A Horrified Marlena Lays Down the Law With Belle, as Rachel Makes Sure Ava Is Never Found Again

In today’s Days of Our Lives, a shirtless Shawn is on the phone at home filling Paulina in when Chanel walks out wearing just a t-shirt. After, Chanel laments how much her drinking skills have declined, but Shawn points out he heard she had a lot. She walks through what she remembers, which goes blank around Small Bar — but she recalls kissing him. “Shawn, did you and I have sex last night?”

He just sips his coffee. Finally, he says no. He just took her home, got her water and a t-shirt and that was it. She’s mortified and she’s still married to Johnny — that jerk. Shawn defends his cousin, saying it was clear Johnny’s miserable and deeply regrets what he did. Maybe she can try focusing on the good things with her husband instead of fixating on one mistake.

It’s not just one mistake, she says, but Shawn still gets it. He and Belle have both been in Johnny’s shoes and he feels for him. Chanel points out if he and Belle couldn’t make their marriage work, she and Johnny have no hope. But if there’s any chance Chanel can fix her marriage, she has to before it’s too late.

Over at the Black home, Brady’s still trying to get hold of Ava, but no luck. Marlena offers him some coffee, then notes Belle probably needs it, since she’s still in bed from the bachelorette party. Brady then fills Marlena in on Rachel’s Aremid adventure and her attempts to reunite him and Kristen. They both agree Rachel needs therapy and Marlena gives him a child therapist referral.

Johnny’s sitting on the DiMera couch and jumps up when Kristen comes in, thrilled Rachel is home. So is Kristen, though she wishes her daughter was a bit more contrite about what she did. He asks where Rachel was and Kristen fills him in on Aremid. No ones been there in decades, but Rachel found her scrapbook.

Kristen then gives Johnny a quick run-through of the Blake House history, including discovering her mom was still alive 30 years. He then gets a rundown of the Woman In White… Before she blew herself up. Brady arrives to pick Rachel up for therapy and Kristen insists she go along — plus they need to figure things out with their daughter now that CPS is involved.

Kristen makes a jab about dating Ava (which is news to Johnny), and Brady says he’ll have plans with her if he can ever reach her. Kristen tells him that must mean Ava’s either ghosting him or dead. Or maybe she’s giving him space because he’s too clingy.

At Johnny’s behest, Brady plays the useless voicemail she left, just saying it sounds urgent, but there are no clues. Brady says it sounded urgent and if he doesn’t hear from her soon, he’s calling the cops. Rachel’s listening to the whole thing. Johnny heads out to “solve a missing persons case of his own” and Kristen finally softens and says Ava’s a tough cookie, she’s sure nothing happened to her. She knows Brady cares for her, so she hopes Ava gets in touch with him soon.

Rachel, meanwhile, calls Aremid to check on Ava, who’s tied up and gagged in a chair. “Oh, she’s doing just fine, dear,” the Woman In White replies. She asks Rachel how the plan went — not well — and tells the precocious kid to be patient. “Make sure you keep an eye on her, she’s very sneaky,” Rachel warns.

They hang up and the Woman offers Ava some breakfast, warning her to play nice if her gag is removed. Ava does, just asking about what Rachel was doing there. When the Woman explains she wanted help getting her parents together, Ava demands to know why she cares. “Who the hell are you?”

Just someone who wants family together. Ava says she has family, too, and tells her about Tripp and Wendy having only found her son later in life. The Woman says she knows what it feels like to have her children taken from her, but she can’t let Ava hurt Rachel anymore. So she’s going to just “disappear” now.

That’s when Ava starts threatening, saying she’s got the power to have the Woman killed with one phone call. In response, the Woman In White tells him she used to cower in the face of a man who tormented her for years — until she realized she had nothing to fear from him. Fine, but Ava left Brady a message, so he’ll come running. Eventually.

The Woman tries feeding her breakfast, but Ava refuses, saying it could be poisoned. Could be, the Woman admits, then puts her gag back in if she won’t eat. Rachel then calls to tell her there’s trouble. The Woman tucks Ava away, then has a talk with Rachel about what was in the message.

Back in her room, Belle wakes up with a huge hangover, rolls over and is horrified to see EJ. She tries waking him before resorting to smacking him with a pillow. “What the hell?!” Neither of them remember much about how it happened — he’s head throbbingly hungover too. Belle can’t believe it happened again after telling everyone he was her biggest regret. He’s a bit nonplussed, but teases her that it couldn’t have been because she didn’t enjoy it.

She throws some shade his way about his fragile ego, and he wonders why she let him take her home. They both blame the other one for secretly wanting this to happen, accusing each other of revenge seducing and starting the whole thing. They stare at each other, then start making out furiously again.

After, they tease each other over who’s to blame for that round. Belle still insists it’s a huge mistake, especially if Sami finds out and goes ballistic again. Fine, they’ll call the whole thing off, EJ casually says and gets up — just as a horrified Marlena walks in with coffee. “How could you do this?!”

EJ dresses quietly as Marlena reads her daughter the riot act about hooking up with such an immoral man. “I’m so disappointed in you.” And if Belle’s going to keep seeing him, Marlena will not have it in her home. She walks right back out as Belle buries her face in her arms.
EJ finishes dressing and Belle says she was mortified and apologizes for not locking the door. He says next time clearly won’t be there. Or anywhere Belle finishes for him.

In the show’s final moments, Chanel gets back home to Paulina and Abe’s where Johnny’s already sitting, worried about her after last night. Paulina let him in because he was so concerned. Chanel tells him she’s hungover but fine. Great! So where was she? “I… spent the night… with Shawn Brady.” She didn’t sleep with him, but she did kiss him, she fesses up immediately. “I see.” It was a drunken mistake and Johnny thanks Shawn for being a gentleman. Then she tells Johnny Shawn urged her to forgive her husband. And he may have been right on saving their marriage.

Shawn shows up at Marlena’s, returning the pictures of Rachel she borrowed from Brady. Before she can usher him away, EJ and Belle come slinking out of her room. “Belle??” Before she can say much, he tells her she doesn’t owe him an explanation and rushes out. Marlena then lays back into Belle and EJ, telling him he’s not welcome here. He meekly says he understands and gets on his way.

Rachel finally comes into the living room and gets a big hug from Brady, as her parents tell her they’re all taking her to therapy today. Rachel runs out to get ready, which is when Brady gets a text from Ava saying she had to run to Hong Kong and she’s breaking up with him and staying there. Kristen figures she’s visiting Tripp and Wendy and it was an act of kindness to inspire Rachel to come home. Out in the hall, Rachel smirks and looks at Ava’s home. “Mission accomplished.”

The Woman wheels Ava back into the room and calmly explains she and Rachel took care of her message problem. No one’s looking for her.