Happy Wednesday, Salem fans. Today's episode ends with a bombshell — Amy Choi is pressing manslaughter charges against Holly Jonas. But before we get there, Julie Williams reaches all the way back to 1967, EJ undergoes hypnosis with Marlena's, and Paulina says goodbye to Theo on her way to the Salem Inn. Let’s get into it.

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The pub is closed for the reception following Sophia’s memorial service, which apparently happened off-camera. Aaron, still shaken, tells the Chois what Sophia meant to him. He talks about the butterfly drawing Sophia gave him years ago, how he still has it, and then the line that breaks the scene open: he just wishes he could have told her he loved her one more time. Tate pays his respects separately, telling the Chois he'll miss Sophia — the way he remembers her before everything went wrong.

Outside, Holly refuses to go in. She tells Tate the service felt like a different Sophia than the one who drugged her and tried to kill Johnny. Tate gently pushes back: that's not who she always was. Holly stays put.

Later, Ari finds Aaron crying in the Square. He's blaming himself — maybe if he hadn't signed away his parental rights, Sophia wouldn't have spiraled. Ari tells him it'll be okay. Maybe not right away, but it will be.

Julie finds Holly sitting alone in the Square. Holly says she was a victim too — she admits the things she posted were unkind, but she was hurting. Julie tells her she understands. She shares the story of her dear friend Susan Martin, who was married to David Martin, the boy Julie loved. When their marriage fell apart, Julie and David reconnected. Susan was furious. Then came the lie about their baby boy's death — and in her grief, Susan shot David and killed him. (Longtime fans: we used this exact story as a trivia question back on May 5, when Julie told Stephanie the earlier chapter — the engagement and the pregnancy. Today she tells Holly the tragic ending.)

Julie's advice is pure Horton wisdom: lean on the people who love you, keep busy, be grateful, do good. And don't blame yourself for the actions of others — the only person responsible for Sophia jumping off that bridge was Sophia.

Tate tells the Chois that Holly didn't come to the reception because she thought Amy wouldn't want to see her. Amy's reaction is cold. When Tate adds that this has been hard on Holly too, Amy erupts — they lost a child, their lives will never be the same. After Tate leaves, Amy tells her husband she's made a decision. She doesn't want Sophia's loss to be in vain. She's pressing manslaughter charges against Holly Jonas.

EJ shows up at Marlena’s office and brings Marlena the chess set Stefano left her in his will — she'd left it behind, and he insists she keep it. Then they get to work. Marlena sets ground rules: no discussing his marriages to Sami or his relationship with Belle. EJ agrees.

Under hypnosis, he's back at the Italian clinic. He hears Cat reading Wuthering Heights to him. But he can't push deeper — there's something more, he can feel it, but he's stuck. Marlena pulls him out. Her take: he was unconscious most of the time, so the memories may not exist. EJ later asks Cat if she'd be willing to undergo hypnosis herself. She agrees.

Gabi shows up at Theo’s door, accusing him of telling Philip about the bug she planted. She read his journal — she knows he has feelings for her. Theo denies it all, saying he just moved Paulina out after his mother came back from the dead and has bigger things to worry about. He tells her to leave.

Meanwhile, Gabi tells Ari that she and Philip broke up. Ari is bummed — she thought they were good together. Later, Julie tells Ari that Liam quit and is leaving Salem.

EJ bumps into Gabi in the square. He taunts her about being newly single. Tony's offer for DiMera CEO is no longer valid, he says. Gabi fires back: she wants nothing to do with his viper pit of a family.

Paulina is packed and heading to the Salem Inn. Theo says goodbye. She tells him not to be sorry — he has his mama back. "We're a family for life, Theo Carver." She asks him to watch Trey while Chanel is at the doctor. Paulina Price, packing her own bags so a woman back from the dead can have her husband back, and still making sure the grandkids are covered on her way out the door.

Julie Williams sat down with Holly Jonas today and told her a story about a woman named Susan who shot and killed a man named David. It's a story from 1967. Holly had never heard it. Most viewers under 50 probably haven't either. But Julie was there. She lived it. And almost sixty years later, she's still the one who carries it.

Three weeks ago, Julie told Stephanie a different version of the same story — the earlier chapter, about being young and in love with a boy who married her best friend because Susan was pregnant. That version ended with Julie's own wisdom: if she'd gotten what she wanted then, she never would have met Doug, and she never would have had the fifty happiest years of her life. Today, she told Holly the part she left out with Stephanie. The tragedy. Susan shooting David in grief over a lie about their baby's death.

Same history, different lessons, different audiences, three weeks apart. That's what Julie does now. She doesn't just remember the past — she deploys it.

Julie Olson Williams has been on Days of Our Lives since the very first episode. November 8, 1965. She stole a fur stole from a department store. She was the show's original wild child — rebellious, reckless, deeply in love with David Martin when everyone told her she shouldn't be. She married Scott Banning. She married Bob Anderson. And then she found Doug Williams, and that was the love story that stuck. Three weddings to the same man across three decades. When Doug died, Salem lost its most enduring romance. Julie lost everything and kept going anyway.

