Days of Our Lives Review: Back to the Way It Was
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I hated Theresa's exit story.
Theresa was being stalked by an evil drug lord of an ex-boyfriend, and instead of doing anything to help, her super-spy father encouraged her to give in to her stalker's demands.
It was unbelievable that Shane would ever give that kind of advice instead of pulling out all the stops to fight for his daughter's safety. And it was a demeaning exit for one of Salem's strongest women.
But on Days of Our Lives during the week of 4-30-18, Theresa popped back up in Mexico and confided in fellow prisoner Chloe about how heartbroken she was.
Apparently she's being raped by Mateo on a regular basis, something which is not being addressed any more than any of the other rapes on this show have been in recent years.
Nevertheless, her re-entry scenes were emotional and I'm grateful to have her back and curious to see where this goes.
Theresa's exit story didn't make any more sense when she told it to Chloe than it did when it happened, but her scenes were powerful anyway.
I could feel her fear the second she walked into the room with those huge eyes and warned Chloe to keep her voice down so that they wouldn't get caught.
And I believed that Theresa felt she had no choice but to abandon her family to keep them safe and that someday she'd be able to get evidence that Mateo is a really bad guy so that he could go to jail and she could go home.
I still don't think much of Shane for allowing his daughter to be used as a sex slave, and I don't understand why Mateo is holding onto her if he is now obsessed with Chloe instead.
But Jen Lilley's performance added emotional energy to these scenes that made me realize how much I've missed Theresa.
Theresa's description of her life with Mateo and how impossible it seems to escape him was chilling. It gave me hope that maybe at some point the constant sexual assaults she's suffering will be addressed appropriately.
I'd have more hope, though, if Stefan's rape of Abigail wasn't more or less consequence free.
Chad: Abby.
Laura: No.
Kate: You must be Laura.
Laura: You're looking well, Kate.
Kate: No thanks to you. You're the one who cut off our oxygen supply in the tunnel.
Laura: It was nothing personal.
The alter Gabby made a deal with DA Trask, in which she told the cops where the women she'd kidnapped were in exchange for full immunity for her and Stefan for the kidnapping.
Trask was going to let the women, who were slowly suffocating because the alter Laura had cut off their air supply to stop them from telling anyone that Abigail has DID and murdered Andre, die rather than make a deal that might exonerate Gabi.
Hope put her in her place, which I loved. Someone had to stand up to Trask's complete abuse of her power as DA, and Hope is at her best when she's standing up to some idiot who's causing trouble.
But it made no sense for anyone to make a deal with an alter -- surely that's not legally binding! In addition, the deal extends to not charging Stefan with rape.
So there are no legal consequences for Stefan's actions and he and Gabby even got to have one last phone call where they declared their love for each other and Gabby proved it by saving his mother's life even though it might mean the end of her existence.
This is no better than the way Ciara's rape was treated a few years ago. In both cases, the rape was nothing more than a plot point and depicted as no big deal, and the only justice that the victims ever got involved breaking the law to get revenge on the rapist.
I'm also not happy with the level of violence Abigail's altar the display.
Supposedly Abigail was the one who killed Andre, but the alter Gabby goes around hitting people over the head and the alter Laura attempts to murder them, all in the name of keeping it secret from Abigail that she killed Andre.
This makes no sense and has zero to do with how DID works. In addition, it spreads the pernicious myth that people with mental illness are dangerous and violent.
In reality, people with severe mental illness are far more likely to become victims of violence than to perpetrate it, and there are enough problems in society already as a result of this mistaken belief without a major television series promoting it.
This inaccurate depiction of DID continues to be offensive. Also, the scenes of Abby in a locked room don't really make a lot of sense.
I know that it's supposed to be metaphorical, but it's confusing, and whenever I see that room with people appearing and disappearing and doors magically getting locked, I feel like I'm watching The Twilight Zone.
It seems the point of this story was to show how strong Chad and Abby's love was. Chad eventually got through to Abby by telling her how much he loved her, which appeared to be torturous to the alter Laura.
The whole thing seems to be portrayed as if Abby is possessed by an evil spirit that can be vanquished with love. Laura is certainly obnoxious and amoral, if not sociopathic while insisting she is behaving this way in order to protect Abby.
And Chad is becoming more and more unhinged himself. He seems to think violence is the solution to every problem, which is not really a good look for him.
I found it disturbing that he was grabbing his wife and shaking her because of the altar Laura wouldn't cooperate with him.
Worse, when Marlena took him aside, she never addressed the fact that the woman he was attacking is his mentally ill wife or that he was abusing her minutes after getting out on bail for his similar behavior towards Stefan.
