We knew it wouldn’t be easy for Bo to find his way back to Hope, but things got grim fast.
On Days of Our Lives during the week of 4-24-23, Shawn shot his father just as Bo began to remember that Hope was his Fancy Face. And while Bo miraculously survived, he lapsed into a coma.
While this is strong drama, these depressing complications are unlikely to please most Bope shippers, especially since the pair has only a short time left on-screen.
The silver lining is that with such little time left, it’s likely Bo will wake up quickly. While characters sometimes disappear in the middle of a story, it’s unlikely that Bo and Hope will quietly fade off canvas while Bo is in a coma and Hope is sitting vigil by his bedside!
Hopefully, Bo will open his eyes, and then he and Hope will depart for a rehabilitation facility somewhere. I’m okay with other characters mentioning that Bo and Hope are in some exotic location where Bo is learning to walk again as long as we get a proper goodbye scene.
If, instead, Bo’s family returns to Salem and Kayla or Roman mentions in passing that Bo woke up and he and Hope stayed in Greece, that would be far less acceptable. I’d feel cheated if they did that, and so would millions of fans.
As it is, many Bope shippers are aggravated by this story. Bo and Hope have had two lovely reunions — in Hope’s imagination.
First, there was an entire dream sequence where Bo did NOT get shot, and instead, he and Hope decided to convert Victor’s villa into a place they could visit for romantic getaways. These scenes were beautifully done, but we all knew they were nothing but fantasy.
That would never fly with Bope shippers, who wanted a REAL reunion, not this grim story of Bo in a coma indefinitely.
The second fantasy was even worse because it seemed real. Hope dreamed that Bo awakened, called her Fancy Face, and asked her not to get the doctor because he didn’t want to be away from her.
It felt like a cruel trick when Hope awakened to a still-comatose Bo.
It was realistic in a way — after my partner died, I dreamed of him for months afterward, so why wouldn’t Hope dream of hers awakening from a coma fully functional and back to his old self? Still, it wasn’t the type of reality that Bope fans tune in for!
Although this sucks as far as the Bope reunion goes, it’s still strong, soapy drama. Shawn can’t forgive himself for shooting his father. Roman has mixed feelings about his brother’s miraculous resurrection, which allegedly led to Kate’s death. Ciara begged her father not to return to the afterlife so soon after finally discovering he was alive.
These scenes felt realistic, other than there being far too many people in an ICU room at once. Days of Our Lives skipped the drama of people waiting to see Bo in favor of a bittersweet family reunion by Bo’s bedside.
I loved how happy and excited everyone was to see one another, even though they were heartbroken about Bo’s coma. Roman’s performance was my favorite; he’s too often been in the background, and this was a rare opportunity for him to participate in a meaty storyline.
Given the circumstances, Roman’s conflicted feelings over Bo’s resurrection were understandable, even though I never believed that Kate was dead.
Nobody on canvas should have taken it for granted that Kate was gone. The man who supposedly shot her had recently returned from the dead, and Kate herself had escaped the Grim Reaper only days before she was supposedly shot! Since they never found a body, they should have thought she was kidnapped, not murdered.
But Roman DID believe his beloved Katie was gone, and his mixed emotions over learning her shooter was his long-lost baby brother were among the most powerful aspects of this story.
I also loved that Roman put all that aside to support Shawn. Shawn’s story echoes when JJ shot Theo, so let’s hope he doesn’t become suicidal over this.
The idea of Shawn shooting his father may have seemed strange, but in a way, it made sense. Shawn was with Steve, who had probably told him the other crazy things Bo had done and may have also told him what he and John did while under Megan’s influence.
So Shawn likely saw a perp holding a gun on his mother, NOT the man who had raised him. That’s why he shot him after making a split-second decision that that was the best way to protect Hope.
After everyone visited Bo, we moved into the next phase of this story — discovering that Kate is alive.
The discovery of a microchip in Bo’s head was silly and didn’t make sense. When Steve was microchipped, there was no getting through to him because of the chip. Only when it was removed did he realize Kayla wasn’t his enemy.
So why could Hope get 99% of the way through to Bo while that thing was lodged in his brain?
And was Bo shot in the head? It didn’t look like it, but if he wasn’t, there was no reason for doctors to be poking around inside his brain.
Silliest of all, the microchip contained video footage of Bo’s memories, functioning as a high-tech security camera to replace the ones that didn’t exist on the island.
I loved Steve’s incredulous response to discovering that video file, although I’m not sure why he was so surprised when he was the one who suggested the chip might contain Bo’s memories in the first place.
The Bo/Kate encounter ended precisely how I thought it would, with Bo shooting into the air and ordering Kate to run away so he could pretend he’d killed her. Now everyone knows it, so it’s only a matter of time before they find Kate and rescue her from a fishing boat for the second time in her life.
That last-second reveal undoubtedly was a nod to Lauren Koslow’s introduction to Days of Our Lives. Poor Kate, though. How much bad luck does it take to get held captive on a fishing boat TWICE?
Besides Bo and Hope’s lack of a happy ending so far, the most annoying aspect of the Greek misadventure was the Harris stuff.
Yes, Harris waited for an episode before telling Hope to go to the villa and neglected to mention that Bo was there. As Andrew said, while that’s not great, it’s also not a criminal act.
Lots of people have done FAR worse. Hope’s anger at Harris over this is as ridiculous as when she rejected Aiden over a similar non-impactful lie.
Harris hinted at Bo’s existence when he told Hope to go to the villa. And more importantly, it would have changed nothing if he’d told her the whole story.
