It's the most wonderful time of the year

How many storylines can we pile on? Does Eric need a fourth potential mate? Should Rafe and Jada give it a whirl? And how many lies can Wendy remember at one time? Let's make our list and check it twice in this week's Two Scoops.

It's the busiest time of the year. People are planning gifts and gatherings. Some of us are arranging travel. There are end-of-year reports to submit. And allllllll the things need to be baked, shipped, and wrapped.

It's in that same vein, I'm assuming the DAYS writers were feeling especially...um...festive, because we got a whole lot of other stuff piled on top of our regularly scheduled storylines (already in progress).

We'll start with Eric and Nicole. It wasn't enough that the show did an abortion and a love triangle storyline. Nope, we needed to throw on three relationships on top of that.

The first is a revisit of Nicole and E.J. I don't know if they're going there there with them, but this certainly isn't the version of Ericole where Nicole can't stand E.J. She thought that the only possible option for her right now was to move into the DiMansion with Holly. Never mind that she's a high-powered executive at a company who gave Allie her last home. Harold prepares snacks, people. That's an offer she can't refuse.

That left Jada with Rafe as a new confidant. You know that friend you like, but when they hang out with that other friend, the first friend starts behaving badly? That's how I feel about Jada and Rafe. Jada's self-righteous streak flared up when she first came to town, but it went away quickly. However, I worry Rafe will bring it back out. Because...Rafe's gonna Rafe.

Still, I appreciated this scene in the show. We saw Jada tell Eric about keeping the baby. We saw Nicole try to bully Jada into an abortion. Then, we saw Jada announce her decision. But we didn't see Jada have a conversation with anyone other than Nicole before that. That was a huge hole. Jada's conversation with Rafe filled us in and did the whole storyline a service because this decision is so personalized and nuanced. I loved that Jada acknowledged that Nicole was trying to push her buttons. And, at the end of the day, the reasoning doesn't matter. The decision is Jada's.

This all meant that Eric decided to spend time with family, do some self-care, and reflect on the hard position he'd found himself in. Kidding. He had a drink and then drove to another bar. Apparently, he forgot a) he has issues with alcohol and b) that he lives above a bar where he probably gets a good discount. Eric's raking up all the good choices here.

Anyway, Eric, upon seeing E.J. and Nicole together, punched E.J. in the face, which I'm sort of okay with because E.J. was both asking for it and had it coming. Shawn got punched in the face because he tried to help. Belle got yelled at for her efforts. The latter two are not great. Eric spending the night in jail was probably the best thing to happen to him that night. Otherwise, he'd probably end up giving Roman a wedgie and robbing Sweet Bits.

Regrettably, though, he did meet Sloan. And because we're doing that thing where we pile on extra stuff this time of year, Sloan's storyline got Eric added, too.

First, the age difference leaps out at me here. Sloan is certainly of age, but according to her other storyline -- happening right at this very minute -- she's younger than Chanel, since Sloan was supposedly a child/teen when her father had the affair with Chanel. Chanel is close to or the same age as Allie. This means Eric is dating someone younger than his twin sister's child. It shows, too.

Second, it's not shocking that Eric would look for the good in people and thus see Sloan with some compassion. That's a large part of Eric's brand. But he seems to actually think Paulina and Chanel are villains here. More so, he's going against Abe's (Abe!) judgment here for a woman he literally just met.

While there was pressure on Abe to resign, Paulina took matters into her own hands and decided that she's not going to be governor. Considering that the last governor got blackmailed into letting half the reservoir dogs out of Statesville, it's probably a good move to have someone in office who doesn't have the secrets Paulina does. But still, that's a hard blow for voters. I'm hesitant to say people default into voting for Paulina. That's a vote you want counted.

Finally, to add onto the busy storylines, Wendy and Johnny now have to pretend they're hooking up so that Allie won't suspect they went to Jakarta to track down Rolf. (Ugh, Allie.) They both have to keep pretending that they don't know Stefan is brainwashed, which is going to be tougher now that Wendy is Gabi's maid of honor. And Li has to pretend that Johnny took the jet for a joyride so Stefan won't suspect...well, anything. Stefan's problem right now is that he looks really, really dumb. I know his memories of Gabi are missing, so he has actual brain damage. But Stefan was always a little more clever than this. I would think that's how Vivian kind of trained him.

Leo's applying to be a gossip columnist. What's that again about how he's changed and wants to be a good person to make friends? Anyway, I'm sure his new career of exposing secrets and Gwen keeping a huge secret won't cause any problems at all.

Maggie, Sarah, and Bonnie went out for a girls' night, which is actually kind of groundbreaking if you think of it. Stephanie could very easily get added to this list of Kiriakis women soon. Just typing "Kiriakis women" is something I never thought would happen, as that's such a boys' club.

Will having a Christmas deadline to meet sounds familiar. Still, I don't like it when love triangles happen with one character completely off-screen. Also, in this particular case, Will and Sonny drifting apart while Will is off in L.A. literally happened before. I'm getting a huge case of dj boo here.

In contrast, the Chad/Stephanie/Alex love triangle is fun to watch. Stephanie seems to genuinely like Alex, which actually does more to redeem him than most actions he could take. Chad absolutely recognizes that Stephanie was within every right to move on, and his feelings aren't ones that he particularly wants to handle right now. I even like Sonny being in the middle of this, giving the same actually good advice to both men -- Stephanie is a grown woman who can make her own decision if she has all of the information available to her. Preach, Sonny. You are correct, sir!

HOT Thank you, Chad, for speaking for all of us when warning Sonny about Leo. In fact, the entire face of disbelief and rattling off all the things Leo has done to Sonny was appropriate. It's not that Sonny hasn't done bad thing to Leo, too. It's that this pair has been through the wringer when it comes to issues.

NOT: Those clown masks are rivaling Taylor's scarf and Duke the Bear as the most obnoxious props.

LINE OF THE WEEK: Every time E.J. referred to Mary as "Aunt Sister" made me laugh out loud.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

This is going to make me sound 1000 years old, but whatever. I cannot understand anything Wendy wears. A few weeks ago, she wore her dad's old Tommy Bahama shirt. Now, she's wearing a tube top over baggy jeans and a baggy T-shirt? I'm all for comfortable fashion, but I literally do not get the physics of this couture.

Sloan knowing all of Nicole's last names was downright stalkery and gave all sorts of Gwen vibes. Why in the world would you know so much about a "complete" stranger.

I liked Jonny in that purple shirt and printed jacket! Very cool combo!

Is it strange that we haven't gotten Will's reaction to Susan's death? Those two have a very complicated history, with her keeping him alive and brainwashed all those years.

No way Roman knows how to make those fancy drinks. I bet he has to text Kate anytime someone orders anything other than a beer to see how to make it. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I really hope Stephanie writes a cookbook of all the recipes she acquired while living outside of Salem. I'd buy it!

That's it for this week. Tony will be back next week to see who Ava plans to have join in Susan's funeral. As unsuccessful as Salem's weddings are, I wonder if it works that funerals are generally a hit? We shall see! Oh, and I will be back in two weeks for the Golden Donuts: The Best of 2022 on DAYS column! Laurisa

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