she may keep trying to prove Nicole cheated on Eric.
Nicole could stop this easily by not keeping this secret from… anyone, but especially not Rafe.
I’m still waiting for a reasonable explanation for her refusal to admit to Rafe that this happened, especially after he pushed her to tell her what Xander’s holding over her head this time.
Maybe Sami isn’t the only one projecting because Nicole sure is acting as if she cheated on Rafe rather than Eric!
Nicole’s fear of letting Rafe in on the secret puts Ava in the middle, too, which can’t bode well for Rafe/Ava.
Nicole isn’t so diabolical these days that she would purposely ask Ava to keep her secret to drive a wedge between Ava and Rafe, but that might be what happens anyway.
Speaking of Ava, what the heck was that weird encounter with Sami?
They started as enemies and ended up declaring a truce for baby Henry’s sake, which means only one thing: Sami will find some way to use Ava to get what she wants on Nicole.
Ava won’t be happy about that since she already told Sami to leave Nicole alone before Ava goes all Mafia Princess about it.
But Sami never converts friends into frenemies unless she has plans for them, so she must have something in mind that she can manipulate Ava into doing for her.
Anyway, I wish Nicole had listened to Abe’s advice, even if he didn’t realize he was giving her any.
Abe and Nicole need to share scenes more often. Abe does the surrogate father thing well, even if Nicole usually ignores his suggestions and gets herself in more trouble.
In this case, many fans are concerned about her saving her email to Eric to drafts, where someone can easily find it by hacking into her computer (or her leaving it open on the screen since DAYS sometimes gets lazy about these things.)
For the most part, there’s no point in that since Xander is already blackmailing Nicole. So nobody else can hold a stolen email over her head, and if Sami finds out, then that ends Xander’s power over Nicole.
My guess is that either Eric will happen upon the email himself sometime after he and Nicole have reconciled, which is supposed to happen later this summer, or Rafe will find it on Nicole’s computer and be upset that nobody tells him anything for a change.
In any case, I loved Abe talking about his relationship with Lexie. Of all the non-resurrected people, she’s second only to Paige on my list of people I wish Days of Our Lives would bring back.
Instead, Abe seems to be getting closer to Paulina, which would be fine even if it’s a little weird because she’s Lani’s aunt. If only Paulina weren’t up to something that’s going to break his heart.
I love Jackee Harry, but Paulina was irritating me altogether with her attitude toward Chanel.
I know the half of it was that Chanel’s decision to open a bakery in the Square interferes with whatever Paulina’s plan is. Still, she also came across as expecting her daughter to fail and maybe even deliberately sabotaging her.
Paulina was right only about one thing: it takes more than an interest in baking to run a successful business.
Commercial baking is different from doing it for friends and family, and there are all sorts of licenses and approvals Chanel will need and a solid marketing plan and plan for start-up funding.
But Paulina has the expertise to teach Chanel how to navigate all that if she wants to. Instead, she continually focuses on the fact that when Chanel was a little girl, she wanted to do ballet, changed her mind and wanted to play soccer, and then quit soccer to explore her interest in horses.
That’s called being a child, and it was Paulina’s responsibility at that point to insist her young daughter finish out her commitment to one activity before paying for her to start another.
And it has nothing to do with whether an adult Chanel is capable of making a long-term commitment to the success of her business. Other than that, she was taught as a child that it was okay to walk away as soon as she lost interest.
But whether or not Chanel stays committed to this path long-term, Paulina’s attitude isn’t helping anything.
And if this is about Chanel interfering with Paulina’s secret plan, maybe Paulina should abandon that plan.
Working toward a viable business seems to be good both for Chanel and Chanel’s relationship with Paulina, and Paulina also realizes that this deception, whatever it is, will hurt Abe. So it would be prudent NOT to do it so that she can protect both of these important relationships!
Also annoying: Gwen’s ridiculous fear of Snyder when she clearly has the upper hand.
Tripp and Kayla are ready and willing to do something about Snyder’s illegal activities, and Xander is willing to break the law if needed to stop Snyder from messing with Gwen.
But Gwen doesn’t want any of it because she’s convinced Snyder will retaliate if ANYONE tries to stop him.
This is stupid and makes Gwen look weak.
Find your backbone, Gwen. There are a million people on your side, and Jack would love to write the story for the Spectator about a once-successful doctor’s fall from grace, too!
Snyder: So Ms. Reizchek hasn’t told you the whole story?
Xander: Apparently not. So enlighten me.
Snyder: You’re not asking that I break doctor-patient confidentiality, are you?
Xander: Oh come on now. I don’t think ethics are terribly high on your priority list.
I’m not sure what Xander thought he would accomplish by confronting Snyder, though. Unless he was prepared to stop Snyder’s activities right then and there, he should have laid low and found out what he could some other way.
But this is a better use of Xander than having him wander around drunk and jumping into bed with random women, so there’s that.
Also, I wish Kayla had confronted Snyder first instead of talking to Gwen, which was a waste of time. Then she would have walked in on him making a threatening phone call, and that would be that.
But that would have been too easy. It’s obvious that Days of Our Lives plans to drag this story out for a while longer. Besides, Kate has to threaten Snyder with getting him fired a bunch more times before anything happens.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought about Days of Our Lives during the week of 6-07-21.
Hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? Be sure to check out our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion on Sunday.
Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.