Days of Our Lives Review: Selfishness Wins The Day

Ever since the last time Gabi got out of jail, she's been incredibly selfish.

But her behavior on Days of Our Lives during the week of 2-24-20 hit new lows and proved she didn't learn anything.

And worse, she was far from the only selfish person in Salem. Ciara and Evan both weren't far behind her.

Gabi's latest scheme, this time to get herself out of jail for a bunch of extremely serious crimes, was annoying for a lot of reasons.

For one thing, it was a repeat of the obnoxious Lani storyline that viewers have had to sit through for months.

This time, instead of using Julie's heart condition as leverage to get her way, Gabi used baby Mickey's cancer, while Sarah and Eric took over the role of helpless victims -- even though they, just like Lani, weren't helpless at all.

That Lani story was irritating because of how easily Lani gave in without cause. What made the writers think we wanted to see it all over again?

And while soaps excel at allowing villains free rein to continue wreaking havoc, Gabi getting off without any jail time because she was a bone marrow donor was ridiculous.

There was no reason for Gabi to be set free because she's a potential bone marrow donor.

Yes, a little girl was suffering from cancer and she could help. But what does that have to do with whether or not the DA presses charges against her?

Sarah and Eric weren't the victims and had no standing to declare that charges should be dropped in the first place, and Gabi's attempt to use her donor status to force them to should have resulted in her being charged with an additional count of extortion.

She also is not the only donor in the entire world, regardless of how desperate Sarah was to have her bone marrow.

There's this thing called the national registry that everyone had forgotten about, and since Gabi was randomly a match, it stood to reason that Rafe might be too. Did anyone bother to tell him what was going on or ask him to get tested?

There's also the fact that prisoners are transported to and from hospitals in chains for procedures like this, so the only thing standing in the way was Gabi's insistence that she be set free before she consented.

This whole scenario was entirely illogical and required characters to be twisted out of shape yet again.

Highly moral Abe should never have given in, the tough as nails DA should have countered with a threat of his own to charge Gabi with an additional crime if she didn't volunteer her bone marrow without a quid pro quo, and sensitive Eric should have remembered how much it killed him to drop charges against Kristen for raping him in exchange for her help saving John's life.

Instead, all logic, history, and anything else resembling sense went out the window so that the writers could get Gabi out of jail when she shouldn't be.

When there are gaping plot holes, character inconsistencies, and historical inaccuracies in a story, it's a good bet the story doesn't work -- at least not without insulting viewers' intelligence.

It was funny when Stevano startled Gabi after her triumphant return home, though, so there was that.

Even in his weakened form, Stevano is a far superior villain to Gabi and his knocking her down a peg or two was one of the few times this silly reincarnation of Stefano was enjoyable.

Gabi was as arrogant as she was stupid, assuming Stevano would put up with her insulting his children and that he would easily bow to her demands.

She didn't even bother to find out what his weakness was before going on the attack against a legendary villain. Yeah, that was really going to work.

While Gabi was busy getting out of jail for no real reason, Eli and Lani were rushing toward a reunion.

Eli's reluctance to pick up where they'd left off was justified. Again, Lani was not a helpless victim. She chose to keep Eli in the dark about what was going on and to dump him at the altar in front of his friends and family.

As he initially pointed out, she didn't trust him on top of breaking his heart. After getting burned like that, he was right to be wary.

But his mother and Julie didn't think so, so off he went to reconcile with Lani.

That was silly. There was no need to immediately put these two back together.

The way to make couples rootable is for them to slowly move toward one another, overcoming obstacles along the way from enemies, well-meaning family members, and themselves. Reconciling should be the payoff at the end of a long battle.

But the writers have consistently done the opposite with Eli and Lani.

They had a one-night stand borne out of grief and anger when Lani mistakenly thought Gabi and JJ had hooked up.

Then Lani kept it secret that her baby was Eli's and that came out right before the baby died, after which she and Eli bonded over their grief and quickly rushed toward marriage.

That was followed by this ridiculous Gabi blackmail story.

There's little to no opposition from friends or family and no real obstacles other than this weak sauce villain that could have been disposed of months ago.

Eli's refusal to take Lani back could have been such an obstacle, but nope. They went to bed within a week of the reveal, cheating viewers out of any build-up to their reconciliation whatsoever.

And now that Valerie has done her motherly duty and convinced Eli to take Lani back, the chances are that we will never see her again. That's disappointing, because she's a legacy character, a strong African American woman, and an all-around interesting character.

Meanwhile, Ciara continued her hyperfocus on clearing Ben's name before he could be executed.

Obviously, there's a time crunch, but come on! She hasn't worried one iota about her mother being possessed by the evil Princess Gina and didn't seem to care about little David's safety because those things distracted from her obsession with Ben.

Ciara should have faced some consequences for hitting Rafe over the head regardless of whether Ben turned himself in. It's not quite as egregious as Gabi getting off scot-free because she is willing to give bone marrow, but it's close.

But she wasn't held accountable for her actions one bit. Instead, she was set free as soon as Ben turned himself in and devoted all her time and energy to badgering Rafe into double-checking DNA results to try to get a last-minute reprieve for Ben.

