Down that path into darkness

In this edition of Two Scoops, we stop to ponder the question: can there ever be enough deliciously twisted bad guys on a soap? And if the bad guy is getting rid of useless characters and beefing up comatose storylines, is he really all that bad?

Holy twists, DAYS fans! How great of a week was that?! Fabulous returns, new characters, and the reveal that our beloved Salem pest control necktie killer was none other than ol' Ollie from Ozark Mountain! Whoa! My head is still spinning!

Let's start with Ben. Robert Scott Wilson was spectacular last week. I would love to hear how long he's known he's going to play the killer, because the dude has not tipped his hand. Sure, we all knew that Ben had a temper the size of Ciara's attitude. But did anyone really think dim-bulb Ben had the cerebral capacity to fool all of Salem and carry on a murder spree right under their unsuspecting noses? Come on. Of course not.

I'm absolutely ecstatic with the reveal because it could finally put some meat behind the Ben/Abigail/Chad love triangle. Basing it on Abigail's indecisiveness was not cutting the mustard. Last week, girlfriend reached stratospheric levels of annoying. Really, Abs? Chad is not Ben's rival? You just keep telling yourself that, sweetie.

To be clear, Abigail's lies are not malicious. She really wants to love Ben and have Chad as just a friend. But she doesn't. And Ben was completely justified in being furious with her for going and doing the one thing he asked her not to do. The gal can't follow simple directions! You guys, I'm seriously concerned for her to continue working anywhere near the health care profession. And I know it sounds completely looney, but I kinda feel for Ben! No one can say that he hasn't devoted himself to Abigail. Technically, he's killed for her. Sure, I think the easier way to deal with his feelings would have been to just confront the fickle tart about her cheating, but whatever. Serial killing spree works too.

Of course, at first glance, it's easy to dub him a weirdo obsessed with Abigail. But I hope they don't play it that way. I hope they play it where the poor kid who's never had a home or real family since he was a small child can't deal with the fact that a rich kid (who'd already bedded Ben's sister) stepped in and tried to take away Abigail too. That, I would buy. Because, just maybe, it's not about Abigail. Maybe it's more her representing the only stability he's ever really known, and the dude snapped at the idea of it being snatched away.

As a bonus, I'm positively doing backflips because Ben has Clyde completely fooled. I love the idea of Ben playing the putz -- all the while taking Clyde's money left and right. I never dug the way Ben seemed to forgive Clyde so easily. This could easily explain it all away.

And since he's now interesting, I want him to stay around. I adore Billy Flynn's Chad and would love for Chad to have an ongoing rival. I kid you not, I spent all day on Friday, wondering how we could keep Ben around. Alas when I came home from work and turned on DAYS, I'd resigned myself to the fact that unless it comes out that he's been sneaking into Hope's stash of sleeping pills, there's just not a place for a serial killer as a regular character.

And then Andre returned in all his three-piece (velvet?) suit glory. I literally gasped and clapped. Could there be room for another killer in Salem?

Either way, I adore having the wickedly charming Thaao Penghlis back on DAYS. Of course, there are a lot of questions to be answered. Just who died in that hospital bed? How is Andre not facing murder charges? And, more importantly, why did they rewrite one of Stefano's juicier schemes to make Andre Stefano's biological son now?

But I can wait while we solve one mystery at a time. Right now, it's the Bo Show. Or, should I say, the Bo Redemption Show. I completely agree with @Tony_S_Days. It would have made much more sense to "kill" off Bo when Peter Reckell chose to leave the show. It was a mistake to have Bo choose his career over being present with his family. But that's what happened.

Alas, the fix to that problem was never to tar and feather Hope, Victor, and the Bradys for not dropping their lives and going after him. (Which we know would have been futile, considering Bo wasn't being recast, and Peter wasn't coming back.) So, I'm glad that Steve pivoted away from the Hope-bashing and admitted the clues were only something someone with a merchant marine past with Bo would uncover. He gets extra points for pointing out that there was nothing Hope or Victor could have known or done.

So with Steve being the only one who could handle the gig, let's have him get to it! I loved the nod to Britta Englund -- the spy who played Bo and Steve against each. (Fun fact: she's the reason that Steve's missing an eye!) I can't wait to see what other nuggets they can dig up from the show's past to use along the way!

Once we get Bo back in his rightful place, let's tackle this little remaining detail about Steve being a crappy husband/dad. I can -- and have -- rallied against changes happening to characters off-screen. But when that character returns and displays that same behavior, I have to kinda shut down the "Steve would never do that!" argument. So, yes, Joey was right to call Steve on taking off again without telling anyone. Next time, Patchman, make the call to your family before you board the plane, mmkay?

And speaking of deadbeats, Eduardo Hernandez/Eddie Larson appeared in Salem. Rafe took one look at him, yelled "Daddy!" and then jumped to wrap all fours around him in a bear hug. Just kidding. Eddie's such a terrible father that it took his second daughter dying for him to show his face. Yeah, I'm not exactly feeling the love for this dude.

Plus, much as I enjoy A. Martinez in general, I'm not really seeing the need for this character at all. Paige is dead. Eve is on her way out. And Gabi and Rafe are already established characters. Unless we're in for seeing two grown adults play out residual daddy issues -- which I sincerely hope we are not -- Eddie better have some other reason for being in Salem. My first suggestion would be to have him be an old acquaintance of Xander's, and he's in town to spring Xander from the big house. But I'm open to suggestion.

