It’s hard to root for Ciara to be with anyone these days.
Head injuries can cause personality changes, and Ciara seems to have become totally obnoxious!
While some of Ben’s behavior left something to be desired, Ciara did nothing on Days of Our Lives during the week of 7-05-21 but imitate Gabi at her worst, making snarky comments and trying to bully people into accepting her engagement with Theo.
Let’s get one thing straight right now: two wrongs don’t make a right, and Ben was far from innocent either.
He and Ciara went around in circles endlessly over the divorce papers, with her insisting it was time to move on and him retorting that she “really” loved him deep down.
And then Ben decided to lock Ciara in the room with him to try to force the issue.
At that point, I couldn’t blame Ciara for being angry and afraid of him. He was trying to hold her prisoner, and that’s not what a loving husband does, especially one who is trying to prove he isn’t the monster his amnesiac wife fears he is.
And yes, he did change his mind, but still. That was a low point in an already awful storyline.
Theo running into the room almost as soon as Ben opened the door to scream at him wasn’t much better.
Neither Ben nor Theo was treating Ciara with an ounce of respect at that moment, and it was nauseating.
Afterward, Ciara went into overdrive, becoming so obnoxious that the only thing I was rooting for was for her to be off my screen!
Did she really think that Shawn was going to side with her when she was bullying his daughter? Really?
Ciara’s snarky little comments about how Claire and Ben were both psychopaths and suggesting Claire was going to burn Shawn’s house down were uncalled for and seemed to be more of a mean girl response to Claire daring to disagree with her decision than anything else.
And then she not only decided to forego talking to Belle about her case but demanded that Ben give up his appointment with Justin because SHE wanted to hire Justin as a lawyer.
No, Ciara, you entitled brat. You don’t have a right to hire Justin or anyone else, and Ben was there first.
The best part of this otherwise aggravating storyline was Ben’s session with Marlena.
I wish he’d consulted her a long time ago, like when he started seeing Jordan’s ghost everywhere. But the session he did have served one important purpose: it gave viewers a balanced view of this whole Ben/Ciara mess.
Up until that point, I felt Ben was being ridiculous and should just let Ciara go, and Marlena tried to convince him that it was not a good idea for him to continue to pursue her at the expense of his mental health.
But then Ben pointed out that Marlena would not give up on an amnesiac John, and she had to acknowledge that she had been in that situation in the past and had refused to let John go.
Ben seemed much more reasonable in this session than he had when interacting with Ciara, and it made sense that he didn’t want to give up.
Marlena: I know how upsetting this is for you, but it sounds like Ciara has made up her mind.
Ben: Her mind is missing some information.
I wish that Marlena had pointed out a long time ago that Ben making Ciara his entire world was not healthy. That’s always been the problem with this relationship, and if they ever do reunite, I hope they don’t go back to being so annoyingly clingy.
As for Theo, I wish the writers would make it more explicit that some of his behavior is Autism related. Theo mentioned Ciara standing up for him when people bullied him over his Autism in the past, but that wasn’t enough.
I wondered if Theo took Ciara’s sudden declarations of love for him at face value because of his Autism. If so, that would make him more sympathetic, but the writers aren’t making that clear, and it feels like they forgot Theo is Autistic except for that throwaway line.
I also don’t think Theo and Ciara getting married would cheer up Abe after Abe discovered Paulina’s lies. Abe might be happy for his son in different circumstances, but Theo’s wedding would have to drive home the fact that Abe just got his heart broken!
Paulina: I already told you, I thought it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.
Abe: You will get neither from me. Not that it matters to you. You played me.
Abe’s confrontation with Paulina was one of the strongest sequences on Days of Our Lives during the week of 7-5-21. It’s easy to forget how powerful an actor James Reynolds is because the series often doesn’t give him nearly enough to do.
But not this time. Abe went from angry to sympathetic to unable to trust Paulina… to returning to Julie’s Place with tears in his eyes. That whole gamut of emotions was both believable and effective.
Abe was right in everything he said, too.
Paulina’s traumatic past — if her story was even true — didn’t excuse her decision to buy up the Square under false pretenses and try to demolish the whole thing. And as Abe pointed out, Chanel’s welfare should have come before any amount of money she stood to make with the deal she’d concocted.
And Chanel probably wasn’t the only member of a marginalized group who had applied for the business initiative.
What about those people? Their dreams, too, were crushed, and Paulina’s deception might make them wary of future programs of this nature or make it harder for Abe to secure funding for such initiatives.
I’m curious as to what might happen with Chanel’s business now. Can Abe somehow reinstate the original initiative if he manages to stop the demolition of the Square?
Or could Kate or Julie help Chanel and Allie open their bakery despite Paulina’s subterfuge?
