To Scheme or Not to Scheme: Days of our Lives Two Scoops for the week of November 4, 2024

A surprisingly pleasant Rachel was happy to see her parents, Brady and Kristen, getting along and hoped for a true reunion of the couple. It was nice to see her shed her bratty ways (at least for now), as she’s been so rude and crude in the past.

Kristen continued to tell Brady that she was being altruistic by getting the serum for Sarah from Dr. Rolf, but she left out the part that she was forcing Xander to hand over Titan to her as an exchange. It seems that Brady is kinda sorta inching his way back to her, but if a real romance is going to brew between them, he has to fully understand that she sees the world through DiMera colored lenses, and will never be as good a person as Stephanie, for example.

Philip, of course, arrived in town with Vivian to put a stop to the whole Titan mess. It got to the point where Xander was going to kill his own brother, and he would have if the gun Philip pulled from Victor’s safe wasn’t empty. First of all, Xander would have known that the gun was empty, and perhaps he did. Being a seasoned gun user, the weight in his hand would have tipped him off right away.

I'm all for Xander moving from his criminal ways to become a family man, but the fact that he wanted to kill Philip makes me think his old ways are still just below the surface, and one of these days, he’s going to do something REALLY stupid and land in prison if he’s not careful.

It was nice to see Kate not fall for Vivian’s seeming willingness to cut her in on the Kiriakis money. Obviously, Viv wanted to keep Kate from spilling the beans about her being in Salem, but Kate ultimately turned her in to the cops. This was a rather momentous occasion because the old Kate would have gladly accepted the money to pour into Body & Soul, but this new Kate later admitted that she was now married to Roman and didn’t want to disappoint him by getting involved in another nefarious scheme. Good for Kate!

Tate, meanwhile, made a good decision by not getting back together with Holly, who’s got scheming in her blood. She returned from France after forgiving Eric for killing her father, and forgiving her mother for keeping that fact from her. But Holly’s kind of a loose cannon, and while she’s on her best behavior now, the fact that Tate and Sophia slept together will make it scheme-time all over again. Tate needs to just be done with her and stick with Sophia, who’s backstory is starting to deepen.

Also, It was fun to see Ivan slinking around the DiMera mansion, and we’re hoping for more goofy times between him and Vivian — once they figure out how to break her out of prison.

Extra Scoops

HOT

Rafe and Jada got engaged! Yay! These two are the cutest couple in daytime, currently. With changes like Kate deciding to do the right thing happening, perhaps this couple can be given some time before they’re inevitably split up by the soap writing gods. Both characters deserve some happiness, and with each of them working for the police force, it would be better if they were more like Hart to Hart’s lovey-dovey crime-fighting couple. Steve and Kayla plus John and Marlena have been strong married couples for quite some time, and Rafe and Jada should be added to that list.

NOT

Gabi’s brother Javi is just super annoying with no goals in life. He’s floating along like a leaf in the wind. Perhaps getting together with the reformed Leo will inspire him to do something productive. Time will tell…

Random Thoughts

It’s been announced that Body & Soul will be coming to an end, and while many viewers are happy about that, I’m a little bummed. The concept of a soap-within-a-soap is very unique, and it’s hard for these shows to continue to reinvent themselves without repeating old storylines. Taking the characters out of their element while simultaneously poking fun at the soap genre has been both refreshing and a nice change of pace.

Many would argue, “Why would I want to watch my favorite show make fun of itself?” Well, the answer is because it’s FUNNY! While Johnny not realizing that Alex was dancing between the sheets with Stephanie and NOT Chanel is beyond stupid, they’ve done a good job of portraying the shenanigans that probably go on behind the scenes of real soaps. Watching Leo agonize over his scriptwriting has been stupendously funny.

Even Marlena was a good sport and played Charlemagne’s last scenes as a favor to Leo. I’d love to find out if any of the B&S behind-the-scenes stories are based on real-life incidents...

Another fun thing I’ve been enjoying is the Leo/Marlena budding friendship. She is so many light years above him, yet she can’t help but smirk at his obscure pop culture references and hyperactive behavior. Leo’s proven over the past year or two that he’s not quite the scumbag everyone thinks he is, and can be rather charming and even empathetic at times. He's another character that’s developed past his initial synopsis, and I’m hoping for more of the same.

Parting thoughts

Let's hope Days of Our Lives continues evolving characters as well as doing something different that the audience hasn't seen yet in daytime.

Until next time, DOOL-ers!