As Orpheus’ Master Plan Begins Putting Salemites In the Hospital, Rafe’s Suspicions Finally Start to Take Form

As we get into Salem, Marlena and John are cuddling in bed, talking about how nice it is that everything is back to normal. John doesn’t buy it. Orpheus is still out there. But Marlena’s determined not to let him ruin anything or run their lives. She gets ready for work and John begs her to be careful.

More: Greg Rikaart celebrates 17 years

Kayla calls Steve in, panicked to find another bouquet of flowers from Orpheus. Steve calms her down and tells her they’re from him. After she throws them on the ground. She smells them and sneezes, after which Steve comments on how weird it is. He wants to be sure it’s OK to kiss her, then they say farewell as she heads off to work.

John shows up after dropping Marlena off at the hospital. He’s ready to go after Orpheus again with Steve. He called Sean, but the ISA has nothing on the villain. The two ponder using Orpheus’ kids against him and John mentions talking to Rafe to appeal to Zoe to help them.

Kate walks into the Brady Pub just as Roman leaves a message for her. He’s still worried that Orpheus is out to get her, but Kate presents him with a birthday present from Sweet Bits — her third attempt at a cake. She sneezes onto this one too. Kate admits she feels off, and Roman feels her forehead, telling her she feels warm. He thinks she should go see a doctor and she reluctantly agrees.

At the hospital, Marlena and Kayla commiserate over their husbands worrying over them. Orpheus is getting to the both of them… Kate then shows up, mentioning she’s feeling unwell and woozy. But this was all Roman’s idea. Kayla insists she should be checked out, but before she can, Kate passes out.

They get Kate into a room and Marlena goes to call Roman just as she wakes back up, sneezing. Kayla realizes she’s got the same symptoms, then collapses at the foot of Kate’s bed. Kate wakes her up and they realize Orpheus did something. Out at the nurse’s station, Roman rushes into the hospital, only to catch Marlena as she too passes out.

Roman gets her settled just as John arrives. In the other room, everyone realizes that Orpheus has struck, but the guys aren’t affected, so it can’t be contagious. The kidnapping was just a setup. Orpheus will probably be contacting them soon to gloat.

Rafe wakes up this time from a sexy dream/nightmare in which he discovers Eric and Nicole in bed together! Nicole asks him to tell him about it, but he stays vague and just says it was about her. After some prodding, he tells her what happened in it. “Oh my God, that’s so upsetting.” Yeah, he agrees, it was. She wants to know what brought this up, and he says Jada said something the other day.

Nicole pushes some more and he admits Jada had mentioned that her dating her boss’ wife’s ex-husband was a bit odd. Nicole then lets slip that she went to see Eric the other day to a surprised Rafe. Oops. She lies and says she wanted to offer him a job as a photographer for Basic Black. Rafe doesn’t quite buy it, but she tells him she didn’t say anything because he’s so busy at work.

Over at Eric’s, he and Jada wake up in bed together and after some cute talk, Jada says she broke her rule about not sleeping with someone until their third date. She’s worried he’ll judge her and that she pushed him into having sex. Twice. He isn’t, and she didn’t. Maybe they can get some breakfast in bed. He starts talking about the benefits of working at the pub and working for his dad, but it’s not really fulfilling work like in Africa. He doesn’t know what he wants to do for the first time in his life.

As they eat breakfast, he mentions likely counseling, and Jada asks what he did before the priesthood. He talks about his photography days and mentions that’s how he met Nicole, then apologizes. Jada says talking about their pasts is just a way to get to know each other. He tells her he was constantly taking photos in Africa and Jada says she’d love to see them. She loves them, but he isn’t sure about getting back into it professionally. Maybe he could work for the paper, though.

In the show’s last few minutes, Jada heads off to work and Rafe asks how things are going with her and Eric. He then casually asks about whether Eric would take the Basic Black job. Nicole shows up Eric’s room just as he’s about to get in the shower. And Orpheus calls Steve and John to let them know he is, indeed, behind the illnesses.

Next on Days of Our Lives: Rafe and Xander’s honeymoon is already over, and Rafe and Jada close in on a bad guy.

As Kayla begins the struggle for her life, flash back to her and Steve’s love story, with a photo gallery of their early years. 

Days of Our Lives is now airing exclusively on Peacock. To make sure you never miss an episode, and to take advantage of a special $1.99 a month offer, 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.