The Wedding Disaster Begins: Days of our Lives Two Scoops for the week of January 27, 2025

The week started off with Leo stupidly playing a message from New Doug right in front of Javi! New Doug mentioned getting the necklace back, and Javi was curious, but as always, Leo managed to talk his way out of it. If he saw the message was from New Doug, why would he play it out loud in front of someone else? Doesn’t he know that loose voicemails sink ocean liners?

Sophia and Tate are still wrestling with their baby drama, but she came up with a good plan. She realized she’ll be 18 when the baby is born, and then she can give it up for adoption, and her parents can’t do anything about it. However, even if they get an adoption lined up on the down low, she (and probably Tate) will fall in love with the baby once it’s born, and they’ll change their minds about adoption.

Leo gave New Doug a job so he can pay Holly back, which was very nice of him. He’s really turning a corner from being a schemer to trying to be a better human being. He even almost did the right thing at Jada and Rafe’s wedding, which we’ll discuss here later.

Brady and Kristen found Rachel at Kristen’s old family home in Aremid. I still can’t get over how funny that it’s DiMera backwards. I wonder if the other characters are aware of it? According to the memory of a person on Reddit, the town was the property of Stefano, who controlled everything there. It makes sense that he’d name it after himself with a twist. But the Woman in White was not there which had me thinking that she was either a ghost or a figment of Rachel’s imagination. However, she was dealing with a captive, Ava, and appears to be very much real and alive.

There was a hilarious scene where it was obvious that Arnold was looking at porn on a computer. Javi walked in and almost caught him. He told Fake Rafe that there would be a bachelor party for him, which had the phony groom all excited.

At the party, Fake Rafe almost got in trouble with Steve, who yelled at him because he got wind of the fact that “Rafe” was doing a job for EJ, but it wasn’t sanctioned or commissioned by Black Patch. But, it being a bachelor party, everyone put the kibosh on their heated conversation. It was interesting to see Arnold’s reactions as EJ crashed the bachelor party in an attempt to rein Arnold in and make sure he wasn’t revealing anything.

Arnold almost gave away his cover anyway. In this scene, Fake Rafe dropped a lot of inadvertent hints that he wasn’t actually Rafe, particularly when he referred to Sloane as “That Sloane Petersen chick.” I guess everyone was so worried when Steve started to unload on Fake Rafe for taking a case without letting the Black Patch higher-ups know that they didn’t notice his several verbal slip-ups. For example, like a 50s greaser, he snapped his fingers and said to Steve, “You tryin’ ta start somethin’ with me, Patchy?”

Meanwhile, the women at the bachelorette party were hilariously getting drunk from the enormous amount of Jell-O shots they were consuming. They played a game answering personal questions and if they didn’t want to answer it, they had to eat a shot. The first question was to name a hookup that they regretted. Stephanie brought up a name from the past when she cited Jeremy Horton as a hookup she regretted. This troubled Horton has played around on the other side of the law, and perhaps his mention means a return to Salem. Surprisingly, Paulina regretted hooking up with rapper 50 Cent because he later blew up her pager! It was embarrassing when Gabi said her most regrettable hookup was EJ and then Belle said the same thing! Everyone was shocked. More to come on the EJ/Belle front.

Meanwhile, worlds collided when the women from the bachelorette party showed up at the bachelor party in the Brady Pub as Fake Rafe was enjoying the dance stylings of a stripper who first arrived dressed as a cop. I’m sorry. She was an “exotic dancer,” in her own words.

At the end of the party, there was a double “Uh-oh!” when EJ took Belle home and they kissed, and Chanel kissed Shawn! While EJ and Belle actually slept together, thankfully nothing further happened with Shawn and Chanel. He took her back to his hotel room and let her crash there, as a gentleman would. But Arnold…Oh, Arnold! He took the dancer back to his hotel room, and they slept together.

