tripp gwen jan rafe killed by devil mashup jpi days
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (4)

There are some strong opinions out there!

OK, we’ll admit it — this one was kind of our fault. When we tweeted after the Days of Our Lives devil saga finally concluded that the lack of a death makes it too easy to just go back to the status quo as if nothing happened, the show’s headwriter Ron Carlivati playfully pushed back.

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“So who would you kill, you big meanie,” he tweeted in response.

Who wouldn’t we kill? No, we’re kidding, there’s a ton of characters we wouldn’t! But to be clear, we weren’t wishing someone died because we’re bloodthirsty. It’s just that these types of things can provide rich, character-driven story for ages.

As fan Jason Weaver put it, “I like Tripp, so I’m glad he’s not leaving, but I feel like his death would give Allie, Johnny, and Chanel a lot of guilt to be played that would be interesting.”

Exactly! Jason gets it. Imagine how that triangle would twist and turn if they were all mourning Tripp as Johnny tried reuniting with Chanel and Allie leaned on her for support in her grief. Now that would up the stakes.

Honestly, though, killing Tripp off would be taking the easy way out, and the fans had more than their share of ideas as they began collectively sharpening their knives!

One of the first suggestions was, of course, a villain when a fan suggested Jan Spears biting the dust. Carlivati, though, wasn’t having that one!

“That’s probably the absolute last person I would kill,” he laughed. Surprisingly, there was a decent contingent of fans backing him up!

Turns out, people like the baby-crazy homewrecker! She is a twisted kind of fun, and she’s doing a good job of creating lots of drama between Shawn and Belle.

Well, Belle kind of started that drama herself, but Jan’s been twisting that knife in every chance she can get! Plus, she’s pushing Belle towards EJ, which is something we’ve been waiting to see for ages, especially with Sami eventually making her return. Those sisters fighting over EJ could get ugly  — in a good way!

Plus, killing off a bad gal just seems too obvious, as one fan pointed out.

Darren Hubbard would have liked to see the end of “Someone we wouldn’t expect and not one the of villains who had it coming either — a real casualty.”

Well, that leaves the door wide open. Who should it have been? One of the Kiriakis clan maybe? Like… Justin? The DiMeras got to play in the devil sandbox, but their rivals didn’t have much interaction with Satan. Sonny’s back, so imagine what losing his dad would do after Kayla’s death a couple years ago. It could send him off the deep end and drive him into the business world, making him a ruthless Titan CEO just like Victor once was and causing problems with Will.

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Or what if Xander had sacrificed himself in some sort of ultimate act of redemption for all his crimes? Is he still considered a villain? He doesn’t seem like he has it coming anymore, though keeping Sarah in the dark about her baby again might not be winning him brownie points.

“Xarah” fans would certainly be upset with that one. We get the feeling Molly Miskelly might just be one seeing as how she responded with “Gwen. All day everyday.”

Side note: That parallel universe idea is interesting. Maybe we could get another digital spinoff that would be kind of a “What If?” universe like A Very Salem Christmas was.

Dead characters could have never passed on, couples who haven’t been together in ages could be an item and the show could branch out in fun new ways. Actually, now we’re getting excited about this parallel universe!

Can we have one, pretty please?

If Darren wanted to off someone we’d never have suspected, though, Nicky had an idea of what to do about that. And things got a little… weird for it.

“Marlena got demon Isabella,” she reminded us. “I was waiting for Rafe to get demon Duke and smothered by a giant stuffy. Sorry, sir, you asked.”

Look, we all know Days of Our Lives has got a life-sized Duke suit lying around somewhere — we just saw it not that long ago! So, this totally could have worked. Actually, there were a few votes for poor Rafe even though he had virtually nothing to do with the devil! Other than running around playing cop in a world gone utterly mad.

Sure, he’s standing in the way of a Nicole/Eric reunion, but do we really want to leave Gabi as the sole remaining Hernandez sibling? Because let’s be honest, that girl can get into trouble. It wouldn’t surprise us if Ava tries to off her, and we’d be left with no one in the family.

Speaking of upending families…

“Should have brought Bo back and then killed him again,” Brittany Rivere suggested. “That would have ruffled their feathers.”

OK, wow. That’s an understatement. That’s certainly going straight for the collective fan jugular. There may not have been many feathers left after that.

“Surprise, Bo is alive! Double surprise, he sacrificed himself one episode later!”

Then again, maybe that could have been the kickoff story for the second Beyond Salem, sending Ben and Ciara off in search of Hope. That would have then set off a crisis for Hope as she agonized over whether she could have reunited with her love and saved him had she been in town when all this went down.

But yeah, the fan anger would have scorched Days of Our Lives down better than Satan’s hellfire.

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In the end, no one died, and a number of fans cheered on the Satan story resolution as being a triumph of goodness and love over evil. One way or another, things are going to get back to normal now and the supernatural stories are being put back in the closet. Carlivati promises! And we’re pretty sure there are plenty of fans out there happy that no one died.

“Well, I for one am glad Tripp was brought back to life, Soaps.com,” ShelbyBear2022 responded. “If you’re disappointed over no one dying or whatever, that’s on you.”

Actually, that’s fair enough. And it’s a fair assessment of watching soaps or even TV in general. Some fans are going to love storylines, some hate them. In the end, we’re all just along for the ride.

Check out our who’s who photo gallery of who’s left Days of Our Lives to keep track of who has died.