If Harris had told Hope that Bo had been brainwashed, Hope wouldn’t have hung back and let the cops handle it. She’d have done exactly what she did — confront Bo and try to talk him down by reminding him of their great love for one another.
MAYBE it would have happened before Shawn showed up with his gun, but that’s a stretch, and there was NO scenario where Hope would have avoided seeing Bo because of his erratic behavior.
Stephanie’s castigation of Harris was incredibly annoying.
I sympathized with her when she was angry at Alex because she believed she might have been able to say one last goodbye to Kayla if he hadn’t turned off her phone. But now, she’s replaced Alex’s name with Harris’ and decided that it’s his fault Bo got shot because he didn’t tell Hope that Bo was brainwashed.
Please. Let’s not pretend that Harris’ delay of a day made any difference in how this played out.
Back in Salem, the drugged biscuits continued to dominate everyone’s thinking. I can’t blame Chanel and Paulina for assuming Sloan is guilty. She’s been tormenting them for months, vowed revenge, and recently swore publicly that she intended to make their lives a living hell.
Given those circumstances, Paulina and Chanel would have to be idiots not to believe Sloan is guilty! Sloan herself understands this; that’s why she’s forgiven Eric for thinking it.
Nobody thinks that Sloan’s brother has come to Salem to finish what his sister started, nor do they suspect Chanel’s seemingly-sweet new employee of being involved. But what Chanel and Paulina want is not justice either.
Belle helped Chanel and Paulina fight back when a judge imposed financial penalties on them before the lawsuit was decided. That was improper because it got things backward — but it’s also the same thing they want to do to Sloan now.
If the cops agreed to arrest Sloan based only on Chanel’s feeling that Sloan is guilty, they’d also have to lock Chanel up and throw away the key because Sloan feels intensely that Chanel murdered her mother.
That’s why we have things like rules of evidence and needing probable cause to make arrests — anything less would cause chaos and lead to serious human rights violations.
Chanel is young and naive, so I can give her somewhat of a pass for wanting Sloan immediately arrested and even for her ridiculous plan to use Alex to get evidence.
That plan wouldn’t work anyway.
Sloan recently made a commitment to be exclusive with Eric, while Alex has apparently also sworn off casual sex. And even if those convenient changes of heart didn’t exist, Alex has used sex to trick Sloan before, and she’s not stupid; she would see through this plan in a heartbeat.
Chanel came off as desperate and pushy, and not in an endearing way, especially since her new bestie is responsible for drugging the biscuits.
No one but Jada realizes that Talia’s story doesn’t add up. Rafe pointed out that Talia didn’t have a motive, but that should have inspired the cops to do MORE digging, not assume that the evidence didn’t add up to what it did.
Talia had significant holes in her story, the means to access hallucinogenic drugs, and the opportunity to add them to the dough. That shouldn’t be ignored because the cops don’t yet know why she’d do such a thing.
For someone with a “scary good” memory, she lacked common sense — did she think Jada wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t home when she said she was?
Talia’s motive is murky. She’s doing it out of love for Colin, but why? What’s so great about him?
So far, he’s coming across as an abusive asshole who snaps at Talia the second she disagrees with him, accuses her of being stupid, and then says he needs her on his side. He’s not acting like the kind of man a woman like Talia would or should risk her career and freedom for.
It would make more sense if Colin were blackmailing Talia into helping him than for him to be her secret lover, who she pretended to break up with as a pretext for coming to Salem.
Will Chloe and Xander be able to step in where the cops are failing? There has to be a reason they ran into her in the hall, and she acted strangely when Xander mentioned the tainted biscuits.
Meanwhile, Sloan’s new plan to stop Rafe from investigating her by having Leo report that Rafe and Jada kissed is doomed to failure.
Even if Leo runs that, the joke’s on Sloan because Abe already knows about this. He’s also aware that it happened because of the tainted biscuits, so there’s that.
And Gwen has said before she’s not publishing uncorroborated rumors and risking the paper’s reputation, so why would she run this story?
Melinda’s also after Sloan for those tainted biscuits. She ended up in the hospital, and worse, from her point of view, is that she humiliated herself in front of Stefan while under the influence.
Melinda won’t rest until she gets her version of justice. Wait til she finds out Sloan’s brother is behind this mess!
There was some unrelated silliness with EJ, Nicole, Stefan, and Gabi. EJ attempted to stop Stefan from hiring Gabi as a consultant, then decided turnabout was fair play and hired Nicole.
EJ: The bylaws state that new executive hires have to be approved by the CEO, in this case both of us.
Stefan: Gabi isn’t being hired as an executive. I hired her as a consultant.
EJ: In that case, it falls to me. Gabi, you’re fired.
Stefan: Gabi, you’re rehired.
Every encounter between the brothers is more childish than the last! This story needs to end sooner rather than later.
So does this Johnny/Wendy/Tripp nonsense. Pick one, Wendy!
Wendy ran to Tripp, went on a date, and kissed him — only to learn that Johnny didn’t seriously want to marry Chanel and had been under the influence of hallucinogenics when he proposed.
This new knowledge will probably send her back to Salem to give Johnny another chance, even though she acts like she’s more into Tripp.
Tripp needs to have too much self-respect to keep playing second fiddle, and Wendy needs to trust Johnny if she plans to be with him, no matter what offhand comments Allie once made.
But most of all, Wendy needs to make a decision and stick with it. This flip-flopping is not doing her any favors.
She originally was a feisty, determined woman who refused to accept cultural limitations placed on her because of her gender. But now all she cares about is stringing two guys along. What a waste!
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you think of this week’s episodes.
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.