Girls just wanna have secrets

Chloe is in the right. Hope is setting her conscious free. And Theresa is setting the entire gender back at least a decade. Let's talk November Sweeps in this edition of Two Scoops.

But when it comes to Sweeps, that's not so great. Traditionally, the month before sweeps month has been the stronger month. And coming off the prison break storyline, I worried that DAYS would again repeat the same pattern.

I was wrong.

A quartet of DAYS ladies is ushering in a boatload of new storylines, and I'm excited for almost all of them. Let's discuss!

In the spirit of moving this storyline along, Hope decided to just go ahead and confess to murdering Stefano, even though everyone believed Andre doctored the recording and/or Hope did it in self-defense. Heck, they even brought in D.A. Trask (brilliant nod to history!), who's had it in for the DiMeras since we met her during Sami's trial.

Hope is an honest person, so I guess I can see why she'd want to come clean. And I certainly love the twist where she saves the men around her, rather than being the damsel in distress. However, why in the world does she think that Andre will keep his word? Of course this doesn't end with Hope. Why would it? As Rafe rightly pointed out, Andre's got the Salem PD basically on a string right now. Hope's too smart to think that this is a finite plan.

As for the DiMera brothers, Andre was laying it on waaayyy too think. I mean, the dude is a serial killer who does this for fun. He really has no place scolding anyone for anything.

Chad, however, is a different story. Despite doing nothing to warrant it, he's had to listen to Hortons (looking right at you, Jen, Laura, Julie, and J.J.) throw stones his way for months now. His comeback to Roman and Rafe about how both of their families were capable of living outside the law had me standing and applauding. Sure, his scene with Hope would have had even more punch if she'd ever made good on her promise to ghost Stefano to look after Chad all these months. But Billy Flynn gets extra awesome points for playing such a powerful scene while basically dressed as Puss in Boots.

Speaking of fairy tales, I refuse to believe that Orpheus is dead. Most of that is because he's just too delicious of a villain to lose. Seriously, the dude put Marlena and Kayla in coffins and then lit the coffins on fire. The sight of those burning coffins was downright soap scary, and Mary Beth Evans and Deidre Hall played that panic to perfection! Well done, DAYS!

Plus the whole "no faking this one" kind of played like the kid who says, "Just in case you're wondering, I did not eat chocolate before dinner."

Whether he's gone or not, I love Paul and Andre (Andre!) playing supporting roles in getting the ladies rescued. John and Steve were great too!

However, I think these are the scenes where Drake got hurt. I suspect we'll either find out that John suffered some injuries himself during the rescue, or he'll be off baking cookies with Caroline until Valentine's Day.

Then again, he could be staying in Chloe's safe house/hotel room, since Chloe is out of hiding and pregnant with Nicole and Daniel's baby! Whaaaat ?! I love the twist!

Dena Higley wrote the fantastic Nicole/Sami baby swap a few years back, so I have high hopes for the new age version. I like change where there isn't a love triangle involved. Technically, the relationship at the center is a friendship between two women.

Sure, it's a little eye-roll worthy to have this totally manufactured plot point, the extent of which involved getting Shawn Christian back to DAYS to tape some new flashbacks. But I'll forgive it because I believe that this situation would have happened at the times the flashbacks suggest it did. Chloe gave her bone marrow to Kate and could barely stand the woman. She'd surely lease out her uterus to her friends for nine months.

Side note, I'll also forgive it because I know our own @DanJKroll's Nana loves herself some Daniel Jonas. So the return of a (at least 20%, no?) studlier Shawn Christian had to make her happy. The guy has bulked up, gotten a great new haircut, and somehow gotten taller since his last stint in Salem.

Where was I? Oh, right. Nicole finally has a baby! Wahoo!

Of course, I love that the baby isn't Deimos' because his Big-Bad-Wolf self has been driving me bonkers since he got to Salem. I'd cheer for that loon to go huff and puff that noise about how he "can't imagine that anyone wouldn't think he has a right bring to bring a woman to" him somewhere else.

But he does usher in the conflict that is big enough to hold up keeping a baby secret. We knew Nicole and Chloe were friends. But now that this whole surrogate thing happened, that makes Nicole's alliance to Deimos over Chloe even more insufferable.

