Shoot to Thrill: Days of Our Lives Just Gave Us One More Person to Want EJ Dead — Plus, [Spoiler] Is Picking Up the Torch from John!

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Yes, Soapbox is a couple days early this week! Those of us at Soaps.com are taking a break to spend time with our families this Thanksgiving. And with Doug’s death occurring on the holiday, but spilling over throughout all of next week, we decided to hold off on talking about the whole thing until next week’s Days of Our Lives Soapbox. We’ll just get all the crying out of the way at once.

Welcome Changes

Since it is Thanksgiving, I’m going to take a moment to talk about something I’m thankful for this year: Days of Our Lives realizing it was leaning a bit too hard into the ridiculousness and finally changing course. Body and Soul is being dropped and the sci-fi and fantastical elements are going to be played down. Hopefully, Sarah’s miracle serum is the last of the mad science interventions for a little while.

On top of all of that, Belle and Shawn are back and Martha Madison had great things to say about the new writing team. We’re getting a proper reunion for Bo and Hope and I’m hoping for more of a connection to the show’s history than just, “What minor character can we dig up from the past and claim it’s history?” *Cough Harris Michaels*

It’s felt like something of an exodus the past few years for characters and actors — especially women — but now that some familiar names and major legacy characters are returning, it feels like the tide is changing for Days of Our Lives. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed what we’ve gotten, but there’s always room for improvement, and grounding stories in family and character relationships, rather than fantastical plot points is just the obvious place to try improving.

Passing the Torch

OK, everyone who was betting that Rafe would join Black Patch after quitting the force, you win the pot! And I appreciate the way they’re doing it. Instead of just having him step in after John’s death and treat him like his replacement, Rafe can join as a “field operator,” then transition into more of a partnership role after we say goodbye to John.

It’ll feel less forced, which is a benefit to knowing where they’re heading with John and his upcoming death. I don’t know that it’ll make the transition easier, but just another reason to be thankful for Drake Hogestyn for loving the show and being understanding enough to give the go-ahead for John’s death.

Picking Sides

It looks like while Alex refrained from declaring himself “Team Xander,” that’s exactly where he’s headed — especially after learning about Stephanie and Philip’s history. That part I guess, but what I didn’t guess was how hard the show was pivoting into that history. Yes, they were engaged and nearly married (you can check out their full history here), but since it’s been pretty handily ignored ever since they broke up, it feels sudden.

I also wasn’t expecting Philip taking control of Titan already! How in the world did that happen? One minute, he was talking to Kate about a PR blitz to win people over, the next, he’s making his big announcement at Thanksgiving.

I’d be more interested in this if we ever saw Xander running Titan. At least when Maggie was CEO, we got to see her making the tough decisions. Just settle on someone and stick to it for a bit, Days. And I may not be the only one feeling meh about the switch, judging by how little Alex seemed to care once he went outside to talk to Leo…

Making Enemies

I like this cheerful, ruthless version of EJ best. He was just having a mild talk with Joy where he casually informed her it was very much in her best interest to leave town, and he’d do whatever he could (or had to) to make it happen. And then he pivoted right into “Now let’s enjoy dinner, shall we?”

Just like that, we’ve got another suspect for when he’s shot (which you can see a preview of in the video below) as she’d want to keep him quiet and not have to leave town. And it looks like from spoilers next week, Johnny won’t take kindly to his dad’s meddling. Right now, the obvious suspects I’ve got in mind will be Joy, Johnny and Gabi. I mentioned the other week seeing them pull in more folks (and they have to if they want to make this a real whodunnit), but so far, those are the ones who are being set up.

Stray Thoughts…

• If I hear “tainted cupcakes” one more time… Actually, you know what, I’m going to start turning it into a drinking game. I can’t handle it sober anymore.

• For those who don’t watch General Hospital and Wally Kurth playing Ned Quartermaine, Justin ordering pizza after the Kiriakis dinner was ruined is a nod to the long-standing Quartermaine tradition of ordering pizzas after their own Thanksgiving dinners are ruined. Every. Year.
• Sarah made Xander promise he won’t go after Philip the way he went after Brady. Maybe she should have tried that before Xander tried shooting his half-brother point blank in the face? Fine, whatever.
• I’d give Alex more flack about not knowing Stephanie was once engaged to his cousin, but I’ve got a lot of cousins and second cousins and first cousins once removed too. I don’t know who they’re all dating or engaged to until the wedding half the time either.
• They’re still treating these Gabi/EJ fights as half flirting, right? This last one especially felt less menacing and more like they were seconds away from ripping each other’s clothes off.