Days of Our Lives Review for the Week of 12-12-22:

Did Ava’s revenge plan literally blow up in her face?

It seemed like it as we faded to black at the end of Days of Our Lives during the week of 12-12-22. The bomb went off before Ava could get herself or her beloved Tripp out of harm’s way.

We’ll have to wait for a full body count. But how will Ava live with herself if Tripp is hurt or killed in the blast?

Tripp will likely survive. It would be redundant for Bo to have resurrected him after he jumped out the church window to destroy the Devil if he died a few months later.

And if Ava doesn’t, she won’t face real justice for what she did to a bunch of innocent people, including her son.

This story doesn’t have very far to go from here. It’s gone from the ridiculous — kidnapper clowns, Charlie’s ghost influencing Ava, and Ava surviving the crash without a mark on her — to the potentially tragic.

Anyone who survives that blast knows that EJ arranged Tripp’s kidnapping, and so does Rafe, who wants to bring him down for his own reasons. Everyone also knows that Ava survived the crash and that EJ was NOT hallucinating when he saw her by the side of the road.

The only thing we still need to wrap up, besides finding out who was hurt or killed in the blast, is the business of Xander’s involvement in the kidnapping. Days of Our Lives came close, but as usual, Xander’s secret remained buried at the last minute — for now, anyway.

The lead-up to the blast included Sister Mary Moira coming to Salem to chastise EJ for not planning a memorial, Ava having secret conversations with “Charlie” again in the crypt, and various people deciding to attend the memorial.

Some viewers hope that Sister Mary Moira is among the casualties. She’s a campy character that exaggerates stereotypes about nuns for comedic effect. While she’s been around since the 1990s and has her fans, some viewers find her annoying and out of touch with modern Catholicism.

Like Susan, Sister Mary Moira isn’t meant to be taken seriously. It’d be a shame if they killed off yet another legacy character, even a minor one like her.

Marlena: Sister Mary Moira.
Sister Mary Moira: Dr. Marlena Evans. It’s good to see you.
Marlena: You as well. John asked me to let you know that he’s sorry he couldn’t be here today.
Sister Mary Moira: Well, he’s not the one who should be expressing remorse. It’s that reprobate son of his that needs to atone.
Marlena: Brady?
Sister Mary Moira: Ew. Just his name sends shivers down my spine.
Marlena: Why? What did Brady do?
Sister Mary Moira: I hate to say this. I came to see you, but unfortunately, your stepson ravished me.
Marlena: Are you saying that Brady kissed you in a romantic way?
Sister Mary Moira: Oh, there was nothing romantic about it. He stuck his forked, fornicating tongue down my virgin throat.
Marlena: That’s quite an image.

It’s too bad that her reaction to Brady forcibly kissing her was played mostly for laughs. Her description of it is exactly why I hate that trope; it’s not fun or romantic to kiss someone who isn’t expecting to be kissed!

Sister Mary Moira’s response was classically silly; she hit Brady’s wrists with her famous ruler before running away. But she was upset about what happened and had every right to be.

Marlena was shocked into near silence by Sister Mary Moira’s accusation, not that it’ll ever go anywhere. Hopefully, this lighthearted story got the point across: don’t kiss people without permission.

Even if EJ doesn’t particularly like his “Aunt Sister,” it would be too heavy for him to lose two family members to Ava within a few Salem days. (I’m still harboring hope that Susan isn’t really dead, but still.)

EJ and Nicole are leading characters in Salem right now, and they both were brought back from the dead once already — in Nicole’s case, after a similar blast. So it’s unlikely they’ll die in the explosion, and it would truly suck if Johnny or Tripp did.

Marlena will be alive, if not well, for the second round of the poisoning story. The only ones who are likely to be injured beyond repair are Sister Mary Moira and Ava; let’s hope that’s not where this is going.

Who Do You Think Will Die in the Blast?

The priest is also expendable, but will Days of Our Lives go there? Killing him seems unnecessarily cruel, especially since the bomb was a plot point in the war between Ava and EJ rather than a serious story about bombing a church.

Tripp’s confrontation of EJ seemed random; although Tripp can be a hothead, it didn’t make sense that he’d choose Susan’s memorial as the time and place for this. And why didn’t he tell Steve about his plans?

Steve was just in Seattle and had already started the ball rolling on proving EJ kidnapped Tripp, so it was weird for Tripp to keep him in the dark about this.

Tripp’s scenes were juxtaposed nicely with Johnny’s confrontation of Ava, but still.

Assuming he survives the blast, will Tripp accept Rafe’s help investigating who kidnapped him? He was pissed at Nicole for cheating on Ava with Rafe, but beating up Nicole is a popular Salem pastime.

Tripp should blame Rafe more than Nicole — Rafe was the one who was committed to Ava at the time. But whether he’ll still be angry after the blast remains to be seen.

This Eric/Nicole thing needs to stop. The two agreed they weren’t right for each other, but they won’t leave each other alone now.

Nicole keeps showing up to convince Eric that Sloan is a piece of trash, while Eric tells anyone who will listen that he blames Nicole for Jada’s choice to have an abortion. Enough already!

