We finally have Whitley’s motive, even if she’s still free to wreak havoc.

In a twist that falls squarely into things that only happen in Salem, we learned on Days of Our Lives during the week of 7-17-23 that Marlena treated her, but it was unsuccessful because the therapist was possessed by the Devil at the time.

However, somehow Marlena managed to take case notes. If the Devil’s notes are to be believed, Whitley’s husband and cats died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, triggering a mental breakdown.

I’m not a fan of these stories involving mental illness leading to violence. Most people with mental health issues are non-violent and more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, but you wouldn’t know that from how the soap handles these issues.

Still, this backstory gives Whitley more depth than making her a random stalker obsessed with Abe, which has not been explored thoroughly enough to be believable.

The problem with any scenario explaining Whitley’s motive is that it wasn’t prepared for on-screen.

If Whitley is supposed to be fixated on Abe, we should have seen evidence of it months ago. Even if Whitley wasn’t on-screen, Abe could have mentioned a volunteer for his campaign that seemed “off” to him or that this woman keeps turning up wherever he goes.

That way, when Whitley kidnapped him, it would be the culmination of months of seemingly insignificant but strange encounters, making it feel like a realistic stalking story.

Unfortunately, the writers probably didn’t come up with this idea until recently, and since DAYS tapes six to eight months ahead, it was too late to lay this groundwork. Thus, Whitley’s first appearance was the day she kidnapped Abe, which left viewers confused about who she was and why she was doing this.

Her confrontation with Lani was scary. Whitley seemed to have forgotten that she wasn’t Paulina or married to Abe, which would fit well with her inability to deal with the death of her husband and her pets.

Whitley: Breakfast is over. Time for Paulina to clean up.
Lani: You are not Paulina! Your name is Whitley King. You are a nurse at University Hospital. Do you hear me? You are Whitley King. You are a nurse. You are not my mother, and that is not your husband.

Of course, in reality, you can’t talk someone out of a delusion, so Lani’s insistence that Whitley was not Paulina should have made her double down on her belief that she was. Instead, Lani almost got through to her before Whitley ended the threat by drugging her.

These scenes were powerful, even if it’s hard to sympathize with Lani. She’ll probably be the latest character to return from seemingly certain death, and the situation could have been prevented with some forethought.

Lani didn’t have a phone, but she did have contacts at the police station. Since Rafe was due to arrive at her home to take her back to prison, Lani should have informed him of what she knew when he got there and insisted he contact Jada.

Whitley could have been stopped without Lani putting herself in danger. She had no backup or phone, so what good could she possibly have done by trying to get Abe out of there and confronting Whitley in the process?

Rafe’s reaction to this was stupid. He didn’t want Lani to be arrested for fleeing the jurisdiction, so he didn’t tell the Salem PD she was missing. But surely, if she had been found tied to a chair in Whitley’s living room, the Salem PD would realize she hadn’t disappeared voluntarily.

Even that cranky US Marshal would have had to accept that.

So all Rafe accomplished was making it harder to find Lani for no good reason. And why didn’t anyone think to track her ankle monitor until the US Marshal arrived?

At least Paulina and Kate bonded over Lani’s disappearance. I’ve always loved their friendship. These are two strong, successful, not-always-moral characters who would do anything for their children. It’s fitting that they be best friends.

It also lays the groundwork for Philip to return to Salem. Kate has lived with the secret that Philip’s alive for long enough, and the character is slated to return in August, most likely for Victor’s funeral.

Meanwhile, John and Steve caught up with Jerry, but how much good did that do?

They got him to confess, but do they have the power to arrest him? And Jada missed Steve’s call about Abe being alive because she was busy running to the docks to search for Lani.

How stupid is Whitley? Does she really think anyone will believe that both Lani and Abe “accidentally” died in the same spot at the docks?

The US Marshal seems to have the brains Rafe lacks, so let’s hope he sees through this. Maybe he’ll stay in Salem the be the new Commissioner since Rafe’s been fired (and was incompetent anyway — Paulina wasn’t wrong about that!).

In any case, this story appears to be wrapping up finally. There’s no real place for it to go besides Whitley getting caught now.

Lani’s been found and will probably get life-saving medical treatment, Abe no longer believes Whitley is Paulina, Jerry’s confessed all multiple times, and Jada has a message waiting for her telling the good guys where Abe is being held.

Hopefully, Abe will get the help he needs to remember who he is sooner rather than later so he can regain his place as Mayor and get rid of this troublemaker who wants to mess with Paulina and Chanel for the hell of it.

We also need more cops so that Jada isn’t alone and someone to lead the police department, preferably someone who knows what they’re doing.

