The court battle ended in a tie: Days of our Lives Two Scoops for the week of December 16, 2024

Hi, DOOL'ers! I hope you're done with your holiday shopping and not stuck in Horton Square listening to Leo's dating advice! Let's dive into the week that was in Salem...

Order in and out of the courts

Shawn had Belle served with divorce papers. She wasn’t happy about it, but perhaps if they start seeing other people, they’ll become interesting characters again, and they’ll eventually find their way back to each other.

The court battle between Xander and Philip happened, and frankly it wasn’t much of a nailbiter. Both sides had trouble getting witnesses to testify, but Shawn got on the stand and told the court that Victor had groomed Philip to run Titan since they were kids. Score one for Philip. Later, Sarah ended up on the stand, but when Belle asked about Xander’s attempts to kill Brady, she pleaded the fifth. Score one for Xander.

With the case tied, the judge left to make the decision. She surprised everyone by making a quick decision. When she came back, she ruled that both Xander and Philip had equal claim to Titan, so they now have to split it 50/50. Philip was somewhat happy, but as expected, Xander was beyond angry. Cue the Odd Couple music, but let’s hope we get to see these two attempt to work together for a little bit before someone does something stupid and lands in jail. At least give us some time to place some bets on which one will try to kill the other. Of course, the letter could always be proven to be a forgery, sending Philip away for a while. (And why did Kate previously approve of his tactic after claiming she didn’t want to do anything bad that would upset Roman?)

Speaking of which, Vivian called Roman from Statesville, but Kate grabbed the phone out of his hand and told Vivian off. However, she didn’t hang up and when Roman left the room, she told Viv to keep her mouth shut about the phony letter stating Victor wanted Philip to run the company. Kate also insisted she not be screwed out of her cut of the money if Philip won. Kate, Kate, what are we gonna do with you?

Just confess already

Meanwhile, Stephanie overheard Johnny and Alex going at it again and she thought Alex had become a player once more. Alex wasn’t happy about that and later tried to convince Stephanie that sleeping with Joy was a one-time mistake that wouldn't happen again. But you could see in her face that she’s pretty much done with him. When he left, he was sadder than when he arrived. He’s probably gonna beat the crap out of Johnny.

Shortly thereafter, Philip showed up to tell Steph his half-good news and they ultimately ended up kissing. Didn’t see that coming! Whenever Philip comes back we know it’s always short-lived, so hopefully he doesn’t start things up with Steph only to leave town once the letter is proven to be a forgery.

Alone, Xander spoke to Victor’s portrait and swore he would shake Philip loose from Titan if it’s the last thing he ever does. I can’t wait for the day when technology is such that paintings like Victor’s and Stefano’s will talk back, like in Harry Potter. It would be funny to hear the patriarchs yelling at their progeny for doing stupid things.

Time, and EJ, served

Elsewhere, EJ, being EJ, gave Mark a plea deal. If he admitted to trying to kill Chad, he’d only get 10 years in prison instead of 25. What? Thankfully, before the doctor signed it, Belle barged in, claiming to be his lawyer, and stopped him. She then read EJ the riot act and even pointed out that his so-called crime, which was under duress, happened in France, so Salem can’t try him for attempted murder. In the end, all parties agreed that Mark’s tampering with Cat’s DNA to make her appear to be the real Abby was a crime in Salem, and he agreed to serve 18 months. So mark your calendars for June of 2026, when we’ll see Mark again on a regular basis. But this is a soap, so he’ll probably get out early.

After the deal with Mark was done, EJ and Belle had a nice chat. He came off all hard-nosed with Mark but turned into an old softy when he dealt with Belle. After referring to her as Mrs. Brady, she told him she and Shawn were getting divorced, and didn’t EJ’s eyes light up? Clearly, there may be something brewing there if she sticks around long enough.

Chad apologized profusely to Jack and Jennifer for not finding Abby’s body, sending him further down the ‘Sad Sack Chad’ path. But Julie let them put some keepsakes each one had of Abby in the time capsule and they buried it in Abby’s plot. It was a nice scene and even JJ got to participate. But that Chad’s going to need some therapy after all the trauma he’s suffered: ‘She’s dead. She’s not dead. No, she's really dead, but her body is missing.’ It’s kind of tiring to think about the convoluted story.

Another nice scene was Cat catching up with Felicity. But on the topic of convoluted stories, the poor kid’s head must be spinning. Here’s another case of ‘Your mom, dad, and sister are dead. No, wait. Your sister’s alive, but she doesn’t look like your sister anymore. Oh, and mom’s actually alive, but she’s been brainwashed.’ Dr. Rolf should open up a brainwashing clinic in Salem, kind of like the ones in Total Recall.

Cat, Aaron, and Felicity decided to go visit their mom in prison in Vancouver. So Cat then went to Chad to say goodbye. It looked like they were almost gonna kiss…but that didn’t happen. They’d probably make a nice couple, but do they have anything in common, other than what she pretended? Aaron went and talked to Tate to tell him what was going on and to also say goodbye, and it was nice to see these two have a real conversation about their lives. With all these new characters, it’s too bad their exit seemed like it was going to be for quite some time. Hopefully, they’ll come back sooner rather than later with a more interesting and less confusing storyline. Maybe Dr. Rolf will swap all of their brains around.

Ah, Leo. He bumped into Holly in the Square, who was feeling all warm and fuzzy about her life — was being the operative word. Leo was super nice to her and said he’d been rooting for her and Tate. Of course, in his swift speaking, he put his foot in his mouth by telling her she and Tate were now in the hard part of a relationship, and he hoped they would make it. She appeared stunned and confused by his words, and hilariously, he wished her a Merry Christmas and skipped off. Now she’s all worried that something will go wrong with her relationship. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Sophia later showed up at Tate’s and told him she was pregnant! Yikes!

