Savoring payback!

Our columnist was not able to provide a new column this week, so instead, please enjoy a look back at what was happening in Salem during the week of August 8, 2005.

FINALLY! The tapes have been played and everyone knows what Kate and Eugenia did to Sami. Oh my god, I am SUCH a happy camper right now! I'm also in shock! I just can't believe that, after years of watching Kate get away with all the lying and manipulating - she's finally been caught! I could not be happier! Yipee! Yee-haw! Whoo-hoo! I think the writers did an excellent job with the reveal. Even though they dragged it out over a couple of days, the slow build to the final moment was sweet torture. I was literally climbing the walls when Kate started attacking Sami again [before the tapes were played] especially when Sami (falsely) admitted to Lucas that she had lied to him about sleeping with Brandon. I was surprised when Sami started acting all humble and apologetic, I'm not sure that I would have played it up quite as much as she did. Talk about a set-up, that takes guts man. I can't believe that Kate didn't see this coming a mile away - all she kept saying was "Sami's up to something." Hello? Even a child would realize that Sami was about to reveal her dirty laundry. Oh well...it was worth it...all worth it to see the look on Kate's face. Gawd! I haven't witnessed anything as sweet as that in a long time on Days. Thank you, thank you, thank you Days for giving us fans what we've long been clamoring for.

Sami gave Lucas the tapes as his birthday present and after a few false starts (the tape jammed a few times...) he played one. I still can't believe that Lucas and Roman finally know the truth of what Kate and Eugenia did! And they are furious! I thought the scenes were very well-written as both Lucas and Roman brought up past conversations with Kate and the lies she told. I always enjoy a little continuity and since I hated the scenes they were referring to when they initially happened (i.e. Kate lying point blank to Lucas about trying to wreck his relationship with Sami) I felt very satisfied. I was SO happy that Roman called Kate on her hypocritical anger over his sleeping with Marlena when the whole time, she was 'lying' about what she did to Sami. I can't wait to see what happens on Monday! I don't think I've anticipated a show this much in years! Although Friday's show ended with Lucas disappearing, I have faith in his love for Sami. Now that he knows she never betrayed him with Brandon, hopefully he'll realize that she wasn't lying about her love for him. On the 'next Days previews', we saw Lucas asking for Sami's engagement ring back. I have my fingers crossed that he's going to propose to her again! I think Sami and Lucas are one of the strongest and most interesting couples on daytime. The only problem? We can pretty much take it for granted that Kate will be on the warpath to get revenge on Sami. She has nothing to lose now. All the people she cares about are turning against her. I wonder what John and Philip's reaction will be?? I'll be so mad if John sides with Kate! Too bad Marlena has amnesia; I can only imagine how she'd react to the news with her memory recovered. I have a sinking suspicion that Kate will be the one to discover Sami's - call me Stan - secret and will use it to blow Sami out of the water. AND, I'm sure that she will use Sami's second attempt at marrying Lucas as the time to reveal the secret. I know that Sami deserves it considering the terrible things she did as Stan but...I have a soft spot for her and want to see her be happy for once in her crazy life.

Even though the story is kinda getting silly; I am enjoying the scenes with Wayne Northrop (Ex-Roman, current Dr. North) - especially the flashbacks. Those are vintage Roman/Marlena scenes from 20 years ago and they bring back fond memories for me. Those were the days of mystery and intrigue, adventures, romance and drama. Maybe it's because I was young, but the show was so exciting back then! Many of you have asked where I think this story is going and truly - I don't know. Ex-Roman is acting pretty strangely (I just can't call him Dr. North, to me, he will always be Roman Brady) so it would seem that he is up to something. Some have suggested that he is Stefano in disguise...I can't buy that theory because we don't see Stefano's face in the flashbacks, we see WN's face. Besides - it would be stupid of TPTB to try to replace Joe Mascolo as Stefano DiMera. Even if it were just "in disguise" too many people would be irked. Others have suggested that WN is Roman in disguise. I like that theory much better but it would lead to many questions: Why do the two Romans look different? Was ex-Roman given surgery so that he wouldn't look like himself? Why did now-Roman get killed & kidnapped by the Salem stalker if he was really a DiMera plant? Who is now-Roman? Sooooo many questions. Anyway - Did anybody else think it was absolutely ridiculous that John had to fly around the world to retrieve things that could jog Marlena's memory? What about her personal items in her own home? Why would John bring cookies that her mother made instead of bringing back her mother? Wouldn't your mother jog your memory faster than a plate of cookies? Is it possible that Marlena would no longer like her favorite cookies? Wouldn't her tasted buds be the same no matter whether she had amnesia or not?