As a side note, Rafe should have double-checked those results himself. Salem DNA labs never get it right on the first try. Ciara, for all her obliviousness to anything other than Ben, turned out to be a better detective than him in this matter.

But she was definitely obnoxious.

For example, when Rafe found out that Evan had lied to him and had destroyed the letters Child Welfare sent, he told Ciara he had to rush home right away to check that David was okay. Ciara's reaction was to ask about the FBI contact who could exonerate Ben.

Later, after Evan turned out to be the guy Ciara was looking for and absconded with the baby, Ciara's response to a freaked-out Rafe was that they had to focus on getting Ben exonerated because he didn't have much time.

All of this is coming from her knowledge that the clock is ticking, but God, did it come off as selfish and entitled!

Ciara didn't  express a single bit of empathy for Rafe. She was so focused on Ben's needs that she came off as not caring about anyone or anything else, and that wasn't a good look.

Similarly,  Marlena didn't seem all that concerned when John told her that Maggie would now have to live with the knowledge that she killed Adrienne.

Marlena: So Maggie had no memory of the accident?
John: No, but it came back to her. She remembers getting drunk and getting behind the wheel.
Marlena: I'm glad the truth is out.
John: Me too, but I'm worried about Maggie. She's gonna have to live with the pain of knowing she caused the accident that killed Adrienne.
Marlena: The important thing is that Will is innocent and he is out of jail.

• Permalink: The important thing is that Will is innocent and he is out of jail.
• Added: February 28, 2020

We're all glad Will is out of jail -- that idea he had about keeping the truth to himself so he could serve a life sentence in Maggie's place was preposterous -- but that was an odd response from a psychiatrist.

Marlena of all people should have empathy for everyone in this situation, not just the one who is related to her.

She was a lot more empathetic when she went to see Ben right before he was due to be executed.

Although Ben will undoubtedly be saved at the last minute, everyone involved with his execution brought their A-game to saying goodbye.

Clyde: If I had a do-over, I'd do everything different. I was a terrible father to you and stepfather to Jordan.
Ben: You tried to make up for the bad stuff. You busted me out of here.
Clyde: I hope you know that in my own twisted way, I love you.

• Permalink: I hope you know that in my own twisted way, I love you.
• Added: February 28, 2020

Clyde was more than a terrible father/stepfather. He beat Ben severely and raped Jordan!

Yet even though Clyde is an evil, violent man who deserves his lifetime prison sentence and then some and Ben killed three people, his last scenes with Ben brought tears to my eyes.

Ciara calling the warden won't do anything since that person does not have any power when it comes to executions. But with the real killer holding Sonny at gunpoint, the truth will surely come out fast and Ben's execution will be halted before it begins.

Speaking of which, this Evan story is disappointing on multiple levels.

It's predictable -- many viewers guessed that Evan was David's father and Jordan's killer months ago -- and it's been done before.

Sonny and Will never have any other story besides guy dating Sonny while Will is unavailable turns out to be evil, and there's also no shortage of jilted men who suddenly turn violent when they can't be with the object of their affection.

Plus, Evan's plan for hiding the truth about his background from Rafe was terrible and there was no reason Rafe, who is a former FBI agent, wouldn't  have thought to get a background check before letting someone take care of his baby in the first place.

The best story of the week involved Maggie's remembering that she caused that accident.

Maggie's shock, guilt, and sadness provided Suzanne Rogers with some meaty material, and Sonny turned his justified anger on her, while Victor and Xander were helpless to stop their plan from falling apart.

Maggie is the kind of forthright person who wouldn't sit on this kind of secret, so she also put a stop to Will sacrificing his freedom to keep the world from knowing she was the real culprit.

Thank goodness! Victor was asking too much of Will, was probably never going to follow through on getting him out of jail, and had no consideration whatsoever for what this would do for Will and Sonny.

Maggie probably won't go to jail herself. Either she'll get some sort of plea deal or there will be a further twist in which it turns out she didn't do it either. I'd guess the latter because she doesn't remember drinking at all. That suggests she was drugged, since if she'd blacked out she'd remember taking the first drink.

There was some good fallout from this too. Maggie was annoyed with Victor, Sonny was angry at Maggie, and Sarah was temporarily upset with Xander, in what is surely a prelude to how she'll react when the truth about the baby switch comes out.

On the other end of the spectrum, that Stevano storyline needs to go ASAP.

What good is living like a king if I don't have my queen?

Stevano

• Permalink: What good is living like a king if I don't have my queen?
• Added: February 28, 2020

Other than when Stevano was bothering Gabi, his scenes were annoying. 

At least Kayla wasn't the typical damsel in distress. She used her brains to try to outwit Rolf and somehow freed herself from her bonds, even if Stevano did show up to torment her some more.

But this Steve-as-Stefano thing wore out its welcome a long time ago, and this version of Stefano's obsession with Marlena is one-note. Plus Justin should have involved the cops no matter what Stevano said.

What did you think, Days of Our Lives fanatics?

Hit SHOW COMMENTS and share your thoughts about Days of Our Lives during the week of 2-24-20.

And don't forget to check back on Sunday for the Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.