Days of our Lives Recap, June 16, 2025: Steve celebrates four decades in Salem

On Days of our Lives today, Monday, June 16, 2025, Steve receives a special visitor, Stephanie and Kayla pay tribute to Steve, and Xander panics as Philip wakes up.

What Happened on Days of our Lives

In Philip’s hospital room, Xander stalked toward Philip, with pillow in hand. Philip’s eyes popped open, startling Xander.

At the nurses' station, Kayla complained to Sarah about EJ’s budget proposal for the hospital. Sarah suggested she could keep picking up night shifts, since her daughter would be asleep and she no longer had a husband to keep her occupied. Sarah opted to change the subject and inquired about Kayla’s plans. Kayla mentioned the dinner for Steve and soon left. Just as Kayla departed, Kate approached Sarah and asked for help in tracking down a lost book manuscript.

Kate was distracted when she saw the guard who was supposed to be outside Philip’s room away from his post. The guard explained he had gotten sick, but Kate was having none of it. Sarah and she raced to Philip’s room. When Kate went inside, she uttered “Oh, my God.” Kate and Sarah saw Xander standing over an awake Philip. As Kate rushed to her son, Sarah sharply asked what Xander was doing there.

Xander claimed he had just come to visit his brother. He’d planned to call for a doctor before Kate and Sarah arrived on the scene. He noted that Philip seemed out of it. Philip indeed looked around in confusion as Kate talked to him. Philp eventually acknowledged his mom’s presence and asked her what had happened.

When Xander interrupted, Kate turned and demanded that he leave. After Sarah made the same command, Xander relented, but not before wishing Philip a “speedy recovery.” Philip shot his brother a look before Xander left, and Xander lingered for a moment at the door. Philip continued to ask what had happened and observed Kate’s distress. Sarah asked Kate to leave the room so she could examine Philip, and Kate complied.

Philip confessed he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. “Was I hit by a truck?” he inquired. Sarah was surprised but ultimately attributed Philip’s “fuzzy” memory to the painkillers. Philip wondered why Xander had been in his room, and Sarah admitted she didn’t know.

Outside the room, Kate gave the guard a dressing down for leaving his post. But when the officer mentioned his puzzlement at suddenly feeling ill after drinking coffee, Kate realized that Xander likely had something to do with compelling the guard away. She made a call.

In Horton Town Square, Xander hurried through the main area. He stopped when Jada called out to him. She had received a call from Kate and wanted to talk with him about Philip. When Xander balked, Jada told him he could either answer questions in the square or at the station. With a strained smile, Xander acquiesced. He denied any knowledge of why Philip’s guard had promptly fallen ill.

Xander also claimed he had only been in Philip’s room to check on his brother. After finishing her questioning, Jada cautioned Xander not to take any “unexpected trips” out of town.

Back at the hospital, Sarah stepped outside the room and updated Kate on what Philip had said. She had sent Philip for some tests. Kate challenged Sarah on if she wanted Philip to remember his attack. Sarah assured Kate she needed the truth. After Kate finished a call with Roman, she informed Sarah that Jada would be personally questioning Philip about the assault. Sarah looked pensive.

Later, Kate, Jada, and Sarah convened in Philp’s room. Philip said he was okay to answer questions. When Jada clarified that Philip did not remember how he had ended up in the hospital, Philip corrected her. He did remember that he had been “the victim of a brutal, vicious beating.” Jada asked for the identity of the attacker, and Kate angrily supplied Xander's name. But Philip shocked the group with his reply: “It wasn’t Xander.”

At Steve and Kayla’s place, Steve looked at a remembrance card from John’s service. Suddenly, “Bonnie” appeared at the door, talking about the service. When Steve asked what she was doing there, “Bonnie” responded that Steve should recognize her. She was his sister, Adrienne. Steve could tell Adrienne apart from Bonnie from her clothing choices alone, Adrienne lightly pointed out.

Steve lamented the biggest distinction between his sister and Bonnie: one was alive and the other dead. Adrienne smiled when Steve hinted, for a brief moment, that he’d thought she was one of Salem’s famed “back from the dead miracles.” Although Adrienne was still gone, she had come to deliver an important message to her brother: Steve’s prayer had been answered, and John was “healed.”

Adrienne promised to “watch out” for John in the afterlife. Steve thanked her and emotionally affirmed how much he missed his “baby sister.” Adrienne returned Steve’s sentiment and said she had to go. As Steve called out to her, he woke up on the couch. A card picturing the Virgin Mary lay on the table.

Later, Kayla arrived home, and Steve filled her in on his dream. Kayla believed the dream had meaning, since her mother had always told her dreams were a place where “the angels could visit.” Steve was comforted by the sentiment, but he turned down Kayla’s invitation to have dinner with Stephanie; his heart wasn’t in it. Kayla pitched Steve on the merits of going to the dinner and taking his mind off his troubles for a night.

At Alex’s place, Alex nervously asked how he looked as Stephanie prepared for Steve’s retirement dinner. After Stephanie chided him about his demeanor, Alex admitted he wanted to make a good impression on her parents. When Alex brought up Steve and Kayla’s reactions to his and Stephanie's reunion, Stephanie acknowledged that her dad still had “reservations” about Alex’s “playboy past” and about his mother Anjelica’s influence. Alex agreed that Steve had valid points, especially about Anjelica, but he fondly remembered the positive impact Adrienne had on him as a “mom.”