At the Blake house, the Woman in White had Ava captive. Rachel called her to make sure she still had Ava, which was kind of funny. If you pay attention to the scene where the Woman is talking to Ava, in the background there’s a chandelier that’s flickering. But the studio lights are so bright that you hardly notice it. I would imagine it’s meant to be an illustration that the power in the house is faulty, but it also adds to the haunting vibe of the Blake house and the Woman in White.

Uh-oh again! Shawn walked into Marlena’s place and saw Belle in her bathrobe standing there with EJ, who looked unkempt. It was clear that Shawn figured out they slept together. EJ would later go to the bound and gagged Rafe to give him a cupcake with a candle and birthday party hats while he sang Happy Birthday, and seeing EJ in a party hat was priceless.

Meanwhile, Javi went to Rafe’s hotel room (Fake Rafe and Jada agreed to be traditional and not see each other night before their wedding). Javi was horrified when he saw that the exotic dancer, Savannah, had slept with Fake Rafe. However, Arnold managed to talk Javi out of telling anyone about his dalliance. That whole scene was super uncomfortable, and it’s going to be hard for the real Rafe and Jada to reconnect if this whole business comes out.

When EJ was hilariously trying to get the real Rafe to eat his birthday cupcake while making choo-choo train noises, Rafe leapt out of his chair unbound and attacked EJ, knocking him out. I jumped, not expecting it! Sadly, the DiMera executive assistant Rita arrived just as the real Rafe was escaping from the secret room. After listening to his story, she figured out EJ must have had him imprisoned, and tazed poor Rafe! She later told EJ how loyal she was to the whole DiMera family, not just whoever happened to be her boss at the time.

Meanwhile, Javi discussed his conundrum with Leo, who gave him some hilariously poor advice. But Leo revealed some details about his childhood, like when his mother would leave him home alone instead of calling a babysitter and telling him if the doorknob started turning that, he should run!

At the wedding, Leo stood up at the “speak now or forever hold your peace” part and was about to blab that Fake Rafe slept with the exotic dancer. But, Javi stopped him and downplayed it. However, EJ sent Fake Rafe a text message, and after reading it, he announced that there wouldn’t be a wedding. It looks like his and EJ’s plan to discredit Jada and get her fired is underway, and the fallout will be interesting to see.

LOOSE ENDS:

The Woman in White sent Brady a message from Ava’s phone saying that she went to Hong Kong and wouldn’t be returning any time soon. Brady’s not dumb, and he’s going to put two and two together. He needs to have Steve work his tech magic again to find out where that call came from.

And speaking of the Blake house, how is there still power and a working landline? Everything on that place must be set up for auto-pay, considering someone referred to it as a DiMera Summer home last week.

Leading up to the wedding, it seemed that Jada was starting to notice that Rafe wasn’t acting like himself. Once he drops the bomb that she’s supposedly corrupt, all heck is going to break loose, and she’s going to need to have her wits about her and realize he’s not the real Rafe.

At what point will the Salem PD investigate who disseminated the tainted cupcakes? It’s most likely Mr. X, whose identity still remains a mystery.

EXTRA SCOOPS

HOT

EJ and Belle started heating up. They’re an unlikely pair but keep finding themselves in bed together. And judging by the way they were gazing at each other in the aftermath of their dance between the sheets, there’s clearly a spark there, and it would be fun to see them progress further into coupledom.

NOT

Arnold, aka “Fake Rafe,” and Jada. Despite EJ warning him to stay away from Jada, he’s practically drooling when he sees her. Thankfully, they won’t be married, but it’s just so creepy to think that he’s posing as her fiance and even creepier when you ponder what’s going through his mind. Another creepy moment was when he hugged Gabi just before going to the wedding, and she was struggling because he was hugging her a little too hard. He’s nasty!

LINE(S) OF THE WEEK

EJ had the lion’s share of memorable lines this week. At one point, he muttered to himself, “Ugh, they never warn you how much of a hassle it is keeping someone captive, do they?”

