The sky is falling

This past week, Chelsea found out about Kate and Daniel's affair. It's not that Kate doesn't care about Chelsea; she just cares about herself more.

Pack up the kids, grab some batteries, and head down into the storm shelter (the one that you wired for cable so you could still watch Days, of course). Life and logic as we knew it got flipped on its head this week. Chelsea and Sami were the voices of reason. Let me say that again- Chelsea and Sami were the voices of reason. Whaaat??? I love both of these ladies, but they usually aren't even close to being logical or sound. On top of that, Caroline made me mad, John made me sad, and Paul outsmarted John. Here's how it all went down...up...sideways...whatever.

PHILIP and MORGAN I love it when different characters get to interact! This week, it was Chelsea and Philip having a little heart to heart. Chelsea was Philip's voice of reason. She told Philip that her selfishness cost Bo and Hope their son and his selfishness is going to cost Bo his career. I completely agree with her. Granted, it doesn't matter if Philip, Victor, or who ever asked Bo to tamper with evidence. That decision was 100% Bo's. But, it does mean that if Philip is going to be half the man he thinks he is, he'll step up and not let Bo take the fall for this. Philip received a subpoena from the grand jury (for what? John's drug case?) and is going to have to get on the stand and tell the truth. He has every reason to come clean. Not only because of Bo, but there's also the beautiful Ms. Hollingsworth. I'm still rooting for these two. My heart fluttered when Philip used the term "us" with Morgan. I sincerely hope that he tells or makes a valid attempt to tell Morgan about everything- including the drug stuff- before he gets on the witness stand. She needs to find out sooner rather than later. I really like the way that the writers are handling Morgan's character. Despite finding out that Philip threatened her father, Morgan can't quite turn off her feelings for Philip. I get this. We've all been there. We find out that our crush did something horrible (cheated on us, lied to us, or gasp! started watching ABC soaps) but we find it very difficult to quit cold turkey, drop everything, and never think about that person again. I'm so glad that the writers are showing that Morgan is conflicted over what to do about Philip. Sure, he threatened her father. But, he also saved her life by taking a bullet for her. That has to create confusion in her and I'm glad that the writers have learned from their mistake with Ejami and decided to have the girl be honest about her feelings from the beginning this time. Now, I'm ready for Morgan to learn about her father's role in this mess. As soon as Morgan hears a little more about the fine, upstanding, law-abiding citizen that her dad is I think she'll be able to take a step towards forgiving Philip.

PAUL The Salem PD's A#1 person of interest, Paul Hollingsworth, continued his good decision making last week and decided to take a walk right up to the busiest restaurant in town. I can just see the advertisements now "Hey Paul, you just got out of the DiMera mansion! What are you going to do next? I'm going to the Brady Pub!" Aside from Paul being a knucklehead, this move sets up a very interesting storyline. Personally, I think that Stefano found out (from Rolf) that John was keeping Paul prisoner. Now, Paul is working with Stefano to bring down John.

MARLENA Contrary to what we saw on Friday, Marlena does NOT have amnesia. Thank goodness! (My partner, Tony, is doing a happy dance as we speak.) But, a change in Marlena's attitude is over due. She had me going there for a little bit on Monday when she rejected John's offer to go home with him. And, she earned bonus points when Marlena remembered that she actually has a career. But, it all went south when Marlena melted into a steaming pile of mush and did the two things that anger me the most about her. She swooned for John and treated Roman like crap. There she was, back in her office, back doing good work, talking about how people can take control over their lives and then POW! she jumped into bed with John after he delivered the oh-so-romantic line of "I knew that if I never saw you again, well I wouldn't like that." Sniff, sniff! Not since Shakespeare has such a heart felt line brought tears to my eyes! For pun's sake, I'm not going to say that John "jumped the shark", but that's essentially what happened here. I didn't find anything romantic, appropriate, or endearing about their hook up. Honestly, I wanted to see more of their bickering for a little while. John just had a fling with Ava and in a matter of days, Marlena has forgiven him? Call me crazy, but I wanted to see John chase Marlena a little more. Going home with him (which just so happens to be the home of the man who just tried to kill her, by the way) isn't exactly a good move. Also not a good move? The way Marlena treated Roman. If I were Roman, I would have picked my dignity up off the floor and walked out of Marlena's hospital room. I thought Marlena's whole "you weren't the only great love of my life" speech to John was about the biggest slap in the face Roman could ever have received. Not because of the sentiment, but because of the timing. Marlena might have well said, "I don't need you John. There are other men waiting to take care of me. I have a list! Isn't that right, Roman?" I swear. The next time this woman even tries to open her mouth to Sami about dangling two men along, I might just go all Jan Spears and lock Marnie in a cage.