Oh what fun it was to watch Sami and Nicole plot together this week. I think my favorite scene from this whole week - other than the look on Kate's face when the tapes started playing - was watching these two get the tapes away from Eugenia. Arianne Zucker (Nicole) definitely has a flair for comedy and acting like a drunk. When Sami fell over in the sewer (is a storm drain the same thing as a sewer?) and screamed and Nicole stuck her head in the manhole and yelled "Sami! Are you ok?" I literally could not stop laughing. Especially when Sami answered back "like you care" and Nicole popped her head back out of the drain, took a swig from her flask and slurred to herself, "she's fine." It doesn't read as funny as it was - but trust me, it was hilarious. I hope you guys didn't miss it. For a second I actually found myself rooting for Sami to come up with a plan to help Nicole get Brady. Not that I want Nicole to get Brady back...but I do want to see Sami and Nicole paired up again. They are great together! Maybe Nicole can rope Sami in to help her when Victor comes back to town!! She'll need all the help she can get and Sami has mucho experience in dealing with a PO'd Victor Kiriakis.

Okay - as expected, I received a ton of email concerning Belle and Shawn and this baby she is carrying. Apparently, Belle is supposed to be in her first trimester (can't remember where I read this) and given the scenarios that I laid out in my column last week; that's impossible. Quite a few of you have written to remind me that Belle and Shawn "slept" together after his latest motorcycle crash. Here's the thing...they didn't make love - if you want to believe it happened; that's fine with me. However, I clearly remember them both being fully dressed when Bo and Hope barged in to the bedroom and caught them in the same bed...asleep. Besides which, Belle was adamant about being faithful to Philip while he was away fighting in the 'war'. That's not to say that JER won't re-write the story so that they did make love that night. But here's the thing about that: IF they did sleep together, then Belle would know that it's Shawn's child and not Philip's. Which means that she's bald-faced lying about who the father of the baby is. Why would she do that? She claims to love Shawn. If she knew it was his baby - she would leave Philip. If however, Reilly decides to write it that Shawn and Belle made love in their sleep without knowing it; I'll scream. That will be so frustrating! Besides...how many people out there believe it's possible to make love in your sleep without knowing it? Yes, I remember Shawn and Belle dreaming about making love but; come on! Neither of them woke up enough to realize what was happening? Maybe Belle does remember and therefore IS uncertain about who the father is? I realize that there are a lot of die-hard Shawn/Belle fans out there who want this to be Shawn's baby but wanting it to be true doesn't necessarily make it so. I, on the other hand, hope that this IS Philip's baby. I'm tired of the repetitive Shawn/Belle story and am happy that Philip throws a wrench in the plan - at least it keeps it interesting. In the words of Melissa (see end of column for her full post) "...watching Shawn badger, and badger and badger her is exhausting". I'm tired of it too and personally, I think it would be great f he took up with Mimi or some other love interest. I can't believe that I TOTALLY missed the whole "cloaking device" mention by the frogman hanging around on the Fancy Face III. DUH! I must have been doing my nails or something during that scene. Oh what fun I could have had with that! "Beam me up Scotty!." Oh well...SO, I could NOT believe it when Hope was pulled over board! SHEESH! How can JER do this to us again?? Can we not GIVE IT A REST with Tony kidnapping people all ready? I'm so sick of this crap. The ONLY bright side was Bart. I had to laugh when he talked about Hope setting him on fire but still...come on!!! Enough all ready! I can only imagine that we will subjected to more island shenanigans as I'm sure Tony plans on hauling Hope back to wherever he is holding Victor and Caroline. I really hope that Hope isn't kidnapped for long! This could get very boring, very fast.

The other whack of email that I've been receiving lately concerns this "will they/won't they" kill off Jack question. I've had many people asking me to tell them whether Jack will die - as I've mentioned before, I am not affiliated with the show and therefore have no special insight in to Reilly's plans. I've also had many people saying that TPTB can't kill off Jack and to that I say - given their track record; TPTB will do any ole thing they want. I've read many interviews with Matt in the past where he said that he doesn't like be in a story that doesn't make sense. So... Matthew Ashford could elect to leave the role at any time. Therefore, while I - like you - hope that Jack Deveraux is not killed off, I really have no idea.

We are finally getting movement on the "who is Patrick Lockhart" story. Apparently he's receiving phone calls from someone who wants him to hurt someone else. Which he's refused to do... YAWN...I was happy to see that Max overheard and told Billie right away - instead of using it against Patrick somehow. It's always refreshing when something unexpected happens with the writing! I hope that Billie pursues this and finds out exactly what's going on.

Give me more of Julie and Maggie - they are a breath of fresh air! I loved their scenes at Lucas's birthday party. I'm only disappointed that they didn't stay to see Sami pull-off her revenge on Kate. I LOVE the fact that Julie always sticks up for Sami. What she says is true - she was much like Sami at her age. I also love how she countered every thing that Kate said about Sami. Too bad Alice left the party off-screen. We don't see enough of her character anymore!

Random:

• Where is Austin? I thought he was coming back this month? No one's even mentioned him!
• Where is Cassie?? I miss her! She was such a fabulous character and I think she could give Billie a run for her money by pursuing Patrick. Cassie would make a fabulous replacement as Salem's resident "bad girl."
• Why does Jennifer keep inviting Patrick over when she knows how much it upsets Jack? (their OVERLY long hug at the BBQ was ridiculous!) If my husband hated one of my friends that much - I wouldn't torture him by inviting them over all the time. I'd just make separate plans to see them if I wanted to.

