In Salem, love is fickle.
It’s a soap staple for people to jump from one love interest to another, but Jake’s sudden switch from kate to Gabi was eye-roll inducing.
But all was not lost, as Lucas and Sami finally kissed too on Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-10-21 after a passionate, history-driven argument.
I’m not a Jake/Gabi shipper, but if I were, I’d want a better story for them than this.
This isn’t a love story. It’s ridiculous.
Kate: I should have known that I’d fight my way all the way back here just to find the two of you in the sack. I feel woozy. Mind if I sit down?
Gabi: Of course I mind.
Jake: Wait a minute. What do you mean you fought your way back?
Kate: What do you mean jumping into bed with her?
Kate’s indignation at finding Jake and Gabi together when she finally made it home was fun, but it didn’t make up for the poor writing elsewhere in this story.
Jake said it himself: he only jumped into bed with Gabi because he thought Kate broke up with him.
So when Kate stormed off in a huff (or as close as she could to doing so, given her weakened state!), I didn’t blame Gabi for expecting Jake to run after her.
I didn’t buy any of the things he said to Gabi, either.
He insisted Kate go public with their relationship because he loved her and wasn’t ashamed of that love, wanted to take her away on a luxurious, romantic vacation when she was kidnapped, and was all in on getting to the bottom of why the fake Kate was breaking up with him… until he decided he wanted Gabi instead.
Now he’s telling Gabi that he never loved Kate, that he was thinking of her every time he told Kate he loved her, and that he’s been lying to himself.
Yeah right. If Kate had been in a forgiving mood and said she blamed Kristen for his indiscretion, he would have gone back to Team Kate without hesitation.
If Days of Our Lives is going to write a love story, that’s what they need to do. Jake is with Gabi by default because Kate doesn’t want him.
He started with Kate in the first place because he thought Gabi didn’t want him, too.
Do you know what this does? It makes Jake seem pathetic and casts a shadow over anything he claims about how he feels about ANY woman.
The second most pathetic “romantic” encounter was Nicole and Xander’s hook-up.
It didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Getting drunk doesn’t make people go from “get off me” to “let’s have sex” in two seconds, not to mention that Xander just did this nonsense with Chanel.
Xander deserves better than wandering around drunk, disorderly, and in search of a woman to bed, and Nicole deserves a better reaction to Eric’s abandoning her than this stereotypical drinking and falling into bed with the wrong person nonsense.
The thing is, Nicole was 100% right to stand up to Eric about his behavior. He keeps promising to come home but doesn’t do it, which doesn’t put him in a good light.
I understand that Greg Vaughan left Days of Our Lives, but the show still needs to end this relationship properly! Eric should be recast again, either so that he and Nicole can end things or so they can resume their relationship.
This in-limbo thing is so unfair to Ericole fans as well as to the rest of us, as it leaves Nicole with no choices other than to cheat on Eric, divorce him, or sit at home doing nothing while others are living their lives.
If the situation is going to be this way, divorce seems like the only reasonable option. Eric and Nicole don’t seem to talk except when Eric calls to cancel his latest trip home. He’s not there in any meaningful way, so there is no relationship.
But if Nicole was going to cheat on Eric instead, could it at least have been with someone worthwhile? This drunk Xander sex trope is already overplayed, and this didn’t make anyone look good.
There was also no reason for Nicole to keep her indiscretion secret from Rafe. It’s not like he’s going to hold it against her. He’s the most non-judgmental of all her friends and most likely would have been supportive.
The lies she kept telling to ensure Rafe didn’t know she slept with Xander made me feel like she thought she was cheating on him rather than Eric!
And as a side note: Sami didn’t need to be sticking her nose into it. She has her own indiscretion to worry about, and I don’t know why she’s shocked at her own behavior when she jumps into bed with someone other than her partner every time she’s in Salem.
I’ve always shipped Nicole/Rafe and hope they eventually get together despite the unnecessary lies Nicole told, but I have to admit that Rafe/Ava is growing on me as a couple too.