Both of those women are related to Allie and have a ton of money to spend, and since Paulina bought the storefront where Sweet Bits was supposed to be out from under Kate, Kate might not mind returning the favor by buying it back.
Of course, the main point of Chanel getting this bad news seemed to be for her and Allie to kiss again.
A new actress took over the role of Chanel just in time for these scenes. Talk about pressure!
But this time, the kiss felt authentic and like the logical outcome of Allie comforting Chanel. I wished that Days of Our Lives had left the first kiss on the cutting room floor and let the story of Allie questioning her sexuality and who she wanted to be with begin here!
It would have made a ton more sense and eliminated the feeling that someone shoved the kiss in to satisfy their own sexual fantasies.
In any case, I’m curious as to where this goes now since Allie and Tripp are heating up, and Allie’s denied her feelings for Chanel exist up until this point.
Meanwhile, the EJ/Sami/Lucas triangle took a decidedly silly turn… and then found its way back with an amazing Friday cliffhanger.
Sami was super obvious in her attempts to stop EJ from getting his hands on that letter, to say the least. There was no way he wouldn’t wonder what was up after she grabbed the phone out of his hand, and her behavior, once she got the letter back from Gabi, made it clear she was hiding something.
She told Gabi to be careful when it comes to going to war with EJ, but she didn’t take her own advice!
And EJ may be annoying, but he’s a ruthless businessman, so there is no way in hell he believed Sami’s lie about wanting to start a fire because she finds the house chilly even in the summer.
Unfortunately, Sami’s plan meant viewers had to sit through yet another round of Sami and EJ making out and EJ apologizing endlessly for pushing Sami away in the past.
EJ lay it on way too thick not to be aware already that Sami slept with Lucas. His comments about how in the past, they allowed other people to come between them seemed like an implied threat.
My money’s on him being the mystery person who fished the burning letter out of the fireplace. It’s not a coincidence that Johnny called at the perfect moment, and who better than to get him to do it than his father?
EJ and Sami always end up in a scheming war, which is one of the reasons I dislike this couple, and this looks like it’s no different. Most probably, EJ pretended to be asleep to find out what Sami was up to.
A couple of good things have come out of this mess, though. One is that now that Kate is free of Jake, she may gravitate toward Roman again if the scenes they shared at the Pub are any indication.
The other, surprisingly, is Sami and Gabi’s friendship.
Gabi is generally as annoying as Ciara was this past week, but she seemed different with Sami. She was more likable, lost the snarkiness, and was grateful for Sami’s help in the past.
Weirdly, Gabi feels no such loyalty to Kate, who also helped with the whole river cover-up, and who Gabi is now fighting with over Jake — the ultimate not-worth-it guy.
Rafe’s confrontation with Jake was a high point because he said everything that needed to be said. Jake has bounced back and forth between Kate and Gabi way too much, and it’s hard to tell who he loves since it keeps changing.
Elsewhere, Nicole held court on a bench outside the Brady Pub while trying to get Kristen’s number so she could get dirt on Sami.
I could do without this whole thing, even if Nicole’s comments on Sami and Lucas’ ridiculous fake brain tumor scheme were entertaining. It’s unlikely Kristen will do a thing to help Nicole, and I’m tired of Nicole and Sami trying to out-blackmail each other.
Instead, I’d love it if Nicole and Lucas pretended to be a couple to make Sami jealous and pry her away from EJ. That could be fun… as long as Nicole didn’t fall for Lucas for real.
Even that would be preferable to Nicole falling for Xander and his manipulations. Instead, he keeps trying to seduce her again, and it’s nauseating.
I don’t even know what he’s doing it for since he seems to be more into Gwen than Nicole!
The I-hate-you-let’s-kiss trope is beyond annoying, though Xander and Gwen’s attempts to mislead Jack were fun.
I’m glad Jack still has his reporter’s instincts, and I hope he continues trying to get to the bottom of this. And how did he NOT hear Gwen and Xander yelling at each other after he left the room? The Horton House isn’t that big!
Too bad JJ isn’t on canvas anymore. It would have been fun for him and Jack to team up to find out the truth, especially if Tripp and Steve got involved!
Finally, the worst triangle award goes to this Brady/Chloe/Philip triangle.
I’ve long wanted Chloe and Philip to get together, but not like this.
Chloe’s interest in Philip seems to boil down to “he was nice to me in high school, and Brady isn’t available.” That’s not a recipe for a scintillating romance!
And as if that weren’t bad enough, both Brady and Philip are obnoxious. They’re both trying to control Chloe, keep her away from the other one, and generally make their rival feel like garbage.
I’d rather Chloe forget both these guys and meet someone new who would treat her with respect.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought about Days of Our Lives during the
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
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