I don't know what kind of crazy Jedi pheromone Kristen is able to emit, but Brady and Lani have both lost all their marbles when it comes to Ms. DiMera. In all fairness, Brady was never waiting on his Mensa acceptance letter. But he can't really be serious about blindly following Kristen into any illegal scheme. This is a wealthy guy with two (Remember Tate? Brady doesn't.) healthy children, a loving family, and actual friends. It's difficult to see what void in his life Kristen is uniquely capable of filling.
As for Lani, while I'm glad she didn't actually doctor the evidence, that's kind of like being proud of the burglar for not tracking mud on the carpet. She overstepped when she went to Abe and insisted he fire Melinda. Lani was mad at Melinda for letting personal feelings interfere with a job. She has no business stomping her feet about a conflict of interest here.
Having said all of that, Melinda absolutely has an agenda here. It took her all of seven seconds to realize that she could pressure Eli to get a confession from Kristen by threatening to throw the book at Lani. Poor, simpleminded Eli probably will allow himself to be blackmailed instead of, you know, going to Lani with this information. If that happens, I'm sure Lani will be very reasonable and not overreact about Eli "betraying" her, and she will instead realize that sometimes bad things happen to people who stab others. Yup. That's what's going to happen. For sure.
Across town, the drama took a turn into real-world territory when Allie ran into Tripp. Tripp seemed happy to see her, but Allie wasn't having any of it. She came home and told Nicole that Tripp was Henry's father after a one-night stand that wasn't consensual, but she can't remember all the details. So, we've got two questions to answer. Is Tripp Henry's father? Was Allie raped that night?
A DNA test will easily clear up the first point. According to Tripp, there's no way that could be possible, since he never slept with Allie. I tend to believe him because he was certainly excited to see her when they ran into each other. But the good news is that none of my assumptions matter. There's science available here.
The second question is a very complicated storyline with a lot of important nuances to play out. Soaps have taken on these types of storylines in the past, for sure. But in this particular case, I need to see a lot more plot to form anything resembling a solid opinion on the storyline as a whole.
I can say that the performances are already great. Lindsay Arnold continues to impress. Her quick delivery and passionate performance are the perfect contrast to her cherub appearance. Lucas Adams has been asked to bring a lot to the table so far -- rage, love, despair, happiness -- and he's delivered every time. I have complete confidence in this cat. And when your supporting players are Arianne Zucker and Stephen Nichols, yup, you're in good shape in front of the camera!
LOOSE ENDS:
Over at Titan, Xander and Philip are still taking part in the sorriest rap battles ever, all because Victor can't seem to make an actual decision. Sarah went in on Xander for turning his toe possibly toward the dirty pool. That's totally fair coming from Sarah. However, these two are hardly playing dirty yet. Instead, they're behaving more like the Real Housewives of Titan Industries.
Jan is making her Last Blast crew dance like puppets on a string. I agree with Belle. Jan's having a far too easy time dividing them. However, I wish Tink had been smart enough not to rush to defend Philip. Justin is on retainer for all things in that family. And Justin just won a case! He's on a winning streak. Strike while the dimples are hot and send Justin in there! Plus, if Belle is so (rightly) determined to distance her family from Jan, she maybe, sorta, totally shouldn't voluntarily insert herself into Jan's business.
Gwen has improved a gazillion percent since her split with Jake. I don't know if that needy weakness was part of her act or the real thing. But watching her slither around Abigail, Chad, and Dr. Rolf is a much better look on her. Emily O'Brien looks like she's having a ball, and I can't blame her! If Gwen and Jan were to have cocktails together, I wouldn't mind it at all!
I'll never not love Kate being in Chad's corner. This relationship, when played truthfully, is one of the more special on DAYS. She was his mom's best friend. She is the reason he knows he's a DiMera. She understands better than most what it's like to truly love Stefano and hate him at the same time. So, I like that she's going to keep an eye on Jake to help Chad. I'm just not so sure that's all she's going to keep on him.
Vincent is back in custody, and Lani did her level best to test him for a soul. No word on the results yet, but I loved seeing Lani in this role. She came on canvas as a plucky cop determined to bring in the bad guys. Vincent is one of the worst we've seen this past year. Could she have gotten through to him?
HOT
We got a Victor and Shawn scene! Not only was it nice to see ol' Vic get out of the mansion, but it's even better when DAYS remembers Shawn is a Kiriakis.
NOT:
I'm going to give Nicole the benefit of the doubt that she really was trying to help Allie. But the whole conversation where she urged/led Allie to certain memories had me yelling at the TV, "Stop! Call Marlena! This is professional territory!" I felt really uncomfortable with Nicole in this scene, mainly because I believe Allie, and what Nicole was leading her toward were some very triggering and damaging mental health needs that Nicole is not prepared to handle.
LINE OF THE WEEK:
Allie (to Tripp): "What could be more important than you?! I dunno, global warming, the Bears, my toenails!"
Lindsay's delivery was hilarious here. She's such a find!
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Are there really people out there who hate apple pie?
There's a baby with Sami, Kate, and (potentially) Ava's genes who is being raised by Nicole. That's a perfect petri dish to grow a villain. If this kid summers with Vivian in Alamania, look out, world.
There certainly wasn't not chemistry between Ben and Hope during the scene where he listed off the ways Hope reminds him of Ciara.
Thank you, Kate, for pointing out that Nicole got what she wanted in the end! Yes. Yes, she did! And Sami wasn't the twin who manipulated Allie to do it.
It's got to be weird for Shawn to have both Lani and Jan around him. My dude has ladies who trapped him in confined spaces everywhere he looks!
Kristen didn't get the memo that you're supposed to ask Nicole to raise your baby! She asked Mar instead.
If cinema has taught us anything, it's that a woman declaring, "You can't ignore me!" to the object of her affection always indicates that woman is of superior character.
What jurisdiction does the Salem PD have in London, exactly?
It didn't happen this week, but I'm doing a slight happy dance on guessing Henry's name. They didn't name him Bryan, but Lucas is in the same spirit of what I was going for!
Tony will be back next week after he's done having sushi with Shawn. There's no way any self-respecting Two Scooper would let reservations for snacks with a hunk go to waste!
Laurisa
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