Murder, Music, Mayhem: Days of Our Lives’ (Almost) Perfect Episode

In the era of only four daytime soaps left on TV, our soaps don’t even seem like our soaps. Often too much is crammed in an hour or too little is crammed into a half hour. But Days of Our Lives got something right on Tuesday and we were glued to the screen.

It was finally Claire’s downfall, although she’s been falling since the moment the SORAS’d Claire appeared in Salem nearly four years ago. You knew she was lonely, sad, and needy then. Soap Hub remembers a scene with Claire and Belle almost ready to shop like old times until Belle got too busy and canceled. And Olivia Rose Keegan perfected that Claire look of loneliness she’s given us ever since.

Of course, she’s perfected many signature “Claire looks” since then and has given us more unique ones each day as few know how to convey a character’s emotions without one word like Keegan does, but we digress.

On Tuesday, we saw that little girl lost whose parents couldn’t see how needy she was and just abandoned her to live on her own with a waitress job, no direction in life, no work towards a college degree. And oh, the grandmothers were supposed to look after her.

Well, a fine job they did. It was absolutely appropriate that the grandmother’s who failed in their duty were the ones to talk Claire down. And how surreal was it to watch Bo and Hope’s granddaughter try to kill Bo and Hope’s daughter as Hope (Kristian Alfonso) had to stop her from doing it?

Of course, it was absolutely appropriate for the grandmother practicing psychiatry for decades to talk the suicidal Claire down after Hope talked the homicidal Claire down. Maybe DAYS wanted to remind us these women failed at what they were tasked with by basically ignoring Claire for nearly three years.

Shawn (Brandon Beemer) was even more shocked than the grandmas and well, he should have been. She’s his daughter, the one he and Belle (Martha Madison) decided to leave in Salem while they galavanted overseas. Neither should win parent of the year and hopefully, both look inside themselves and realize if they were with their daughter, they might have noticed her homicidal pyromaniac tendencies.

With outstanding performances (give Keegan all the Emmys now, please), a heartbreaking story, and even an 80s ending musical montage, DAYS was what we want to see from every soap every day.

But, as we said, it was not …continue reading on the next page —>

Continue reading on the next page…

But, as we said, it was not perfection. Perhaps we can get why Haley (Thia Megia) and JJ (Casey Moss) were there because they were part of Claire’s recent story, but couldn’t Rafe and Carrie have been saved for another day if the soap needed to go there?

Yes, we could relate to the fall of Carrie’s (Christie Clark) marriage. That kind of fall happens to the best of us. But another Brady sister sleeping with Rafe (Galen Gering) in the midst of homicidal Claire drama just didn’t work.

Take that story out, and Tuesday’s DAYS gave us what made us start watching soaps to begin with. Bravo (Hey, DAYS even more kudos if Keegan is back on set and it just hasn’t leaked yet. Give a girl a holiday present here.) Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.