Days of Our Lives May Have Just Pushed Sloan and Nicole to Their Breaking Points — But Who Will Snap First?

Konstantin was nowhere to be seen all week, but that doesn’t mean the holidays on Days of Our Lives are shaping up to be merry for many in Salem. Sloan’s backed into another corner, Nicole did something drastic, Stephanie may have just made a huge mistake and somehow no one has taken Clyde out yet. But through it all, we’ve gotten some amazing performances from silly fun to patient love, so we’ll take that as a win!

Blame Game

As fellow editor Lori (who will be taking over next week’s Soapbox while I’m off!) put it, this baby stuff is bleak holiday fare. The fake ashes being delivered to Nicole and EJ was just downright cruel. But at the same time, I’d be surprised if next year, Dan Feuerriegel didn’t score a Lead Actor Emmy nom and Arianne Zucker a Lead Actress. From Nicole’s grief to EJ’s quiet patience, they have been downright incredible with this material.

And EJ’s reaction in finding that Nicole had, indeed, kidnapped the baby? He hugged her. No yelling, no accusations. He just saw that his wife had done something bad (but not really) because of her pain and he went right over to comfort her.

As for Sloan, I… I’m struggling for words. She left her baby unattended and outside in the middle of winter. She didn’t just drop something, bend down to get it and discover the baby gone. She left the kid alone in the town square. Swiping someone else’s baby is never OK (you hear that, Sloan?) but I am totally with Nicole on this one, in every way possible. Get that baby away from Sloan. I kind of wish, though, that Leo had done it. If he’d handed the baby to Nicole, she would have listened to him then, and gotten EJ to listen too.

And then in the police station Marlena told Sloan nobody was blaming her. Incorrect. We’re all blaming her.

Do not expect this to be the end of it, though. Yes, Sloan’s about to confess everything, but we know from spoilers already that that won’t happen on Monday. Maybe that holiday miracle I was hoping for for Nicole will have to wait until the new year. Unless Sloan finally snaps after the constant threats and just says “I give up! Take the baby back! I can’t do this anymore!” Which could still come too late. While I’m firmly in Nicole’s corner, no one else is, and this could push her right over the edge and get her locked up. Though not if her loving DA husband has anything to say about it!

A Bad Mom Christmas

How in the world did Theresa get custody of Tate for all his formative years? She’s shown absolutely no interest in him since getting back to Salem! I actually felt bad for Tate standing there with his headphones on as Brady and Theresa argued over who cared the least about him. Theresa’s barely even looked at him since she set her sights on Alex and it took some work for Brady to suddenly get the novel idea to talk to his son and find out what he wants. And then he just bribed the teen’s love with a company credit card. Good job, Brady.

And Holly is so breadcrumbing Tate. He gets fed up with her obsession, so she tosses him just enough interest and hope to keep him around and keep using him. I’m not even sure she’s doing it intentionally, but that doesn’t matter. I’m glad he finally put his foot down and left — but if he’s anything like his dad, he’ll be right back to Holly and her Johnny obsession. But at least it gives him a reason to get away from his parents!

Friends to the End

I get it, time constraints and all, but I really wish folks who should be more in each other’s lives interact more. With that said, we did finally get Tripp and Stephanie! All to complain about Chad. Couldn’t Tripp have shared something about how tough a time Wendy is having since Li’s murder? Oh, that’s right, no one but Wendy cares about the murder.

Jada and Stephanie should have been hanging out the entire time they’ve been in town together. Their dads were good friends, their families are good friends and Stephanie and Jada could use more female friends. (Actually, I feel like every character could use more friends and not just interact with select family/coworkers/romantic entanglements.) So yeah, I had fun with their scenes and their increasing intoxication.

I even snorted at Stephanie asking “Harry” “How are you with sex… SOCKS?” But Harris and Stephanie ending up in bed together… What?? I ask that mainly because they skipped over the whole Harris getting drunk too. If you’d asked me, he didn’t even have a buzz. That was just random and then we barely got 30 seconds to process it on Friday.

History Mystery

As for Everett, what secrets does he still have? I’ve seen fans speculating that he wasn’t in a coma, he just left to marry Jada, but the timing seems off. That doesn’t sound like a quick fling and I didn’t think Everett was in his coma for years. Also, they totally used an older pic of Blake Berris implying a younger Everett.

More: Time for Marlena’s wicked stepdaughter to return

Berris promised huge twists and surprises for Everett, and I’m hoping that doesn’t just mean: Surprise! He was married to Jada! Because we’ve known that since Day of Days.

And while testosterone filled chest thumping guys fighting over a woman doesn’t do much for me, I’m looking forward to Chad and Everett trying to work together. Chad hasn’t been all that exciting since Abigail’s death, so his and Everett’s feud is something of a boost. Plus, they shared an actual moment when Abby came up, and it gave them a nice human touch and not just two idiots fighting for the girl.

Mobbed Up

I may not be in the majority here, but I want Ava to work. She’s got so much more potential than they’ve given her. It was nice when she actually had a friend in Nicole, but that was cut off pretty completely. And now I feel like the show’s just bouncing her around from nostalgia to nostalgia trying to figure out what to do with her.

Putting Harris and Ava in each other’s orbit felt contrived because of their Jason and Carly days back on General Hospital, and now it’s clear they put Ava and Stefan together because of her fling with Jake. At least with Jake they can acknowledge and play with it. That could make it more interesting. But that relationship was too much of a flash in the pan for me to buy that it was a grand love. Also, for the love of everything, stop making excuses about taking Clyde out and just do it. Both Stefan and Ava have the means, full stop.

Stray Thoughts…

• I feel like Xander and Sarah are either at 0 or 100. They’re already flirting hard with each other and they’ve barely even started coparenting.
• Are we about to kick off the Pawn storyline revisit? Xander’s talk with Jon about his dark past felt a bit more pointed than just getting relationship advice. Also, while Xander himself admitted it was odd to be asking John for help, it really was weird. There was something more there.