HOTEL DIMERA Just how big is the DiMera mansion? Quick head count of the people living there: John, Rolf, EJ, Sami, Johnny, and Ali, PLUS rooms for Marlena and Paul, AND now Stefano, Tony, and Anna are moving back in? That's at least 9 bedrooms!

In the west wing, we have EJ, Sami, Johnny, and Ali. They arrived back at the mansion and quickly realized that Stefano had been there. Sami was upset but EJ promised that Stefano would not do anything to hurt Sami or the kids. I think this may be some foreshadowing that EJ is going to have to be the one making a decision soon. He can only play hero to so many ladies at once. Eventually he's going to have to choose whether to protect Sami from Stefano or Nicole from Trent. Personally, I think there's more storyline potential with Sami, but we'll see. In the east wing, there's John. I honestly felt bad for John at the beginning of the week. He was actually concerned for Marlena, well, as much as a robot can be concerned. But, he's in for more than just lady problems. John learned that Paul has escaped and that Stefano plans to move back into the mansion. On top of all that, Rolf is missing and EJ and Tony are plotting to take John down. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

New to the mansion this week was Tony and Anna. Tony is heavy into his "save the DiMera name" kick. I tend to agree with my partner, Tony's, sentiments last week. This storyline feels a tad forced. Since when was the DiMera name ever that great? Before Santo, maybe? I'm not sure. But, I'm willing to look past it because it means I get more Tony and Anna. And, there is a little something to be said about how Tony, EJ, and to an extent Lexie are the top suspects every time something goes wrong in Salem. That has to get old after a while. Finally, hiding deep somewhere in the tunnels of the DiMera mansion is Stefano himself. I don't know that for sure, but too many characters kept referring to Stefano being "underground" for me to think it was just a coincidence. Stefano had a shipment of Champaign, cigars, opera CDs, and DVDs of the Sopranos (Stefano's favorite TV show, of course) sent to the mansion. Oh, and then he called the mansion and told Tony to get his room ready. I wonder how Stefano is going to pull this one off. Stefano calls and Tony answers. He says to have his room ready. I know that Stefano is ballsy, but does he really think he's going to come home and not get arrested? I wonder if John will actually end up protecting Stefano to keep the Hollingsworth case out of court. If the police come into the mansion to arrest Stefano, they won't leave without searching it fully, finding evidence of Hollingsworth and then down goes roboJohn.

MAX and STEPHANIE I'll warn you right now. If you are a Stephanie fan, do NOT read this section. Just skip right ahead to Melanie and Nick's section because what I have to say ain't pretty. In fact, my feelings about Stephanie are starting to get really ugly. I'll wait.......

Ok, now that it's just us, I have to say that Stephanie annoys the bejesus out of me. First, she sported the same flirt-a-holic attitude that she bashed Melanie for in order to get her cell phone from the guard. Then, she asked Melanie to call up George and get bail money from him. I guess when Melanie is sweet talking George to bail herself out it's unacceptable, but when Stephanie tells Melanie to get money out of him, it would be ok. Riiiiight.

But, the thing that makes me want to scream is that Stephanie is being so unsupportive of Max forging a relationship with Melanie. Stephanie is the same character who sat by her return-from-the-dead father's bedside begging him to rejoin their family, despite his protests and even his relationship with another woman, right? And, despite stories that she's heard, Stephanie basically didn't know Steve at all, right? Granted, Steve was a brainwashed DiMera-bot at the time, but he committed crimes that were far worse than anything Melanie has done. In my book, that makes up for the difference. One man's kidnapping is another girl's jewelry theft. Does Melanie come across as rude and selfish? Yep. But the problem is that Stephanie, because of her history with Steve, comes across even worse. I don't know if it's jealously, hypocrisy, or narcissism that makes Stephanie act the way she does. But if those are the top three words that come to mind when I think of her, it tells me something about the character. See? I told you it wasn't pretty.

Max is starting to fade into the background here and that's a shame. After all, this storyline is about him and his family. His "date" with Tiffany was the highlight for me this week. But, if Max is going to keep his storyline then he better step it up because he's about to become storyline road kill when Nick and Melanie hijack this one!

NICK and MELANIE I really enjoy Melanie. Mainly, I love that she gives Stephanie the business every chance she gets! But, the goodness that is Melanie doesn't stop there. She has a soft spot for Nick and I think that she enjoys the challenge that Nick can provide her with. So, let's talk about the pair de jour- "Mick".

