We’re Having a Hell of a Time Figuring Out Why Days of Our Lives Bothered Bringing Back the Devil — Here’s Why

What was the point of all the chaos?

Back when JoDevil first started his machinations on Days of Our Lives, we’ll readily admit that we felt he was a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to MarDevil. Besides the obvious fun Carson Boatman was having, it seemed as if his JoDevil was actually doing stuff.

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First, Johnny split with Chanel, prompting her and Allie to hook up. Then, EJ was shipped off to prison thanks to the devil’s interference, and Jake and Gabi were split up as she took over DiMera. Love him or hate him, JoDevil was shaking things up.

But then as soon as folks started getting suspicious of Johnny, Satan decided it was time to throw them off his scent by temporarily possessing Belle and framing her for everything. And we do kind of mean everything.

After her supposed exorcism, Johnny ran straight to Chad to tell him that Belle had been the one to assault Abigail while pretending to EJ. Now Chad’s feeling horrible about sending his brother to prison and wants to come clean about his own perjury. (Plus, there was an actual conversation about getting a retrial because of Satan.)

Next, we learned that JoDevil went out of his way to frame Belle as the one who not only impersonated Jake with Maggie, but also created the fake documents that Gabi’s former co-conspirator supposedly signed. Now Jake’s ready to run to Gabi with his innocence, with Belle convinced enough of her own guilt that she’d readily back him up.

Above: Are these two Satan’s only real goal? If so, why bother with anything or anyone else?

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

Yes, all this morphing into other people and impersonating them smacks of the same plot-contrivances as the notorious life-like masks everyone seems to use in Salem, but it was still producing real consequences. And this is a soap, so having the truth come out eventually to unravel the devil’s plans would be par for the course, the same as with any villain. But having him sabotage his own plots has us scratching our heads.

Satan’s ultimate goal still appears to be claiming Ciara and Ben’s baby for himself and whatever devilish plan he has in store for the “offspring of good and evil” or whatever he calls their baby, but that seems too vaguely esoteric to have many soap consequences.

The corporate intrigue, relationship drama and criminal framing is where the real daytime goodness has been in all this supernatural stuff. If that’s all being undone by the very being that put them into action in the first place, it feels like the devil stuff is just superfluous. Why bother bringing him back?

So we can get more exorcisms? Some kind of devil-baby storyline? That could be bizarrely campy fun, but at this point, Satan’s worn his welcome pretty thin.

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Even if the point was to push Allie and Chanel together — about the only plot that doesn’t seem like JoDevil is actively working to undermine right now — that’s something that could have built more slowly and given more of a dramatic flair if it had happened organically.

Johnny and Chanel could have settled into married life as Allie and Tripp planned their own wedding. The whole time Chanel and Allie could have been drawn to each other until they finally gave in, spectacularly exploding two marriages. Instead, thanks to Satan, those relationships never even got off the ground.

There are countless storyline possibilities and there’s no one way to unwind them, but after almost four months of JoDevil, we’re just growing more and more confused over what his point even is. What are your thoughts? Is he just unwinding plots for no reason, or is there some grand master plan at work here that we just can’t see yet?

Let us know what you think below, then check out our gallery of daytime’s greatest villains. These folks may have been foiled time and again, but at least it wasn’t by their own hands!