Days of Our Lives Review for the Week of 10-09-23: Several Characters Leave Town While Two New Ones Pop Up
Chloe was far from the only person leaving Salem this week.
Some actors might have left the series because of the issues with former producer Albert Alaar. Others might have been ready to move on.
But these exits are (mostly) good news. With few exceptions, the people who left Salem on Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-09-23 had come to the end of their stories.
Chloe hasn’t had great stories for a while; she’s bounced from one ex to another while her parents and son are in New York.
Her relationship with Xander was refreshing because she hadn’t been with him before, but the writers wrapped that up quickly, so what was left for her?
Chloe and Xander’s goodbye didn’t make a lot of sense. Xander had nothing but hatred for Sarah after learning she kept it secret that he was the father of her baby, and now he wants to sue for full custody.
It would have helped to have Chloe at his side during this battle, but she decided she wasn’t in love with him and took off for greener pastures… with Philip.
Philip and Chloe are one of Days of Our Lives’ most-shipped couples. But this rushed ending didn’t do them any favors.
In the blink of an eye, Chloe realized she still had feelings for Philip despite having dated two men while believing he was dead. She forgave him, broke up with Xander, and decided to go to New York.
It would have been one thing if she’d been honest about not wanting to be a step-parent to Xander’s daughter or not wanting to get entangled with Sarah and Rex.
Instead, she projected many feelings onto Xander before declaring she was “confused” and needed space to decide if she wanted Xander or Philip.
If it hadn’t happened so quickly, this might have been compelling. But it seemed like Chloe wanted out the second she heard Xander was baby Victoria’s father, fixated on Philip as her reason for leaving, and quickly took off with him.
That wasn’t romantic. It was flighty.
It also felt like an excuse to rush her and Philip out of town. If their relationship does progress to romance — which it probably will if we ever see either of them again — that will likely happen entirely off-screen, and they’ll return happily dating or engaged.
That’s not what Philip/Chloe fans want. We want a story for them, not a rush to sweep them off the canvas!
Meanwhile, Kate is about to lose both her sons because Rex is also leaving.
Kate: You’re not leaving town, are you?
Rex: Actually, I am. I’m going back to Chicago.
Kate: It’s bad enough that Philip is going to New York with Chloe.
Rex: What? You’re telling me that Philip is living his own life? How dare he!
Rex is an uninteresting character nowadays; he’s one-note in his obsessive love for Sarah, and just because it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal behavior doesn’t mean it’s any healthier than the one Philip had with Chloe last time around.
It seems silly that Rex would rapidly go from wanting to pretend he’s the father of Sarah’s baby even after the truth came out to returning to Chicago so Sarah can have her space. But he’s so uninteresting a character that I don’t care!
These rushed exits seem to serve one purpose: to clear the path for Sarah to get back together with Xander. If that’s the writers’ endgame, that’s fine, but I wish it had been handled less hurriedly and more logically.
Besides shoving the people in the way out the door, the Sarah/Xander story has a serious flaw. Sarah’s anger at Xander was due to believing he was partially responsible for Susan’s death because he kidnapped her. But now that Susan’s alive, Sarah no longer cares about her plight.
If Sarah thought Xander was a dangerous potential kidnapper when Susan was “dead,” why should the fact that Susan’s alive change anything? Xander still kidnapped her, and if he was responsible for her dying in a fiery crash, he was also responsible for her being re-abducted and held by her suddenly looney ex-husband.
It may be a moot point; Xander doesn’t want to get back together with Sarah — he intends to file for full custody of baby Victoria!
That made sense when Rex was standing in the way, but now that Rex is gone and Sarah is softening, couldn’t she and Xander work this out?
Of course, Xander didn’t know that when he met with Sloan about the case. (As an aside: Sloan, stop having client meetings at home instead of in an office, especially if you’re representing people Eric hates!)
Only in Salem could a guy who wants to get full custody because the child’s mother lied about paternity end up hiring a lawyer who switched DNA results so that her boyfriend wouldn’t know he’s the father of his ex’s baby.
But that seemed to be the purpose of Xander and Sloan’s meeting. Now, Sloan feels guilty about lying to Eric but probably not guilty enough to do anything about it.
It’s probably too late now; if Sloan came clean, the judgmental Eric who took a year to forgive Nicole for shredding some papers would likely rear his ugly head again.
I know this type of baby daddy drama is a soap opera trope, but this story is aggravating. Nicole and Eric have both moved on. Why can’t we keep it that way?
EJ and Nicole have turned out to be a surprisingly compelling couple, and Nicole is always better off without trying to force herself into Eric’s mold. Surely, there’s other drama to be found for EJ and Nicole besides this nonsense.
Nicole and EJ don’t know what the other one is doing. EJ’s been running around trying to get revenge on Ava and Xander, which Nicole wouldn’t approve of if she knew about it. He’s constantly trying to get Susan to press charges against Ava and Xander.
Nicole was nowhere to be found while EJ was doing all that but popped back up in the Square so that Susan could offer her a lollipop and declare that she felt no psychic connection to the unborn baby.
