HOLLYWOOD—Looks like Eve Donovan’s goal of turning Ben Weston back into sociopath that he is on “Days of Our Lives” has worked. Ben thought he was going to live a happily ever-after with Ciara, but when his wedding blew to hell, it shifted everything. Ben found himself being programmed, and as a result it led to him fighting his urge to want to strangle his wife, Ciara Brady. Ben had been resistant for some time, but last week it culminated when he returned to the place where he killed Paige inside her dorm in that shower.

Ciara was a bit nervous, but it didn’t hit her until Ben started to wrap that necktie around his hands and corner her. Now, let’s be clear most of this transpired in like flashback sequences that were not the easiest for the viewer to actually witness America. He fought the urges, Ciara didn’t understand what was happening, but she was fearful of her life. When it culminated, Hope had gotten to the location, but she was too late. She found a sobbing Ben, but Ciara was missing people. Where is she? She is being held by Vincent, Eve’s little henchmen.

So what does Vincent have planned for Ciara, the audience is not sure yet, but it was apparent that last week was a bit of a bloodbath for characters leaving Salem.  First, Ciara, then Rafe and Gabi were forced to flee town because assassin dad, Eduardo returned and alerted his Rafe and Gabi that they were in serious danger.

Now, the good news is that the fact that Gabi and Rafe are slated to return to Salem, but we know for Rafe it will be short-lived, as it will be for Hope also, who are both exiting the soap in the coming weeks. Gabi is really heating things up with Jake as the duo slept together, much to Gwen’s chagrin. Yeah, Gwen is a bit of a pesky character that is much more annoying than anything at this point. She is not as interesting as I expected her to be. With that said viewers had to bid adieu to another power couple as we saw Will and Sonny say their goodbyes to loved ones as they exited Salem. I must say this is a lackluster sendoff for the power couple if you ask me to be honest.

Victor was sad, Marlena was sad, Lucas and Kate were sad, but they all have bigger issues in place. Marlena is worried about John’s brain aneurysm, while Victor is juggling rebuilding his relationship with his son Phillip. Phillip wants the CEO position of Titan that Victor just offered to Xander. So Xander finally got what he wanted. He has Sarah back in his orbit and now the position he’s always wants, and golden boy Philip could take all that away from him. So where will Victor’s loyalty lie? We shall see America.

On top of that the court battle for Allie’s son is turning plain ugly between Nicole, Eric and Sami. Nicole is playing dirty exposing all of Sami’s machinations and Sami is going for the jugular exposing Nicole’s history of stealing her daughter, murdering Deimos and we even saw the wicked Jan Spears, yes that Jan Spears return to town America.

I know this is no coincidence because it worried Belle and Shawn when they came face-to-face with that former friend turned foe. I have good intuition that this is all part of Sami’s plan to prove that Nicole is not capable of raising Allie’s baby and it’s about to bring up some torturous memories for Nicole to say the least America. This war between Nicole and Sami is turning quite dirty and I wonder if it will impact Sami’s relationship with her family, the rest of Salem and more than ever her twin brother Eric. We shall see America, we shall see.