Happy Friday, Salem watchers.

It's the anniversary of John Black's death — but today's episode isn't the sweeping tribute hour the spoilers promised. It's something quieter, and better. We've got a forensic twist in the Holly case, a surprise homecoming at the bookstore, a proposition for Julie, and a penny that might just be from heaven.

Plus - test your knowledge of what happened this week in Salem with my second weekly trivia quiz!

Forwarded to you? The Salem Dispatch is a weekday read for Days fans: full recap of yesterday's episode, tomorrow's spoilers, and what other fans are saying. Subscribe free.

The Anniversary of John's Death

A year ago, Salem lost John Black. Today, his family marks it in their own ways. Brady tells Belle about a dream he had last night — John holding baby Claire, singing that lullaby he always got slightly wrong. When Brady asked how he was there, John just said, "I never really left."

Marlena stops by Brady's apartment with something she doesn't want but can't throw away: Stefano's chess set, the one he left for her and John. She hands it off to Brady and heads to the cemetery alone. She wants to be with him by herself today.

Later, Brady and Belle open the chess set together. They lay out the pieces — king, queen, knights — and realize a pawn is missing. Meanwhile, at the grave, Marlena finds a penny resting near the headstone. A penny from heaven.

Belle Says No to Amy Choi

Amy Choi walks into the police station to meet with belle with a simple request: manslaughter charges against Holly Jonas. Belle hears her out, then walks her through what the investigation actually found. A forensic analysis of the social media page that piled on Sophia revealed that Sophia started the thread herself. Her fingerprints were on Holly's supplement bottle, confirming the pill switch. And Holly visited Bayview to try to make amends.

Belle lays it out: if this went to court, everything Sophia did would be aired publicly — the attempt on Johnny's life, the fabricated photos, using Rachel as a courier for the switched medications. Amy accuses Belle of conflict of interest — Holly is dating Belle's nephew, and Belle's own niece was involved. Belle tells her she's speaking as a mother of a daughter who also struggled with mental health. Pursuing this will only cause more pain.

Amy leaves with a line that stays with you: "Not as painful as allowing my daughter's death to go unanswered."

Holly Takes a Step Toward Healing

Holly opens up to Sarah at the hospital, and it's the most honest she's been about what's happening inside her head. She can't sleep. She can't focus on finals. She swings between guilt over how she treated Sophia and rage that Amy blames her for Sophia's death. Her palms are sweaty. Her appetite is gone.

Sarah refers her to Dr. Fuller, a psychiatrist who specializes in young adult cases. Holly is afraid — the idea of taking pills after what Sophia's meds did to her makes her skin crawl. Sarah reassures her: these would be the right medications at the proper dose. Holly agrees to give it a try, and later finds Tate in the Square to tell him. He promises they'll work through it together.

Eli Comes Home

Eli Grant walks into Julie's bookstore a day early and surprised Lani. She had a whole welcome-home party planned for tomorrow. Julie, Eli, and Lani share a warm Horton reunion — hugs, love-yous, the kind of scene that reminds you why Salem is home.

Later on, in the Square, Lani tells Eli about Chanel's breast cancer diagnosis. Chanel doesn't want anyone to know yet — not even Paulina. They talk about Paulina walking away from Abe, and Lani defends her mother's choice as selfless, not weak. "When the situation calls for it," she says, "the Price women will put up one hell of a fight." They both feel something bigger brought them back to Salem right when they're needed most.

Julie's New Chapter

Foster comes into the bookstore on his day off — not to work, but to see Julie. They share a quiet conversation about grief. Foster remembers the first anniversary of his wife's death: looking at old photos, the silence getting louder. Julie reflects on losing Doug. "I thought I'd lost my place in the world," she says. "But I'm beginning to make discoveries about who I'm going to be next."

Then Foster works up the nerve and asks her to dinner. Julie's response is pure Julie: "Talk about a softball question! How about, do I like Christmas? Do I like breathing oxygen?" She's delighted. They have a date.

My Take

There's a portrait of Victor Kiriakis above the fireplace at the Kiriakis mansion. Maggie blows it a kiss on her way out the door. She puts on Victor's old robe on hard nights and tells the painting what happened that day. On Valentine's Day 2024, she placed Konstantin's card on the table but blew the kiss to Victor. Alex once stood in front of it rehearsing his proposal speech, talking to a dead man like he might actually weigh in. The portrait isn't a memorial. It's a member of the household.

That's what this show does better than any other soap on television. Other shows give you the death, the funeral, maybe a sweeps flashback, and then everyone moves on. Salem makes its dead part of daily life.

Chad Dimera visits Abigail's grave on Valentine's Day, on Easter, on Mother's Day, on her birthday, on Christmas Eve. Not as big dramatic events, just as part of his calendar, the way you'd visit a friend. Last Valentine's Day, he came home from the cemetery and Thomas noticed he'd been crying. Chad didn't make a speech. He just pulled out the same candy hearts Abigail used to give them and said let's remember the good times. At Christmas 2022, their first without her, he stood in front of her ornament on the Horton tree and talked to her about getting through the holiday. Two years later, his children hung her ornament alongside their own, and Maggie placed hers next to Victor's spot.

