There’s good news and bad news.
The bad news: the Devil dominated most of Days of Our Lives during the week of 4-25-22, pushing more exciting stories such as the aftermath of the double wedding fiasco to the back burner.
The good news: this ridiculous storyline appears to be coming to a head, which means that the evil demon will hopefully be permanently banished from Salem soon.
By the end of the week, Johnny and Ben were finally rescued from the Dimera crypt, and not a moment too soon, as undead Andre was trying to strangle Johnny.
Johnny: You can’t kill him!
Andre: Isn’t it touching that you’ve made a friend?
Johnny: Ben is a cold stone killer. Think of all the damage the two of you could do in this town or in the world. But maybe the Great Andre Dimera isn’t allowed to think for himself anymore and is nothing but the Devil’s errand boy
As much as I hated this story, it saddened me when Susan stabbing Andre turned him into a pile of ashes on the floor. Andre is one of Days of Our Lives’ best villains, and I’d rather it turn out that he was alive and had been impersonating Tony for the last month or so.
Andre added some dark humor to what was otherwise a story that had worn out its welcome long ago.
Thaao Phengliss always plays Andre with just enough charm to turn him from a caricature to a love-to-hate villain, and no matter what Andre is doing, Days of Our Lives is more interesting when he’s around.
Johnny held his own with Andre, too, trying to convince him that killing Ben would mean that Andre was nothing more than the Devil’s servant and that he was no longer the intimidating figure that gave children nightmares.
Johnny certainly knew how to push Andre’s buttons, though it nearly resulted in his own death.
Nevertheless, it was beyond time to get Johnny out of that crypt.
EJ’s refusal to believe until the last second that Johnny was in danger annoyed me as much as it did Susan. Johnny’s disappearance was similar to Sami’s, and EJ just got back from serving time for her kidnapping!
Plus, EJ pointing out repeatedly that Andre is supposed to be dead seemed stupid considering that until recently, EJ was also expected to stay dead until recently.
Nobody pointed that out, though, and EJ and Susan got to Johnny in time to stop Andre from killing him and to learn that Allie was now possessed.
The story should be more compelling now that Johnny is free, especially since he ran into Tripp and Chanel hugging at the nurse’s station the minute he arrived at the hospital.
Chanel’s been screwed over by the Devil twice, and it’s made her think that both Johnny and Allie are heartless assholes who enjoyed fooling her into thinking they loved her. But once she finds out that both Johnny and Allie were possessed when they dumped her, what is she going to do?
I can guarantee one thing she won’t do: move forward in a relationship with Tripp. She was busy reassuring him that he was a great guy and the right woman would come along when Johnny popped back up in her life.
Poor Tripp is likely to get his heart broken yet again, but if it’s any consolation to him, Allie will be back in her right mind soon.
The thing is, though, that Allie wasn’t possessed when she slept with Chanel in the first place. It wouldn’t have happened if the Devil hadn’t ruined Chanel’s relationship with Johnny, but that’s beside the point.
Allie was not possessed and not in any way impaired when she and Chanel slept together after Johnny dumped Chanel. So Tripp has every reason to decide he can’t trust her even after she is exorcised.
If Chanel and Johnny reconcile, that’ll leave Tripp without a partner. Again. But that’s not a strong enough reason to give Allie another chance.
After Allie is un-possessed, she has to reckon with her feelings and make a choice for once and for all, and if her choice is Tripp, she needs to be sure that’s what she wants.
Chanel also has choices to make. It’s hard to say who she really loves since she’s never had a relationship that the Devil didn’t interfere with.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, Allie has to be exorcised — and this time, Salem had better take precautions to ensure that the Devil doesn’t jump into anyone else.
Johnny and Allie’s twin bond was so strong that it broke the Devil’s hold on Johnny. Apparently, it also stops the Devil from killing him itself because Allie won’t allow it even though she allows the Devil to do whatever else it wants.
That suggests that Johnny will be instrumental in getting the Devil out of Allie. However, the family needs to take precautions to make sure the demon neither jumps back into Johnny nor possesses anyone else.
In any case, the Devil has now kidnapped Ciara in what was meant to be a creepy sequence. It fell flat for a couple of reasons.
