Days of our Lives Performer of the Week: Eric Martsolf as Brady Black

Days of our Lives star Eric Martsolf brought more than rage to his performance this week when his character, Brady Black, ripped into his ex, Kristen DiMera, following her confession to shooting EJ. The actor added nuanced choices to his acting, elevating the terrific material he was given to play in the process.

Days of our Lives, Eric Martsolf, Performer of the Week

The week began on Days of our Lives with Brady visiting Kristen (Stacy Haiduk) in her jail cell. He had every reason to be angry with her as her actions affected their daughter, Rachel (Alice Halsey). But the beauty of the complicated relationship that Brady and Kristen share is that he knows that there’s always something more going on with the DiMera goddess.

“How could you do it?” Brady asked. Having taken Kristen at her word that she did indeed shoot EJ (she didn’t – Rachel did), Brady called Kristen the monster that everyone had warned him to avoid.

After Brady recounted that Kristen not only hurt Rachel, but also his nephew Johnny (Carson Boatman), who stood trial for shooting EJ, Kristen came forward a bit and told Brady that there was more to the story.

A semi-suspicious Brady pointed out to Kristen that if she had killed EJ when she shot him, she never would have learned the whereabouts of her missing mother, Rachel. He knows the Days of our Lives villainess to be calculating, but shooting EJ before getting that key intel would have been a serious misfire (pun intended).

Brady grilled Kristen like an attorney would. Step by step, he listened to her relay the sequence of events that led to the shooting. Martsolf played Brady processing the details as if he were Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan all rolled into one.

"Yeah," Brady groused. "I'm not buying it."

Kristen doubled down, afraid to let Brady realize the truth -- that Rachel was the culprit. "You are hiding something," Brady declared.

Kristen shouting at her ex to stop this only piqued Brady's curiosity. She begged him to take care of Rachel as Kristen was going off to jail. "And whose fault is that," Brady said, maintaining eye contact with his ex. He didn't really punch that line with a question mark, but more with a knowing tone that he believed she was not the guilty party. Brady's just not sure why as of yet.

Frustrated that Kristen might not be confiding in him, the Days of our Lives hero changed tactics and went straight to anger, blasting his ex for her actions. "You're a terrible parent, and you're not seeing our daughter ever again," he blasted. Brady was done trying to get to the root of what had truly happened -- for now.

The kindest, smartest man in the room

Brady returned home, knowing he had to comfort Rachel now that Marlena (Deidre Hall) had let her know that her mom had confessed to shooting EJ. Brady knows that you can't lie to a smart kid like Rachel, so he focused on the truth of the situation, commenting on Kristen's strength.

"We don't know that," Brady responded as upbeat as he could be when Rachel asked if her mother was going away for a long time. Next, Brady did what dads do better than anything; he hugged his little girl.

Later in the week, Brady, keeping his detective cap on, focused his mind on another subject -- the grandchild he has, fathered by his son, Tate (Leo Howard). Brady recalled Sophia (Rachel Boyd) referring to the baby as a "he" -- not a "she." He also noted that Sarah (Linsey Godfrey) seemed both uncomfortable and surprised to learn that Tate's baby was a girl.

Martsolf plays his Days of our Lives character as a man whose wheels are always spinning. He's not going to solve a case overnight (that's just not how soap mysteries unfold), but Martsolf plays his character with enough savvy that viewers know there's going to be a positive resolution down the line.

The writers gave Martsolf an emotional beat to play as John's (Drake Hogestyn) son when he met with Steve (Stephen Nichols) to talk about Sophia. Brady spied a desk toy, known as Newton's Cradle, that belonged to John. Steve asked Brady if he'd like it, and we watched John's son decide to leave it be. "I like that it's here, in the office," Brady softly said.

Brady had very little to go on regarding his concerns about Tate and Sophia's baby, mostly his gut. With Steve's help, he managed to track down Patsy McGowan (Eva La Dare), the attorney who handled (or rather didn't handle) his grandchild's adoption.

Brady was intrigued by the lawyer claiming not to know who Tate was. The week began on Days of our Lives with Martsolf appearing in the show's prologue, attempting to get the details on one mystery, and in the tag of the last episode of the week, as Brady grew intrigued by another mystery.

In Martsolf's capable hands, Brady Black is a father who is deeply concerned about his children, a lover who can't let go of the mother of his daughter, and a man who is aware that there's almost always more to the story than meets the eye. It's just a question as to which mystery he'll crack first -- the one of Kristen's surprise confession, or the whereabouts and identity of his grandchild!

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Bravo to Martsolf for a series of compelling performances as Brady Black!

Days of our Lives streams weekdays on Peacock

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