Meanwhile, she should soon be free to focus on the Kristen/Brady mess.

I’ve been Team Brady for the most part, but pulling a gun on Kristen was stupid and counterproductive.

Kristen isn’t a stellar choice to parent Rachel, considering the jailbreaks, blackmail attempts, and attempted kidnappings that have been the backbone of her efforts to regain custody.

But after this debacle, the courts would be within their rights to remove Rachel from both her parents’ care! Maybe she could be given to John and Marlena to raise while her parents get limited, supervised visitation.

That would serve everyone right in this disaster of a story!

Of course, if Brady had competent legal counsel, it would also help. Jada demanded Brady open the drawer where the gun was kept but had no warrant or right to issue that order.

And the presence of a gun in a drawer in no way proves that Brady handled it or threatened Kristen with it.

This weak case rests upon the testimony of a troubled child who has been known to lie, sneak around, and run away because she wants to be with a mother who has no legal right to custody.

The fact that Rachel said she wanted to be with Kristen doesn’t negate the fact that Kristen had no legal right to keep her and was committing parental kidnapping. BOTH parents should be in jail, but this is Salem, where Brady’s crime negates all of Kristen’s illegal acts.

And again, he wouldn’t have been in this mess if he hadn’t made a stupid decision. The police knew Rachel was in the house somewhere, and multiple people were pressuring Kristen to give the child back. Brady needed only to keep his hands clean until Rachel was found, and Kristen wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.

Isn’t Brady best friends with Nicole, who lives there and has lots of experience getting one over on Kristen? Surely getting her help would have been a better strategy.

Of course, that would necessitate giving Nicole an actual storyline instead of a pregnancy that keeps magically getting far more advanced than it should be and a bunch of off-screen visits with a high-risk doctor.

Her scenes with EJ were sweet. I liked them supporting one another and planning to raise the baby together, but they were also laying it on thick so that it’ll hurt more when the baby turns out to be Eric’s.

I’ve been around long enough to know that secrets have a way of coming out, especially when the secret is a baby.

Bonnie

That’ll probably happen soon.

With Sloan also pregnant (unless she faked the pregnancy test, too!), Sarah’s pregnancy secret about to come out, and EJ and Nicole eager to learn their baby’s sex, it’s only a matter of time before a dramatic reveal. 

If they need to take genetic material to learn the baby’s sex, it’ll probably reveal that EJ isn’t the father, and then what?

Meanwhile, what was this Li/Trask business all about?

First of all, I thought Trask was forced to drop the charges because there was no evidence Li was involved. So it didn’t make sense that she was worried about dating a man she was also prosecuting.

I can believe she used the date to try to sneakily interrogate him about Rolf, though. That was vintage Trask, although her heartbreak at Li storming off seemed out of character.

Could Trask end up with Li after all is said and done? They’re both amoral and ambitious, so it could work if they don’t destroy each other.

It would be more interesting than Wendy’s canceled-then-reinstated date with Tripp, which they spent discussing Johnny and Li.

While that snoozefest was going on, Johnny hung out with Rafe. He and Rafe have always had a special bond, and it was nice for them to catch up until Rafe invited Johnny to have beers with him and Jada.

That invitation was weird — wouldn’t Johnny be a third wheel while Rafe and Jada were on a date? But when they got to the Pub, Johnny was quickly thrown together with Talia while Rafe and Jada whispered about Lani’s disappearance.

This looks like we’re headed for Johnny in the middle of a love triangle AGAIN. If he and Talia hit it off, Chanel may have to decide between giving Talia a second chance as a girlfriend or giving him one as a boyfriend.

Can we not, please? The first edition of this storyline was bad enough; we don’t need it twice more.

Carson Boatman is one of the best additions to the cast in recent years. Give him something to work with!

Meanwhile, Gabi and Stefan keep having the same argument. She does something reckless, he panics, and then they agree to be reckless together. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Stefan knew who Gabi was when he married her, so he should stop wasting his breath. Besides, since Camilla Banus is set to exit Days of Our Lives in October, this seems like heavy-handed foreshadowing of what will happen to Gabi.

And finally, Dimitri is playing both Gwen and Leo, but will either of them realize it?

This yawn-worthy story is the worst cheating plot since JJ slept with Eve. It has similar undertones of guilt and sex addiction, and Leo and Gwen’s friendship is one of the only things making these characters tolerable, so Days of Our Lives shouldn’t mess with it!

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts about this week’s Days of Our Lives!

For more Days of Our Lives chat, check out the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion, updated each Sunday.

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekdays at 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST.

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