A Christmas carol

Sami and Kate are tired of being visited by spirits. But it may be Eric and Nicole who have the hardest time revisiting their past and changing the future. Find out more in this week's Two Scoops.

There have been many adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol made for the screen. The one the Muppets did is one of my personal faves. Patrick Stewart (yes, of X-Men/Star Trek fame) played a pretty descent Scrooge too. But this year, Salem seems to be putting on their own version of A Christmas Carol. And it's downright magical.

The story begins with a visit from Scrooge's late partner, Jacob Marley. It's very clear that this old "friend" was no good for Scrooge. Likewise, Brady's old friend isn't going to be good for him either. But just like Jacob Marley, this is all going to be great for the audience.

Since he took it over, Eric Martsolf has been approaching the role of Brady with such gusto. I don't think he gets the credit he deserves. And I like that the writers waited until now to have Brady relapse. That card could have been an easy one to play earlier. But seeing the destruction that Kristen did and how Brady obviously questions his judgment, the relapse doesn't seem gratuitous now. It also sets up a nice reason for John to come back to town and support Brady's recovery.

Speaking of spirits of a different kind, the next one in the classic Dickens tale was the Ghost of Christmas Past -- the one who forced Scrooge to relive a time where he was much more innocent. The act proved more painful than happy, as Nicole and Eric can now attest. In order to prove Eric's innocence, they'll have to go back and relive the time when he was still an active priest and she was the happy assistant hopelessly in love with him. You know, the good old days before Eric ruined it all.

Yup, I'm on Nicole's side. That's not to say that I'm particularly mad at Eric. And, I certainly acknowledge that Nicole should give that forgiveness thing a try. (Daniel is letting you live with him right now, Nikki!) But the fabulous Arianne Zucker drove home the point about just how deeply Eric hurt Nicole.

He was (okay, is, because let's be honest here) the love of her life. He saved her twice. He never once looked at her the way that everyone else in Salem does. There wasn't an ounce of skepticism to his faith in her. He truly loved her. She believed in him more than she'd ever believed in anything.

So when he said that he didn't believe her, her world came crashing down. That's why she can't forgive him. That's why I wanted to shush Eric when he started tearing into her again. I get it. I'm not sore at Nicole for taking a while to forgive him -- the caveat of course being that she eventually does forgive him. But something tells me that she'll get there. And that "something" is the way that Nicole still looks at Eric. Girlfriend can scream about how she's over him all she wants. No one here is buying that noise.

With Nicole, Father Matt, and Daniel in his corner, I don't see why Eric's story won't hold up, at least enough to stop a-hole parishioners from assaulting him and leaving him on the pavement. That brings me to E.J. Now that Kristen is gone, E.J. could exonerate Eric in the court of public opinion without sending Kristen to jail. And since Sami knows that Nicole is doing the story on Eric, she could march E.J. right into Nicole's office and tell Nicole to roll tape once Daniel gets more evidence.

That is, if Daniel can juggle saving J.J. for Jennifer. The Ghost of Christmas Present was the one who taught Scrooge the most and the one that had somewhat of a happy ending. So, that's where the whole J.J./Jennifer/Theresa/Daniel situation finds itself. As the audience, we know that Daniel is doing a good thing here. We know that eventually Jennifer is going to find out what Daniel did to save her son. Everyone should get out of this in one piece.

We just don't know how long that will take because Theresa is the wild card. A credit to Jen Lilly's acting choices, she's playing Theresa with just enough smirk that she could still be lying about her memory. Sure, Theresa claims that she has no recollection of that night. But the longer she keeps running into J.J., the better the chances are that she will remember and will devise a cover-up to go with it. No self-respecting soap character sits on that kind of blackmail material for too long. If these shadows remain unaltered, I see a certain super doc owing a schemer one big favor.

And should you owe a schemer a favor, bad things will happen to you. Just ask the most fearsome of all the spirits -- The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In our little play, that role is being played by one super scary Nick Fallon. Good lord, that fella is terrifying. And I mean that in the best, amazing, outstanding way. I adore this.

Let me back up. I'm not convinced that Nick is dead. Chalk that up to my love for Blake Berris. You wouldn't be wrong. But it's more than that. Nick's presence on the show -- or the idea that he could come back at any time -- is something the show is missing. The DiMeras shouldn't be the only ones who rise from the ashes. And each time Nick appeared to scare Sami and Gabi into coming clean, I liked this storyline even more.

Next, this secret gives another delightful little wrinkle for Ejami to play with. E.J. knows that Sami's hiding something. I like it that he doesn't let her off the hook when she tries to shut him out. But I like even more that she doesn't back down from him. This is an interesting dynamic that just might work for them. It's very Todd and Ta, or Carly and Todd/Franco/Whoever.