What's remarkable about watching Julie in 2026 is how completely she's transformed without the show ever losing track of who she was. The girl who shoplifted in Episode 1 is the same woman who runs a bookstore now, who tutors a young man learning to read, who hosts a bereavement book club with Maggie and Marlena because she knows what it's like to lose the person you built your whole life around. She counseled J.J. after a shooting by referencing how he spiraled the last time. She sat with Jeremy Horton through months of false accusations and never lost faith. She told Gabi — a woman who once tried to kill her — that she'd help with Ari's boyfriend situation, not for Gabi's sake but for Ari's.

The writers have figured out something really smart with Julie. In a show that runs five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, continuity can easily be sacrificed. Characters forget their own histories. Storylines contradict themselves. The audience remembers, but the show doesn't always remember with them. Julie is the fix for that. She's the character who remembers everything, and she's earned the right to because Susan Seaforth Hayes has played her for most of the show’s run. When Julie tells Holly about Susan and David Martin, it's not a history lesson. It's a woman sharing something she actually went through. That's a kind of storytelling authority you can't manufacture.

Look at what she's done just this year. She welcomed Eli and Lani's family back and talked about how Doug used to sing the twins a funny Spanish song about chickens. She pulled out a Horton family album saved from the house fire. She told Stephanie about her engagement to David Martin to help her see her own situation clearly. She referenced J.J.'s past mental health crisis to check in on him gently. She remembered Doug's way with children when watching Jules and Carver play on the stairs.

Every one of those moments connects the present to the past. And every one of them works because Julie isn't reciting history — she's living with it. There's a difference between a character who says "let me tell you a story" and a character who says "let me tell you what happened to me." Julie is always the second one.

Today's scene with Holly was a perfect example. Holly is carrying guilt about Sophia, and nobody in her life seems to be on her side. Julie didn't minimize that guilt or lecture her about it. She told her about losing a friend to tragedy and about how grief and anger can push people past a point of no return. Then she gave her the same advice Tom and Alice Horton gave a young Julie decades ago: lean on the people who love you, keep busy, do good in the world. The wisdom passes through the generations and Julie is the conduit.

Sixty years in, Julie Williams is the living memory of this show. She's the thread that connects Episode 1 to Episode 15,000-and-counting. And every time she sits someone down and says "when I was not much older than you," she's doing something no other character on daytime television can do. She's not telling Salem's history. She is Salem's history.

Julie has been married five times to three different men. How many of those weddings were to Doug Williams?

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Johnny and Chanel share a hopeful moment as they navigate the aftermath of Chanel's devastating diagnosis. Can they find their footing while the weight of cancer and pregnancy presses down on them?

Lexie demands answers from EJ. She's awake, she's aware, and she's done waiting. The question is whether this is about the resurrection project broadly — or whether Lexie is finally learning about Stefano's role in her original death.

Abe admits a truth to Theo — and it's the one Paulina just walked away to make room for: he may still want Paulina. How Theo handles that, caught between his biological mother's return and the woman who raised him, could reshape this entire triangle.

Javi runs into Leo before meeting his boyfriend Gus — marking the debut of Michael Ocampo in the role. Salem's newest couple gets its first real introduction.

Foster asks Julie to dinner. Is the show opening a new chapter for Julie? She hasn't had a romantic storyline since Doug died, and Foster has been a quiet, steady presence at the bookstore. Worth watching.

Friday is shaping up as the John Black Anniversary Hour. Marlena visits John's grave, and the family rallies around her as they mark the loss. Brady and Belle open the chess set from Stefano's will and discover a missing pawn — Stefano's last riddle?

Also on Friday: Lani is distraught in Eli's arms. The most likely triggers are Chanel's cancer diagnosis, Paulina's departure from the mansion, or both. Either way, the Price-Grant family is being hit from every direction right now.

Looking further ahead (June 1–5): Amy's fury over Sophia isn't going anywhere. If the manslaughter charges against Holly don't stick, she may take matters into her own hands. Stephanie returns from Tripp and Wendy's wedding to find Alex, Joy, and baby Kelsey looking like a ready-made family — and it stings. Xander and Kristen keep playing with fire, and Gwen could be the one who catches them. Lexie tries to pick up where she left off with Abe, but reconciliation won't be simple — and Abe has a confession of his own coming. That week also brings two tragic anniversaries and Gwen on a full-blown rampage.

Yesterday, I asked whether the Jennifer-Cat truce would hold. Readers aren't buying it. The most popular answer: it only works at a distance — Jennifer can be civil, but they'll never truly be close. A strong second: the whole thing collapses the moment Chad and Cat become a real couple. Almost nobody picked "she's ready to move on." Salem forgives, apparently — but it doesn't forget.

Please click below to participate in today's poll. The results will be shared in the next edition of The Salem Dispatch.

Three. Doug and Julie married in 1976, 1981, and 1993. Before Doug, Julie married Scott Banning (1970) and Bob Anderson (1974). But Doug was the love story that defined her life.