Stephanie believed Adrienne would be proud of who Alex had become. Alex continued fretting over his clothes, so Stephanie sidled up to him and suggested she give him a distraction. The couple kissed, and the clothes came off soon thereafter.

At the Horton house, Jack and Jennifer got ready for Steve’s retirement dinner. They looked forward to a positive celebration. Jennifer added to the celebratory mood by presenting Jack with a birthday cupcake. Jack declined the offering and confided that for him, his birthday and Abigail’s death would be “forever entwined.” Jennifer understood, but she reminded Jack how much Abigail had loved making a big deal out of his birthday.

Jennifer urged Jack to celebrate his special day in order to honor Abigail. Jack conceded, took the cupcake, and blew out the candle atop it. Later, Jennifer busied herself consuming the cupcake while Jack and she bantered about birthday wishes. Jennifer snarked that her one wish would be to “never hear the name Cat Greene again.”

Later, Jack and Jennifer arrived at The Bistro. They ran into Alex and Stephanie, who said they were the first arrivals. Stephanie hadn’t heard from her mom yet. When Steve and Kayla did show up, everyone was relieved, and Steve thanked his “Little Sweetness” for arranging the dinner. Alex awkwardly called him “Sir,” to Steve’s chagrin, but he shook Alex’s hand. The group took their seats at a table.

Steve couldn't believe it had been 40 years since he had first stepped foot in Salem. Steve made a crack about being part of the “riff-raff” when he’d first become a Salemite. Alex asked what had brought Steve to the town, and Steve acknowledged he had worked for Alex’s Uncle Victor. Steve had been consumed with revenge then, especially against Bo. Alex was surprised to learn the friends had once been at odds, and he was especially taken aback that Bo had been responsible for Steve losing his eye.

Steve said everything with Bo was water under the bridge. His life had changed for the better when he’d met Kayla. She reminisced about some of her first meetings with Steve, including the time when she had tended to a hurt Steve and seen him without his eye patch for the first time. The couple also remembered a time when Steve had worried that his surrogate son Max would lose his eye because of an illness. Kayla had been a source of comfort to Steve during that ordeal.

Jack commended Steve’s deep connection with his family. Steve admitted the difficulties he’d had with his siblings at first, and he remembered the first time Adrienne had confronted him with the revelation that she was his sister. Steve had not been accepting of Adrienne initially because he had believed his parents had given him and his brother away while keeping her. Jack affirmed that while Adrienne had been “the heart and soul” of the family, Steve had been “the rock.” Steve had taken the fall for their father’s killing to protect Adrienne, and he had also given Jack his kidney, despite the brothers’ contentious relationship.

Jack raised a toast to Steve, “the original anti-hero.” Later, Steve concluded a video call with Joey, Tripp, and Wendy before Jada arrived for the festivities. She explained she was working on Philip’s case. After a brief update about Philip’s awakening, Jada raised her own glass in honor of Steve, who waxed poetic about his friendship with Jada’s dad, Marcus. Steve recalled how Marcus and he had grown up in an orphanage together and had found each other again in adulthood. He shared a laugh with the group over a memory in which Steve had roped Marcus into playing elf to his Santa Claus.

After Jada left, Stephanie, Jack, Jennifer, and Alex shared their own goodbyes with Steve and Kayla. Before anyone else made their departure, Jennifer and Jack pulled Steve aside. Jennifer asked if Steve would take on “one last case”: Alice’s missing necklace. Steve admitted that Bo had offered his and Hope’s services to Black Patch. Steve thought it over and pronounced he was back in business.

Once they were alone, Alex expressed certainty to Stephanie that Steve hated him. Stephanie attributed Steve’s glares to his usual demeanor. The conversation was disrupted when a harried Xander strode into the restaurant. Alex tried to engage Xander about Philip, but Xander seemed dismissive and went to the bar. Alex mused to Stephanie that his cousin might be worried about an impending arrest.

Meanwhile, Jack and Jennifer took a walk through the square. Jack revealed his birthday wish to Jennifer: they would make it a priority to visit Salem as much as possible. Jennifer promised that was a wish she could and would fulfill.

Back at Steve and Kayla’s place, Steve made sure Kayla was okay with his “unretirement.” While slightly disappointed, Kayla wanted Steve to be himself, and she wouldn’t have him any other way. Steve grinned and lauded Kayla for her endless supply of support. “A dude like me, coming from nothing, look at everything I’ve been given,” Steve marveled. “Beautiful family, lifelong friends, so much love.”

Steve credited Kayla with believing in him, never giving up on him, and ultimately saving him. Kayla concurred with Steve’s assessment that while he was “a work in progress,” he had come a long way. Steve reaffirmed his love for Kayla. “I’m grateful for you, and I’m grateful for our life.” The couple considered themselves lucky, and they sealed their bond with a loving kiss.

In the show’s closing moments, a montage of Steve’s life in Salem played, beginning with his arrival outside of Brady’s Fish Market decades ago and concluding with memorable clips of Steve and Kayla’s epic love story. “Happy 40th Anniversary, Stephen Nichols!” scrolled across the screen.

Stream new episodes of Days of our Lives on Peacock.