Days of Our Lives Round Table: Who Is Your Favorite Salem Mom?

Vivian Alamain was killed, sort of, Abigail now knows she killed Andre, and Theresa got another surprise visitor in Mexico!

Our TV Fanatics Jack Ori and Christine Orlando are joined by Stephanie and Andy from MyHourglass a Days of Our Lives fan forum to debate Vivian’s “death,” Xander’s return, and who is their favorite mom on Days of Our Lives.

Kate killed Vivian in self-defense. Do you hope the mysterious injection means she’ll be back from the dead in the near future or would you prefer to see her gone for good?

Stephanie: I would like to see Vivian come back. She brings comedy to the show in a dark sort of way. I enjoyed her performance when she was locked up with Marlena and Kate, and also liked the interactions she’s had with Maggie and Victor over the last few months. When paired with the right characters, she is very amusing and fun to watch!

Andy: I enjoyed Vivian this time around because she was more of a side player than a main focus. She had some great interactions with characters like Kate, Victor, and Marlena. I hope the injection revives her, but I'm okay if she disappears for a while and pops back up later.

Jack: I'm not sure. Vivian is one of my favorite characters and I hate that yet another legacy character was killed off instead of being written out some other way. But I think the mysterious injection thing is silly and overused to begin with, and I didn't think this story was really worthy of Vivian, so it may be best to close the door on any future returns for her

Christine: I was disappointed in Vivian’s return. She’s always been a villain with a crazy edge, but I found that edge lacking this time around. I’m also with Jack about the mystery infection being overused. I used to enjoy Vivian, but if she’s gone after this, I’m okay with that.

Abigail now knows she killed Andre. Is this the last we’ll see of her alters?

Stephanie: I think Abigail will struggle with her alters off and on for a little while before they’re completely gone. As we saw, they didn’t completely disappear once she remembered killing Andre. Both Dr. Laura and Gabby reappeared but didn’t have as much of a hold on her as they have since her personality first fragmented.

Andy: I surely hope so, I am beyond over the alters. The whole storyline has been messy, and I don't think the actress is strong enough to make it work anyway. (Maybe I'm just spoiled by Tatiana Maslany on Orphan Black.) They'll probably at least keep popping up in Abigail's head as she works through treatment.

Jack: It certainly seems like it. That was wrapped up awfully quick, and in reality this wouldn't work at all, but this story has never had a single thing to do with reality. I hope it's the end of the alters; this story was horrible enough to begin with and I don't want a redux.

Christine: I expect Dr. Laura to pop up again as Abigail works through the fact that Stefan had sex with one of her altars. That’s just all kinds of icky.

I’m torn over this storyline. Abigail has been a boring character for months. The altars livened things up, but the silliness of it got old fast. At this point, I’m ready for Abigail’s altars to fade away for good.

Of all the people who have “died” in Salem, which character would you most like to see return from the dead?

Stephanie: Hmm, hard question being that most people usually don’t stay dead! I guess maybe Paige since she added depth to Eve’s character or Brady’s mother, Isabella, since she is often talked about and I never had a chance to see her onscreen. Kristen DiMera would be fun too. She appeared in Memphis, and we haven’t seen her since!

Andy: I'm ready for EJ to come back, which they seem to be teasing with Rolf's book. I'd like to see him take on Stefan.

Jack: Tough choice there. I hate that they killed Paige off and I want her back so that JJ can experience true love instead of this nonsense with Lani. Plus I would love to see her interact with the half-sister she never knew who saved JJ's life, and I keep imagining her reactions to Eve's nonsense with Brady.

I also would love to have Daniel back. I missed him during JJ and Abby's recent storylines, especially JJ. He was always so supportive of him.

Christine: Definitely E.J., but only if the original actor, James Scott, plays him. E.J. was smart and charming, and could play both good and evil, which was refreshing. I’d love to see him come back, with or without Sami.

Xander’s back! Will he help Theresa and Chloe escape?

Stephanie: Knowing Xander, he’ll help them but only if he gets something out of it. He is not the type of guy to help someone just out of the kindness of his heart! Most likely, Theresa will have to find a way to get him back on Victor’s good side or something like that.

Andy: He has a lot of reason to hate Theresa. If he's acting under Victor's orders, I guess he'll help them. But I wouldn't trust him not to take his chance to hurt Theresa or leave Chloe to fend for herself.

Jack: Since Victor wants to break up Eve and Brady, I will be surprised if Xander is there for any reason other than to follow his orders to get Theresa to Salem to interfere with Brady's plans to marry Eve.

I hope he doesn't leave Chloe behind, but Victor never liked Chloe and doesn't need any other women to catch Brady's eye besides Theresa, who he now approves of.

Christine: I think he’s probably there under Victor’s orders to help Theresa. No one even knows Chloe’s there, outside of Theresa, so I’m guessing rescuing Chloe may drag on longer. Considering Xander hates Theresa, I’m expecting their interactions to be very entertaining.

It’s Mother’s Day! Who is your favorite Days of Our Lives mom?

