Days of Our Lives Review Week of 1-10-22: Lies and Lack of Conscience

It’s been a while since Days of Our Lives had a good, juicy court case.

The last time was that silly DID story where Abby lied on the stand and sent Gabi to jail.

Unfortunately, EJ’s trial on Days of Our Lives during the week of 1-08-22 wasn’t much better, thanks to the Devil’s plan to stop Chad from telling the truth.

The whole Devil story has been silly from the get-go, but the scenes in the courtroom were the worst.

Chad was determined to tell the truth on the stand, but that would have put a swift end to the Devil’s plans. It’s too bad because the drama of Chad going to jail for something Lucas put into motion might have been fascinating.

Anyway, there needed to be some reason for Chad not to go ahead with his original plan. The Devil interfering makes sense, in a way. The Devil wants to get its way, and Chad wants to do the opposite of its bidding.

But if we have to have the Devil interfering, does it have to be in this juvenile, ridiculous manner?

This is a soap opera, not a children’s fantasy series. There HAD to be a better way of resolving this situation than the Devil magically making Chad unable to speak or breathe.

Johnny’s evil smile after the deed was done was one of the creepier moments of this nonsensical story, but still. This wasn’t realistic, and it sure as hell isn’t what most people want out of a soap opera!

And to add insult to injury, EJ was unaware of what was going on with his son.

That’s annoying because, for all his faults, EJ is a shrewd businessman. He’s ruthless and calculating, two things you can’t be if you’re also gullible and take things at face value.

I get that EJ has dreamed of Johnny “coming around” and wanting to give up Chanel, moviemaking, and everything else EJ disapproves of in favor of being a good Dimera soldier.

But Johnny’s sudden 180 should give him pause no matter how much he’s fantasized about this moment. As Belle said, he shouldn’t make decisions out of pure emotion.

That’s not like EJ at all, and if intelligent characters have to be made stupid to make the plot work, there’s something wrong with that plot.

In addition, the fake EJ scenes with Abigail were disturbing.

It’s bad enough that Stefan raped Abigail while she was so mentally ill she couldn’t consent. Now the Devil, disguised as EJ, wants to do it too.

Never mind that Abigail is married to Johnny’s uncle, and the Devil is using Johnny’s body for this. That makes it doubly non-consensual and somewhat incestuous. Ugh.

But Abby clearly said she wasn’t interested, and “EJ” blocked her path and kissed her, all so that Chad would give up this idea of wanting EJ to stay out of jail.

Chad had conveniently forgotten his phone, so he walked in just in time to witness the whole thing, and now he’s going to throw EJ under the bus when EJ is sitting in the courtroom chatting with Belle about how much he trusts Johnny.

This is wrong on like 15,000 different levels. Can someone please make it stop?

It’s also amazing that no one caught on to Johnny’s possession after what happened at the wedding party.

He’d been totally into Chanel until it was time for him to toast her, even telling her that they needed to show their families that they were proud to have chosen one another.

His explanation for his sudden turn-around made no sense, and Chanel said more than once that this was not the Johnny she knew. Yet nobody connected that with recent events.

And even more stupidly, no one saw Johnny’s eyes flash yellow or that the chandelier fell because he gestured to it with his hand.

Talk about ridiculous!

Even if somehow nobody realized any of this, at the very least, Belle should have gotten a bad feeling from Johnny at the courthouse.

She helped with her mother’s exorcism less than a month ago. She should feel the same coldness and bad energy coming from Johnny now. Maybe that’s why she’s suspicious of this document he wants EJ to sign, but if so, it hasn’t been made explicit.

Of course, Belle had a 180 of her own, refusing to defend EJ and then deciding to because Nicole thinks he’s innocent. That was a bizarre reason, and I can’t recall Belle having much to do with Nicole before this, but at least the Devil didn’t make her do it.

Belle and Nicole’s conversation was strange for a lot of reasons. Among other things, it felt like the writers were pushing us toward a Nicole/EJ reconciliation. Nicole “hates” EJ but defends him to Belle and claims only to want to stick it to Sami, but that’s usually a precursor to romance.

Please, soap gods, no. Enough is enough with that. Nicole had enough self-respect to walk away from EJ and his attempt to make her his consolation prize. Let’s keep it that way.

This Nicole/Rafe/Ava storyline isn’t much better, though. Nicole is the only one of the three who has acted with any semblance of maturity.

Yes, Nicole slept with Rafe, but she’s the one who keeps saying that they need to respect Rafe and Ava’s relationship and has continually rejected Rafe’s attempts to cross romantic lines with her.

On the other hand, Rafe has been stringing Ava along for months, telling her she’s the only one for him while secretly pining away for Nicole.

And Ava… well, I don’t know what to say about her.

Revenge plots are part of soaps, but usually, it’s the bad guys doing it. Lately, it’s written like we’re supposed to be cheering someone on who is behaving badly.

I’d have a lot more respect for Ava if she decided to leave Rafe in the lurch and let him beg to take her back. Instead, she’s pretending to be this devoted girlfriend while trying to ruin his and Nicole’s lives in stupid ways.

There’s zero proof that Rafe planted evidence at all, either. Two perps trying the “it wasn’t me; the cops are framing me” defense doesn’t even rise to the level of worth investigating.

Of course, Trask is the same woman who thought a missing button was proof beyond a reasonable doubt of murder when four other people had been arrested and released for the same crime. But if this was anyplace but Salem, Rafe would have no reason to worry.

All this nonsense accomplishes is convincing Rafe that Ava is up to no good. It might be fun for him to try to trap her, but other than that, the only thing this storyline has going for it is that it doesn’t involve the Devil.

Elsewhere, stories intersected when Steve and Kayla searched for Kristen, and Kristen assumed Ava was behind it.

That was silly. What reason would Ava have for betraying Kristen, especially since she didn’t even know where she was?

This is set-up for the next ridiculous plot twist — with Xander searching for Sarah, a fake Sarah in a mask can’t be too far behind — but it made no sense whatsoever.

At least we got some Steve/Kayla scenes out of it, though some fans found them flirting while dressed as a priest and nun cringeworthy.

More enjoyable was them using the actors’ names as their phony identities—way to turn reality on its head in this otherwise goofy storyline.

Also silly: Ben and Ciara’s endless hand-wringing over whether or not to find out the sex of their baby.

This was meant to be lighthearted comic relief, but it came off as awkward.

If they don’t want to know their baby’s sex, great. Then don’t find out. There’s no need to stare at an envelope for the better part of an hour and then give it to Shawn and make him promise not to open it either. Sheesh.

Last but not least, we got a glimpse of Nancy just before the Friday credits.

Chloe: Philip always said his mother was an enigma. Not like my mother, who wears her heart on her sleeve.
Nancy: Chloe!
Chloe: Mom. It’s so funny, I just said your name and here you are. What are you doing here?
Nancy: I had to know why you weren’t taking my calls.
Chloe: You came here all the way from New York just to ask me that?

This is exciting because it’s a throwback to the past. Nancy has been back a couple of times during the last few years, but never in a major storyline.

I’m willing to bet this thing with Craig is a misunderstanding, but we’ll see. And if Nancy rushed to Salem from New York because Chloe didn’t answer her phone, she’s sure to be overbearing in other ways.

I’m here for all that. Let’s hope the writers don’t ruin Nancy’s character with this story. Also, could someone explain where Parker is?

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you think of these latest developments.

Hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? Be sure to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV after 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST on weeknights.

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.

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