And then...

This past week, Marlena sent Stefano into a drug-induced coma. Considering the things that Stefano has put Doc through over the years, it's shocking that it took this long for her to snap.

When I was a little girl I used to get so excited when telling my parents some good news, that I constructed the most enthusiastic run-on sentence my little brain could write. I strung thoughts together, taking breaths when I could, until I ran out of steam. It sounded something like this: Oh my gosh.....they found Colleen....all of them...Marlena and John and Hope and Bo and Belle and Shawn and Philip and Chloe ....and then, and then, they got Claire back....(breath, breath, breath)....oh yeah.....and Tony and Anna came back....and Lexie was back too....AND I got to see Victor! OH MY GOSH!!! This is exactly how I felt when watching last week's episodes. There was so much to cover, let's get started!

Three, count them THREE, storylines sent characters to Ireland. My favorite was Marlena. I love, love, loved the scenes in the jail cell between her and Stefano. Some may speculate that it wasn't actually Marlena in the scene. Personally, I think this is more Marlena than ever before. Considering the things that Stefano has put Doc through over the years, I'm not surprised that she hasn't snapped sooner. But this snap, was one of those great actions so wicked, it's usually reserved for villains and bad guys. After Stefano refused to tell Marlena what John's mission was, Marlena sent Stefano into a drug induced coma where his mind remains active, but his body is perfectly unresponsive to his mind. There he'll sit, a vegetable, unable to respond to all of the stimuli he still experiences. (all together now....muuuhhhaaaaa!) The science behind her plan was brilliant. Unfortunately, the execution wasn't. And, Marlena is a little too confidence-drunk to realize that she's going to get caught. Roman knows right away that Marlena is responsible for Stefano's coma. He questions her but she dances around a confession. Then, Marlena changes test results in the hospital computer system. She makes some remark about how Sami always got caught because she wasn't a doctor. Call me crazy, but I think that Marlena will get caught because she's not a computer expert. Then, Marlena tricks a supermodel/nurse into thinking that John isn't in his room, dresses John up like a doctor, and walks right out the front door with him. Finally, she packs John on his plane and the two of them are off to the Brady homeland where she has an answer for Bo's arrest threat (Technically, John was in "police protection" not "police custody", and it's not illegal to take someone who isn't charged with a crime out of the hospital. Nice move writers!) Make no mistake; I think that Marlena deserves to get away with this "crime". But, all it will take is one visit from Dr. Rolf to realize that Stefano has been the victim of a crime and Roman will have to arrest Marlena. I hope that by the time this happens, John will be back to being John and be able to defend her. After the re-instatement of Detective Fancy Face, the two "Detectives Brady" also made their way to Ireland. There were some cute flashbacks of Bo and Hope as they bumbled their way to New Ross, but I warn the writers: flashbacks are a very powerful thing. They should only be used for good- as in sparingly to further a storyline. NEVER should they be used as filler. Got it? Good. Glad we got that out of the way. Eventually, Bo and Hope make their way to the room where Colleen is hiding and hear her story. Shirley Jones made her debut as the Brady matriarch and spilled a summer's worth of secrets in about five minutes. Yes, she loved Santo and wanted to marry him. No, she couldn't go through with the marriage when she heard that he was still married. Yes, she faked her death. Yes, she was pregnant at the time, and John is her and Santo's son. (Wait...scratch that last one. Colleen had to take a nap before she let that one out of the bag.)

And then the feud began...turns out that Santo was so lovesick that when he returned to his life with Stefano and Mrs. Santo, Santo turned into bad-dad of the century, with Stefano staring in the after-school-special. Stefano blamed Colleen for his hard life as a child and thus vowed to make the Bradys miserable in return. WOOT! Sound the rewrite alarms!!! Didn't Stefano confess that he spilt the "my dad is still married" beans for the exact purpose of breaking up his father and Colleen? Stefano saw how happy Colleen made his father because the four of them (Santo, Colleen, Stefano, and Shawn) spent a lot of time together. Not once, did I see Stefano display any "I want my parents together" behavior.

