A little help from my friends

With her last kid on his way out of town, Kate seems to be turning her attention towards the youngest DiMera (that we know of), Chad.

When I heard the downright crappy news about All My Children and One Life to Live being cancelled, I got crazy mad. For what it's worth, I sent feedback to ABC and voiced my disapproval of the bonehead logic that will cost daytime two great shows. I figured that was a better use of my time than running up to Brian Frons and kicking him squarely in the shin. When I calmed down, I reached out to my fellow Two Scooper.

The email subject title was, "Not cool at all. Not even a little bit." Tony's response, "I'm glad I heard it from you." Yup. It's the kind of thing that soaps create -- special friendships that can only come from sharing an irrational love for something as silly as soaps. The storylines might be are totally unbelievable, but the friendships aren't.

My childhood best friend, Jamie, got me started watching DAYS. Each year in honor of her birthday, I urge all Two Scoop readers to participate in "Take a Friend to Salem Day." This Thursday is Jamie's birthday. I can't think of a more appropriate time than now to share the love of soaps with your buds.

So, sometime soon, flip on DAYS during your lunch break and dazzle your coworkers with jokes about how many times Stefano has been married. Open a bottle of wine and have a friend over to drool over Sami, Chloe, Nicole, and Kate's amazing sense of style. Or schedule a phone date with your mom and watch the show together again.

We've got room and extra vodka at the DAYS table for anyone who's fun enough to embrace evil twins, sibling love triangles, sassy nurses, and crime lords. You know, just your classic soap opera fare. Here's what DAYS is putting in place for May Sweeps.

DANIEL and JENNIFER Tony need not worry about his favorite Salem U nurse. Maxine was alive, well, and all up in Jennifer and Daniel's business last week, calling them out on the full 8th grade glory of their behavior. I dug it. First, I loved Daniel as the aloof "No, I'm not interested at all. Nope. Not one little bit." guy. It's nice to see Daniel hold back his feelings rather than jump on the first available hot body. Sorry, Daniel. I love you, but you are a bit of a man-whore. As for Jen, I don't have a big problem with the stool fall and the pen drop because Jennifer is a klutz. Melissa Reeves has a knack for physical comedy, and the writers are smart to use that skill. Moderation is the key, but I don't hate these tactics yet. When they finally remembered that they were adults, Jen and Daniel talked about their attraction, even using the terms "rebound" and "emotionally unavailable." That Maxine has magical powers. She could work wonders over at the DiMera house. Finally, Jennifer referred to Daniel as a "bad substitute" for Jack. In his defense, Daniel has every right to get huffy over that statement. All he knows of Jack is he's the guy who left Jennifer to go incommunicado in the outback. But it was a smart, very smart move on the writers' part to acknowledge that there is a truckload of fans out there who oppose Danifer because they remain firm fans of the original J&J Love Factory. Daniel and Jennifer can't just jump into each other's arms.

PHILIP, CHLOE, and KATE Philip and Chloe are terribly cute together. It makes me so sad that Jay Ken Doll is leaving the show. His chemistry with Nadia Bjorlin is the stuff that only develops from growing up on-screen together, and it's a beautiful thing when they get to have a light-hearted scene. Filler like this is always welcome.

While I won't hang onto my dream that Phloe will give it another go 'round, the question of Parker's custody is still very much a mystery to me. I have no idea how this will go, and I hope that Philip makes their shared custody agreement work, despite what Kate has to say about it.

Speaking of her, I really enjoyed that Kate/Chloe showdown. Chloe stepped it up and became quite the little firecracker! If Chloe keeps up this spunk, I could get behind this feud. Unlike Victor, Kate has a logical beef with Chloe. Chloe did cheat on Lucas, and she did it a lot. Any mom would be mad. Yet, Chloe did end up in a coma because of Kate so, yes, Chloe should be on guard around Mama Roberts-DiMera at all times.

FAFE As I've repeated, and will until Galen includes this role in his Emmy reel, Galen Gering is killing it in this part. When Fafe threatened E.J., I actually thought E.J. could be in danger. Heck, even E.J. and Stefano realize that they've lost control of their Fafenstein monster, so they gave him orders to leave town.

But they gave him completely bogus advice. Rafe would not make any goodbye rounds. Rafe has disappeared twice before -- one because Meredith kidnapped him and the other because he wanted to cowboy up and go search for Anna -- and he didn't say goodbye to squat either time. So I have no problem with Fafe packing up his bag and skipping town.

