DAYS Recap: A New ‘Dead’ Person Haunts Supposedly Better Ava

In the Days of our Lives recap for August 23, 2023, Ava delights over several hallucination-free days and immediately regrets the decision.

Days of our Lives Recap Highlights

In addition, Gabi and Stefan resolve to get to the bottom of whatever it is that Kristen and Dimitri are up to, Dimitri and Gwen are forced to vacate Iceland, and Tripp and Wendy complain about Li and Melinda’s *ahem* stamina. Now, let’s dig a little deeper into what exactly happened.

Days of our Lives Recap: Imagine Seeing You Here

At Bayview, a healthy-looking, seemingly carefree Ava (Tamara Braun) enthusiastically greeted Harris (Steve Burton), who commented on how well she looked. Ava granted it was because of the new meds her doctor prescribed. This time, they were really working. She could feel it in her psyche. She could feel it in her soul. And it was just in time for her to face the consequences of what she’s done.

A well-meaning Harris gently encouraged Ava to focus on her “healing journey” — after all, isn’t that what they’re there for? — and not rake herself over the coals for her past actions. Ava, in turn, tearily insisted that part of her healing journey was being held accountable for the crimes she’d committed. Because of her need for revenge, a very sweet, innocent woman is dead, and she had to own that.

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Harris, for his part, shared with Ava that, thanks to his therapist, he’d begun to process and understand some childhood traumas (?!) and all the things that he endured as a SEAL and how that made him susceptible to mind control.

Ava noted that she didn’t have Harris’s excuse of not being in her right mind when she did what she did. She most certainly was in control of her faculties when she agreed to pretend to be married to Jake and when she first doubled down on her desire to make EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) suffer for his retaliatory efforts.

Ava and Harris then agreed that they both had faith that the other would soon be sufficiently recovered enough to walk on out of the facility, and Ava cracked a joke about no longer seeing dead people…right before she caught sight of a very dead Susan Banks (Stacy Haiduk)…maybe.

DAYS Recap: Scheme And Scheme Alike

Over at the DiMera mansion, after a bout of passionate lovemaking, Gabi (Camila Banus) and Stefan (Brandon Barash) were alerted to the news of Victor’s death. Despite herself, Gabi mourned “Salem’s answer to Aristotle Onassis.” As for Stefan, he admitted that the town wouldn’t be the same without the “larger than life coot” who manipulated the lives of every upstanding citizen on both sides of the Mississippi.

That bit of humanity out of the way, Gabi then homed in on the obvious scheme being perpetrated by Kristen (Stacy Haiduk) and Dimitri (Peter Porte). She was aware of the fact that it had to do with money. Lots and lots of money. But that was the long and the short of it. But she was determined to get to the bottom of things, and Stefan found himself unwillingly recruited.

DOOL Recap: Arbitrary Arbitrator

Having absolutely eaten up the coverage of Victor’s death — “Rest in Hell, you son of a bitch!” — Kristen found herself forced to play hostess to one Elliot Roth, the barrister representing the Von Leuschner trust.

While performing her duties, Kristen managed to charm out of Elliot that, should Dimitri’s marriage not hold up to scrutiny, then the trust would be divided up among Carly’s children, Nicholas and Melanie (as Carly and Frankie both had previously renounced their claims to the Von Leuschner fortune).

With no other recourse, Kristen phoned Dimitri and instructed him to “haul…ass back to Salem pronto,”…which stymied the alone time that Dimitri was hoping to have with (not so) secret lover Leo (Greg Rikaart). Gwen (Emily O’Brien), Dimitri’s unwitting beard, was also sorely put out that her honeymoon trip to the Land of Ice and Fire was being so summarily canceled.

Unfortunately for all involved, Gabi not only got a good look at Mr. Roth but also overheard where he was staying and made it her mission to find out what was happening.

Days of our Lives Recap: Two Can Play At That Came

Over at the Shin’s, weary Tripp (Lucas Adams) and Wendy (Victoria Grace) damned lovers Li (Remington Hoffman) and Melinda (Tina Huang) with faint praise — talk about stamina(!) and all that — briefly gave lip service to Ava and her plight, then seriously considered giving Li and Melinda a run for their money. Of course, that was nipped in the bud since they wanted their first time to be uber romantic.

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