A new twist in the Stefano saga left viewers gaping, Nicole spilled the beans to Eric, and everyone celebrated Thanksgiving offscreen in Salem.
Our TV Fanatics Jack Ori and Christine Orlando are joined by Stephanie from MyHourglass a Days of Our Lives fan forum to debate where in Salem they’d spend Thanksgiving, which character they’re thankful for, and who they wish were little Mickey’s father.
Do you have a theory of why Steve appears to be “posing” as Stefano? What’s your best guess as to what is happening?
Stephanie: I think that Steve is probably brainwashed just like Hope is. More than likely, his bionic eye has something to do with it.
Maybe since Stefan was controlling his sight, someone else with access to the controls was able to take over and start controlling Steve’s brain in the year since Stefan has died.
Jack: My best guess is that Steve was kidnapped while on an ISA mission and brainwashed to believe he is Stefano, or else Rolf inserted a chip into him as he did to Hope to turn her into Gina.
Christine: I’m guessing he’s been “chipped” like Hope/Princess Gina because Rolf doesn’t want to let Stefano go. But if that’s the case then I’m assuming the real Stefano is really dead.
Nicole spent a year keeping MacKenzie’s paternity a secret. Should Eric forgive her? Do you think he will?
Stephanie: I think that Eric should forgive Nicole, especially if he intends on forgiving Sarah. It wasn’t really Nicole’s secret to tell even though she is the one who ended up revealing it. Sarah should have been the one to tell him.
Nicole just got sucked into the whole mess as a result of being in the wrong place when the paternity test results were delivered to Eric’s apartment. Then she got sucked in deeper when Sarah begged her not to tell Eric the truth.
As for whether or not Eric will forgive her, I think that he probably will eventually. It has taken him a long time to forgive her for some of her transgressions in the past, but he always ultimately does.
Jack: I hope Eric forgives her because the year she spent begging for his forgiveness while he constantly berated her after the shredded paper incident was painful to watch and turned me off of this couple for a long time. So I don’t want to see it again!
Plus, in this case, Sarah orchestrated this whole cover-up, and Eric should be more angry at her than Nicole. Right now Eric is taking all his anger out on Xander, so he may actually forgive Nicole this time.
Christine: I’m so tired of having Eric angry at someone. The guy is always yelling or brooding and it’s no fun to watch. Hopefully, he will forgive Nicole sooner rather than later so this couple can be salvaged.
If you could choose Mickey’s biological father, would it be Eric, Rex, or Xander?
Stephanie: I would choose Xander. It is no contest between him and the other two choices for me. Xander has already proven to be a great dad to Mickey, and he and Sarah are wonderful together.
I am sad that Eric found out the truth so quickly since I really wanted to see more of Xander, Sarah, and Mickey bonding as a happy family.
Jack: I would love for it to be Xander. He is so good with the baby and clearly loves her, is great with Sarah, and it would be fun to watch him rub it in Eric’s face after the tantrum Eric had over this whole thing.
Christine: Xander! He’s adorable with that baby girl and he obviously loves Mickey and Sarah very much.
Heck, he’s the only person who seems to make Sarah happy, because she never truly seemed happy with Rex or Eric.
I’m hoping there’s some Salem magic that will make Xander this baby’s biological father so we don’t have years of Eric causing trouble for this couple.
Do you think Kristen killed Haley or was it an accident? Can Kristen be redeemed?
Stephanie: From what the characters have revealed about Haley’s death so far, I think that it was probably an accident or a tragedy that was caused over Kristen’s grief over losing her daughter.
Maybe Haley was the one who had to deliver the news to her, and she ended up killing her in a fit of grief and rage. As for Kristen being redeemed, I think the chance for that has passed.
I think the best way to do that would have been to have her change once she became a mother, but since that didn’t work out for her, I don’t see any reason why her character will suddenly want to start working toward redemption.
Jack: With Kristen, anything’s possible. She likely lashed out at Haley after her baby died, but she could just as easily have purposely killed her for revenge if she blamed her for the baby’s death.
Kristen was irredeemable a long time ago. She raped Eric and got away with it and I’ve had no use for her since.
Hopefully, JJ can be redeemed and restored to what he was before the writers decided that Haley and Paige were the same person and made him grieve for Haley in crazy ways even though he barely cared that the real love of his life was murdered by his sister’s boyfriend at the time.
Christine: I’m guessing it was actually some sort of accident but, being Kristen was involved somehow, it’s easy to blame her.
I was hoping that motherhood could redeem Kristen so I’ve been very disappointed about her and Brady’s child not surviving.
Chad and Abigail have returned to Salem. So far, are you enjoying them or do you wish they’d head back to Europe?
Stephanie: I am enjoying watching Abigail follow in her parents’ footsteps as a reporter. I think it is a career that suits her well.
However, other than that, I am pretty bored with her and Chad’s plot to get revenge on Gabi as well as their communications with “Stefano”. Those are old and tired storylines that have already been done several times before.
Jack: I wish they’d go away. JJ is the one who should be investigating Jennifer’s fall with Jack, not Abby. Instead, they gave him a stupid story that is not in character at all and gave Abby the story that JJ should have had.
And other than that, all she and Chad do is have sex and argue about whether Chad should talk to Stefano.
Christine: Ugh. I used to like this couple but now they bore me. The chemistry between them seems to have fizzled and they only ever talk about finding Stefano or getting revenge against Gabi.
The only scenes I enjoy are when Abigail interacts with her parents, other than that, I’d be fine with them heading back to Europe.
For which character are you most thankful for in Salem and why?
Stephanie: Right now, I am most thankful for Sarah and Xander. It is a joy to watch them interact with each other, and I am happy to see that they seem to be moving closer and closer to being a real couple.
I am also glad that it is a very natural progression rather than a forced one like the one we saw with her and Eric.
Jack: I’m thankful JJ is still in Salem, bad story or not. From the moment an aged JJ came on the canvas, he caught my attention as few characters have, and Casey Moss is a great actor even when he is given awful material.
I’m also glad Jack is back in Salem, as he and Jennifer were always one of my favorite couples.
Christine: Xander! Whether he’s pining over Sarah, taking care of baby Mickey, dressing up like Tarzan or plotting something mischievous, Xander always brings the heart and the fun and I’m thankful for it.
Where in Salem would you like to spend Thanksgiving Day?
Stephanie: There weren’t really many choices this year since it seemed like most Thanksgiving celebrations the characters had happened off-screen. I guess I would say the Kiriakis mansion though.
From the dialogue, it sounded like they had a nice dinner together. They also seemed to be the happiest group despite their sadness of it being their first major holiday without Adrienne.
Sonny was really sweet to Kayla, and that was nice to see considering that soaps usually take that kind of situation in the direction of the son resenting the new woman in his father’s life for a while.
Jack: With the Hortons (assuming Jennifer was not in the hospital and JJ was restored to sanity.) I was disappointed that we didn’t see one bit of Julie’s Thanksgiving celebration.
The Kiriakises could also be fun to spend the day with, though I’m sure Victor and I would butt heads endlessly since I’m not shy about saying what I think and neither is he.
Christine: I’d want to be at the Kiriakis mansion. Victor would be sarcastic and unintentionally funny, baby Mickey would have been adorable, and Justin and Kayla would have been fun in their discomfort.
Plus, I’m sure Maggie’s food would be awesome. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see this crew for the holiday as it was a real loss to viewers.
Your turn TV Fanatics. Who do you wish were baby Mickey’s biological father?
Want to chat more about the happenings in Salem? Then check out Jack Ori’s Days of Our Lives review here at TV Fanatic.
C. Orlando is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.