Johnny was right: the Devil underestimates the power of love.
On Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-09-22, the evil creature revealed its horrific plans for Ben and Ciara’s baby. But it didn’t seem to think that Allie’s family was capable of fighting for her.
The Devil’s plans for this baby were as ridiculous as horrific, which also describes this entire Devil storyline.
The Devil took the baby to the cemetery, where it planned to perform a spooky ritual to take the baby’s soul as its own.
According to the Devil, possessing people is exhausting because it has to fight both their true nature and people trying to exorcise it. If it takes the baby’s soul, it can wreak havoc without opposition.
The Devil didn’t seem to think that Ciara’s family could exorcise it from the baby’s soul and that it could lie dormant for years, then cause chaos and be immune to all efforts to stop it.
There were a ton of flaws in the Devil’s plan.
First of all, everyone is now aware of its evil plan because Evan couldn’t resist gloating about it when he was arrested.
The Devil’s secret is out before it even possesses the baby. Let’s get real: even if its helper had kept his mouth shut, the Devil wouldn’t have stayed hidden for years.
It likes to cause trouble and brag about it. It wouldn’t be able to resist making the child’s eyes glow yellow to get Ciara’s goat when she sent the kid to his room for misbehaving.
Furthermore, what makes it think Ciara’s family couldn’t or wouldn’t perform an exorcism on the child?
Ciara and Ben were already worried that their kid could inherit Ben’s tendency toward violence and were planning on keeping a close eye so they could intervene at the first sign of trouble. And since the Devil kidnapped their baby, they’d be twice as vigilant.
Oh, wait. The Devil has an answer: let undead Charlie Dale raise the child.
Did the Devil really think that Ciara’s family was going to give up searching and that Charlie would raise the baby in peace, especially if he followed orders and killed both Allie and Johnny after the transfer?
Come on! That would make the family twice as determined to find and rescue the baby. They’re not going to shrug and decide that this is a lost cause. Ever.
And again: maybe the baby’s personality is too new for it to fight the Devil itself, but that doesn’t stop the family from exorcising the child.
It seems the Devil chose a plan destined to fail when there was an easier way.
Instead of this convoluted plan involving raising Charlie from the dead to be a father to a baby that more than half of Salem is determined to reunite with its parents, why not convince Jan Spears to hand over her baby?
Yes, Jan thinks her child is the ticket to getting Shawn for herself, but it shouldn’t be too hard for the Devil to manipulate her with false promises of giving her exactly what she wants.
Very few people would put time and energy into protecting Jan’s baby from evil influences, spiritual or otherwise. If Jan’s baby was kidnapped and Shawn went looking for it, that would create more of a wedge between Shawn and Belle — something that the Devil loves doing.
That seems like a win-win for the Devil. Does the evil spirit secretly want to lose? It’s shooting itself in the foot when there’s an easier path forward.
The scenes at the graveyard were creepy. But did we need to include Charlie Dale yet again?
Charlie raped Allie, and that rape was never taken seriously by the writers. The ridiculous directions they took in that story were bad enough, but now Allie’s rapist is back to torment Allie, Johnny, and maybe Tripp from beyond the grave.
This might be meant in good fun, but it feels like they’re pouring salt into the wound of the horrible way they treated Allie’s rape in the first place.
Real-life survivors watch Days of Our Lives too, and they may not appreciate Allie’s rapist popping up yet again and the Devil encouraging him to take what was “stolen from him.”
The Devil is evil, so we’re not supposed to agree with its views on rape or anything else. But still… YUCK.
Also, why did it take so long for everyone to catch up with the Devil?
It shouldn’t have taken Tony and Anna finding a pacifier in the crypt for anyone to realize the Devil had been there.
Ben and Johnny had been held captive there for weeks. The last time around, so had John and Susan.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that’s where the Devil likely took its latest victim.
Gwen: Let’s say I take you up on your offer. What happens with your deal with Trask?
Ava: Nothing. I held up my end of the bargain. You escaped. Not my problem.
Gwen: Unless the cops find out that you helped me.
Ava: Who, Rafe Hernandez and his merry band of idiots? Please.
The cops should have looked their first thing, but this obvious starting place for a search never occurred to them.
Tripp’s scenes with Kayla and Steve were the only good thing to come out of all of this.
His parents encouraged him to share his true feelings. I especially liked Steve pointing out that Tripp didn’t have to put on the tough guy act around him.
After talking to them, Tripp realized he loved Allie.
Chanel is going to have some choices to make when this is all over and the Devil can no longer interfere, but could a Tripp/Allie reunion be on the horizon?
Ava was right — the Salem PD is a merry band of idiots.
Gwen’s story took a surprising turn when she rejected Ava’s offer to bust her out of jail and instead took a deal that would give her five years in prison.
It was the smart move to make, but Gwen is rarely wise. She’s generally driven by her anger of the moment and does impulsive things that blow up in her face.
How will she help Leo with his latest scheme now, though?