While Chad and Marlena were struggling to get Abby to come back to herself, Jennifer confronted Stefan. I loved her strength and fire.
This is the Jennifer I've known and loved for years, who is fiercely protective of her children and unafraid of anybody.
These scenes were dampened, however, because of Jennifer's lack of reaction when JJ has been in similar situations.
In 2013, a clearly mentally ill JJ broke a store window, attacked some passersby who tried to stop him, and became violent in the police station towards his mother and sister and kicked over a desk while in handcuffs.
Nobody even suggested calling Marlena in to evaluate him. All that happened was that he was put in a cell until he calmed down and everyone hoped he didn't repeat the behavior so that he wouldn't be sentenced to jail.
More recently, a too-drunk-to-consent JJ had sex with Lani he couldn't even remember, and nobody ever acknowledged he had been raped.
In fact, Jennifer has recently been talking about how wonderful his rapist is and what a shame it is that he broke up with her over lying to him about who the father of her baby was and using his mental illness as an excuse to manipulate him into staying with her.
Plus, when JJ was suicidal, Jennifer more or less ignored his depression and hoped it would go away, while she is actively fighting for Abigail's mental health.
Related: 7 Ways Days of Our Lives Could (And Should!) Be Using JJ Deveraux
The double standard has never been more glaring. It's hard to root for Jennifer when she only fights for her daughter and leaves her son to suffer in silence, sometimes taking the side of the people who abuse him while threatening bodily harm to the ones who do the same thing to Abigail.
JJ got one scene with Gabi and then disappeared into thin air again. He should be involved in dealing with his sister's mental illness but for some reason, he's not being included in this story yet at all.
I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying Gabi during this awful beatdown storyline, though.
I especially enjoyed her scenes with Will. Gabi saying that she, Will, and Sonny are family because of Ari reminded me of how selfish she used to be.
Several years ago, she was fighting to take Ari to New York City so she could pursue a modeling career and didn't care about what it would do to Will, Sonny, or Ari for her to do that. I enjoyed her much-improved attitude, though it would have been nice if we saw her on-screen with Ari more often prior to her arrest.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of nonsense with Sonny and Leo.
I really wish we could have the story of Sonny and Will struggling to find a way to explain to Ari what's going on with her Mommy instead.
That could be a powerful story and add extra emotional depth to the distance between Sonny and Will as they attempt to be co-parents while dating other people and dealing with Gabi being in jail.
Instead, we have some stupidity in which Sonny continually lies to Ari about where Gabi is, Ari never questions it even though she's old enough to realize Daddy Sonny's explanations make no sense, and Leo soothes her with chocolate while secretly plotting with Vivian to seduce Sonny and take over Titan.
The best scenes of the week of 4-30-18 again went to Steve and Kayla. These two continue to bring tears to my eyes as they face Steve's blindness together.
This is such a realistic, compelling story.
While many couples on Days are letting jealousy or petty concerns come between them, Steve and Kayla are fighting an external battle together. They really epitomize true love, and Kayla reminding Steve of their vows while he reassured her that she was the only light he needed was beautiful.
Maggie also gets an honorable mention for getting through to both Claire and Ciara about how silly this fight over the contest is.
Maggie: Ciara come on. Let this grudge go. After all, you won.
Ciara: So I'm supposed to let this go because I won the contest?
Maggie: That's not all you won. You got your revenge for what Claire did to your mother.
Ciara: You know, I thought I'd feel better when it actually happened.
Maggie: But you don't.
Ciara: No. I just feel kind of empty.
Maggie: Well, that's the thing you learn about revenge. It may bring you some satisfaction, but it will never make you feel good.
Maggie did the impossible and got Ciara to see that getting revenge on Claire wasn't as fun as she thought it would be and got Claire to confess the truth to Eve so that Brady didn't get unfairly blamed for it.
Maybe she should apply for Marlena's job! She's definitely the best counselor in Salem.
I really hope CIara and Claire's truce lasts, because them screaming at each other like four-year-olds is not entertaining, and these characters work better as friends than enemies.
As for Eve, everything she accused Brady of was the exact same nonsense that came out of her mouth when she tried to convince Paige that JJ had got drunk and had not been drugged several years ago.
I couldn't care less about this couple, but I want someone to point that out. Eve should be the last person to think it's impossible for an addict to have been given drugs against his will, considering that she was complicit in that plot against JJ.
I also had to laugh at Theresa being shocked that Brady had moved on 30 seconds after she left. This is Brady we're talking about, after all.
What did you think of Days of Our Lives during the week of 4-30-18?
What are you hoping will happen now that Theresa has returned?
Do you think Claire and Ciara are finally burying the hatchet, and do you care?
Weigh in below, and don't forget to check back in on Sunday for our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.