Later, he scolded Arnold at the bachelor party saying, “This party isn’t for you, you pathetic slug. It’s for Rafe Hernandez.” It’s safe to say that Arnold is a complete boob.

Also, at the bachelor party, Arnold said to EJ, “You’re as bad as One-Eyed Willy.” Not sure what context he meant, but One-Eyed Willy was the name of the captain of the pirate ship called Inferno in the 1985 classic film, The Goonies. Of course, Willy was a skeleton when the kids in the movie found him while searching for his treasure.

Belle woke up with a headache and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this bad.“ Then she turned over and saw EJ sleeping next to her and said to herself, “I stand corrected.”

In a post-coital discussion, Belle revealed she had chosen EJ as her biggest hookup regret. He then said, “Why would I want to sleep with you? You stole my job.”

EJ lit the candle on the cupcake he brought the real Rafe, and after putting a birthday hat on him, he pulled the gag from his mouth so Rafe could blow out the candle. It was hilarious when Rafe’s wish was: “I wish you were dead.”

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Paulina made a great reference to pagers, the precursor to cell phones. For those who don’t know, a pager was a little device we’d carry around (even clipping to our belts). If someone needed you, they dialed your pager number. A return phone number or even a message would pop up on it, and chances are you had to run around and find a pay phone to call the person back.

I thought it was funny when Johnny asked Kristen about Rachel, and Kristen said she wished Rachel was sorry but the little girl is not big on contrition.

It would appear that Chanel and Johnny are now even. So they need to make up, and Johnny needs to stop being stupid.

Whoopsie! Marlena accidentally told Leo that Belle slept with EJ! Thankfully, he’s not a gossip columnist anymore. Leo wanted nothing more than to be one of Marlena’s best friends, and in the end, he wore her down and admitted they were now friends. It was a really cute scene, and poor Marlena’s looking for someone to talk to since she can never get in touch with John who’s on a double-top secret mission for the ISA.

After Leo told Marlena about how he outed Kerry as Lady Whistleblower, and Javi threw Kerry out, Leo said, “It was incredible. Better than Waiting to Exhale. Full-on Angela Bassett walking away from that cheating bastard’s car after setting it on fire.” Waiting to Exhale was a 1995 film about four women and their relationships, directed by Forest Whitaker and starring Bassett and Whitney Houston.

Rita’s loyalty to the DiMeras, and skill with a taser, reminded me of Alfred who takes care of Bruce Wayne/Batman without hesitation.

Javi shocked Leo with the news that Rafe cheated. I like how the scene was juxtaposed with Jada talking to Fake Rafe on the phone.

Leo had known the stripper exotic dancer and was the one who hired her. Her name was Sally, and Leo didn’t think she was the kind of person who would sleep with a client who was getting married. Leo and Sally had previously worked together on an off-off-off Broadway production about the rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis together, which I think was also a recent reference on the show. It turned out it that Savannah had taken Sally’s place and was the one who did the deed with Fake Rafe.

It was a touching scene when Steve was going to walk Jada down the aisle, and they talked about how he and her father, Marcus, had known each other in an orphanage. Steve was happy that Marcus went on to have a family and Jada was glad Steve walked her down the aisle. Are we going to have to do this all over again when Jada finally marries the real Rafe?

PARTING THOUGHTS

The “Who is Lady Whistleblower” story has finally concluded, while the Fake Rafe story seems to be nearing its final act. I want to see more of this Mr. X that we saw last week, and find out what he’s got planned for Alex. Also, I really like the Marlena/Leo friendship. She’s a good influence on him. And doesn’t it seem like all of Marlena and Steve’s scenes are overshadowed by the whole “How are they gonna write John out of the show?” thing? It’s sad that Drake Hogestyn passed away, and I feel that because they shoot so far in advance, we have to wait an agonizingly long time for them to finally deal with it.

Thanks for joining me again, DOOL-ers! Until next week!