First, I’ve lost track of how many times Ciara’s been kidnapped. It seems like she and Ben only have one storyline: someone kidnaps one of them to try to interfere with their relationship.
I don’t enjoy John constantly having to rescue Marlena, and this younger-generation version of the same thing isn’t any better. At least John and Marlena have other storylines in between kidnap attempts!
Anyway, it doesn’t matter that the kidnapper is a supernatural being that’s possessed Ciara’s cousin this time. It’s been done a billion times already, and it always ends up the same, with Ciara held prisoner in the Horton Cabin and Ben saving her at the last minute.
Ciara’s been held there so many times that Rafe should skip the speech about how he doesn’t know where to begin looking and head on over.
This whole setup also doesn’t differ substantially from Claire trying to set Ciara ablaze at the Horton Cabin. Claire wasn’t herself due to severe mental illness, and Allie isn’t herself due to Devil possession, but both stories are about an out-of-their-mind relative messing with Ciara.
At least Ciara eventually realized something was wrong. She was a bit slow on the uptake and didn’t start demanding Allie turn the car around until they were in the middle of nowhere, but better late than never.
Sadly, the Devil took up so much time that there was no movement on the Leo/Craig or Gwen fronts. Days of Our Lives has a balance problem, suggesting that there are too many storylines.
Far too often, exciting stories get skipped the next week, making it hard to stay invested. It’s especially aggravating when stories leave off at an exciting point, and then the whole next week is full of stories that are far less compelling.
I want to know what Leo is going to do next. I’d love for him to go support Gwen in jail even though she’d never return the favor, just for the fun aspect, and he’s highly unlikely to slink out of town with his tail between his legs now. So let’s get on with it!
I also can’t wait for when Chloe finally discovers that Nancy is dating Clyde.
Chloe will likely feel emboldened by her success in blowing up Craig and Leo’s relationship and will be equally determined to end things between Nancy and Clyde, which could lead to her painting a target on her own back. Clyde isn’t someone to be messed with, after all.
The other big story of the week was the Jan/Shawn/Belle drama.
There was no reason Jan needed to live with Shawn. As Shawn and Belle both pointed out, there was a prison infirmary, and if that wasn’t safe enough, Jan could always have been transferred to the criminal ward of a hospital.
If Belle had handled this at all like an adult, I would have every sympathy for her at this point. Shawn moved Jan in when Jan has a history of violence against Belle. Jan’s ankle monitor won’t protect Belle if Belle continues to live there.
Plus, again, there was no reason for any of this.
But Belle is better than these tantrums she’s throwing over it. That type of behavior plays right into Jan’s hands, and there’s a better way to handle it.
Belle is a lawyer. She could easily go to a judge and undo Jan’s release into Shawn’s custody. She could also draw up a custody agreement that favors Shawn and keeps Jan’s intrusion into their lives to a minimum.
Imagine what a powerful story it would be if Belle and Shawn were working together to defeat Jan instead of this stupidity.
Shawn could pretend to placate her while Belle did the legal research and prepared to use the court system against Jan. It would end up being harder than it looked, and Jan would pull out all the stops to get her way, but ultimately Shawn and Belle would win.
Instead, Belle’s behavior makes it hard to root for her and Shawn, and it doesn’t help that she keeps turning to her new best friend, EJ.
Sooner or later, EJ and Belle will end up sleeping together. That’s going to ruin Shawn and Belle for a long time, if not forever, and Sami will be livid when she returns and finds out EJ slept with the sister Sami’s always been jealous of.
Ugh. Let’s not go there.
Another place I’d rather we not go is a renewed relationship between Paulina and TR.
Paulina went to such great lengths to get TR out of her life when she was pregnant with Lani, and there’s no reason to give him a second chance now. He hasn’t changed and is after Paulina’s money, even if he has to kill her to get to it.
She can and should be stronger than this. And I know Lani is a little distracted with her husband’s coma, but she should be putting her foot down about not allowing TR around the babies.
TR abused Paulina so badly that she hid her pregnancy from him. No matter how much he claims to have changed, Lani should not risk allowing someone like that around her young children.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts about the latest developments in the Devil story, Shawn’s stupid decision, and everything else that happened in Salem during the week of 4-25-22.
If you’re hungry for more DAYS chat, check out the latest 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 or watch on Peacock TV on weeknights after 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST.
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.