jada eric nicole jpi days mashup
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (3)

There’s no way they can come back from this. 

The road to a supercouple is, we all know, never easy. They aren’t built by just sticking two characters together and having them fall effortlessly in love right off the bat. It takes obstacles and triumph to make fans really fall for them and, more than anything else, it takes time. In Eric and Nicole’s case on Days of Our Lives, it apparently takes lots of time.

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They’ve essentially been in love with each other since first meeting decades ago, but never seem to make things work for very long. They finally married during their last go-around, only for Eric to run off and Nicole to sleep with Xander.

So when Eric finally returned to town again and the sparks started flying between him and Nicole, we thought, “Finally! The supercouple that’s been teased for ages is going to take off!”

Oh, sure, she was with Rafe, but that was just part of the game. You can’t just have a character come back to town and immediately put a couple back together. There needs to be difficulties, drama — everything that makes daytime so much fun.

So we waited, and waited… and waited. Soon enough, Jada arrived in town and Eric turned to her to, for lack of a better word, get over Nicole. And we went back to waiting until a not-so surprising thing happened — we started getting tired of the game and instead were just getting annoyed by Nicole and Eric’s nonstop dance.

By the time they finally gave in and admitted their feelings to themselves, each other and their partners, what should have been an amazing reunion was already feeling flat. And then Jada found out she was pregnant with Eric’s baby. Ah, another age-old daytime obstacle. Great.

At Basic Black, Jada stands in the doorway holding a phone, while Nicole sits at a desk with her laptop. They exchange wry looks

“Have you seen what folks are saying about you, Nicole? Because it is not pretty.”

Credit: Peacock screenshot

That, though, wasn’t the nail in the coffin and Eric and Nicole. That came on the Friday, November 25 episode when Nicole had a little chat with Jada to sell her on the idea that this baby shouldn’t happen. For Jada’s own good, of course.

The show had touched a bit on whether or not Jada wanted to have an abortion, which is one thing, but to have Nicole say what she did was, for many fans, just beyond the pale.

As missysmama wrote over on the Soaps.com message boards, “Nicole was absolutely awful today. I couldn’t be team Nicole after that, but of course, I wasn’t anyway. She just doesn’t have her head screwed on right these days.”

GemmaHenry added, “Nicole’s description of Jada’s life with a child was not only inappropriate, it was inaccurate. Jada may be single and soon to be a mother, but she won’t be a ‘single mother’ in the sense of having sole responsibility for her child. Not a bit.”

Sitting across from each other at a Brady Pub table, Jada and Eric told intense eye contact.

That alone would have been bad enough. But then, on the Wednesday, November 30 show, Jada told Eric that the baby was gone. She’d had an abortion — after Nicole’s chat. Of course Eric headed straight for his new love after that news. But we don’t see any world in which she’s not going to be his ex-new love.

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As SilverBlossom4 tweeted, “My girl went straight from that conversation w/ Nicole 2 the clinic. I don’t blame her. Jada caught Eric kissing Nicole while they were dating. Nicole made it clear she hates the baby. Why would Jada tie herself and an innocent baby to those two for life?”

While Jada certainly owned up to the abortion as being her decision in her chat with Eric, for a man so overjoyed to finally have a child, there’s no way he won’t forever see Nicole as having been at least partially to blame. The thought that Nicole’s jealousy cost him the family he’s always so desperately wanted? They have to be over for good.

Ultimately, we’re just having a hard time fathoming what in the world the show was thinking with Eric and Nicole. Was the intention always to make viewers not want them to get back together? Or to make them not want to get back together?

They’ve got decades of history, but let’s be honest, they never work out for long. Maybe the whole point wasn’t to set them up for a reunion, but to put an end to them forever.

If so… kudos? Good job? Because at this point, we’re kind of over them. How are the rest of you feeling?

Days of Our Lives is now airing exclusively on Peacock. To make sure you never miss an episode, click here. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Check out our photo gallery of the long, winding journey that Eric and Nicole have gone through over the many, many years.