At least Roman and Marlena have not decided to take Eric’s side this time. Usually, Nicole is banned from the Pub whenever she and Eric are on the outs, and Marlena has been awful to her in the past.

Nicole shouldn’t have bothered Eric and Sloan. If he wants no-strings-attached sex with a woman who will only hurt him, that’s his business. Nicole would be better off letting him learn the hard way not to make stupid decisions.

Still, she’s not wrong about Sloan. Eric and Sloan are Brady/Kristen 2.0; they’re a disaster waiting to happen, and Sloan wants to hurt people that Eric cares about.

Brady: Maybe it’s none of my business, but I’m going to put my two cents in anyway because I’m your brother and I love you. Was Nicole wrong to talk to Jada? Probably. But Jada was the one who decided to have an abortion. Is it really fair to blame Nicole?
Eric: That’s not why we broke up. We broke up for the same reason we got divorced. We’re too different and we’re not good for each other. We got caught up in this forbidden love but we weren’t meant to be together. We got into it again this morning. Nicole trailed me to Sloan Peterson’s apartment and lay into me for sleeping with Sloan.
Brady: You slept with Sloan? Eric, do you have any idea what she did to Paulina and Chanel, and indirectly to Abe? Is this really the kind of person you want to be sleeping with?
Eric: That’s real classy coming from someone who’s shacked up with Kristen Dimera.

Brady and Eric’s conversation confirmed it. The only difference between Brady and Eric is that Brady didn’t go to jail when he punched Stefan.

Although Brady was sober, his reasons for punching Stefan weren’t any different than Eric’s for punching EJ. In both cases, the guys lost their temper when their ex-girlfriend’s new guy pushed their buttons.

Brady didn’t get in trouble because Chloe convinced Stefan not to call the cops, while Nicole was too drunk to stand up for Eric.

Stefan interrupted just as Brady was about to explain to Eric what was happening with him and Kristen; shockingly, Eric got Brady to tell him anyway.

That almost never happens. Some big twist isn’t far behind if the truth is out this quickly.

The punch was a new low — Stefan was right that Brady was as bad as Eric. But at least the brothers bonded with each other instead of butting heads!

Brady was right to try to convince Eric to stop being so hard on Nicole and stop sleeping with evil people like Sloan, and Eric was also right that Brady was being a hypocrite and naive about Kristen.

Eric seemed far more like himself while talking to Brady. The angry guy who decided he’d rather not be the good twin anymore was gone, and he was the loving, concerned brother he used to be. More of this side of Eric, please!

While Brady was out of the house, John tried to get Kristen to trust him so she’d tell him what she was up to, and it seemed like it was working.

Either the writers are tired of this story and want to wrap it up quickly, or there’s another twist here too.

Kristen shouldn’t be so trusting, not when John swore he’d get her out of Brady’s life mere months ago. At first, Kristen seemed to be aware of this, questioning John’s motives, but by the end of their conversation, she was ready to admit she wasn’t as good a person as he thought.

Will Kristen tell John the truth? She was going in that direction, but she may say something other than what she had planned. Conversely, John may get news of the blast and have to cut the conversation short before Kristen says another word.

The latest Xander/Gwen/Leo nonsense was incredibly disappointing.

Sarah and Bonnie both realized that Xander was likely involved in the kidnapping, only for Xander and Gwen to devise a ridiculous plan to make it appear Xander was the kidnapping clown’s victim, too.

Leo claims he wants to start over and be a decent guy. Gwen supposedly wants the same. And Xander was supposed to have turned himself around already.

Now all of them are back to their old tricks, and Xander is creating a bigger mess to stop Sarah from realizing he had been too desperate for money to do the right thing.

When it all comes out — which it will eventually — these three will be in far worse trouble than they would have been if they’d let things play out naturally.

Xander was stupid enough to make his phony ex-company his name spelled backward. When is anyone going to realize that?

Enough with the clown masks! Let’s wrap this story up and let everyone involved get their comeuppance.

Rafe’s behavior is also disappointing lately. He’s hurt and angry, and it’ll be a long time before he and Nicole can be friends. I get that, even though I hate that Rafe/Nicole imploded for a five-second relationship between Nicole and Eric.

But Rafe doesn’t want to arrest EJ because EJ arranged for Tripp to be kidnapped. He wants to do it because EJ invited Nicole to move in with him.

Salem has far too many revenge plots, and it doesn’t look good for Rafe to be like this. He’s the police commissioner; if he starts investigating people because he doesn’t like them, he’s abusing his power just like Sloan and Trask do.

Finally, Stephanie and Chad’s discussion of their future looked an awful lot like Nicole and Eric’s past conversations.

This is a similar situation. Stephanie has another boyfriend but secretly wants Chad. Chad is allegedly not available but is jealous of Stephanie’s new boyfriend. And the two work together, making it hard for them to avoid their feelings for each other.

This feels like a rerun to me. How about you, Days of Our Lives fanatics? Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts!

Don’t forget to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekdays at 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST.

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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.

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