We need to talk about Alex.
New characters always arrive in Salem with an obnoxious attitude that appalls their family, so he’s no different in that sense.
But on Days of Our Lives during the week of 8-15-22, Alex irritated Sonny — and some viewers — with his habit of bringing a different woman to bed every night.
Alex is hardly the first man to bedhop, nor is he the first playboy to hit Salem. His father was also a ladies’ man when he was Alex’s age, JJ had a reputation as a player before he met Paige, and Allie’s criticized Johnny before for jumping from one girl to another.
However, Alex takes it to extremes. He never remembers the name of his current partner, always calling her by last night’s name, and he seems to feel any woman will do.
He tried to get both Allie and Chanel in bed with him after hitting on Gabi, finally finding success with Sloan.
No wonder Sonny was bemused by this behavior! Anyone’s head would be spinning at the speed with which Alex chooses partners.
All of that bedhopping led Sonny to confront his older brother.m These scenes would have been compelling if Sonny wasn’t so stressed out about it.
He made good points about what Alex was missing out on and how Alex was being disrespectful to his sexual partners, but they came off as judgmental because he felt a need to do it at top volume.
The best part about these scenes was how they turned the usual stereotype on its head. It’s a common homophobic trope that gay men are promiscuous and incapable of commitment. In this case, Sonny is in a committed relationship (even if Will isn’t on-screen much), and Alex, who is straight, is the bedhopper.
Alex’s insistence that he is happy with no-strings-attached sexual encounters suggests that he will change his mind when he meets the right woman. He hasn’t met Stephanie yet — could he be the secretive client she’s due to meet?
Although Alex’s behavior is annoying, he isn’t that much beyond the pale for a newish soap character, particularly not on Days of Our Lives, and he certainly isn’t beyond redemption.
His sexual exploits are primarily off-screen, and even if he ends up in a threesome, we will probably only be privy to the afterglow, as is the case with most sex scenes on Days of Our Lives.
But the aspect of his character bordering on unforgivable is his desire to undermine Sonny businesswise.
Alex’s secret plan with Victor is ridiculous. If Victor doesn’t think Sonny can make sound business decisions, why insist Sonny move back to Salem to take over Titan?
And Alex’s attitude is that he knows better because he’s older. His diminutive “Sonny-Boy” nickname for his little brother is grating, and so is his plan to “save” Titan by buying up companies or otherwise interfering with Sonny’s business decisions.
The fallout should be epic when Sonny discovers his brother and his beloved Uncle Vic conspiring against him. Let’s get to it already!
Meanwhile, across town, Shawn’s patience wore thin with another larger-than-life character as Leo hired Alex’s latest date to defend him against murder charges.
Sloan’s demeanor was obnoxious. She seemed like the defense attorney version of Trask, making unnecessarily snarky comments o try to get Leo out of trouble. No wonder over-the-top Leo hired her! But why did the Salem PD know who she was when we’ve never heard of her before?
Things are not looking good for Leo, but he’s not likely to be the murderer.
For one thing, he’s spent way too much time alone with Gwen, pressing her to confess to him, which makes no sense if he’s the one who did it. And just as importantly, this isn’t his MO.
Leo sets people up to take suggestive photos and sells them to the Intruder. That’s his idea of revenge, not stabbing people in the heart. And why would he tell Gwen that her desire to have him stab Abigail over a broken cup is overdramatic if he was going to turn around and do it anyway?
While Leo plans to throw former bestie Gwen under the bus to get out of trouble, she likely is innocent for once.
I’ve thought for a while that Kristen flew off the handle at an ill-timed comment and stabbed Abigail, while Gwen showed up in her Sarah mask too late to do the deed herself. Kristen’s behavior toward Chloe supports that theory.
Chloe saying that Brady was with her, not Kristen, caused Kristen to grab a letter opener and threaten to stab Chloe with it, only giving up the idea because Brady called. What are the chances that this is a random coincidence rather than set up for the reveal that she did the same thing to Abigail?
And what was with Gabi’s cavalier response to Chloe reporting Kristen’s attack?
Chloe: I’ll get to the report in the minute. But I really need to talk to you. Kristen just tried to murder me.
Gabi: Did you call the police?
Chloe: No.
Gabi: Well, no one’s dead.
Gabi did time after shooting the man who abused her and drove her out of her mind, so she should have had more sympathy for Chloe.
Yes, she’s afraid that Kristen will vote her out, but still. She should have reacted more to Chloe’s news than shrugging her shoulders.
Of course, it was a pretext for Chloe to complain about Gabi “stealing” Stefan from her, just as Rolf is ready to resurrect the guy and brainwash him into lusting after Chloe again. But it still was cold, even for Gabi.
While Kristen is unstable and shouldn’t have any unsupervised visits with Rachel, Brady overreacted to Kristen giving her daughter a necklace.