The Horton Christmas tree might be the most powerful quiet grief tradition on any show. Every year, ornaments go up for people who are gone. Not with tears or eulogies, just hands placing them on branches, the way you'd set an extra place at the table.

Jack shares his birthday with the anniversary of Abigail's death. Last June, Jennifer had to talk him into blowing out a single candle. He visited Abigail's grave afterward and asked his daughter to welcome John in heaven. Jennifer's grief ran darker. By fall 2022 she was secretly taking pills, hallucinating Abigail in a bloodied white dress. Nearly four years later, she's still in therapy with Jack, still working through it. She told Cat just this week that she saw a mother and daughter buying shoes and it wrecked her. A parent losing a child broke Jennifer in a way that losing Jack multiple times never had.

And Lexie. She died in 2012, and the show has never stopped talking about her. When Abe flatlined in 2021, Lexie was the one waiting for him, and she told him it wasn't his time. When Paulina was dying, a vision of Lexie appeared to help Abe save her. Last fall, Abe told Theo how proud Lexie would be of him, and they held each other. Just this past March, Abe told Roman he'd been going through old family photos and home movies. Fourteen years of grief, carried quietly, woven into a new life with Paulina.

Today's episode does the same thing with John Black. No sweeping tribute hour. Marlena visits the cemetery alone. Brady describes a dream. They open a chess set and find a missing piece. It's grief the way grief actually works after a year, present but not consuming, woven into the business of being alive.

That's what makes Salem different. The characters fall in love again. They build new businesses, have new adventures, get into new trouble. But they never forget. A portrait above a fireplace. A grave visit on every holiday. Candy hearts in February. An ornament on a tree. A name that comes up in conversation not because the plot requires it, but because that's what real families do. They talk about the people they've lost, in small and ordinary ways, all the time.

Today, Eli surprised Julie at the bookstore. Eli is Julie's grandson — his father was Julie's son David Banning. But Eli didn't even know David was his father until he crashed David's funeral in 2017. Who is Eli's mother?

(Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

—Sponsored By—

Many patients prepare extensively for the procedure itself — but recovery preparation often gets overlooked.

Healing increases demand for nutrients involved in tissue repair, immune support, collagen production, and recovery. HealFast was designed specifically to support the body before and after surgery with physician-formulated nutritional support created for the recovery process.

Instead of scrambling afterward, many patients now prepare for recovery before surgery even happens.

Because supporting recovery starts long before the procedure is over.

Prepare to Heal

The first week of June is shaping up to be an explosive week.

Anna finally tips Gabi off to the truth she's been avoiding: it was Anna, not Theo, who told Philip about Gabi's betrayal. Gabi has been tearing into Theo over something he didn't do, and now she's got to grovel. The question is whether Theo will forgive her, especially since Gabi admitted she read his journal. With Philip out of the picture, all of this might force Gabi to examine what she actually feels for Theo.

That's not Gabi's only problem. The $150,000 she paid Liam to leave Salem and stay away from Ari is a ticking time bomb, and Ari may be about to light the fuse. Liam quit his job at the bookstore, ghosted Ari's calls, and left town without a word. When Ari finds out her mother is the reason why, the confrontation could be brutal.

Abe brings Lexie home from the hospital, but the transition from hospital room to shared life is harder than either of them expected. Abe's feelings for Paulina are still right there, and no amount of good intentions can make them disappear overnight.

Xander and Kristen keep playing with fire. Xander doesn't feel good about these meaningless bedroom sessions, but he keeps showing up. If Gwen walks in at the wrong moment, the fallout will be spectacular.

Amy's fury escalates beyond the legal system. After Belle's rejection today, Amy may decide that if the courts won't punish Holly, she'll find another way. Spoilers suggest Amy is coming unhinged, and Holly could be in physical danger.

Stephanie returns from Tripp and Wendy's wedding to find that Alex and Joy have bonded in ways she wasn't expecting. Alex, Joy, and baby Kelsey look like a ready-made family, and Stephanie may feel like an outsider in her own relationship.

EJ's hypnotherapy continues to unearth memories that could change everything. What started as treatment is starting to look like evidence gathering, and whatever EJ remembers under hypnosis may not stay in the therapist's office.

SoapHub argues that EJ's Italy trip was never about Sydney — it was always about Sami. The piece examines EJ's inability to let go of the night everything changed between them and suggests his European detour is really an attempt to process a relationship he never got closure on. Read their take.

Shi Ne Nielson talked about Amy Choi's arc on this week's Dishin' Days podcast, describing Amy as "a lion for her daughter." Nielson discussed the challenge of playing a mother driven by grief who is crossing lines she doesn't even recognize yet. