Oh my goodness! So. Much. Love. Can't. Contain. Myself. Wahoooooooo!!!!! Let's start right where we left off last week.
E.J. and SAMI
To say that it's been a rough road for Ejami fans doesn't even begin to describe it. This particular pairing has been given bupkis when it came to romance over the last six years. Safe had a mother-loving shooting star appear during their wedding. They got a vow renewal in front of Sir and Lady Horton's faces. They got three uninterrupted months of scenes with no one other than day players.
Safe fans, I'm not mad at you for worshipping your couple. Good on you. That's what soaps are about. I'm just pointing out that the show gave Safe the royal treatment while Ejami had to fly cargo class. I can count the times that Ejami got to have sex in an actual bed on two fingers, including last week. Yet, Ejami fans still stuck around. TPTB kept us hostage, throwing a single tango or glass of wine at the Brady Pub our way. We ate it up like vultures.
Luckily, it paid off. If you want the complete fangirl ramblings of why this time has promise, head over to my blog. But for now, I just want to bask in the bliss of finally seeing Sami and E.J. drop all pretenses and admit that they love and trust each other. Cheers, you crazy kids! Go on with your Top Gun-esque love scene!
Okay, sure, that music was wonky, not that I can ever remember watching a DAYS love scene thinking, "They're doing a sensational job with this music selection!" Besides, when E.J. showed up with a postcoital tray of wine and bagel bites, I forgot all about the music. That was an amazing move, Mr. DiMera!
Kudos to Ali and James for bringing the perfect blend of familiarity, yet freshness, to their scenes. Indeed, Sami and E.J. are old hats at the passion thing. But for neither of them to have an agenda is something totally new.
I sincerely hope that this pairing sticks for least for a little while. Say what you will about Sami Brady, but she's always known which dude she wanted. Her completely out-of-character flippant behavior of the last year needed to end. I can't think of a better way than with E.J., because these two have a storyline just waiting for them -- and it has nothing to do with Johnny, Sydney, or Stefano!
SAMI, E.J, and WILL
You know how sometimes companies will hire white hat hackers to test their system for security holes? That's pretty much Ejami's place on a custody case team. Not one episode after Sami warned Will that Gabi could put Nick's name on the birth certificate, Gabi was rubbing her belly and lamenting, "If only you were Nick's baby..."
Furthermore, being a custody case rookie, I was thinking that Will needed a custody agreement. But E.J. rightfully pointed out that a custody agreement means nothing without a paternity test. Man, it's like Sami and E.J. know every custody trick in the book! Listen to them, Will!
NICK
Stop the fan bus for this storyline. I want on. I loved all of the twists and turns it took last week, starting with Nick. We finally got some insight into why he's a total jerk balloon.
Nick was stabbed in prison. I suspect we may find out soon that he was raped as well. Granted, I would think that being raped would be more likely to cause him intimacy problems or to definitely hate rapists (which would be an interesting reason as to why he wouldn't want Sami anywhere near the baby). But partner this revelation with Nick's past drug use and his family history of DID, and there are many ways that this storyline can get rid of this current version of Nick but still keep Blake Berris on the show. That makes me a happy scooper.
LUCAS
The use of a recording device was a move that I may or may not have suggested to, oh, every soap character ever. So, I'm proud of Nick for listening. And I'm even more thrilled because without crazy Nick, we wouldn't have the newest active member of Team Will. Welcome to the party, Lucas!
No slouch in the scheming department himself, Lucas took about three minutes to suggest that Nick was behind the text. And I loved how Lucas accepted responsibility for creating the mess Will called a life at the time of the shooting. Lucas in dad mode is made of win. I can totally see Sami, E.J., Lucas, and maybe even Kate working together for Will. For that, I continue to happy dance!
WILL
I appreciate Will's loyalty to Gabi. But now that both E.J. and Sonny have warned Will about Gabi, Will needs to listen.
And Will definitely needs to take a page out of Maxine's book and shut Nick down every time Nick tries to weigh in on Gabi's pregnancy or Gabi's baby. Will's hardly in the dark about Nick. He heard the "gay boy" stuff. And considering that Big Willie Style blackmailed E.J. last summer, I refuse to believe that Will is just too weak to take on Nick. Gabi, sure. But not Will.
WILL and SONNY
These two suck at breaking up. That's a good thing, because they don't need to. I'd love to see Sonny forgive and jump on Team Will. Lucas, Sami, Kate, and E.J. have the scheming covered. But Sonny could be the secret weapon. For all his evil genius powers, Nick can't compete on a moral level with Sonny, who is technically Nick's exact counter in Baby Horton's life. Come on, Sonny! I know you didn't cancel that Valentine's Day surprise!
STEFANO and JOHN
Holy cow, I was right! I'm never right! John came to Italy to track down Stefano. Better yet, this scene was great as Drake Hogestyn and Joseph Mascolo played off each other very well. But I did tilt my head just a bit when John pointed out that Kristen's shenanigans aren't going to give Stefano a shot with Marlena. Call me crazy, Johnny boy, but if you had stayed in Salem with Marlena, Stefano would have even less of a chance with her.
CHLOE, DANIEL, and JENNIFER
Last week Carly Nicole Chloe continued to try to use Melanie her baby Parker to get Daniel away from Jennifer. Good news! Third time's the charm!
Chloe makes much more sense in this triangle, since Chloe and Daniel had a legit relationship not so long ago. (His love brought her out of a coma, people!) But the chica does seem to be missing the point that Daniel didn't dump her because she slept with another guy. She slept with his daughter's husband. Just because Parker is Daniel's son now doesn't mean that Philip wasn't still Melanie's husband when Phloe did the drunken dance with no pants.
But for now, I'm sure that Chloe will be absolved of any wrongdoing, since Jennifer lied about which club she and Daniel were attending. I'm not opposed to Jennifer seeing a bit of trouble. And I like how Daniel hasn't been written as a total dunce when it comes to Chloe's motivation. Good stuff!
The only thing that confuses me is that I don't believe Maggie would ever run out on a child with a 105-degree fever. Considering that Ann already planned to slip something to Jennifer, it's not out of the realm of possibility that she'd slip something to Parker. Just putting that out there.
SAMI and RAFE
Let's get the obvious out of the way first -- there's no court that would give Sami or Rafe the time of day when it comes to what they want for Will and Gabi's baby.
But at least Sami had the right idea, approaching Rafe with an olive branch for the sake of the baby. Rafe, in return, threw a platinum hissy. Naturally, that made Sami react like a badger just woken up with a fire poker, but Rafe deserved it. He was acting out of his hatred for E.J., which has always been stronger than his love for Sami or concern for his sister. I only wish he hadn't gone and shared his delusion with Gabi.
I realize that the idea of a biological father having any sort of right to a child is pretty foreign to the Rafeman, but his outrage at the notion that Will should share custody with Gabi was shocking. I mean, he's actually seen a father before, right? He knows that they're real, no? There's even a whole holiday devoted to this particular section of the American population. He can't have missed that.
BRADY and KRISTEN
I've gotten a lot of feedback from readers claiming that Brady is a first-class idiot. I'm not so sure about that. Granted, Mensa isn't looking to recruit him; but to blame this all on Brady's stupidity discredits Kristen's manipulation skills. The speed with which she took advantage of Nicole's arrest and made it look like Kristen didn't want Brady to lose another important person in his life was impressive. It may not be long until Brady's jumping on the broom with this witch.
Her plan of leaving Brady at the altar is downright wonderful. I mean, it's a terrible thing to do of course. But, wow, all shades of soap villainess brilliant, Kristen!
Oh, and the club decor, drunk guy, and Kristen and Jennifer's club attire were all so ludicrous that the scene lapped back around into awesome.
CAROLINE
I have no problem with Rafe taking Gabi's side on everything. It always bothered me how he threw Arianna under the bus for Sami, since the show always hinted that the Hernandez kids were very close, and Rafe, from a young age, was the caretaker of his siblings. So Rafe should be guzzling the Gabi Kool-Aid. I'm not mad at him at all for it.
However, I have a big problem with Caroline not being written to do the same. Her meek "Well, everyone makes mistakes" was not only out of character for the normally feisty Caroline, but was pretty unfair in light of the passive aggressive insults that Rafe threw at Will and Sami. Call me crazy, but I don't think I'm asking too much that the Bradys be treated as well as the Hernandi. I'm a dreamer!
LOOSE ENDS:
I felt bad for Marlena. I really did. But DAYS is going to do right by her in the end. It has for decades. So, there's no harm in enjoying her temporary fall from grace at the hands of the ever-entertaining Kristen, is there?
There was a lot of hypocrisy going on in the Sami/Brady conversation. But I liked how they both ended the conversation by agreeing to disagree. There weren't any tears or declarations of family shunning. Both Brady and Sami took it as well as they dished it out and returned to their separate DiMeras in one piece.
As if I needed another reason to like Kristen, she got the Eric/Nicole ball rolling. First, thank you! I've been waiting years for Nicole and Eric. Second, Nicole and Kristen as friends works for me too! Really, I'd watch these two explain the finer art of clipping toenails if it meant they got to share scenes.
Jennifer wrote a letter on Nick's behalf for the parole board. While I wouldn't describe someone who participated in a fraud scheme as "exemplary," I'm sure the scene was more to push the point that by the time the "fit hits the shan," Nick's parole will be complete. Those Hortons (sans Will and Lucas) really think Nick is it on a stick, don't they?
I agreed with Rafe more than ever last week! When he lamented that he was in love with a woman who doesn't exist, I almost clapped. Indeed, he fell for the version of Sami he wanted her to be rather than the real Sami. It's about time he realized it. Oh, and that whole wishing you could delete every memory of you and Sami together? I'm interested in doing the same, Raferino! If you figure out how, let me know!
Abigial and Cameron went on a breakfast date. I spent more time thinking about how awesome the idea of a breakfast date is than I did about them as a pair. That's not an insult. Not much can compete with the idea of bacon.
HOT
Victor out-Victored himself last week. The candy? The smile when he walked into the police station? It takes a lot for one man to steal the spotlight from Nicole and Kristen, but Victor was a smashing success.
NOT
I said that nothing could harsh my Ejami mellow, but darn it if Gabi didn't try. She surrendered her last redeeming quality when she hissed that Sonny and Will would never have the connection that she and Will have. If by that she meant that Sonny will never be the hateful brat who Will regrets ever giving the time of day, then I guess she's right! Otherwise, I can only assume that a weird side effect of Gabi's pregnancy makes her assume it's 1959 and gay men can't ever have a child together. After the baby is born, I wouldn't mind if Gabi hung out with Stephanie all the time.
LINE OF THE WEEK
Sami (about the accusation that she's now dating the man she tried to kill): "Well, every relationship has its ups and downs."
RANDOM THOUGHTS
I never get tired of seeing Stefano in a study listening to opera music.
Don't all mothers wear miniskirts and fishnet hose when caring for their kid on a Friday night?
Does anyone believe that EJ went ice-skating in his suit?
Okay, for real, where is Bo?
I got very uncomfortable when Nick and Johnny shared a scene. If "straight boy" even tries to get his evil juice on Johnny, he will have to answer to me.
Nice job, Nicole. Tony would be so proud of you! "That sea witch you're shagging" is a much more creative term than "bitch."
I love it when Julie appears because you know it's just a few minutes until she puts her fabulous foot in her mouth, in the most endearing way.
I kinda feel like Rafe is the guy who, at 40, will constantly tell you about how his high school football team went to state.
Hey, Chloe, up until a few days ago, Phillip was "daddy". So, maybe you should not confuse the kid with declarations of, "Daddy is coming home," since you're sitting in the middle of old Daddy's living room.
That's it for now! Tony will be back next week to help Brady wrangle drunken Kristen. It's the job he's been preparing his whole life for. You don't want to miss it.
Need more Two Scoops? Head over to read blogs by Laurisa or Tony for more ranting, raving and all out randomness
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