Yet, I'm also glad that Will and Gabi stopped him. (Eureka! There is a use for these two!) I'm being completely selfish, but I want Galen to keep playing this role for as long as possible. It was so inappropriate for Fafe to ask Johnny get him a beer, yet I couldn't help but chuckle. It's like I'm watching a clip from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I have a hard time feeling sorry for Sami, because I'm so caught up in Galen's performance. Fafe is trying to push Sami away, and I'm interested to see what he'll do next.

KATE and STEFANO Ha! Chad's all worried about what Stefano would expect from their relationship. Little did he know that it's his evil stepmother that he should suspect! With her last kid on his way out of town, Kate seems to be turning her attention towards the youngest DiMera,* even going so far as to vilify the name "Horton," prompting Stefano (yes, Stefano) to be the voice of reason and remind Kate that Abby is Lucas' niece. Everything Lauren Koslow and Joe Mascolo do is glorious. I'm completely fine with Kate meddling with Chad's life because that means Kate and Stefano will be working together. Stefano already dubbed Chad "special" and you know that can't be good! *that we know of. According to Stefano, "[Chad is] my youngest son, well I think he's my youngest son, they've been popping up like birds lately."

FAY Holy sleep with the lights on, Batman. Wes Craven better be watching DAYS because his new muse is our very own Valerie Wildman. At first I thought that the closeup of Fay's death was a bit gratuitous, but when I saw Nicole's nightmare, I realized that the producers saw the spine-shivering talent Valerie has to convey terror and wanted to showcase that. I don't blame them one bit.

Overall, I thought Fay's completely predictable death was handled well. Fay was the hardest luck kid in the history of the world. She'd been forever kicked when she was down. So, if her last purpose on the show was to finally inspire some courage in Nicole, well, I'm okay with that. In a way, Fay is fighting back, and this time she's going to win.

NICOLE Ahh...the beauty of dramatic irony! Nicole figured out that E.J. did get rid of Rafe, but she thinks that E.J. caused Rafe's car accident. If she snoops down that road for a while, it will lead to absolutely nowhere because the DiMera hands are clean on that end of things. Unless, of course, they hired that deer to jump in front of Sami's car. If so, they'll be elevated to super-duper villain status because E.J. and/or Stefano has the ability to talk to animals. How is Vivian going to compete with that?

Needless to say, Arianne Zucker was amazing. She delivered a tender performance without making Nicole come across as weak. And it made me dust off my Team Nicole foam finger and waive it proudly from my sofa.

Is it bad that I want Nicole to have a friend? It broke my heart to see such a strong woman crack, and the only people to comfort her were her meanie husband and her trampy sister, both of whom know that their secret could send Nicole plunging even further. Someone get Brandon on a plane to Salem right now! If not, how about letting Nicole go to Abe for help? His mini-breakdown over Fay's death shows that he's motivated to find out what happened to her, and he'd at least do it out of respect for Brandon.

TAYLOR and E.J. I'm annoyed that Fay's death was tarnished by E.J. and Taylor's "no touchie" rule. If TPTB wanted E.J. and Taylor to be together, I don't know why they didn't wait until after Fay died. Taylor and E.J. could have spent the last few months getting to know each other, and Fay's death could have brought them together, or at least given Taylor a believable moment of weakness.

Instead, Taylor ran around all week, trying to make sure that Fay's secret wasn't about Taylor's campaign for a scarlet letter. She was so preoccupied that Taylor totally missed all of Nicole's heartfelt confessions about how great of a liar E.J. can be. As a viewer, it's one of my favorite traits about him. I worry that the E.J./Taylor pairing will be an attempt to purify E.J. Personally, I like my DiMeras a little dirty.

MEL and DARIO New rule -- Melanie is not to go near the pier without a buddy. In the last month, she's been robbed and held at knifepoint in front of the exact same bench. If she expects a good-looking soap stud to keep rescuing her, she's eventually going to be disappointed. Trust me. I know.

I also know that the knifed man of darkness put Arianna's hit-and-run in a whole new light. Why was he so adamant that Mel drop the reward? Could it be that Arianna's accident wasn't really an accident at all? *evil laugh* Luckily, Mel and Dario seem to be willing to pause their immature hate banter to team up and find out. They're going to need to stick together because the entire Salem PD is involved in another case right now. CIARA, THEO, BO, HOPE, LEXIE, and ABE As I watched Theo and Ciara run away to the woods, all I could think was, "Wasn't Ciara recently kidnapped and held captive in a cabin? Would she really be up for going camping?" Well that and, "Man, tents must be a lot easier to put up than they used to be!" I remember when the sole reason for being a Boy or Girl Scout was to learn how to put up one of those puppies in under three hours.