Yes, the locket has a photo of the three of them as a family, and delusional Kristen thinks she will win Brady back despite how she’s treating his current girlfriend. But the solution is not to rant and rave about Kristen giving her daughter a present!
Instead, Brady needs to have an honest conversation with Rachel, maybe with Marlena in the room, to help facilitate it.
He needs to explain in an age-appropriate way that Rachel still has a family and that Mommy has made some choices in her life that make it so that Daddy can’t live with her anymore. There are ways to do this without demonizing Kristen or causing Rachel unnecessary trauma.
In addition, as Rachel’s father, Brady can decide when and under what circumstances Rachel is allowed to wear the locket, which is a better idea than trying to get Kristen to apologize for giving it to her.
Elsewhere in Salem, Orpheus is living rent-free in Steve’s head.
Steve is so paranoid about Orpheus messing with his family that I wonder if that was Orpheus’ plan. Sending Kayla those flowers sent Steve into such a panic that he refused to let Kayla go to work by herself and almost shot Stephanie when she made a surprise visit.
He’s also trying to convince his daughter, who he hasn’t seen in years, to go home so that Orpheus can’t get to her, even though Orpheus already threatened to go to Seattle to mess with Steve’s kids.
Orpheus doesn’t have to do anything further. He’s already got Steve right where he wants him: paranoid, overprotective, and unable to enjoy being with his family.
Steve’s decision to try to shoot Orpheus was impulsive and ridiculous. Besides Kayla’s points that Steve would go to jail for a seemingly unprovoked attack, there’s the fact that Orpheus has been “fatally” shot before, only to pop back up when he’s ready to wreak more havoc.
His MIA/presumed dead son has been forgotten for the moment, but when Orpheus finds out about that, there will be hell to pay. It would be interesting if Orpheus teamed up with his enemies to find the missing baby. After all, Jan is as much John’s enemy as Orpheus is!
Miraculous resurrections aside, Orpheus is a compelling villain, and he doesn’t even have a mad scientist in his corner for when things go wrong.
Speaking of which, Li and Kristen’s plan is over the top, even for them.
It seemed silly that Rolf, who constantly makes people think they’re someone else, claimed not to have the ability to make Stefan fall for Chloe instead of Gabi. However, this plan is doomed to failure because it requires Chloe to change her behavior too.
Chloe is not under Dimera control, so even if Rolf manages to convince Stefan to try to break her and Brady up, there’s no guarantee she’ll leave Brady for Stefan.
This story promises to be goofy and unrealistic, as are most things related to Rolf. It’s also one of the less compelling stories on canvas right now.
Elsewhere, Xander has been watching too many reruns of I Love Lucy. I can’t believe he got through his description of that whole elaborate fake mustache/fake plumber plan without Sarah making some sarcastic reference to the classic sitcom.
Plus, why was that silly idea so important to share that Xander had to run out of the bathroom without bothering to get dressed first?
Theoretically, it should be easier to prove their case now that Leo has turned the mask over to the police. Xander may want to team up with his arch-enemy EJ, as EJ could fill in some blanks about this!
EJ and Ava’s cat-and-mouse game continues to delight. They are evenly matched; Ava called EJ’s bluff without blinking an eye when he threatened to call the police about what he overheard, and he made it clear he’s not done messing with her over this.
However, former mob boss Ava should have known better than to talk about her secret with Gwen in the freaking living room! When EJ asked why he keeps finding her and Gwen having tete-a-tetes there, my answer was, “Because they are being stupid.” Gwen has no sense, but Ava needs to stop letting her drag her down.
Also, this Johnny/Ava thing needs to stop before it gets out of hand. Hopefully, it won’t get past the EJ-thinks-they-are-having-an-affair stage. JJ/Eve was bad enough without Johnny dating the woman who constantly messed with his Aunt Kayla back in the day and had a son with his Uncle Steve!
Elsewhere, will Lucas’ sacrifice finally get Roman to see the light about Kate? She’s not likely to do jail time for confessing to being an accessory after the fact — this is Salem, after all — but turning herself in could get Roman to wake up about how he feels about her.
Either way, Paulina needs more of a story than putting her nose in everyone’s business. Since Abe doesn’t want to run for governor, why doesn’t she run herself? That would be a fun twist!
Finally, I’m glad Kayla finally got Chad to agree to get help (although it makes no sense that Marlena’s office is on the ground floor by the pharmacy. What hospital is set up that way?).
Among other things, he needs to stop trying to strangle the suspect of the week, many of whom have turned out to be innocent.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fans. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts about Days of Our Lives during the week of 8-15-22.
If you’re eager for more DAYS chat, check out the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.
Days of Our Lives moves to Peacock on September 12, 2022. Until then, it airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock on weeknights after 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST.
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.