Finally, I too shared @Tony_S_Days's apprehension that this plot would keep Gabi front and center. But Gabi's presence is not as terrible as it could be. If anything, she kind of reminds me of that one friend who's been over-served, and her other friends have to take turns telling her things like, "Hey, hey, focus. You can do so much better than him. Here, drink some coffee. It'll help you feel better."

Make no mistake, Gabi had every right to defend herself. Were I with her, I'd have handed her an even bigger rock to fight Nick off. But she falls back way too much on blaming other people for her bad decisions. Kate and Sami are definitely overbearing on her now. But Gabi made the decision to sleep with Nick and then confide in him with personal details about her life all on her own. She could have used Kate and Sami back then!

As long as Kate and Sami get to lead the way on this one, I'm all in. Their uneasy alliance is wondrous. They don't totally trust each other but realize that no one is better suited to assist in this particular situation than the other. It's hard to say which one is more protective of Will. Plus, there's the very real possibility that Kate will make Gabi some brownies just to shut her up. That, my friends, would be a true Christmas miracle.

LOOSE ENDS No big shock. The ethics committee quickly cleared Daniel. By far, the best part was E.J. calling Anne a vile woman and remembering that Daniel had just saved Chad's life. Correct on both accounts, Eeej!

Speaking of Anne, this Jennifer feud is way too one-sided for it to continue wasting my time. And now that Anne is writing scripts for Theresa and coaching her to lie to the committee, I really can't stand to hear Anne complain about Jennifer's -- or anyone else's, for that matter -- work ethic. Any chance she'll get on her broom and fly south for the winter soon?

Sonny agreed to let T stay on as a bartender! I really like that character, and I hope the writers keep him around. He could be to Club TBD what Maxine is to the hospital or what Dr. Rolf was to Stefano.

I almost felt bad for Rory and Bev when J.J. blew them off. They were genuinely concerned when he was missing, and they did have a point about other people thinking J.J. is a little strange because of the drugs and destruction. But then again, they were the typical "hey, come on, everybody's doing it" hellions that D.A.R.E. warned us about.

Hang on to your hats, kids. I really liked Rafe and Jordan last week!! Sure there's nothing specifically "Salem" about them. But making Rafe the weaker one in this relationship has given him some much needed humility. When Kayla told him that he'd be going home soon, I was downright happy for him! It will be perfect timing because I could use a good detective to help figure out who or what's behind Lynda Chechert Joan Cooper Jordan Ridgeway.

Could DAYS be planning on recasting Chad? If not, I'm not sure why Abigail spent so much time talking about him with E.J. and then defending his character to Kayla.

HOT Note, while Nick scared the bejesus out of Gabi and Sami, he did not show up to haunt Kate. She slept like a baby because Kate is a deliciously wonderful diva villain. Welcome back from the Land of Whimpy Women, Dame Roberts. In totally unrelated news, did you hear that Stefano is coming back to town?

NOT Much as I still adore her, I'm still not behind Maggie's anger at Victor. This was a legitimate desperate times/desperate measures situation and Maggie looks a bit stuck up each time she grandstands about Victor not apologizing.

LINE OF THE WEEK Kate: "Yes, this is Kate Roberts, and if you're blocking your ID because you're trying to sell me something, you're going to wish that you hadn't." I'm so answering my phone this way from now on. I'm not even changing the name.

Honorable Mention: Brady (to Nicole about her story): "Let me guess, the stupids and sinners of Salem. And you want a cameo from stupid." (points to himself)

RANDOM THOUGHTS I'm pretty sure Dan Kroll's Nana wrote one of those letters on Daniel's behalf.

Ouch. 1982 is considered "vintage." Thanks for that, Will.

That was a $100 bill that Brady was using to do cocaine. What? Don't you all have $100 bills in your wallet?

Will's exasperation at people for just dropping by was funny, and also very true!

Pssst! Writers! Brady and Theresa are biological cousins. But if you're looking for a hunky single guy to help Theresa with her recovery, I hear Lucas is available.

Do you think Nicole really has 87 friends who each sent her a message?

That underwater fight dream sequence was bananas.

I find it utterly endearing when E.J. refers to Will as "dear boy."

Nick's head turning into the Grim Reaper would have made James E. Riley proud.

A $30,000 earring makes the one I lost from Target not seem like that big of a deal.

Do you think Hope will wonder about Nick or do you think everyone will just assume that he's hanging out with Bo?

Why in the world would E.J. tell Stefano what's going on with Sami?

I really want one of those Theo hugs -- full sprint, jump up, big squeeze. That kid is kind of the best. He's our Tiny Tim who reminds us all to be happy!

And now, I'm off to decorate my tree and watch some football. Ahh...the true meaning of the season! Tony will be back next week to see if any of our Scrooges learned anything. That is, if I can get him to leave Fezziwig's party on time.

Need more Two Scoops? Head over to read blogs by Laurisa or Tony for more ranting, raving, and all-out randomness

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