Justin Realizes Bonnie’s ‘Accident’ May Have Been a Targeted Attack — Plus, Philip and Xander Decide It’s Time to Start a War
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On today’s i, RoboRafe is having a blast making breakfast in the kitchen, when Jada wakes up and joins him. Just as she’s about to kiss him, though, EJ knocks on the door. They both demand to know what he’s doing there. He wants to stop by and check in on his private eye. Jada heads out after a jab from EJ about her failure to find Rachel. As she’s about to kiss “Rafe,” EJ scoffs, then after she’s gone, demands to know what’s going on between Arnold and Jada.
Arnold tells EJ he’s playing by his rules and didn’t touch Jada — they didn’t even share a bed “for a cuddle.” EJ informs Arnold that they need to get down to business: Using Rafe’s doppelgänger to get Jada fired. Arnold doesn’t know how he’s supposed to do that, so EJ says he’ll dig up dirt on Jada and RoboRafe can focus on “exposing” her misdeeds.
Arnold wonders who Paulina will replace Jada with after she’s fired. “You! You idiot!” Then “Rafe” will convince the mayor that since EJ was onto Jada’s corruption, he should be hired back.
Sarah’s sulking in the living room, then snaps at Victor not to judge her for keeping a secret. She’s just trying to keep the peace and keep Xander from turning into his dad. Xander catches her talking to herself and she tells him she feels bad about not being there for Justin. They marvel over what happened, then pivot straight into swooning over each other — much to Sarah’s discomfort.
Sarah then says she’s going to follow up with Kayla on the job front and check in on Bonnie at the same time. Xander seems excited to get to work, begrudgingly admitting that it’s nice to not go to work hating Philip.
Alex shows up at the hospital to check on his dad and Bonnie. Justin just says he’s going in shortly, but Kayla told him to prepare himself. Father and son decide to visit her together, but stop in shock when they see how bad Bonnie is. She wakes up and starts crying as she sees Justin.
He recovers and starts comforting her as Bonnie tries to get out how much she’s worried about learning her lines. Justin tells her she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore and she’s never going back to “that deathtrap of a set,” but that just seems to upset her more.
He goes off about suing Body and Soul into nothingness, horrifying Alex, who tells Justin it was an accident. “My wife nearly died due to their utter disregard for the safety of their employees.” Bonnie tries talking, but Justin steamrolls over her, answering a call from the wardrobe department to blast them for sending that text that set this whole thing off. But, he’s told, the wardrobe department never sent a text.
They ponder over whether Richard from wardrobe is lying, then go through Bonnie’s phone, with her blessing. The text from wardrobe came from an unknown number. They try to puzzle through it, and Alex steps out to contact the police. Justin promises Bonnie they’ll get to the bottom of it.
Philip calls an irate Stephanie at home, thanking her for not telling Xander about the letter. Steph snaps that she didn’t do it for him, but for Sarah. She tells him he’s the one who has to live with tricking his brother out of his birthright. She hates being pulled into the middle of this, lights into how horrible a person he still is and tells him to leave her alone. “I just pray Xander never finds out, for Sarah’s sake and yours.” And she hangs up.
Stephanie heads out to the hospital to visit Bonnie where she runs into Jada, who admits she’s exhausted with all the cases. Steph says it’s been one crisis after another since she took on Body and Soul as a client — plus now her breakup. Jada wonders what went wrong with them. But she flashes back to telling Sarah she doesn’t want Philip to go to prison, so she just tells Jada that she can’t handle Philip’s shady business dealings.
The good news is, she’s got free time to help with Jada’s wedding planning! So Jada asks her to be her maid of honor, since Talia can’t make it. “Even though we’re not blood related, you’re like a sister to me.” Stephanie happily says yes.
Alex joins them just after to tell them how bad she’s doing, but promises she’ll recover. He then tells Jada to talk to his dad about what happened. Alex and Stephanie just look at each other sadly after she’s gone.
Xander happily gets into work, greeting Philip and assuring him that he wants them to not just work together, but be partners. They’ll make the old man proud just like he wanted. Philip gets fidgety, which Xander takes as worry that he’ll pitch another war-starting hostile takeover of DiMera. Philip, though, says maybe that’s exactly what they should do, thinking back to Sarah telling him he has to work with Xander or her deal’s off.
Xander’s flabbergasted, and in making up reasons why Philip changed his mind, he admits to Xander that he and Stephanie broke up. “Stephanie and I just didn’t see eye to eye, so she’s not a factor anymore.” Philip admits a hostile takeover isn’t a bad idea, but they have to be careful on how they do it. Xander insists the time is now, from EJ’s firing to Rachel going missing, and Philip thinks it may be a bit too ruthless.
“You’re suggesting we profit off a missing child, who also happens to be Brady’s.” Xander shrugs off that Rachel’s been kidnapped by one of her parents more times than they can count, so big deal. They then commiserate over how cruel Kristen has been to each of them and their loved ones when they were at their lowest point, so why not do the same?
Sarah pops into Kayla’s office where they talk about Bonnie. She fell over two floors — she’s lucky to be alive. Kayla then thanks Sarah for the research, who tells the chief of staff that she ran into Stephanie when she dropped it off — then almost makes the mistake of assuming Kayla knows why Steph truly dumped Philip. But Stephanie just told her mom vague reasons why they broke up, and Sarah plays dumb when Kayla asks if Stephanie told her more.
In the show’s final moments, Sarah tells Kayla that her physical therapist removed all restrictions, plus an occupational therapist gave her the all clear on her fine motor functions. Kayla wants her back at the hospital full time — immediately. Kayla then goes back to Philip and Stephanie, sure her daughter dodged a bullet. “I always get a feeling that he is broken somehow, and he cannot be fixed.”
Philip admits Xander’s right. Kristen would take advantage of them, so they can do the same to her. “Wait,” Xander marvels. “Are we really doing this? Are the Kiriakis brothers going after DiMera?” It’s game on, Philip confirms.
Arnold ponders dropping the wedding, but EJ tells him that it is going to happen, and “it’ll definitely be an affair to remember.
Alex and Stephanie talk about how weird Bonnie’s text was, then talk about Jada and Rafe’s wedding, at which point she tells her ex that she and Philip are through. Jada, meanwhile, checks in on Bonnie and Justin and he tells her he doesn’t think his wife’s fall was an accident. What if someone wanted Bonnie to fall down the elevator shaft? Jada wonders who would want to do that, and Justin ponders that it was the same person who sent the cupcakes.
Out in the park, a mysterious figure draws an X in red marker over a photo of Bonnie.
On the next Days of Our Lives, Jada puts Kerry in the hot seat, and Alex and Stephanie have a serious conversation about their feelings.