Gwen’s relationship with Leo is the only one I’ll miss if her decision means she’ll be in prison off-screen.
Gwen is usually annoying, but when she’s with Leo, she’s a different person. It’s a shame she doesn’t identify as male because she and Leo seem to be soulmates in every way but sexually.
Being treated like dirt is what I’m used to, but I am resilient, as are you, my dear Gwenivere. Hear us roar!
Leo
Leo also displayed a different side to his character when he stood up to Ava. He pointed out that friends don’t treat each other the way Ava treated Gwen and that he would be far more loyal to Gwen than Ava ever had been.
Sadly, I’m not convinced Gwen would return the favor if their positions were reversed. She did push ahead with her wedding without bothering to check on Leo after his fell apart, after all. Still, it was nice that Leo has some redeeming qualities.
Jack, as predicted, went back to feeling that Gwen is his daughter despite the horrible things she’s done, but at least Justin’s deal will get her some prison time. Abby will likely feel it’s not nearly enough, especially with the question of whether Gwen killed Laura on purpose hanging over their heads, but it’s better than nothing.
This being Salem, though, Gwen’s five years may amount to two months, and then she and Leo can get back to the business of getting revenge on Sonny and company.
While Salem suffers from an overabundance of revenge plots (and wasn’t Gwen the one who tried to steer Ava away from revenge recently?), I can’t blame Leo for wanting some.
Sonny and Chad’s glee over Leo’s wedding implosion is uncalled for and obnoxious, and I don’t mind Leo taking them down a peg.
If Leo is the next one to take over Dimera Enterprises after EJ and Chad manage to oust Gabi and then merge with Titan so he can kick Sonny out, I’ll be annoyed, though!
Just kidding. That’s not Leo’s style. Though he does like to cause trouble and steal as much money as he can.
And Victor wouldn’t let a Leo-run Dimera Enterprises merge with Titan anyway. He promised Sonny that he wouldn’t let Leo hurt their family any more than he already had.
The Victor/Sonny scenes were sweet, but my favorite Victor sighting was his conversation with Maggie after Sarah became catatonic.
This was the side of Victor that makes him and Maggie such an endearing couple. He often displays a softness with her that he doesn’t allow the rest of the world to see.
Victor: Sarah’s a strong girl. She will get through this.
Maggie: I hope to God you’re right.
Victor: Well, God and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye but in this case, I think we’re on the same side.
Why was Sarah’s recovery dependent on Rolf’s antidote when Victor probably has 20 specialists on tap that could find an equally good or better solution? For that matter, why didn’t Maggie ask Victor to get someone he trusted to vet the antidote?
Maggie’s waffling on the antidote was among the most annoying aspects of the Sarah storyline.
First, she didn’t want to use it all. Then, after learning that Gwen had switched the vials, she pushed Xander to find a way to get the antidote. But once it was in hand, she was reluctant to use it because it “hasn’t been properly vetted.”
Make up your mind, Maggie! It made no sense to have Xander go to all the trouble of getting it from Gwen only to do nothing with it.
But now, Sarah is mostly back to herself, so all is forgiven. I was glad that Maggie dropped the charges against Anna, Anna and Tony made up, and they had a lovely tribute to the late Phelice Sampler, who played the real Renee back in the early 1980s.
I don’t think Anna was the one who should have been apologizing, though. Tony’s way of dealing with Sarah’s belief that she was Renee was ridiculous.
Of course, it couldn’t all be smooth sailing, and Sarah getting the antidote was too quick a fix to her memory problems.
Still, I’m not looking forward to Round 2 of Sarah learning that Xander switched her dead baby with Kristen’s live one.
It was bad enough when an amnesiac Ciara rehashed her anger at Ben and Claire for things that had happened years ago. Instead of repeating storylines with amnesiac people, how about moving on to something new?
Finally, the TR storyline took an explosive — and deadly — turn.
His reign of terror couldn’t have ended any other way. He was getting more violent and was desperate to keep his previous crimes secret.
Lani was right that she should have arrested TR rather than shot him. She saw Abe in a pool of blood on the floor and reacted emotionally before she had time to think.
Cops are trained to make split-second decisions, but this one could have been handled differently.
It might have been compelling drama for Lani to have to defend herself to Internal Affairs. Instead, Paulina took responsibility for the shooting.
It’s irritating that Paulina was arrested. Her ex-boyfriend was lying in a pool of blood on the floor, and TR was about to hit her when Lani burst in. She has a far better case for self-defense than Lani does.
Abe and Paulina will probably reunite, but now Paulina has another secret. I’m tired of this cycle of Abe forgiving Paulina, then breaking up over yet another lie that was told for all the right reasons.
Paulina again acted to protect Lani, but will Abe see it that way when the truth eventually comes out, and Lani is in even worse trouble than before?
Over to you, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Whether you loved or hated the Devil storyline this week, we want to hear your thoughts! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know.
Eager for more DAYS chat? Check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives airs 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.
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.