I'm so proud to introduce the new AND MUCH IMPROVED, Nick Fallon! (yeah!!! *cheers* whooo!!) The way he handled Melanie proved to me that Nick has learned from his mistakes with Chelsea and is a better man because of it. Nick heard Melanie talking about her financial situation and it played right into Nick's hands. Nick was also able to trick Melanie into going to the police station and even got her to talk Tiffany into dropping the charges. I think it has to help Nick that he knows how to work over Trent too. There's a little "like father, like daughter" going on with Trent and Melanie if you ask me. From what I've seen of "Mick", I really like them and hope that these two get more scene time. LUCAS I'm really starting to like Lucas again, and I'm thrilled about that. I loved that he is having relationship talks with Maggie instead of Kate. And, I like his outlook on his relationship with Chloe. He's not expecting anything, but he's not ruling anything out either. Dare I say that Lucas actually has a healthy idea of a relationship?!? Excellent work, Mr. Horton.

The only thing I don't like is that he isn't listening to Sami. Sami, in a surprise moment of extreme logic, suggested that she and Lucas work out a joint custody arrangement for Ali. But, Lucas wants sole custody. We could go back and forth about the whole custody battle, whether Lucas is entitled and whether EJ should have kept his mouth shut. But, the whole point is that Lucas's motives for taking Ali are out of anger. The convenient excuse that he wants to get Ali out of the DiMera mansion was not part of his thought process at all. He didn't even mention Stefano until Sami let it slip that the twins might be in danger. The solution? Simple. Sami needs to move out of the DiMera mansion and work out a joint custody arrangement with Lucas and EJ. It's beyond stupid for her to stay in that mansion with out Rolf there to help, er, I mean with Stefano on the loose. KATE, DANIEL, and CHELSEA The news is out! This storyline is moving forward. Kate sent Daniel a text message that said "Chelsea must never find out about us" and Chelsea saw the text. Chelsea called out both Kate and Daniel on their selfishness and their completely warped sense of morality. Kate started shot gunning excuses, Daniel begged for forgiveness, and Chelsea didn't buy any of it. Thank goodness that this all came out! I still don't understand why the writers decided to ruin a good storyline and a veteran character in one fail swoop, but at least this way we can all move forward.

To do that, we had to clear the fog surrounding Daniel and Kate's fling. (Side note, I love how Daniel's excuse to Chelsea is that he and Kate didn't have a relationship, they just had a fling. Oh, super! That makes it ok then!) The more information that we learn about Daniel and Kate's fling, the dirtier it gets. They both knew about Chelsea's feelings, Daniel was drunk, Kate was an emotional wreck, the list could go on. Bottom line is what Kate and Daniel did was wrong and it's highlighted by Chelsea's million dollar question- if they didn't think they did anything wrong, why keep it from her? Why didn't Kate tell Chelsea about it when it was happening?

