Rachel and Her New Ally Lure Ava Into a Trap — Plus, EJ Just Barely Averts Disaster

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On today’s Days of Our Lives, we pick up from yesterday, with Ava comforting a guilt-ridden Brady over Rachel. They sit down and Ava says she holds herself partly responsible for Rachel, but Brady assures her that it isn’t on her. Rachel should have been in therapy years ago; even Kristen agrees.

When she comes home, he’s going to have to sit her down all over again and tell her mom and dad will never get back together. Ava makes some dinner for Brady, then tells him how she ran away from home when she was Rachel’s age. Her dad used to beat her mom, though Ava was his pride and joy. But she turned around and went home that very night and it just made things worse for her mom. Until the day he killed her.

Brady thanks her for sharing and says he’s sorry, but Ava turns things back to Rachel and tells him to eat and sleep. Brady packs up the dinner and heads out, thanking Ava.

Kristen bemoans Rachel’s vanishing to herself back home, griping about how little the police are doing. Stefano wouldn’t wait around for help for his family, so neither will she. She starts to go down into the tunnels when EJ enters the room, sees her and rushes over to stop her. He yanks her out as she yells at him, saying she’s looking in the tunnels, but EJ tells her he’s searched the tunnels high and low and there’s no sign of “Raf— No sign of Rachel down there!”

He tries to calm Kristen down, assuring his sister that he put “father’s eyes and ears on the case,” plus he’s got a reward out. EJ reassures Kristen that she and Rachel are DiMeras, blood or not. Kristen says her mother would be sad to hear how much she turned out like Stefano, and she hopes Rachel turns out more like a Blake.

But she didn’t do a very good job of making sure of that, though EJ says he’s heard Rachel Blake was a bit of “a badass.” Kristen fills EJ in on her mom’s background (which you can read more about here). It’s a shame her mom died all those years ago. Rachel never got to meet her or visit Aremid. Kristen told her all about it, but sanitized versions of what happened.

She goes to break out her scrapbook of the Blakes to show EJ, but finds it gone. She gets upset — it’s all she has of her mother — but EJ tells her he’s sure Harold just misplaced it.

Over at the Horton house Chad tells The Spectator to put Rachel’s disappearance on the front page, then JJ arrives to fill Chad in on the false alarm at the hospital. There are no other leads, but she couldn’t have gotten too far on foot and with less than $100 in cash. No tips, no nothing.
Chad has news, though — Cat’s back in Salem and might be getting a job as Marlena’s assistant. JJ just nods. But then he demands to know how Chad is defending Cat after all she’d done. Chad throws Gabi back at JJ and all she did to Julie and the family. He doesn’t tell JJ who to associate with, so he expects the same.

Julie walks in and JJ wastes no time throwing Chad under the bus with Cat. But Julie tells him that doesn’t matter — nothing matters to her anymore. The guys worry over her as Julie makes herself some tea, then when she returns, Chad sits down to encourage her to talk to Marlena. “It’s not gonna bring Doug back, is it, darling?”

She’ll be fine eventually, so no need to worry. Chad and JJ insist, though, that Doug would want her to be happy and talk to Marlena. They love her and need her to take care of herself. Julie reluctantly agrees, saying she’ll maybe call Marlena tomorrow. Instead, Chad suggests she get dressed and he’ll take her over now.

Back in her office, Marlena and Belle check in with each other over the phone, then Cat arrives knocking on the doc’s door. She asks if Marlena’s talked to Kayla about making Cat her assistant, but no. She’s been preoccupied with Rachel missing. They sit to catch up and Marlena says Rachel ran away, but she’s resourceful. But there are still dangers out there.

She apologizes to Cat, then says she’s been preoccupied trying to get in touch with John. Marlena gets into John’s history a bit, from his days as The Pawn, to Roman, to John. Cat tries keeping up, but notes it’s similar to her story, but she wasn’t an innocent victim like they were. Marlena tells Cat she was a victim of circumstances.

Chad’s very forgiving, Marlena says. But Cat tells her it isn’t that easy with the feelings she has for him. They cropped up when she was pretending to be Abigail and she’s doing what she can to stuff those feelings down deep.

Just then, Chad and Julie knock on the door, and the three all stare at each other uncomfortably.

In the dilapidated room, Rachel notes that it’s not how she imagined, then hears a noise. A woman in white walks out, who Rachel threatens with Seymour, much to her amusement. The woman asks Rachel her name and when she gives it, tells her it’s beautiful. Rachel then fills her in on her mommy, Kristen, and her mommy’s mommy, Rachel, who used to live here. The woman nods, and asks what she’s doing there.

She ran away from home, but when the woman asks why, Rachel says it’s a long story. “I have nothing but time,” she’s told. After Rachel fills her in, the woman tells the kid that Ava is quite the interloper and needs to be removed permanently so she’s no longer in the way of Rachel’s family. “And we’re going to do that, Rachel, dear. Together.”

They go over the plan and then teaches Rachel how to use her “princess phone.” (Which is an old-style rotary phone.) Rachel calls Ava and asks for help, telling her to come straight away. “Of course,” Ava agrees and writes down where Rachel is. Afterwards, the woman assures Rachel she did great, then asks how she knew about Aremid — no one comes here anymore.

Rachel breaks out the Blake scrapbook and asks the woman what her name is. “You can just call me… The Woman In White.” Back at the Bistro, Ava tries calling Brady, but he doesn’t answer, so she leaves a message giving him the address where Rachel is and says she’s heading over now.

Brady, it turns out, was in the shower, but gets out in time for JJ to show up at the door to check in. As Brady says he’s heard nothing, we see his phone on the table with a voicemail.

In the show’s final moments, Julie sits and tells Marlena she didn’t want to come, she just got tired of arguing with Chad. Marlena thinks this might be helpful, but apologizes for Cat being there when Julie arrived. Julie reassures her it’s fine, Marlena helps everyone — but she’s not sick. She just lost the love of her life and is “terribly, terribly sad. I think that’s just normal, don’t you?”

Julie never wants to stop thinking about Doug. Their love was the stuff of dreams. She starts crying — all she has left are memories, so therapy would be a waste of time. Marlena assures her friend she could never waste her time. Maybe they could try a session, at least. Julie shakily sips her water and agrees.

Out in the waiting area, Cat apologizes for upsetting Julie. She just came to check on the job and ended up talking to Marlena. “About what?”

EJ tells Kristen he hates leaving, but he’s got pressing matters. And Brady should be there. Kristen says he needed a shower, but he’s probably just shacking up with that vile Ava. She’s the reason Rachel ran away. And that Kristen and Brady aren’t together.

Brady thanks JJ for checking in and sends him off, then heads back to the shower, just barely noticing his phone and the voicemail. He checks it, but Ava’s message cuts out. Ava, meanwhile, arrives in Aremid and sees Seymour the snake. She picks him up, then gets conked over the head with a candlestick by Rachel and the Woman In White.