Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem Season 1 Episode 2 Review: This Means War

I knew it!

As soon as Agent Graham appeared on the scene and started trading barbs with Billie, I figured they’d fall hard for each other sooner or later.

I didn’t expect them to dance the tango by the end of Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem Season 1 Episode 2, but it makes sense given the serious time limitations here.

Graham’s introduction was one we’ve seen a thousand times before, yet this trope was still compelling.

ISA agents and detectives get mistaken for perps by their new partners regularly. It would have been smart for Shane to let Billie know he was sending back-up before someone got shot!

And of course, viewers could see Graham and Billie’s eventual attraction to each other a mile away. On Days of Our Lives, the line between love and hate is generally so thin that it’s practically non-existent.

I didn’t mind, though. Graham is a good-looking guy, Billie deserves some happiness after losing Bo to Hope almost three decades ago, after all.

The developments in Billie’s case were interesting, too.

I still don’t quite understand why the shopkeeper let the Favershams walk off with the amethyst when she was holding it for Gina. But I guess since they are associated with her, it makes sense.

There is one huge problem in this story though: Ciara can’t possibly pass for Greta.

Greta is closer to Billie’s age than Ciara’s — she dated Eric for a while after the first time he lost Nicole back in the day. Ciara is around the same age Greta was when she was introduced, so unless there’s a time-freezing potion involved, there is no way anyone would believe Ciara is Greta.

I guess Ciara could claim to be Gina’s GRANDDAUGHTER rather than her daughter, but so far, this plan doesn’t make any sense.  I’m curious as to how the writers will get out of this one!

Of course, the whole purpose of Ciara going undercover seemed to be so that Graham and Billie could do the tango in the park and then Ciara and Ben could go “practice” and make love yet again before the big mission.

I know this is their honeymoon, but these two are so much more interesting when doing something that doesn’t involve setting world records for how much sex they can have in a single day!

Hopefully, this’ll be the only chance they have to indulge themselves, though, since they’re about to go on an adventure.

Meanwhile, all the action in Zurich held my attention.

You wouldn’t think an auction for a necklace would be nearly as exciting as these scenes managed to be. After all, it was mostly predictable.

As soon as John and Anna both saw the same necklace in the auction brochure, I knew they’d run into each other at the auction, and I also knew that Anna would double-cross Marlena to get the necklace.

She has this ridiculous idea that this will save Austin and Carrie’s marriage. If their continued relationship is dependent on Austin buying Carrie an expensive necklace, they REALLY have problems!

The relationships between the four people involved lifted these scenes far above their premise, though. Marlena’s interactions with Tony and Anna are always fun, and Tony’s failed attempts to keep his wife in line are also super entertaining.

Tony understands the gravity of the situation, something which Anna fails to grasp, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he insists they give the necklace to John despite Anna’s pouting about it.

I’m also curious about the man who was removed from the auction. Was this merely a means of stalling the auction so that John and Marlena could explain the situation to Tony and Anna or will this guy have some significance?

The auctioneer made a point of asking security to remove a particular person and we saw the man being escorted out — if it was just a plot point, we didn’t need all these details.

Elsewhere, it turned out that Leo was Will’s source, as I predicted. Kind of, anyway.

I understand Will wanting to keep a source anonymous, even if Leo is a known troublemaker. The fact that he didn’t want to upset Sonny is a giant red flag, though, and he also was extremely naive and gullible to keep giving Leo free perks in the hopes he’d connect him with his contact.

I’m not sure that’s even allowable under journalistic ethical standards!

Either way, though, I’m glad Will and Sonny cleared the air, though having Leo as a houseguest is likely not going to work out too well for them. It’s a good thing Ari is sleeping at a friend’s house this weekend!

If I were Chad, though, I wouldn’t keep threatening Leo. Leo seemed turned on by that, and Chad doesn’t need a repeat of that time Leo tried to seduce an uninterested, completely straight Xander.

Finally, the Paulina situation got a lot more interesting… and not because of this silly set-up with the goons robbing her in broad daylight.

I was surprised that none of the bystanders who were watching this go down either filmed the incident on their phones or called the police themselves. You’d think a manager would notice too and take some sort of action unless this restaurant is a front for mob business.

But then Paulina let something slip that Abe didn’t seem to hear…but I certainly did.

Abe, of course, was oblivious to the fact that Paulina more or less admitted that Lani is her daughter!

He had a gun to Lani’s face. I couldn’t let him hurt my baby.

Paulina

I can’t blame him for missing that. He was focused on trying to keep Paulina from confronting the goons herself and not fully paying attention to what she said.

And Paulina could probably easily cover her slip-up if Abe did ask about it.  But still, it makes me wonder how many more times she’ll accidentally tell the truth and whether Abe will realize something isn’t as it seems by the end of this investigation.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics! What did you think of Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem Season 1 Episode 2?

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know!

Looking to chat about the broadcast series instead of Beyond Salem? Be sure to check out the latest Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.

Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem Season 1 is available for free on Peacock. New episodes will drop daily every day from September 6 – 10.

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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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