Javi could tell Gabi had a thing for JJ, and he tried to convince her to go for it, especially after he learned JJ told her they should hang out sometime. So Javi grabbed her phone and quickly sent a message to JJ saying that she’d like to have a drink with him. It was hilarious to watch her try to get her phone back from him. She fretted over the sent message (don’t they have ‘unsend’ functions now?). Fortunately for her, it wasn’t long before JJ responded that he would love to, and could they go out that night? We’ll see where that leads to…

New Doug had heard about what Leo had done with Abby’s jewelry after she died. So, he went to Leo’s and asked him to fence the stolen Horton necklace for him, claiming he owed nefarious people a ton of money. Poor Leo. He’s still struggling with trying to be a good person and didn’t want to fence it. But in his infinite wisdom, he told New Doug he might know somebody who knows somebody, so the young man reluctantly left the necklace with Leo.

When Leo offered to pay for an abortion for Sophia, she freaked out because parental consent was needed to have one, and she said her parents would have a conniption if they found out. Tate offered to take her out of state to do it. It’ll be interesting to see how that works itself out. Can you see it now? He doesn’t want to tell Holly about it, but if he and Sophia go off to another state, Holly’s gonna think there’s some hanky panky going on.

Meanwhile, Brady and Ava had a failed date because he lost the tickets to the ballet. After he left her place, she took her necklace off, which he had previously helped her put on (and maybe it was because I wasn’t super close to the TV), and I got the impression that the necklace New Doug gave to Leo will somehow get switched with hers. That may be a whole storyline where it’s found in her possession, and she gets accused of stealing it, so we’ll see.

Later, Gabi got a text message from an unknown number that asked, “So, how was your date?” Who could that have been? It can’t be Clyde because he’s in a coma, so there must be another threat out there…

LOOSE ENDS:

They really need to explain what exactly Clyde did to Catherina. She’s under his spell, but then just a few words from Cat snaps her out of it? It took a long time for Marlena to deprogram John, and even then, years later, Konstantin was able to control him. Perhaps it will be the same thing with Catherina. But some deep therapy might help her to recall where Clyde left Abby’s body.

Perhaps Cat and Company didn't actually leave, leave, and we'll see them visit their mom in prison.

At this rate, with all the people who need therapy and Leo constantly hounding her after hours, Marlena’s gonna have a caseload that lasts her at least until 2030.

EXTRA SCOOPS

HOT

Gabi and JJ. These two have majors in chemistry, and it could be a good direction for them to go in. Also, I know I said before that I didn’t think Brady and Ava had many sparks between them, but after Friday’s episode, there was definitely something percolating between them. Hopefully, we’ll see that play out as a slow burn until Kristen drives a cement mixer over Ava.

NOT

New Doug. He should have just told Julie he owed money to some criminals and she would have gotten Black Patch on the case to help him. He looks like he doesn’t want to be a weasel, so perhaps Leo, on his own journey of betterment, may see that the guy needs to be steered in the right direction. Leo’s got an in with Rafe who’s working the Lady Whistleblower case, so maybe he can put the former police commissioner on the trail of whoever’s shaking New Doug down for money.

LINE(S) OF THE WEEK

When New Doug showed Leo the necklace, Leo asked how many karats it was, and New Doug said he wasn’t Bugs Bunny. Get it?

At one point, Xander stated, “As far as I knew, everything was tickety-boo.” Tickety boo is a British colloquialism that means everything’s okay. Say it three times fast.

In the courtroom, Belle told Philip that she was surprised to be in a room full of Kiriaki, the plural of Kiriakis. I laughed out loud at that because I hadn’t heard it before.

Also in court, the judge asked Xander and Philip if they were familiar with “King Solomon’s dilemma…split the baby so to speak.” She was referring to the Biblical tale when two women went to King Solomon fighting over a baby. When Solomon declared he would cut it in half so they’d each have a piece of the child, one woman said for him to do it so neither could have the kid. The other pleaded for the child’s life and asked it be given to the first woman. It was then Solomon knew she was the real mother, not the first one, who would have let the child die.

After losing the tickets to The Nutcracker, Brady and Ava tried watching it on TV and got bored, so they switched over to Christmas Vacation. Brady said if he, Tate, and Theresa ever went on a vacation, they’d be the Griswolds. Ava agreed that he had a Chevy Chase vibe, and Brady asked, “You look at me, and you think of Clark Griswold?” She replied, “Yeah. Definitely.”

RANDOM THOUGHTS

So, how did Clyde steal Abby’s body?? He must have a secret army of people who do his bidding because one person couldn’t pull that off without being caught. Wouldn’t the cemetery’s groundskeeper have noticed the freshly dug dirt? Unless she wasn’t dead to begin with, and he had his people take her out clandestinely at the last minute before she was originally “buried.”

Xander should have spent as much money as he possibly could, just in case Philip won the lawsuit.

The scene where they put Abby’s effects in the time capsule and buried it was touching, and you could really see the camaraderie of the actors shine through.

Is it me, or does Chad keep seeing or hearing Abby around every corner??

The exchange between Aaron and Tate was really nice. You don’t often get the younger characters having nice dramatic moments like that.

Leo’s rapid-fire dialogue is always great, especially when he goes off on a tangent and then either reels himself in or, more likely, someone else does.

PARTING THOUGHTS

They’ve got a lot of good story potential going on here, so hopefully the show keeps it up. Dick Van Dyke was in the news recently because of the Malibu wildfire, as well as his appearance in a Coldplay video, so he’s been on my mind. When the funeral for John eventually comes along, I hope the legendary performer returns, even for just one episode.

Well, that’s all for today! Until next time DOOL-ers!