Their date was sweet, except for Steve interfering.
That’s another soap staple that I find irritating most of the time: people sticking their nose into other people’s relationships, especially in public.
Rafe eventually told Steve to go away and let him enjoy his date, but I wished he’d been more forceful from the beginning.
Yes, Steve has reasons to be concerned about Ava, but the time to talk about it was not in the middle of the date! Especially not right in front of Ava.
It irked me that Ava kept saying it was okay and that Steve was right. She’s gone from being a Mafia boss to having no backbone.
I didn’t enjoy it when Nicole was on an endless apology tour, and I don’t want a repeat of it with Ava.
There was also the beginning of a love triangle, if you can call it that, between Tripp and Chanel for Allie’s affections.
I’d be excited about this story if it were written properly. But the kiss was totally random, which didn’t make sense given Allie and Chanel’s history, and then Claire’s interference was totally obnoxious.
It was understandable for Claire to be suspicious of Chanel given the way Chanel tried to scam her, but going in with guns blazing and insisting that Chanel couldn’t possibly be Allie’s friend wasn’t the way to handle it.
It just made her look like a raving lunatic and caused extra drama for no good reason.
And with Allie immediately kissing Tripp and telling Chanel she wasn’t attracted to women, it seems like we’re headed for Chanel being an interloper in Allie/Tripp, which is not a compelling story.
It’s the same thing that’s been done a billion times before, only this time the bad guy happens to be the same sex as the object of her affection.
Of course, Sami and Lucas’ makeout session has also been done a billion times before — sometimes even with these same characters.
But these two have a long history and have been fighting feelings for each other on and off for most of their adult lives.
Their latest dilemma leading to love felt more like the classic love stories of the past, in which the tryst was the culmination of months or even years of angst, and fans could celebrate the couple FINALLY getting together.
Unfortunately, first, we had to sit through that awful fake brain tumor story.
Lucas: As much as I hate the idea of being stuck here with you for eternity, getting out of here isn’t gonna be a picnic for me either. I have to face the music about what I did to Chloe. This is your fault.
Sami: I didn’t tell you to tell her you were dying of a brain tumor!
Lucas: Why did I listen to you? Who cares whether EJ knows or not?
Sami: I care! My life will be ruined.
Lucas: Now my life is ruined. Chloe hates my guts!
Sami: Who cares what Chloe thinks? You could do so much better than her.
Lucas: Like who? You? Isn’t that how we got into this mess in the first place?
I was glad that Lucas called Sami out on all of her BS surrounding that nonsense, including that it ruined his friendship with Chloe.
It was obvious, too, that Sami was just as jealous of Chloe as Kristen was. But the best moment was Lucas reminding Sami of all of their past trysts AND the fact that EJ raped her and used the threat to Lucas’ life to do it.
And then that kiss! Yes, everyone seems to end up having sex while locked up together somewhere, but in this case, it was such a long time coming that it was super exciting.
The Lucas/Sami reunion was about the only good thing that came out of this whole stupid Kristen story.
Kristen’s pretending to be Susan has gone way over the top now. At this point, the story should be over, but instead, we have cartoon-villain Kristen kidnapping one person after another and getting away with it.
Five or six people know at this point that Kristen is not who she claims to be, so it’s enough already.
So far, Kristen has kidnapped Sarah, Kate, Sami, Lucas, and Chloe. It seems that her goal is to put half of Salem on an island and the other half in the secret room in the Dimera mansion.
This is totally stupid and unbelievable. As it is, most of the characters have had to be incredibly oblivious NOT to realize what was going on, and this is way too many missing persons to escape notice.
At least John and Marlena finally insisted on calling the police, but now I hope we’re not in for another month of the cops missing obvious clues before Kristen is finally caught and everyone freed from her clutches.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics!
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of all of these love stories and rolls in the hay.
And if you’re hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat, be sure to check back on Sunday for our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for air times.
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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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