Reader Feedback: Thanks to everyone who wrote in! I love reading your comments and feedback about the show and this column; so keep them coming!

From Stephanie:"I agree that with you that Billie and Patrick make a really good couple. Patrick finally has a viable love interest and Billie has someone to distract her from Bo. Still, this whole Bille/Patrick/Chelsea/Max plotline is so ridiculous. A far more interesting storyline would be Billie/Patrick/Cassie. Not only would we finally get to see Cassie on screen and find out where she's been living in Salem, we would also get to see a really good sibling rivalry. Plus Kate could especially benefit from this. Two of her kids in one triangle would be such a time saver.

From Rach:" My new favorite super-couple is Nami. Sami and Nicole are hilarious together. I'd love to see them grudgingly often. They have so much in common... scheming, dating each other's brothers and being dumped by said brothers. Sami and Nicole were the only ones I really paid attention to this week. From Marian:" say "GET NEW WRITERS." They have screwed up the soap of Days so badly I don't see how they can get back the charisma they had. Let's expose everyone nad start all over again. YOu know Jack can't/won't die. Sami needs to be exposed and for heavens sake so does Kate. Marlena is the perennial victim, John is self-righteous, Rex and Chloe are two of my favorites, so of course they are going. Come on, writers, get real. Give us something with some reality in it to hold onto. You notice Days is getting no awards these days or even honorable mention. Very bad turn for this show. When is Victor going to expose his wife for what she is? Reshape Sami - she is actually nice sometimes - is she going to be all bad? Too predictable. I'm losing patience - get us out of this quagmire. Geeeeeeeeeeeeee From Caroline: John is a hyprocrite about Marlena and Roman. Not only did he seduce Marlena on the table when she was married to Roman, but that was Marlena and Roman's wedding anniversary party! He also seduced Kristen who was married to Tony in Tony's own home. Tony was temperarilly blind at the time. John is in no position to accuse Roman of 'manipulating' Marlena into having sex. John is a master manipulator of other men's wives.

From Jamison R:" Hello, Pamela! It's always nice to read your columns, and it's even nicer to pitch in my two cents about them. So here I go. I am SO happy Rex finally found out the truth about Mimi. Now, while I am aware that there might be so many people who don't like the way her secret came out (after overhearing it from Belle), I thought it was just wonderful. We all knew Mimi wouldn't be telling Rex on her own, so that seemed like just the way to get it out. So Rex broke things off with Mimi and left town, and I couldn't be happier. I'll miss Eric Winter (ex-Rex), but at least this storyline's FINALLY over. I was so thrilled to see Patrick and Billie kiss this week, too! I'm glad Patrick admitted to Billie he'd taken some interest in her, because it was obvious for awhile. The only bit of skepticism I have is that he seemed so hung up on Jennifer a few weeks ago, despite the feelings he did have for Billie. But I'm willing to give TPTB the BOTD about that since they finally granted me my wish and paired Patrick and Billie together! Chelsea must be furious, and I'm relishing in her chagrin! I think Nicole needs to wake up and see that there is NO WAY she's getting Brady back. I loved seeing Brady get the Salem brain and tell her like it was. Nicole lost, so she needs to back off and move on. As glad as I am that Belle told Mimi that she destroyed her own relationship by basing it on a lie, she was VERY hypocritical. Is she not in a marriage based on a lie? She's married to Philip but still loves Shawn. And she refuses to be honest with Philip because she doesn't want to hurt the brainless invalid. Both Shawn and Philip should get wake up and smell the coffee and dump Belle's ass. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for your time. Keep up the good work!

From Melissa: "I found myself really wishing that Shawn Brady was a real person so I could stab him with something. Dude, have you ever heard the saying if you love something let it go? Well Shawn is holding on to Belle so tight her head might pop off!! Give the girl a minute. I mean, I think she is a ninny (and some other things I can't write here) but watching Shawn badger, and badger and badger her is exhausting. Just let her take care of her injured husband and her pregnancy. Geez!

From JJ: "I just wanted to give cheers to Arianne Zuker and Allison Sweeney for their recent performances. To see the once bitter enemies now as partners in crime is good fun. Zuker is great as the bumbling drunk and Sweeney compliments her well as the straight man. I used to Tivo right past both of their storylines. Now I stick it out, cracking up all the way. Let's hope they keep Nicole hammered and Sami desperate and both of them teamed up for a while. Bottoms up.

From Sharon: Got to say I'm on Kate's side this week. Loved her confrontation with Roman. I don't care how much she schemes, Roman is acting like an ass. Baiting John, and walking away from his marriage (for no reason-since he doesn't know about kate/Sami) to hover around his ex-wife's bedside.

From Tiffany: Regarding Mimi's new personality...I think it will be great to watch!! I can understand why she's angry with Belle.. Mimi needs someone to blame. But you have to admit, Belle was pretty nasty in the hospital scene!! What's with that?! And Belle lately!! What a freakin' hypocrite!! I mean, talk about a character change!! She got stupid, I'm not even sure when it happened. But for a girl who used to know what she wanted & was more honest...man, is she a liar!! Anyways, thanks for letting me vent!!

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