Days of our Lives Recap, October 1, 2025: The results are in for Baby Tesoro

On Days of our Lives today, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, a mix-up brings Stephanie’s secret identity to light, Holly torches her room, while Sophia torches Johnny and Chanel’s lives.

What Happened on Days of our Lives

At the college dorms, Sophia thanked Arianna for allowing her to crash on the floor during the blackout. The friends discussed Holly’s own “blackout” drunk episode. Sophia remarked that the fight with Tate must have taken a major toll on Holly.

Meanwhile, inside Holly and Ari’s dorm room, a slumbering Holly knocked over a lit candle into the trash can. Smoke started to pour from the container and soon overtook the room.

Outside Tate and Aaron’s dorm room, Brady scolded his son for not responding to Brady’s messages during the blackout. The sudden sound of an alarm blaring disrupted the brewing argument. Tate said it was probably a prank, but Brady smelled smoke. Father and son quickly realized the threat was real and raced off to warn people.

Tate came across Ari and told her they needed to go. He stopped in his tracks when he saw that Holly wasn’t with Ari. She remembered Ari was passed out in their room and went with Tate to check on her roommate.

Outside Holly's room, Brady saw smoking billowing from underneath the door. He called out to Holly before entering the room with a fire extinguisher and promptly putting out the blaze. As Tate and Ari arrived at the door, Brady picked Holly up and carried her outside.

Later, at the hospital, Brady joined Tate in the waiting area and said he’d contacted Maggie and Nicole. After he concluded his son was experiencing a hangover, Brady berated “the son of two addicts” for taking an unnecessary risk with alcohol, especially after what had happened with Holly’s overdose. Tate insisted he hadn’t been drinking with Holly. In fact, Holly had broken up with him. Tate called himself out for his “idiotic” and “shady” plan, and he didn’t blame Holly for her reaction.

Tate also shouldered the blame for driving Holly to drink. Kayla arrived with an update on Holly: the excessive drinking and smoke inhalation had done a number on the girl, but Holly would be fine. When Tate asked if he could see Holly, Kayla said the decision was Holly’s to make.

Tate made his way to Holly’s room. Holly didn’t stop him from coming inside to check on her. She did, however, reiterate that they were over as a couple.

At the park, Sophia listened to a copy of the letter she had sent to the social worker. In it, she had expressed concern about Johnny’s “temper” and about his recent trial in which he had been accused of trying to murder his father. Sophia then pulled up the photo she had taken in the dorm room, which was a close-up of Holly’s cleavage.

Later, Sophia returned to the dorms and discovered Ari sitting in the hallway. Ari was distressed but managed to summarize the ordeal with Holly and the fire. Sophia initially seemed relieved that Holly was okay, but her wheels soon began turning. She inquired what time the incident had occurred. When Ari confirmed the time to be around 9 AM, Sophia silently surmised she could be in trouble, since she had sent the photo to Johnny’s phone as “Holly” at the same time.

At Johnny and Chanel’s place, the couple anxiously awaited the arrival of the social worker. They hoped the meeting would be the decisive step in making “Baby T” a part of their family. After quelling Johnny’s worries about his recent trial, Chanel announced they should both change into more “presentable” attire before the social worker’s arrival in 45 minutes. But a knock on the door interrupted those plans. Johnny and Chanel wore strained smiles when they welcomed their guest: the social worker.

Chanel and Johnny invited the woman inside and politely declined her offer to give them a few minutes to get ready. The social worker’s eyes lit up at the sight of cream puffs Chanel had laid out from the bakery. While things seemed to be going well as compliments were given about the treats, the meeting took a sharp turn when the social worker pulled out a letter she had received from Tesoro’s birth mother. Chanel and Johnny were confused but also curious about what the birth mother had said. The social worker enlightened them by reading the letter, in which the birth mother had deemed the couple “totally unfit and undeserving” to raise her baby.