I'm a Kate fan, I truly am. But, every time I see Kate pinning away for her granddaughter's boyfriend I want to throw a rock at my TV. Yes, Kate meddles in her kid's lives. But, this was stepping waaaay over the line. Was it just me or did it seem like Kate wanted to get caught? I know that she said she would be crushed if Chelsea knew, but me thinks the lady doth protest too much. If she really didn't want Chelsea to find out, how about she not share intimate hugs with Daniel and send him text messages? Those would have been my first two moves. Wait. Actually, my first move would have been not to sleep with Daniel in the first place. Sorry, but I absolutely expect Kate not to sleep with someone that she knows her granddaughter has feelings for. But alas, Kate picked up a drunken Daniel at the Pub and helped herself to a little ego boost with complete disregard for her granddaughter's feelings. Here are Kate's exact words: "Yes, I knew that you had a crush on Daniel. But I believed that you were still in love with Nick. But maybe I just wanted to believe that because I felt that if you got involved with Daniel, you'd get hurt." It's all excuses with Kate. It's not that Kate doesn't care about Chelsea. I'm sure she does. She just cares about herself more. BOOO! No Mother's Day card for you, Kate! I don't mean to sound like Daniel is completely innocent in this whole thing. I'm glad that Chelsea walked out on the "good" doctor. But, at the end of the day, I'm just not as invested in Daniel's character as I am in Kate and Chelsea. He hasn't been around that long. We know very little about his relationship with Chelsea and even less about his relationship with Kate. Honestly, I wouldn't be heartbroken if Daniel left Salem. But, I feel terrible for Shawn Christian. What a tough acting gig! He's a great looking guy and not too bad of an actor, but Shawn's going to need to pull out some James Scott-esque performances to even think about wining over fans quick enough to think about a full time role on the soap. My advice? Bring in some of his family members so that we can learn a little more about him and have him pick a lady who isn't Kate or Chelsea or Billie or Cassie or any other Roberts woman. Has he met Nicole? Finally, there's Chelsea. I have tons of sympathy for her. She found out that her boyfriend is slimy and her grandmother is the worst person on the planet all at once! Sure, it seems like Daniel is going to pursue Chelsea more, but I think it's only a matter of time before Chelsea stops giving Daniel second chances. Once more, I think that Chelsea will be ok. She's been on a swing of good decisions and I'm impressed by how mature she was in dealing with Daniel and Kate. If it were me, I would've marched right up to Bo and took him up on that offer to kick Daniel's butt. Then, I'd stick Hope on Kate. But, Chelsea is a strong and determined character. When the dust settles she should realize that the worst mistake she made was putting her heart on the line. I'd say that's a mistake worth making. NICOLE, TRENT, and STEVE JOHNSON, P.I. Dr. and Mrs. Robbins had a nice little chat. Mrs. Robbins is now privy to another secret- Trent has a daughter. Only, he doesn't want anyone to find out. However, he does want Nicole to find out if Mel and Max had a family reunion in France. Hmmm...What's up with Trent not wanting anyone in Salem to know that he has kids? I'm with Nicole on this one- Trent doesn't want it coming out that he's hardly father of the year. While Nicole is after Max and Melanie, the newly (self) employed Steve Johnson has been hired to find Nick Fallon. I like where this is going because it means a good storyline for Steve. Much like I enjoyed it when he spied on Stefano by pretending to be a DiMera pawn, I enjoy watching Steve fool Trent into thinking that Steve was on Trent's side.

LOOSE ENDS: I love the fact that Chelsea is moving forward with her education. We don't need any more unemployed people in Salem. Nicole, Sami, Lucas, and Chloe certainly aren't setting any good examples. I hope that she keeps going forward with it. I hope this isn't like the time Belle went to nursing school. Drake Hogestyn absolutely cracks me up. I love it when RoboJohn tries to smile. It reminds me of when the Beast from "Beauty and the Beast" got ready for his date with Belle.

Daniel talked to Lexie about the situation he's in with Kate and Chelsea. This is probably the best person to ask for advice. Lexie knows better than anyone how to get your significant other back after sleeping with someone else, especially when that someone else is a member of your significant other's family tree.

Theo made a brief appearance. I hope that the writers get back into the Carver's storyline soon. We've seen a lot from Lexie and Abe, but I want to see more scenes of Theo himself. For those of you who missed it, that was Eve Plum a.k.a Jan Brady playing Marlena's patient Nora who ironically happen to suffer from "Jan Brady Syndrome".

Extra Scoops: HOT: Nick Fallon. Back in the early days, I was a huge Chick fan. I loved the reverse take on the "saint and the rebel" storyline. But not too long after Chick got together Nick turned into a helpless wimp and Chelsea turned into a raging control freak. I was actually relieved when they broke up because it meant that both of these characters would get a "do over" and hopefully back to the characters that I loved. Nick far surpassed my expectations. This week, he was cunning, smart, and charismatic. Not to mention that Black Berris looked fabulous with his new shorter hair and very stylish jacket! So, I'm proud to renew my membership to the Nick Fallon Fan Club. Where do I send my paper work? NOT: Caroline Brady. She was so cruel to Victor. I know that some will argue that Caroline was just protecting her son. If that's the case, I suggest that she give Roman, Abe, and Hope the exact same speech because they all went along with Bo's plan and allowed Bo to "break the rules". Of course, all of this is overshadowed by the fact that Bo is a grown man and he made the choice to tamper with evidence. What's next? Is Car-bear going to march into the DA's office with the same "his daddy made him do it" argument? Finally, why is Trent allowed to sit in the pub, but Victor has to leave?

LINE OF THE WEEK: Melanie (trying to explain to Tiffany who Stephanie was): She's his um...cousin! Tell me I wasn't the only one who was laughing and yelling, "Niece! Niece!"

That's it for this week, Days fans. I hope that you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. It's been a great summer in Salem and personally, I can't wait to see what the fall brings. Tony will be back next week to fearlessly lead us all through the first week of September episodes. Until then, here're some questions to ponder: Who was Trent talking to on the phone? Did anyone else cringe for Marlena during John's post-coital cheer? And, how long before Paul is caught? Happy viewing! Laurisa

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