Stephanie: Even though she’s not on the show right now, I choose Nicole. I was thrilled when she was finally able to have a child of her own because she’s so good with kids like Tate and Sydney. I’m just sad that we are not getting to see her raise Holly.

It took forever for her to finally be able to have custody of her own child, and she was gone from Salem within weeks of getting it.

Andy: My favorite is probably Gabi. Despite her problems (most of which aren't her fault), she's always been shown to be a loving mother to Ari. If I had to pick one to be mom, the only one I think I could handle is Maggie.

Jack: Even though she drives me crazy sometimes, I love Jennifer. Yeah, she's overprotective and tends to treat her kids like they're still babies, but she also is fiercely loyal to them and will fight for them every time.

The thing that stands out most for me from when JJ first came back to town in bad shape, mentally, is that time that he was arrested for dealing drugs and Rory's mom advised Jennifer to just forget about him, and Jennifer told her in no uncertain terms that she will never give up on her child. As much as she irritated me during that whole story, I loved her for that.

Christine: I miss Alice Horton. She was a pillar of strength and wisdom, but was also willing to put herself on the line for her children and grandchildren. But I also agree with all of the moms mentioned above! None are perfect but they all love their kids fiercely and strive to be the best parent they can be. What more can you ask for?

What, if anything, disappointed you this week in Salem?

Stephanie: The truth about Andre’s murder seemed weak and contrived. It just doesn’t seem likely that Abigail would be strong enough to hit Andre hard enough to kill him. Especially not with an urn top. And the way it happened seemed unrealistic too.

I know Andre felt threatened, but, given his history with Abigail, it didn’t seem likely that he’d grab onto her to the point that he was hurting her.

Andy: I'm annoyed that they continue to drag out the Hope/Rafe annulment issue. How long has it been now? Either resolve it or move on.

Jack: I'm mad that Vivian was killed off! It seems like the writers don't know how to write exit stories and just kill characters when they're done with them. She's a legacy character who has terrorized Salem for over 30 years. Her death was ridiculous and not a fitting end, and we just lost Andre for this ridiculous Dissociative Identity Disorder story so we didn't need to kill another legacy villain.

The continued nonsense and unreality around the D. I. D. story irritated me as always, and on top of that... why the heck is Gabi still in jail? They have a taped confession from someone else for the crime that landed her behind bars, and Abby gets to go home because "jail wouldn't be good for her" but innocent Gabi is still in the prison infirmary because "nothing can be done today to help her." Please!

Salem and its perverted sense of justice irritates me. Andre should never have asked Abby to empathize with someone else being the golden child who gets preferential treatment, because Abby IS that golden child.

Finally, this Theresa story is all sorts of gross. I can't believe that super spy Shane would support a plan that involves his daughter being held as a sex slave and leave it to her to get the evidence to get out of the situation!

Plus, it seems like they're making this up as they go along. Theresa can't get evidence. Then she knows exactly where the evidence is but just needs a key. She can't escape even if she wanted to, then escape is super easy but she's too scared of Mateo to do it. It really feels like the writers had no plan for this story and just winged it.

Oh, and one more thing. Rafe, why are you accusing Hope of showing favoritism to family? Did you lose your mirror somewhere?

Christine: We went so many days without seeing Hope and Rafe in the same room, that I was feeling hopeful…until this week. I hate Rafe. He talks over Hope, belittles her and second guesses all of her decisions. He doesn’t trust or respect her. He mocked her for protecting a family member when he has lied and broken the law more than once of his.

And then Rafe wanders back and apologize, but we’ve heard it all before. Every time he disagrees with one of Hope’s decisions he turns into an arrogant jerk. I can’t wait until these two are officially over!

What was your favorite quote, scene or storyline on this week’s Days of Our Lives?

Stephanie: Despite not liking the explanation behind Andre’s murder, I actually liked the way the show presented Abigail fragmenting into three personalities.

Seeing Gabi’s picture and remembering her words about wanting to kill Andre for firing her actually made it plausible that Abigail’s mind would go the path of creating an alter modeled after her.

Andy: I like Kate and Vivian's interactions, up until the shooting. They had some good zingers in there. Seeing Gabi tell off Eli was great too, I am really curious to see how she'll react seeing Abigail again after all of this.

Jack: I loved Theresa asking Chloe if she was going to butter Mateo to death, and I laughed at Vivian saying, "Be with you in a second" while she searched for her gun. Two funny moments in otherwise disappointing stories.

I also was thrilled that JJ walked away from Lani and told Jen that he's going to have to get used to seeing her around because it's a small town but has no interest in restarting anything with her. (Please soap gods, let it stay that way).

Christine: I loved JJ getting snarky with Lani, and Gabi out and out telling off Eli. Both JJ and Gabi have reason to be furious with each of them, and I was happy to see them show just that. It’s long overdue.

Also, I enjoyed how supportive Paul was of Will as they read Rolf's diary. These two are quickly becoming one of my favorite couples in Salem.