LOOSE ENDS My most necessary rewrite thus far has been changing Caroline's diagnosis. If the show is going to have Caroline come home with a miracle drug and have Victor sponsor a mad scientist somewhere, the least they could do is play it out with an imaginary disease rather than one never cured in the history of ever. Plus, now I can enjoy Peggy McCay's heart-tuggingly brilliant performances without the least bit of annoyance at the overall storyline.

I completely understand why Brady is keeping Theresa at arm's distance. She's more than a little volatile and doesn't exactly smell of trust. But I like seeing her earn her way out of the time-out chair. Brady has a track record of forgiving bad girls. I had to laugh at the double standard of him throwing shade at Theresa about John when Nicole is sitting right next to him...in Victor's living room. I'm not saying he needs to have spa days with Theresa. But it's nice to see he wouldn't throw a party if she got hit by a bus.

Kayla is an absolute saint for trying to get Joey to talk through his feelings. Step one would be getting Joey to form complete sentences, or at least string enough grunts together to resemble a cohesive thought.

Loni Price rolled into town last week as the newest addition to the Salem P.D. from the Miami P.D. (Hmm...didn't Ben live in Miami?) She also probably, maybe, definitely could be Abe's long-lost daughter. Perhaps she can start a club with Chad and Paul for surprise kids.

I'm a little shocked that Stefano isn't holding up his end of the bargain. If he hired Aiden to get Hope to divorce Bo and marry him, Aiden did his part. I think the big fella should pay him. Then again, I'm just impressed Aiden can still see with all the bus tire marks all over his face.

I got shivers when Clyde said he looks forward to a closer relationship with Jennifer once the kids are married. I'd shake off that hand too, Jennifer!

For a seemingly smart guy, Chad needs to learn to shut his trap around Abigail. Unless she becomes a doctor, a clergy member, or Mrs. Chad DiMera, she's positioning herself to be one heck of a witness for the prosecution. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that throwing his phone into the river doesn't actually get rid of the text message trail. All the cops need to do is check Abigail's phone.

HOT

Kassie DePaiva's brilliant, nuanced performance is the stuff that Emmys are made of. Rather than flail and then go numb, Kassie continues to play out every frustrating wave of Eve's grief to perfection. It's masterful work and some that, no doubt, must be horribly dark and challenging to do.

To top it all off, the soap heavens opened up and gave us the pairing of Kassie DePaiva and Lauren Koslow. I adore these two strong women getting a chance to play a scene that didn't involve a single catfight. These actresses and these characters bring out the best in each other. Both Eve and Kate are two stoic women, an inch away from cracking at any moment. Their pain was palpable, as was their determination to somehow keep it all together. I could have watched these two all day.

NOT Maybe it's the Daniel effect, but I'm not loving Nicole lately. I didn't like her telling off Kate about being part of Basic Black when Nicole doesn't own a single share of that company right now. And I really had to roll my eyes when the baby swapper/blackmailer/attempted murderess told Kate that she wasn't in her league. Jeeze, Nicki. Literally, your nemesis was God at one point. Stop it. Look people in the eye -- not down your nose -- when you spar with them.

LINE OF THE WEEK Daniel: "Who's the president?" Marlena: "Barack Obama" Daniel: "And how old are you?" Marlena: "Nice try." This line of the week was made possible by the righteous side-eye Marlena employed while saying it.

RANDOM THOUGHTS The "Fr Elise" music box music was oh-so-very creepy. But, the visuals of Shawn in the mirror were very well done. It's like someone read our summer blog series!

Speaking of the summer blog series, check them all out here: Part One: Dream Girls Part Two: A Few Good Men Part Three: Phantoms of the Soap Opera Part Four: Somewhere Out There Part Five: The show must go on I'm not a parenting expert, but I've got to question Steve telling an already-spiraling Joey that the best day of Steve's life was when Joey's sister was born.

It's kind of an upset that Kayla beat out Jennifer to be Hope's matron of honor, no?

Considering that he has a broken finger, Aiden did a pretty bang-up job forging that signature!

It was nice of Abigail to show Chad the shack where Arianna was born.

I'm pretty sure "D.A." stands for "Definitely Arrogant." There should at least be a modicum of reservation on Justin's part over criminalizing his son's oldest and best friend. Justin always seemed more compassionate and level-headed.

Okay, now they're just making a joke out of Lucas. What grown man walks around in the middle of a work day, looking for other men to join a pick-up basketball game? Sheesh. Can we please get this guy a real storyline?

Jennifer gets 10,000 bonus points for saying Ben and Abigail should decide on things for their own wedding.

It's almost like I need a whole new section just to deal with casting changes. Oh wait...

Casting Changes Warning: Skip this section if you're spoiler free!

Letting Kassie DePaiva go is beyond stupid. The second Eve got to be in a grown-up storyline (see: every damn scene she played this week!), she dazzled me. I am not happy about this. Not. One. Bit.

Thank goodness they're fixing this! Chloe needs to come back when the rest of her Last Blast crew is around!

Will annoys the snot out of me. But it's a ridiculous idea to kill off Lumi's firstborn son. He's a twit. But he's a legacy twit.

Go ahead and file this under "I'm a Terrible Person.". You see I've reached extreme levels of Daniel fatigue. (Which, to be fair, has exactly nothing to do with the charming Shawn Christian.) So when the news broke that Daniel was going to be killed off, I was actually irritated because it means we'll have to watch Maggie and company sob over this irritating sap for an extended period of time. Can't he just surf back to Australia? Or, you know, go bake cookies with Caroline, never to be seen again? Like I said. #TerriblePerson I'm sorry!

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