I'm not saying that Nicole doesn't have every right to know that Chloe is carrying her baby. But in that moment, I get why Chloe would be furious with Nicole and clam up. Her "I don't even know you" was totally fair. I can't believe Nicole had the gall to bring Deimos with her and then lecture Chloe about lying about the paternity of a baby! Either of those things alone would send me straight to #TeamChloe. But together?! Nicole, guuurrrrlll, you need a reality check. Fast.

LOOSE ENDS Jen and Adrienne buying the Spectator is tremendous. I've missed reporter Jen. And anything that gets Justin and Adrienne sharing more scenes is great.

However, I hope DAYS doesn't miss the opportunity to address the fact that journalism is different today than it was when Jack and Jen first started at the Spectator. It's more than just moving from print to an online version. Since media outlets also have to turn a profit now, news has become an "infotainment" industry. As a result, people don't trust the media the way they did before. Gone are the days of distinguished newsmen. So Jen is stepping back into a career that, quite frankly, doesn't exist in the same field anymore. (See: Will's recent career as a writer.) Having Adrienne just fix the business side of things isn't going to cut it. Jen's going to have to adapt as well.

Eddie and Dario made a weird deal with Deimos to move some stuff and avoid customs. The scene seems really out of place. I wonder if that's one of those scenes taped later and added back in as part of a new storyline.

Hat tip to Maggie for shutting down Deimos' questions to use Parker as a pawn to get to Chloe (Ugh, yes, for sure. This guy should totally be around children.) and for then lecturing him on getting all holier-than-thou with Nicole for lying. Although, is there really no one else in Salem to be Deimos' confidante than the women he crippled? How about Adrienne? She's skilled in Kiriakis wrangling.

Totally wishful storyline here, but with Eric coming back, there at least exists the possibility of an Ericole reunion. If that happens, he'll devote his life to looking out for Daniel's child (possibly as a way to make amends). What could be more soapy than this kid someday learning that the man who he/she thought of as a father killed his/her actual father?

HOT

Hooray for returns! I actually clapped when I heard Shane's voice. I will never not be happy to see him and Kimberly. And I love that all is better between Theresa and her mom. It was clear that Kim's heart was breaking for her little Jeannie. I hope they get to meet their grandson before they leave Salem!

Also, Nancy telling off Deimos and being completely unimpressed with his bravado was everything to me. I need more Nancy in my life. I feel like she and Anne would get along swimmingly too.

NOT Perhaps in a different era, a storyline where a woman leaves her family to be a sex slave to Mexican drug cartel lord would have played well. But Theresa's exit is not sitting well with me. At. All.

Sure, the addition that she's going to work with her dad's ISA contacts is a clever loophole to leave the door open for her to return. But the idea that she's going to break poor stupid Brady's heart and leave her twice-kidnapped child behind is not making for an ounce of entertaining TV.

Plus, unlike the Chloe surrogacy, I don't believe for a second that manufactured plot point could have ever happened. If this dude has been so in love with Theresa all these years, why didn't he think to look for her in the town where generations of her extended family live? She hasn't exactly been hiding.

LINE OF THE WEEK Chad (to Gabi about Hope): "How is she walking around living her life when she took someone else's?" I had to laugh. I do love the gal these days, but that's probably not the rhetorical question you want to pose to Gabi.

RANDOM THOUGHTS Rafe's Halloween hair was at least 150% Clooney, maybe 160%.

I kind of love that Chloe outsmarted pretty much all of Salem while still using her same cell phone she's had all along.

Did Thrady leave dessert on the table? What is wrong with these people?!

There's no way Hope and Rafe got out of their respective makeup and hair that quickly.

Chad was dressed like Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts when he grumbled the words "killed my father." Not exactly Inigo Montoya, but I'm counting it as a nod to The Princess Bride.

Yup, I just added "Inigo Montoya" to my computer's spell check. #lifegoals #check

Jennifer's hair was gorgeous last week!

Did Chloe and Brady have many (any?) scenes together before?

There was a catching beat to the "I killed Stefano" remix.

A lack of poker face runs in the Horton family. I'm guessing Hope and Jen were never successful at sneaking extra doughnuts as kids.

Julie is infringing on Vivian's level of camp. She basically flailed around asking for smelling salts while dressed as the queen of Abu Dhabi.

My husband said Orpheus' confession of how he faked his death was like a Scooby-Doo scene. Ha! He wasn't wrong!

If Orpheus had Lazlo this whole time, why was he slumming with Xander and Clyde?

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