Days of Our Lives Promises Some Heart-Tugging Fallout After Sarah’s Cure and TR’s Surprisingly Satisfying End, But the Devil Can’t Leave Soon Enough

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (2), NBC screenshot

Between Sarah’s (almost) total recovery and TR’s death, emotions were running high this week. The fallout from these two stories could be intense, but hopefully once Satan’s gone that’s the last we hear of him. Because as the devil’s run begins wrapping up, about the only emotion we can feel is distaste.

Making Good Choices

I’m not going to lie — I was not expecting Gwen to make the right choice between Ava breaking her out of jail and Justin helping her through the legal system. Not that it means she’s going to keep making the right choice, but it was a nice surprise. Five years in prison is still a big deal, and when push comes to shove, Gwen may just decide to take the easy way out after all.

“Oh, sorry, I was looking for the little boy’s room.”

Credit: NBC screenshot

But between that and the twist with Sarah, if I was a betting man, I’d say Gwen and Xander aren’t nearly as over as she may fear. She didn’t just tug at Xander’s heart strings as she talked about being so desperate to hold onto what little love she’s found in her life, she tugged at ours. (Well, some of us, at least.)

More: Could Sarah’s cure send Xander back to the dark?

As for Sarah, it’s a relief to have her back for real (As Maggie said, “Your voice, it’s normal!” Thank God for that.) and it was a joy to see her reunite with Xander and Maggie, but if her memory gaps don’t fill themselves in ASAP, we’re in trouble. She’s going to have deal with learning about and processing her beau’s baby betrayal all over again. That did not go smoothly the first time, and there’s no guarantee she’ll get over it in the same way the second time. Time will tell, but it’s looking like “Xarah” fans might not get to rejoice just yet.

TR’s Downfall

The TR showdown was surprisingly satisfying. It does not make up for the problems I’ve had with the story, but I enjoyed seeing Abe stop circling and just face TR down — even if he did get whacked with a baseball bat for his efforts. And I loved Paulina’s reaction to TR’s raised fist, telling him that she would not be afraid of him, and she wasn’t the scared girl he terrorized anymore. It’s what every survivor wants to say to their abuser — but again, bringing him back into Paulina’s life so easily and getting to that point is still a big “No” from me.

Lani and Paulina gave us a new take on “Stop, or my mom will shoot!”

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

Also, the whole “Ignore the man laying in a pool of blood two feet away and let’s go” thing was a bit silly.

There’s a part of me that feels like Lani absolutely made the right choice in shooting her father, but I also get the problem with a cop shooting an unarmed man. I’m pretty sure if she explained what she ran into, she’d come out fine, but I understand Paulina’s desire to jump in to protect her — not to mention Lani’s shock allowing her to. That last little knife twist as TR said he loved and forgave Lani, though… He may have thought it was the right thing to do for once, but that’s going to haunt her.

It could give us the story this should have been from the beginning. Instead of a tale about welcoming TR in with all-but open arms, it could be a story about how that roiling conflict of emotions in learning that the family member you should love is a monster tears you apart.

The Devil Doubles Down on Distaste

We finally learned what Satan’s master plan is and it’s, well, it’s pretty boilerplate satanic stuff. I figured it would be a whole Antichrist/devil incarnate type thing, and if this were a horror movie, it would be a big deal. That’s end of the world type stuff, right there. (Well, in 18 to 25 years when Satan grows up.) But this is Days of Our Lives and honestly, other than the innocent baby being taken over, the thought of this devil running around unfettered is more of a “meh” situation. I’m pretty sure that would just mean he has horns on his head and maybe a tail as he goes around breaking couples up. Let’s get on with the exorcism.

I did appreciate on some level, though, AllieDevil seemingly channeling some writer frustration as she went off about everyone constantly pestering her about the master plan.

“And I would’ve gotten away with it too…”

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

As for the week’s end… All I can say is the special effects were out in full force on Friday with those flickering lights and murky, pentagram-filled cemetery scenes, but so was the gross discomfort. It’s like now that TR’s gone, the show had to double down on the violence against women themes.

More: The devil’s not going down without a death

Evan’s “I forgot, the Necktie Killer’s wife likes it rough” as he choked Ciara, and Charlie coming back from the dead to immediately taunt the woman he raped (hopefully that’s something Allie won’t remember once the devil’s out of her) were just not what we needed to end the week. Or begin it. Or at any point. Plus, Satan essentially offering Allie over to be raped again once he took over baby Bo was, sure, that’s something the lord of evil would do, but it’s beyond horrible.

And yes, the show ended on a cliffhanger, but it wasn’t one with many stakes. Seeing Ben and Ciara hopefully kicking Satan’s butt back to hell will be satisfying in its way, but we know Satan’s not going to win. If he did, this show would turn into Passions, and that’s not happening. While I think there’s good story in the wedding fallout and the Lani/TR shooting fallout, I’m hoping once the devil’s gone, that’s it. No more casually talking about what Satan did like it’s part of a perfectly rational world. Just move on.

Stray Thoughts

• I know I said a couple weeks back that I didn’t mind Eric’s Salem return being a slow burn, but if the show’s not careful, that burn’s going to flicker out. It went from “Oh, Eric’s back!” to a whole lot of nothing.

• Satan’s doing all this for his silver anniversary? What about that year time jump? Methinks the devil miscounted. Unless there was never any time jump after all and he just messed with everyone’s minds to make them think there was… Now that would be a diabolic twist.

“Time jump? What time — Oh… I messed up again.”

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

• Isn’t it awfully convenient that after Leo arranged for a visitation with Gwen, Ava, Jack and Xander all managed to stop by and time their visits just right? Works out every time. The SPD is awfully helpful like that.

• I’m not entirely sure what official procedure is, but I’m pretty sure hospital staff injecting a patient with a non-FDA approved drug that’s been sitting in someone’s apartment for weeks and was created by a mad scientist is a big insurance no-no.

• Anna’s goodbye spiel to Tony was amusingly all over the place. She went from talking like a mobster and telling him she was “going on the lamb” to quoting Robert Frost about how many miles she had to go before she sleeps.

Check out our photo gallery of daytime’s most wanted as we count down the 35 actors who need to come back ASAP.