Days of Our Lives Review Week of 11-08-21: Another Year

Days of Our Lives turned 56 on November 8.

It happened without much fanfare on Days of Our Lives during the week of 11-08-21. Chanel baked an anniversary cake for an unknown couple that viewers saw on-screen at the end of the hour.

There was a ton of weirdness going on that took precedence. Happy anniversary, Days of Our Lives! Here’s to another year of crazy storylines!

I wish Days of Our Lives had celebrated its anniversary with a break from the Devil storyline in favor of Julie, Abe, and other vets recalling their pasts. Some flashbacks of Alice and Tom would have been pleasant too.

But most of the veteran characters were dealing with the fallout from the zombies’ romp around Salem, so I guess there was no time for a proper tribute to the series.

At this point, the Devil storyline is more over-the-top silly than anything else. It feels like a parody of horror stories rather than anything to be taken seriously.

Most of the supernatural shenanigans centered around Susan Banks, which isn’t surprising considering her usual role in Salem.

Susan was originally a goofy semi-mystic with an obsession with Elvis. The Dimeras had hired her to be a Kristen lookalike, but her unpredictability and eccentricity made her a poor doppelganger.

From the beginning, Susan tended to end up locked in some secret room while Kristen pretended to be her. The last time she was in town, she ended up taking Kristen’s place in prison so that Kristen could wreak havoc with Chloe.

So in some ways, it’s natural that now she’s locked up in the Dimera crypt with John, though the Devil temporarily possessing her is a ridiculous twist, and I could have done without it.

Susan’s obsession with protecting Ben and Ciara’s baby was odd. She isn’t related to Ben or Ciara, yet lately, she turns up to try to use her sixth sense to help them.

This time, she came for the sole purpose of warning them that there was some evil energy surrounding the baby. I can understand why Ciara was frustrated with her, but I didn’t like everyone else’s reactions.

Belle and Shawn acted like Ciara was their daughter, which she isn’t. Their daughter seems to have been forgotten about altogether now that she’s off-screen.

And Ciara didn’t need Belle to protect her from Susan, either. Susan wasn’t doing anything other than touching Ciara’s belly and making vague proclamations.

Leaving aside the fact that Ciara’s baby should still be little more than a clump of cells at this point, this was all goofy nonsense that Belle could have ignored.

MarDevil’s behavior was also beyond the pale, but that’s the Devil for you.

She mostly treated Susan like an errant child, telling her to leave Ciara alone.

But when Susan realized that Marlena wasn’t herself, things took a decidedly weird turn, and it was all downhill from there.

MarDevil turning Susan into a black cat with buck teeth was silly enough. It is supposed to be the Devil, not some evil wizard from Hogwarts.

But then, the Devil possessed Susan after John and Susan drove it out of Marlena for the millionth time.

It doesn’t feel like the way any of this is supposed to work. Sure, there are no hard-and-fast rules for devil possession, but this is nonsensical.

And how come praying to God has no effect on the Devil? Is this evil spirit based on the Biblical Satan or not? It’s written as if the Devil is this supreme evil force with absolute power to do whatever it wants, not the fallen angel at war with God for people’s souls.

I’m still waiting for any connection to Catholic theology here. But so far, this is a random evil spirit that has chosen the name Lucifer, not a true devil.

Elsewhere, some non-possessed people were acting more like the traditional Devil than the Devil itself was.

Philip’s behavior was both out of character and scary.

I’m already sick of this cycle where he swears he never lets jealousy get the better of him, overhears something that upsets him, and then acts violently because he thinks Chloe and Brady are sleeping together.

You’d think since this is the third or fourth time it’s happened within a month, he’d realize in the heat of the moment that he was wrong all the other times and is likely wrong this time.

Instead, he went even further after this latest misunderstanding. He broke a glass, got into a massive argument with Victor, and then pulled up his and Chloe’s tree with his bare hands.

I feel awful for Chloe, who knows nothing about what’s going on and wants to go on a dinner date with Philip. But given that Philip’s violence keeps escalating, she should stay far away from him.

Chloe shouldn’t have confided Nicole’s secret to Brady. It’s not the first time she’s promised to keep something to herself and then gone all over town telling people.

But still. She doesn’t deserve Philip’s wrath, and this nonsense is going to push her straight into Brady’s arms.

Not that Philip didn’t have a right to be angry at Victor.

Victor gloated about the possibility of Brady stealing Chloe from Philip, fired Philip for defending himself against two employees engaged in corporate espionage, and was generally dismissive of Philip’s feelings.

I loved Philip standing up to him, but he didn’t need to take it out on that poor tree!

Nor did Brady have to listen to the Devil’s ridiculous advice instead of using his brain. That’s part of the problem with Brady. He’s always easily swayed by his feelings for whatever woman he’s obsessed with at the time.

Even though he thought Marlena’s advice was weird, it matched what he wanted to do anyway, so he just went with it.

As a side note: that conference table is doing more work than anyone in the office! Can we please change that?

The most enjoyable part of this silly Devil story was Steve and Kayla discussing it. We got a Kimberly mention too! Could Kim really be on her way back to Salem?

Anyway, while all this was going on, Paulina had some more mundane drama as she struggled to keep her secret from Abe.

Like Gwen’s secret about when she miscarried, this seems like a non-issue that Days of Our Lives is determined to turn into something huge.

Yes, Abe will be sad to learn there’s no biological connection between him and Lani, but there’s no reason they can’t continue to have the same relationship they’ve always had. He never knew for sure that she was his daughter, after all, since he never took a paternity test.

And Chanel’s upset at not being chosen as maid of honor is also unnecessary. She and Paulina have had a rocky relationship, but it’s been better lately, and this shouldn’t be the thing that destroys it.

And since Abe has the same feeling that something is off that he did before learning that Paulina planned to demolish the Square, he should be on high alert for shenanigans.

Even though he’s confined to a hospital bed at the moment, his instincts are sharp, so there’s no reason to overlook that fact.

Finally, the Gwen non-secret blew up in everyone’s face, leading to this character’s next ridiculous blackmail storyline.

I agreed with Xander that this shouldn’t be as big a deal as it is.

Jack did already know that Gwen had lied about Abigail causing her miscarriage, so what difference does it make that she also lied about WHEN the miscarriage happened?

Jack: I think it’s time for you to go.
Xander: Fine, I’ll leave. But consider this. Where would you be if your family hadn’t forgiven you? What if they hadn’t given you a thousand second chances? If you’re too judgmental to give just one to your daughter, maybe Gwen is better off without you.

And while Jack had a point that Gwen had continued to lie to him over and over, that didn’t seem to warrant his flip-flop from unconditional love to disowning her.

Jack’s compromise doesn’t make much sense, either. He accepts Gwen as his daughter yet wants nothing to do with her.

I wish Jennifer were in town. He needs her to balance him out and to talk some sense into him with this whole thing.

After all, both JJ and Abigail have done horrible things, yet Jack would never consider disowning either one of them. Why is it different if it’s Gwen?

It was all set up, of course, for Kristen to blackmail Gwen. Gwen seems to bounce from one blackmail plot to another, and this one is likely to be sillier than the last!

It’s your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics.

Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of all the weird and wild goings-on in Salem during the week of 11-08-21

Are you hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? Check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV on weeknights after 8 PM EST/5 PM 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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