We’re moving toward the reveal, but please tell me something’ll happen that’s more believable than Susan learning the truth via one of her psychic visions.
Nicole’s interactions with her newly-aged teenage daughter were far more compelling than this silliness.
Holly and Tate are both compelling characters played by good actors. Holly’s schoolgirl crush on Johnny probably won’t go anywhere, but Nicole doesn’t know anything about it — or anything else, probably.
So far, it seems the setup is that Holly is a mini-Nicole and Tate is a mini-Brady, but there are also shades of JJ and Theresa’s initial story, which is ironic considering that Tate is Theresa’s son.
Nicole claimed to have a close relationship with Holly, but it seemed like it was anything but. Holly seems like trouble with a Capital T, too — how is Nicole going to deal with a spitfire who is so similar to how she was when she was young?
As for Brady, it’s great that he can be so firm with Tate, but where was that strength when raising Rachel?
Brady’s parenting style with Tate seems opposite to how he let Rachel have power over his relationship with Chloe! If anything, Rachel’s misbehavior was worse than Tate’s; at eight years old, she should not be running away from school or camp to spend time with Kristen.
Rachel’s behavior has caused safety risks and wreaked havoc with Brady’s life, yet he got away with it all. But he seems determined not to make the same mistakes with Tate.
Now that Tate’s in Salem, Theresa seems to have gotten soap mother syndrome; she’s doing everything but spending time with him.
This was Emily O’Brien’s first whole week of taking over the role of Theresa from Jen Lilley. She’s done a great job of making the role her own; however, Theresa’s gold-digging behavior with Alex is so similar to what Gwen would have done that it’s hard to separate the two characters.
As for Holly and Tate’s relationship, there’s no reason for Holly to be rude to Tate because he told Nicole that he met a girl who was into someone else. He didn’t even know she was Nicole’s daughter at the time!
Nicole and Tate had some great in-jokes about Holly growing up too fast. But if Holly ever gets over herself — and her ridiculous crush on Johnny — and hooks up with Tate, Nicole will NOT be happy, nor will Brady.
Tate’s behavior also reminds me of when Chanel first came to Salem. He’s a spoiled rich kid who doesn’t want to focus on school or work. He doesn’t see why he can’t rely on his father’s money while he chases girls all over Salem.
Brady can’t say anything about Tate being after every woman he runs across, considering how many “loves of his life” he’s had!
While Tate was running after Holly, Theresa tried to get Alex’s attention. She claimed not to know anything about his status as Victor’s son but had a flashback of reading the letter that stated it.
Some viewers think this flashback proves Theresa forged the letter, but it seems the opposite. She was reading it when Brady and Alex walked in and quickly put it away. We already know that after that, she told the guys about the briefcase and convinced them to let Maggie be the one to open it.
It’s more likely that the letter was genuine and that after reading it, Theresa decided to go after Alex for his money.
That’s how Tate came into existence — Theresa had a one-night stand with Brady. So why wouldn’t she try to make that happen again with the newest Kiriakis heir?
Victor’s childhood friend, Konstantin, visited Salem to give Maggie a photo album, but is this the beginning of a new relationship? He thought Maggie’s smile was beautiful, and she appreciated how close he was to Victor and that he was kind enough to bring her the album full of Victor’s childhood pictures.
Maggie probably isn’t in the market for a third husband, but a random friend of Victor’s who needed a place to stay might help her feel alive again. They have to do something with her now that John Aniston’s death is being addressed on-screen, so why not develop a relationship between her and Konstantin?
Konstantin does not know Victor’s secret son; he told Brady and Alex that all he knows is that Victor was upset about a letter. So he isn’t there to either undo or reinforce the Alex as Victor’s son story.
Speaking of Alex, he had a quick change of heart!
Do you think that just because I found out I’m Victor’s son and inherited all this money, I’m Scrooge McDuck swimming in a pile of gold coins? I’m still the same person. I’m still me.
Alex
I loved his scenes with Justin but hadn’t Alex JUST been telling Stephanie that learning Victor was his father was very different from his brothers knowing they are adopted?
Stephanie was highly sympathetic during that conversation. Chad doesn’t want to marry her but is afraid to say so. If this isn’t set up for Stephanie to drift back toward Alex, I don’t know what is.
Finally, one exit this week was more or less unacceptable: Shawn’s decision to go to rehab without Belle.
It’s understandable — and applause-worthy — that Shawn finally has decided he needs help with his alcoholism. And with Martha Madison (Belle) deciding to leave Days of Our Lives, Shawn and Belle had to be written out somehow.
But it makes no sense that Shawn would decide that his recovery requires him to be on the other side of the world from Belle, yet he is looking forward to having the rest of his family there.
Belle wouldn’t have to live in the same place as Shawn if he felt that was a problem, but why push her away like this?
This exit wasn’t worth of these characters. That’s unsurprising since the whole story has been out-of-character nonsense, but it is disappointing.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you think.
Don’t forget to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
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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 X.