But, we did learn that after her "death" Colleen took up work as a seamstress in South America and became the Donatella Versace of the southern hemisphere. (Maybe where Belle got her fashion skills?) Colleen's business brought her great wealth, enabling her to search for the family that she has in Salem. She learned of the pain that Stefano unleashed on her family and started a plan to rescue family members- one at a time. Her business also brought her great attention and over the last year. Stefano learned of her location and he's been chasing her ever since. She had to be careful when she snatched Claire and is upset that she didn't make it to Brady in time. Colleen even pointed a finger at the guiltier-by-the-minute-looking Chloe for Brady's disappearance. I really like Shirley Jones in the role. My only complaint is that I'm not a fan of the look. A wealthy fashion icon should be able to afford some make-up and a nice blouse. I understand that she's a modest woman, but she's not a hermit.

I'm not going to spend too much time on Shawn and Belle, because as we all know, they are on their way off screen. Really, it's my defense mechanism. I'm so spittin' mad that Shawn and Belle are leaving that I'm already trying to distance myself from the storyline. I'm trying not to care that I am finally fully behind Shelle because the two characters are actually at a point where they are good for each other. I'm trying to ignore the fact that Belle is finally with someone who won't let her get away with everything. I'm paying no attention to the fact that Shawn is finally forced to mature past the trigger-temper-kid in order to take responsibility for his daughter. I'm completely not aware that Shawn and Philip realized that while they can't go on hating each other, they'll never be best friends again. And I hardly noticed when Chloe and Philip both acknowledged that Belle and Shawn belong together. The only thing that I did notice is that Shawn and Belle got their daughter back. Thank God. Claire doesn't need any more trauma. She's got that horrible "you were kidnapped by your long lost great grandma" talk coming up soon. The kid deserves a break.

Back in Salem, newly appointed Chief-of-Staff Dr. Lexie Carver (Renee Jones is back!) had a tough decision to make. Stefano is in a coma and she doesn't care. I thought these scenes played out beautifully. There's no reason in the world why Lexie should help Stefano, accept for the little fact that she's a doctor. So, she calls EJ and Tony (Oh yeah, Thaao Penghlis is back too!) to make the decision as a family, not as a doctor. It was one of those scenes so strange that it was beautiful. These three characters are family, yet they are perfect strangers to each other. And the only thing that connects them, Stefano, is the one thing that they are talking about terminating. Anyway, Tony takes 0.2 seconds to vote against helping Stefano. Lexie follows suit and decides that she'd be doing more good keeping Stefano away from society. EJ, though tortured over the decision, agrees. The three of them decide to let Stefano become property of the state rather than investigate further into his "stroke". We all know that transferring Stefano to a new location all but means that Rolf is going to find Stefano and heal him. But, for now, the DiMera kids are trying to shape their own destiny. I hope that EJ, Lexie, and Tony have more scenes together. There is so much storyline potential between these three and it's about time that EJ gets a new definition of "family".

EJ's makeshift family is not doing well. Ali is sick and Sami is about to have a nervous breakdown. Sami gets a call that she will be called to testify in Lucas's case. You'll have to help me out on this one, Days fans, because I'm not sure if my "Law and Order" alumni degree covers this: Can someone in a police safe house be subpoenaed to appear in court? Wouldn't her testifying compromise EJ's, the twins', and her own safety? What takes precedence? I'm asking because I know that even with Stefano in a coma, EJ, Sami, and the twins are still in danger. There's probably a John version 2.0 out there who has been programmed to kill them. Also, I have a funny feeling that Lucas will still go on trial. Even though Lucas freaked out and confessed to EJ's attempted murder, Roman made a point to say that Lucas needed to sign his confession. Cue the Kiriakis lawyers to swoop in and stop Lucas from signing and POOF! No confession.