Anyway, if nothing else, this will be good learning experience for Theo. Never trust a gal who offers you her entire bag of cookies. She's more than likely very bossy and will leave you to finish out the scheme when she falls down. Theo should have a nice long commiseration chat with Gus when he is rescued.

Said rescue should come soon, since the entire Salem PD is out looking for the commissioner's and mayor's kids. Okay sorry, I couldn't even type that without giggling. The ineptitude of the Salem PD isn't going to matter because we're talking about Stefano and Victor's missing grandchildren. From the previews, it looks like they'll be joining the search sooner rather than later, and I can't wait!

CARLY Despite how infuriating it can be to see a weepy female on soaps (ugh! Been there. Done that.) I'm happy to say that this time is different. Carly isn't snapping because she lost Bo. Carly is snapping because she lost her mind. She's finally dealing with the fact that she stayed in an abusive relationship, killed her husband, and is now estranged from her son. That's a teeny bit different from being dumped by a cute boy.

To her never-ending credit, Crystal Chappell is nailing the two sides of Carly. One minute Carly is an ugly-cry mess and then as soon as she takes the pills, she's back to being a regular person. I liked watching for the subtle differences that make Carly a functioning addict. I also realize that I don't ever want Crystal to yell at me because she is super intense and scary.

LOOSE ENDS: Seeing Roman scold Fafe for not following the rules seemed a little silly. Rafe is the guy who up and quit the FBI so he could investigate Sydney's kidnapping the way he wanted to.

Dario offered to contribute to the rent. Wow. There're so many freeloaders in Salem, I don't really know what to think. It's like I've seen a two-headed turtle.

Vivian broke into the mansion and then scolded Chad for not being on her list. Ha! Viv's audacity is a thing of beauty. I only wish I got to see it more.

Seeing E.J. patronize Sami last week made me realize that his soft spot for Samantha is completely closed off. I guess that's what happens when you shoot someone in the head. I'm not saying it can't open back up; it certainly has before. But it finally hit me that all he feels right now for that woman is hate. (I'm a slow learner and a sucker for accents. Shoot me. Wait, that's a bad joke for this situation. Never mind.)

HOT: Philip telling Chloe that she is a human being and should do things for herself in addition to being a mom was amazing. It was a great change of pace for a genre that's better known for how many kids and marriages a woman has, not how happy she is as a person.

NOT: Something about Taylor asking E.J. how Nicole slept didn't sit right with me. Being in lust with your sister's husband is one thing, but actively asking about what went on in their bedroom brings a whole new level of gross to this pair. I get that she was genuinely concerned for Nicole, and she certainly wasn't fishing for details about their love life. But that question seemed terribly odd considering that she was so happy to accept E.J.'s kiss later in the day. Sheesh! At least those ladies in Lifetime movies are nice enough to go into denial first!

LINE OF THE WEEK: Maxine (about Jennifer's PR campaign): "I think you chose the best-looking doctor and nurse that you could find" Go on, Maxine!

EXCHANGE OF THE WEEK: Gus: "The DiMeras have a jail cell in their basement!" Vivian (completely unimpressed): "Well, who doesn't?!"

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Note to self: Use the word "trollop." Thanks for the reminder, Viv.

Chloe wore jeans! Nadia looked amazing in that army green color. Oh heck, Nadia could wear baby poo yellow and still turn heads.

Man, that Casey Deidrick is a cutie. If I was a few years younger and about a foot taller, I might have a shot.

Who would have ever thought that there would be a black wreath on the DiMera door for Fay Walker?

Um, Sami, having your teenage son go stay in the same place as his girlfriend might not be the best idea. I'm just saying. Can't he stay with Grandpa Roman instead?

I admit, I got a little excited waiting for Nadia to sing. Personally, I would have requested Jason Mraz's "Lucky" or REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight this Feeling", but I understand that the licensing fees are atrocious, so I'll be happy with just hearing Nadia's beautiful voice. If we had to lose Pia from American Idol, at least we still have Nadia on DAYS!

Taylor told Maggie that there's no one for her to love. Hey Taylor, haaaaave you met Brady?

And with that, we look forward to what will happen next week. Tony will be here to see Philip out of town. (That dude gets all the good weeks.) In the meantime, were you a little excited to see Carly and Stefano share a scene? Do you want Chad to work at the hospital with Abby or are you (like me) dying to see what the mailroom at DiMera Enterprises looks like? And, did anyone else get giddy upon hearing Nicole mention Eric's name? In my heart of hearts, I want Nicole Rollerblading on that boardwalk with Eric Brady forever!

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