Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI, Peacock screenshot (2)

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In between the Body and Soul shenanigans and the Killer Connie fallout, Xander hatched a clever little way to kill Brady on Days of Our Lives. And in doing so, he may have just saved Brady’s neck! Confused? We’ll explain…

Tick, Tick… Eh

Well… that explosion fallout was a bit of a let down. Everyone’s fine (outside of Melinda’s rasp), EJ and Gabi are getting closer and Jada caught Connie practically before she could step outside the Brady Pub. I will give the show kudos for Connie’s Psycho ending, though. Except I kind of felt bad for her as they made it clear she’s actually, truly insane, and not just unhinged. But she got as happy an ending as possible, with imaginary Li devoting himself to her.

And Norman Bates was rehabilitated enough to come back for two more Psychos, so don’t be surprised if somewhere down the line we see Connie once again.

Not a Soul Man

I’ve put it off, but fine, I’ll talk about the elephant in the room because the show’s going to be devoting big chunks to it for the foreseeable future. Body and Soul could be OK in small doses. Not by any means great, but for the occasional comic relief, fine. I know there are some folks who find it amusing. I grit my teeth nearly every time it’s one, but to each their own!

But it’s like Days of Our Lives just threw all the characters they ran out of ideas for together to see what happened. The exception, though, is clearly that putting Stephanie, Alex, Chanel and Johnny together is meant to stoke tension and create a will they/won’t they with Chanel and Alex. (And will they end up with a miracle/mystery baby from it?)

And that’s fine, but I’ve got a feeling there won’t be many folks seeing it in this storyline because I’ve seen far too many comments about viewers just turning off or skipping B&S days. Because again, devoting entire days to it at a time is just too much. The way it was handled on Friday was a bit better, at least. The episode focused on Johnny and Chanel’s relationship fallout from the show, instead of just the utterly absurd shenanigans and very pointed commentary from the writers. (Did anyone else catch that “The writers always get blamed” line?)

The thing is, I’m seeing the goodwill that came with the stellar return after the Writers’ Strike just evaporate among the viewers. And that’s a huge shame because there’s some great stuff still happening on the show.

A Leopard Can’t Change Its Spots

Sarah and Xander’s confrontation, for instance, was phenomenal, even if he was driving me crazy. I love him, but I wanted to throttle that man on Thursday when his wife was quite literally begging him not to kill Brady. Xander’s just making everything worse for Sarah right now, when all she wants is to heal with her husband. And now he’s pushed her to lie to the police, which of course will never come back to bite them.

Oh wait, it will, since Brady didn’t hit her! But the long and the short of it is we’re getting some great performances and drama, as Fiona keeps ingratiating herself further into the family, while Brady goes down for her crime.

But now, thanks to Xander’s henchman drugging him, Brady’s onto something being wrong, and so is Eric. It has nothing to do with what happened the night of the accident, but I can see this snowballing. Eric and Brady dig into what happened and if he was drugged, start wondering why, and if there’s also more than meets the eye from the night of the accident. Maybe they could wonder if Brady had been roofied, on top of the drinking.

He wasn’t, but just the fact that they started to question that night and dig into it could get us heading towards the truth. Eric Martsolf hinted as much in talking about Eric and Brady’s growing realization that Brady might be innocent. But seriously, Jada should have been a whole lot more curious about Xander letting himself into Marlena and John’s home…

Stray Thoughts…

• I get brand synergy and promoting other shows, but if they mentioned “Ted” or “Peacock” one more time on Friday’s episode, I was going to throw something heavy at my TV.
• Yes, Sophia’s scheming, but she’s also being a lot more empathetic to Tate’s parental pain and fears than Holly. Am I team “Sophate?” Or something.

• Speaking of Sophia, I had fun with her and Fiona together. Each of them mixed up with a member of the Black family! Fiona should become Sophia’s mentor. They’re both schemers.
• EJ’s interaction with Holly is fascinating me. I think he truly cares about her, but I know he’s truly using her. And as with most things, I’m sure that’ll blow up in his face.
• How deep is the secret room/wine cellar? Because it looked like the ceiling collapsed, and yet the DiMera mansion on top of it was just fine.
• No Faux Abigail this week, but she and Mark are back by the end of next. Here’s hoping they leave off on a great cliffhanger.