The social worker continued reading the content to the blindsided couple. Johnny protested loudly when the letter got to the part about him engaging in an “inappropriate relationship” with a student. But he fell silent when he glanced at his phone on the table. The photo Sophia had taken of Holly suddenly popped up on the screen. Johnny grabbed the phone and tried to put it aside, claiming the notification alert had been a “scam.”

Meanwhile, Chanel defended Johnny and said the birth mother could not possibly have known anything to make such an allegation. The social worker explained that the birth mother claimed she had seen the student “sexting” Johnny. The worker then asked to see Johnny’s phone. Johnny reluctantly handed it over and quickly added that his pictures went back a month. The social worker observed that Johnny had just received a new message, though. “Oh,” she uttered, as her eyes widened at the image.

When Chanel got a glimpse of the photo, she grabbed the phone and soon recognized the girl in the picture as Holly. She noticed that Holly had been texting Johnny the previous night and demanded to know what was happening. Johnny emphatically proclaimed his innocence and implored Chanel to believe that the texts with Holly had only been about class work. The social worker extricated herself from the face-off and left, despite Johnny’s protests.

Johnny continued to plead with Chanel, but she wasn’t having his excuses. Irate and emotional, she asked how Johnny could have betrayed her and cost them their dream in the process. “You ruined everything,” Chanel accused.

Back at the hospital, Kayla and Stephanie convened in Kayla’s office for an emergency PR meeting. Kayla worried about the fallout if it was confirmed that the blackout had originated at the hospital. Stephanie acknowledged a “nightmare” scenario in which the hospital would be held legally liable for any damage caused because of the event. As the duo discussed the need for EJ to sign off on a statement, the man himself appeared in the doorway.

EJ informed Stephanie that he’d made adjustments to her press release and had approved it, so Stephanie excused herself to get the document sent out. EJ took her seat and brushed off Kayla’s concerns about he blackout. Instead, he demanded to know why Kayla had hosted a Q&A session for “Anastasia Sands” on hospital grounds during the blackout. Kayla was thunderstruck when EJ insinuated she was the “shamelessly explicit, borderline obscene” romance novelist. He hinted he might have to fire her for besmirching the “respectability” of the hospital.

Kayla insisted she wasn’t “Anastasia,” and in fact, she hadn’t even been in her office the previous night. Stephanie came back while EJ was in the process of threatening Kayla again and declared she couldn’t let her mom “take the fall.” Standing beside Kayla, Stephanie confessed, “She’s not Anastasia Sands…I am.” While Kayla absorbed the news, Stephanie defended her mother by affirming that Kayla had no idea why she had really wanted to use the office. EJ took a veiled shot at the book again, but Kayla called her daughter a “brilliant literary mind.”

Kayla departed to give Stephanie and EJ time to strategize, and she left Stephanie with a nod of approval and a whispered “I'm proud of you.” Once they were alone, EJ commented on the irony of his “demure” PR person being capable of writing such “titillating erotic imagery.” Stephanie smirked and suggested that EJ had actually read that “erotic imagery” and had liked it. EJ refuted and countered that Stephanie was the one who was “ashamed.” Stephanie asserted her pseudonym had been for professional reasons and asked EJ if he planned to “out” her.

EJ said he didn’t need a distraction from the clinic’s opening or from the good work that Stephanie was doing for him. Stephanie and he begrudgingly agreed that they needed each other professionally. As such, EJ pledged he would keep mum about Stephanie’s “double life.” A returning Kayla was pleased to hear that her boss and daughter had called a truce.

During her time away from the office, Kayla sat with Brady in the waiting area as he bemoaned not having his dad around to help him navigate the troubles with Tate. He wondered if he should have told his son about the paternity test on Tesoro. Kayla offered to check with the lab on the results.

Later, Kayla returned to Brady with the results in hand. Brady braced himself for the answer contained in the file. Kayla stunned him by disclosing that Tesoro had not been a DNA match. “Tate is not the father,” she confirmed.

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