With so many characters committed to one storyline, Steve and Kayla were left to play multiple roles this week. At the beginning of the week, Steve defended Stephanie and company from Crawfod Decker. Mid-week, he got the news that Adrienne is leaving Salem, moving to Dubai, and leaving the Cheatin' Heart to Max. By the end of the week, Steve and Kayla got some bad news about Bo's (a.k.a Lexie's other patient) health and are on their way to Ireland to tell Bo that he's sick. But by far, my favorite moment of the week was when Steve encountered Crawford in the hospital. I love that Steve got a chance to say the things to Decker that I've been screaming at the TV. Ford was a terrible kid, and part of that has everything to do with the fact that his father let him get away with anything. Furthermore, Crawford irresponsibly abused his position of power to throw blame on innocent people just to feed his son's ego.

But, I fear that the Ford situation isn't going away as fast as Steve or I would like. I love John Sanderford's portrayal of Crawford Decker (does he remind anyone else of Ben Masters from Passions?). Sanderford steals every scene that he's in and even proved to hold his own in scenes with acting heavy-weights, Stephen Nichols and John Aniston. It's such a shame that I want to claw Crawford's eyes out. After he called Stephanie a slut and threw Zach in Chelsea's face, I feel absolutely no more pity for Crawford Decker at all. For the sake of my sanity and the safety of my projectile TV remote, Crawford Decker needs to leave Salem ASAP. Next, why the holy heck is Chelsea the only one being charged with a crime? Not that it would make me less angry if the others were charged too, but I'm super-sick of Chelsea being the designated problem child on Days. She was drugged and in the middle of being attacked when she ran for her life. After Ford fell, the other girls made the decision to cover up the crime, without a drugged Chelsea. Then Chelsea made the tough, mature decision to come clean about Ford's death. And now she's the one who's being charged? I don't get it. Finally, I have the unpleasant reminder that we're in soap-law land and criminal charges can be brought, dismissed, and then brought again by a private citizen. I hope Victor picks up Crawford Decker and body slams him.

Ok, I need to get back to my happy place, so let's chat about Tony and Anna (Leanne Hunley is back!) shall we? How much do you love them? I am doing back flips (not literally, but I could!) over the fact that they are going to be staying in Salem for a while. Tony bought an advertising business and Anna, who is not at all excited about being left out of that little life altering decision, decided to apply for her own advertising job at a direct competitor. (Please, oh please, let it also be in direct competition with Mythic and Kate Roberts. I desperately want Kate and Anna to share a scene again.) Oh yeah, and Anna breaks up with Tony. I know it's completely ridiculous, but I just love Anna's reaction. She's totally irrational and he's totally clueless (really Tony, you don't want anything to change in your relationship?). These two have great comedic timing. With Bo and Hope headed for some bad news, we need another couple to take over for the streaking bets.

Line of the Week

Tony to Ethan Blane: "I admire ambition; but, manic energy just gets me a little uncomfortable. So can you just dial it down a bit?" Loved it! Haven't we all had experiences with those corporate twerps who try to brown-nose their way to the top? It's so great to hear a boss put the kybosh on that kind of behavior. Honorable mention goes to Sami when talking about Stefano, "That SOB has pretended to be dead so many times that he probably has his own drawer at the morgue." Hot

Lexie becoming chief of staff, Hope being reinstated as a detective, Anna becoming an ad exec. Take your pick. I love it when soap characters actually get jobs and we don't have to wonder where all that money comes from. Not

Nick Fallon, you little wimp! He sat their through the whole scene with Mr. Decker and didn't stick up for Chelsea once. I heard Max tell Decker that he was crossing a line. I heard Stephanie tell Decker that Ford was a rapist. But I didn't hear one peep out of Nick to defend Chelsea- even after she took his advice and told the truth. Not cool, Nick. Especially when Chelsea was trying to save her relationship with YOU by confessing. Parting Thoughts

What do you think Days fans? How long before Belle finds out that she's a DiMera? (if she turns out to be Santo's granddaughter) What do you think is wrong with Bo? Are you as excited as I am to see Victor Kiriakis vs. Crawford Decker? Anyone for "Team Victor" shirts?

Happy viewing! (Happy Super Bowl/Mardi Gras/and Groundhog Day too!) Laurisa

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