Soap Hub Performer of the Week for DAYS: Tamara Braun

Once an agent of unbridled chaos, Ava Vitali – played to abject perfection by Tamara Braun on DAYS, the most recent recipient of Soap Hub’s Performer of the Week Award – has morphed into a doyenne of domestic drudgery…albeit one with an edge. But push Ava too far, and you won’t like the woman she becomes.

Tamara Braun – Performer of the Week

That’s a lesson that lover Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) learned the hard way. In fact, Ava was in such a tizzy over Rafe’s sojourn over Nicole Walker Brady’s (Arianne Zucker) apartment, that she refused to cook him a hot breakfast; after all, as Ava pointedly pointed out, how was she to know that he hadn’t made plans to see Nicole that morning as well?

Rafe tried to diffuse the situation, and bring Ava down a level or two, by making a point of his own: Nicole is their mutual friend; doesn’t Ava want Nicole to get over her heartache?

Ava had to admit that she does…but, “Nicole chose to cheat on her husband with Xander. It’s her own damn fault that her marriage is over.” Being the kind-hearted soul that he is, Rafe just couldn’t let that stand; he issued excuse after excuse for Nicole’s actions – which did very little to calm Ava.

The couple parted on a terse note, one that saw Ava shouting that she wishes Rafe would just admit that he wants to sleep with Nicole. And while Rafe stayed behind in his kitchen – and welcomed a visiting Nicole inside – Ava set off for Salem’s Horton Town Square.

Over the next hour or so, Ava busied herself by engaging in a sparring session with Gabi Hernandez (Camila Banus), and composing a text message to Rafe that read: “The only thing I’m sorry about, is that I was clueless enough to expect a man to understand anything about a woman.”

She was talked off her proverbial ledge by, the irony of ironies, Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) – the man she was once psychotically obsessed with. His advice to Ava? Trust in Rafe and his love – which will prove to be quite the test, considering that Ava once again caught Rafe with his arms wrapped around Nicole.

And while Ava attempts to keep her lesser demons at bay, we’ll continue to trust in the powerhouse that is Tamara Braun to continue delivering epic performances on Days of our Lives.

Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest that’s been posted on DAYS spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.