Beauty and the Beast: Xander and Maggie on Days of Our Lives

Earlier this week, Days of Our Lives did something unexpected that caught our attention — Xander, the man with a rock where his heart should be, possibly showed a moment of true vulnerability during a conversation with an inebriated Maggie — and we’re not sure how we feel about it.

Don’t misunderstand — it’s nice to see Xander show different shades and the actor who plays him, Paul Telfer, is more than capable of showing an alternate side to his homicidal character. What brought it about was disturbing on many levels.

Xander came upon Maggie (Suzanne Rogers) who was obviously drunk. During the conversation, she revealed she’d taken her first drink in 30 years because of her granddaughter’s death. The reality of this unforeseen repercussion of his staging Holly’s death wasn’t lost on Xander.

During the course of their conversation, Maggie actually showed true empathy for Xander, something he wasn’t expecting, and it was obvious that it took him by surprise and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that.

Later, Brady (Eric Martsolf) arrived back at the mansion and sees the two sleeping on the couch, leaning sweetly against each other.

If the show is looking to finally give Xander some redeeming qualities in order to keep Telfer around longer, we’re all for it.

Picking Maggie as the one person who might be in his corner could prove very interesting down the line, especially considering his liaison with her daughter Sarah (Linsey Godfrey).

While we applaud this, we can’t help but look a few steps down the line to the inevitable feelings of betrayal that Maggie will feel when she learns her new pal knew the whole time that her granddaughter never perished in that crash and yet said nothing to her to ease her pain. We hate to see Maggie dealt yet another blow.

Then again, few play the heck out of being betrayed like Rogers, so this could end up being an Emmy-worthy performance when it happens. Either way, we’re all in for Mander…or should we call them Xangie?

Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.