HOLLYWOOD─Right now out of all the soaps still airing I feel like “Days of Our Lives” is hitting all cylinders when it comes to storytelling and keeping the audience enamored. For starters, the third baby swap of 2019/2020 was unveiled as Eric broke the news to Sarah that Mackenzie was NOT there daughter, but Brady and Kristen’s. Sarah was bewildered and could not believe what she was hearing; to put it lightly she was in massive denial people. So much to the point that she led Xander to believe their wedding would still transpire, that was before she turned it to a wedding he would never forget by confronting him for his deception.

Sarah then took the Titan jet and flew off to Paris with Mackenzie in tow. Brady and Kristen were worried sick about the wellbeing of their daughter, as Eric, Nicole, Xander, Will and Sonny hoped to get in contact with Sarah to get her to return the child safely to their rightful parents. It’s a difficult situation because how do you tell someone a baby they’ve been raising and bonding with for over a year is NOT their child and they have to hand them over. It’s a gut punch, a major gut punch one that will hurt to the core people.

As I noted, rage would be felt because of this betrayal and Kristen DiMera returned to her evil roots by setting her sights on Victor and delivering a knife to his chest. In case you didn’t know, Victor just got out of the hospital after suffering a heart attack, so it seems the great one is indeed knocking at death’s door. His family rallied around him to ensure he’d make a full recovery. Even though Brady, kept it hidden that his new love ‘Kristen’ was responsible for stabbing his grandfather. I mean can you blame Brady. His own grandfather kept his child from him; that has to be cruel to say the least.

In other Salem news, Chad and Gabi were going to battle for DiMera Enterprises and it looks like Chad finally got the victory he had been hoping for being named the new CEO of the company courtesy of Li Shin. Gabi was not happy, but I think all is about to take a turn for the better for dear ole Gabi. How so? She saw a reflection of Stefan or someone who looks eerily identical to him. It caused Gabi to faint, and as noted in previous columns we’ve known about Brandon Barash’s return to the soap, but rather he would be portraying Stefan or a new character was still up in the air. Well it looks like he’s playing a new character for now, one that was first encountered by Ben Weston.

If I have one grip with the writers of “Days of Our Lives,” it’s that I NEED them to find a more suitable tale for Ben and Ciara. The duo have great chemistry, but it feels like we’re always playing the damsel or hero is distress tale. It has become borderline boring in my honest opinion. I want and need more from these characters. Ben was on a rampage wanting to choke the life out of Christian Maddox, who had the charges dropped against him for murdering Jordan.

For those who don’t know, Christian is the son of the wicked Orpheus. John alerted Marlena about Orpheus’ return from the dead which has her rattled. As for Orpheus, charges against him were dropped which left many Salemites livid, none other than Rafe, who found the villain inside his home. Orpheus wanted to reunite with his grandson, but Rafe was having none of it. The family tree got stronger when Christian’s lawyer, Zoe, who just so happens to be his sister also, showed up in town.

Zoe made her legal expertise known and served Rafe with papers making it known that she’s suing for full custody of her nephew. However, that did not raise my curiosity. It was the fact that Orpheus made it clear to his son that they had to keep their secret. Christian seemed worried sick about this secret coming to light, which makes me wonder, just what the hell are these two keeping, because whatever it is seems quite grand to say the least.

In other news of importance, Steve is back to himself, and Kayla is torn rather to reunite with her one true love or with her current flame Justin. Of course fans want Steve and Kayla to reunite, but at the same time this burgeoning relationship with Justin and Kayla is fun to watch. We also have a closeness developing between Hope and Steve, I mean they were brainwashed and working as a team to gain their respective loves (John and Marlena), so perhaps with all the chaos that has unfolded, if Kayla is not selecting Steve, it looks like Hope could become his new flame people.

If I’m being honest the true tale that has my attention is exactly how the return of Brandon Barash will shake up the canvas for “Days of Our Lives.” I mean let’s be honest we really haven’t had a juicy villain in a while and Stefan is no slouch.