Philip and Xander Bond

On today’s Days of Our Lives, Philip toasts to Victor’s portrait, insisting he’s doing what the family needs. But then Xander bursts in, slaps his brother’s glass to the ground and snarls that he knows what he did. Philip starts to panic, but Xander’s talking about Philip hiring a PI to do opposition research on him.

Relieved, Philip reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a report — the PI was hired to look up the DiMera board members to convince them to vote their way. They asked about Xander because of his time working with Kristen and Rolf. “Oh.” Xander begrudgingly admits it wasn’t a bad idea. Xander hones in on Peter Blake as being a potential flip, but Philip says that’s unlikely. He then lays out the Blake story — Peter, Kristen, Rachel, the explosion, etc.

The fellas muse that the DiMera siblings will stab each other in the back, but never break ranks in front of others, from EJ to Steven Hawk. “Trauma bonding.” So they decide to try Wei Shin, especially after Li’s death. Xander eventually apologizes, saying he should have given Philip the benefit of the doubt.

Kristen Gets Under Sarah’s Skin

Kristen’s drinking at Small Bar, thinking back to her encounter with her mom when Sarah shows up wanting to see how she was doing after Rachel’s disappearance. Everyone’s happy she showed up unharmed. Kristen thanks her for her kind words, then says it’s great to see Sarah up and walking after the serum she gave her worked. Sarah doesn’t love that since Kristen tried to extort Titan from Xander for it.

Kristen decides Sarah wasn’t here for Rachel, she’s still holding a grudge after her little “quid pro quo” deal. They go back and forth over whether Kristen or Xander is more ruthless and would have done the same. “Not everyone is as delusional as you, Kristen.”

Kristen insists that Xander would have done exactly the same if he had the same leverage against her. Sarah says Xander became a better man for them, but Kristen will never change — which is why Brady will never be with her. “Huh. You have sharper claws than I thought,” Kristen muses, then suggests that maybe Sarah is becoming more like Xander.

Kristen then suggests that eventually, Xander will turn on Philip, but Sarah says they’re working great together. “I guess he really didn’t have a choice, did he, when Philip produced that letter from Victor?” Sarah visibly swallows at the remark, which Kristen notes before Sarah heads out.
She then tries calling Rachel but no one answers and she starts to panic. Meanwhile, Ava’s struggling desperately to get to the phone.

Jada Hauls Off On ‘Rafe’

Arnold’s smoking a cigar in the commissioner’s office, feet up on the desk when Jada drops in, disgusted at how he’s making himself at home. He casually blows her off when she starts yelling about EJ framing her, saying that “If EJ is framing you, he’s doing a hell of a job.” She’s too toxic for the job right now, so right or wrong, it’s best to just move on.

If he thinks Jada’s going to sit back, “You have lost your damn mind!” RoboRafe tells her to just let the scandal pass, then he’ll convince Paulina to hire her back. As detective. “Working for you?” she shakes her head, glaring at him. RoboRafe gets up, walks over, says things can go back to the way they were and forces a kiss on her.

She pulls back and slaps him across the face. “Screw that Rafe, and screw you, too.” She’s finally seeing him for exactly what he is: “A vile, chauvinistic pig who is threatened by a Black woman in power.” She takes off her ring, tosses it back at him and says she doesn’t want him or his job. She storms out, RoboRafe following her, and asks Shawn to get out of there with her.

EJ Strikes a Deal With Rachel

Rita calls EJ at the Blake house, worrying about Rafe’s disappearance, and he reassures her that he moved Rafe to a safe place. But then he hears something and goes back into the other room… where Ava’s tied up once again! He rushes over and ungags her, demanding to know what she’s doing there.

The two Rachels did this to her, which is when Kristen’s mom pops in. “Who are you, what are you doing here?” He demands, which she throws back at him. That’s when Ava tells him this is Kristen’s mother. “No, that’s impossible.” He tells Rachel that she’s dead, and he’d know since he’s Kristen’s brother. “You’re not Peter.” No, her DiMera brother.

He still doubts her, but says she should let Kristen know she’s alive. Ava tells him Kristen already does, but decided to let Ava rot. EJ starts to untie her, when Rachel says EJ won’t be helping anyone. Ava begs him not to listen, but Rachel informs EJ that she knows what REALLY brought him to Aremid. So they go to talk privately while Ava’s re-gagged.

Out in the hall, she informs him she saw him stash Rafe upstairs, so if EJ frees Ava, she’ll just have to talk to the authorities about his own prisoner. No threat, she’s just telling him the consequences of his actions. Besides, they’re on the same side: Kristen and Rachel’s. Little Rachel. She was the one who did this, so letting Ava go will tear her away from Kristen.

He admits Ava kidnapped Susan once, and Rachel tells him to view this as “Karmic retribution.” Fine. He won’t say anything about Ava, so long as she says nothing about the man upstairs. But he’s doing this for Kristen and little Rachel, and demands that nothing ever happen to either of her guests, because then he won’t be able to protect his sister and niece. They shake on it.

Brady and Belle Talk Love

As Belle goes over paperwork in her room, Brady drops in to talk about Ava. “I think something is really wrong.” He fills her in on the Ava/Tripp missing drama. Belle assures him that Steve can get to the bottom of this, then offers to distract him the rest of the night. So he asks about EJ. Marlena told him all about them. Belle’s aghast that her mom’s been spreading gossip, but Brady wants to know what’s going on.

“You are allowed to have a one-night stand with someone other than your sister’s ex.” Fine! He made his point, but there’s just this attraction. He’s a puzzle she needs to solve. “Oh, God. This is worse than I thought.” Brady is the last person to question her love life, she tells him. But Brady just suggests that after so long with good-guy Shawn, she might be looking for a little more dangerous.

She reluctantly admits there’s something alluring about being with someone completely wrong for them. “Preaching to the choir,” Brady says, but warns her how punishing it is. “When it comes to EJ DiMera,” she says, “my eyes are wide open.” Ha.

And Finally…

In the show’s final moments, Sarah gets home to see the brothers cleaning up the broken glass, then Xander asks Philip to stay for dinner. When Xander goes to let Cook know, Sarah checks in with Philip. He says there was a misunderstanding, but they had a breakthrough. They may even become brothers. She’s relieved and fills him in on her run-in with Kristen. Maybe keeping this secret isn’t such a good idea. Philip, unsurprisingly, tells her it is, and she admits that their breakthrough could be good for the family.

Xander returns to tell Philip Maggie’s thrilled and even offered to fix up the guest room. The DiMeras hate each other more than the Kiriakises, but they’re more united. So they should be the same. He asks Philip to move back into the mansion.

Jada throws back a ton of drinks at the Pub as she fills Shawn in on how horrible her encounter with Rafe was. Shawn can’t believe what Rafe said to her. “It’s like he’s a completely different person,” Jada cries. But Shawn just says you don’t always know the people you love as well as you thought you did. So Jada realizes he’s talking about Belle — but is surprised to hear she slept with EJ. She then flashes back to Belle making herself at home at the mansion and tells Shawn Belle probably did it again.

Arnold calls EJ, panicked that Jada’s onto him being a different person. EJ tells him to calm down and shut up, then hangs up and heads into the living room with Kristen. She asks who was on the phone, but he crosses his arms and says no one important. But “we need to talk, dear sister.” About “how I met your mother.” Kristen just sips her wine.

Back at the house, Rachel returns to Ava, telling her EJ won’t help her. No one will.