Abigail’s Return to Days of Our Lives and Johnny’s Movie Could Give Salem the Jolt of Juicy Drama It Needs — Plus, Where the Heck Has Lucas Been?

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI; NBC

The best thing to happen in the Salem universe this week was Beyond Salem, which seemed to have sucked all its lifeforce from the mothership, leaving Days of Our Lives a pretty dull place to be. While not everything was gold on the spinoff, the returns (can we keep nuSonny and Will please?) and adventure were a dose of excitement the actual Salem could have benefitted from. However, spoilers indicate things could be looking up, so let’s get to it…

Missed Opportunity

Where has Lucas been? Shouldn’t he have been lurking around trying to find Sami who he was so worried EJ was going to hurt? With no good story driving this week, pitting EJ and Lucas against each other would have been a great option. Instead, EJ railed at Xander for his million dollars, which again, could have been great entertainment, but actually felt pretty hollow. And while last week I thought the latter men’s addition to the Calista/Bonnie story would do it some good… I was wrong. It just continued to be ridiculous and over the top, leaving me wondering how that was the driving story of the week.

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Family Secrets on Film

As he mentioned on Friday, Johnny will reach out to his Grandma Marlena for funding for his movie next week. Per the spoilers, he’ll also contact his uncle, which is hopefully a sign Will and Sonny could return. But that’s not all, as the movie will dredge up some painful memories for John and Doc. There’s so much juicy Black/Brady/DiMera/Horton family drama to mine, the messy fallout could last months, while hopefully rectifying the Lucas situation. And let’s not forget Deidre Hall’s tease about how fans will wonder if they “can go for” what Marlena is about to do. At the very least, it all sounds very promising.

Back to Bad?

The Ava/Rafe/Nicole triangle continued to underwhelm but the one bright spot was Brady and Nicole commiserating over ice cream. It was a brief but promising scene that I’d like more of. Because not only is Nicole’s current story not working but Brady continuing to fight with his man-child uncle Philip over Chloe isn’t either. The two of them joining forces in some way could do everyone a world of good.

There is hope though for the two stories to combine forces for the better, as spoilers say Ava and Philip commiserate next week. Their previous blackmailing/money laundering dynamic held great potential but ultimately fell flat with both of them walking the straight and narrow. (I mean, former bad girl Ava wants to be a chef? What exactly did she put on her resume?) Both characters could benefit from going a little bad and not just bratty (yes, Philip, I’m looking at you) — and if that’s together, then all the better.

Hit Those Brakes, Ciara

Ciara brought up having babies with Ben which he thankfully pointed out was way too fast. Aside from the fact that they just reunited after a year apart and have no steady income, Ciara could probably use a few good therapy sessions to process her kidnapping ordeal. But maybe having a baby isn’t the story here and something larger will happen. Spoilers indicate their road trip isn’t over and will stir up memories for long-time fans. Hopefully, it leads to more adventure and intrigue for these two, who were fun while sexing up New Orleans, instead of it just being an attempt to re-create Bo and Hope’s magic.

Ending on a Bright Spot

The week finished out with Chad finally going to see his wife in Boston and Marci Miller stepping out to face him as Abby. There’s tons of much-needed drama that awaits Abigail in Salem and I’m here for all of it. There’s the truth about Gwen’s miscarriage just waiting to be revealed, as well as Abigail dealing with her issues over Chad being the one to get Gwen pregnant in the first place. She’ll also presumably join Jack in helping Julie through the tough ordeal that awaits her and Doug. Then there’s the fact that her former lover and current brother-in-law, EJ has returned with a massive chip on his shoulder named Chad, not to mention his issues with Johnny’s movie obsession, which Abby could also get involved in.

While that’s a lot to process, it’d be nice to also see her and Chad be happy for at least a little while. Because, as we were reminded in Beyond Salem, a goofy, happy Chad is a really appealing Chad. I mean, did you see him in drag? These two have certainly earned the opportunity to enjoy some levity and maybe an adventure or two of their own.

That’s all I got this week. As always these are just my opinions on the goings-on in Salem. What are yours? Tell us in the comments below.

As the Beyond Salem adventure ends this week and we await some of it to hopefully overflow back inside Salem, take a look through the gorgeous cast photos in our photo gallery below. Then, get your free daily soap-opera fix for Days of Our Lives — and all of the other daytime dramas — delivered straight to your email inbox by signing up for Soaps.com’s newsletter.