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Brady is getting a bit of a break on Days of Our Lives thanks to Justin’s deft legal maneuvering. While EJ may be furious, he’s had little choice but to let Brady go until the cops can find definitive evidence that Brady hit Sarah. All we can say is: Good luck with that! Seeing as how the car is gone forever and Brady didn’t actually hit anyone.

Still, it’s far from over for Brady. In fact, it sounds like it may never be. Because this latest brush with the law and his alcoholism is already changing Brady in ways we’re just starting to see. Lately, we’ve been getting a different Brady than we’re used to. Morose and subdued,

The lovable buffoon who just keeps falling for horrible people has been replaced with someone morose and subdued, who doesn’t even want to fight for his own innocence.

As Eric Martsolf explained to Soap Opera Digest during an interview, Brady “got drunk again, he got behind the wheel, he mowed down a family member in the process and there’s no coming back from this.”

On top of that, Brady’s “losing complete faith in himself just as a decent person. He’s ready to give up and go to jail for this. He’s okay with it.”

Of course, even if he does somehow go to jail, we know it won’t be permanent. Hopefully, it won’t even be for long. Brady’’s going to get out of this. He has to. But if this has really changed him, the Brady coming back to us is likely to be a lot different than the one before Sarah was hit. Because while he’s not guilty of paralyzing her, he did let his addiction get the best of him to the point where he could have. And he spiraled out in yet another toxic relationship, this time with Fiona.

In the end, maybe this is a good thing. It won’t just be a wakeup call about his addiction, but also his life. Brady has a habit of making horrible choices with horrible people. Maybe now he’ll be more thoughtful and careful, and if he’s a little less trusting of folks right off the bat, that could be a good thing. We thought that this could be the start of Brady and Kristen getting back together, but if Martsolf is right and there’s no coming back from this, it could instead be the event that ensures that never, ever happens again.

We all know that sometimes things can happen that shake us so deeply, who we are is forever changed. This may be just the start of a whole new Brady. Of course, whether it sticks or not is another matter.