Our Days Of Our Lives Take: Did Salem Really Need a ‘Mystery’ Illness?

Could the legacy of Yo Ling be reverberating through Salem in the form of a deadly virus on “Days of Our Lives”? With Paul being the first to feel symptoms after his crazed grandfather got his hands on him in February, it seems DAYS couldn’t leave this one alone.

Tomorrow, the virus spreads further throughout town and the hospital goes under quarantine. Gabi’s (Camila Banus) condition worsens as the illness claims its first life. With all that’s going on with runaway Joey, Abby’s mental instability, and a returned-from-the-dead Aiden (Daniel Cosgrove), did Salem really need a mysterious epidemic?

It seems that if DAYS didn’t tape so much in advance, the writers would have known how much the Yo Ling story irked viewers before carrying the story into the next sweeps period. Ridiculous is the kindest word we can use for John’s (Drake Hogestyn) encounter with his real father and we keep finding ourselves hoping Yo Ling was just another faux parent for our favorite Salem man of mystery.

When a virus swept “General Hospital’s” Port Charles several years back, it was encephalitis, an actual illness and something created by soap opera writers. To bring us a fake illness and a return-from-the-dead story all in three days seems a bit much. Couple that with Caroline’s (Peggy McCay) fake illness that made her psychic and we’ve had enough.

Right now what “Days of Our Lives” needs is consistently good storytelling. It delivered yesterday with Aiden’s plight told from his own point of view, but it doesn’t look like it will deliver with this mystery virus that looks like its about to make a bad storyline concept even worse.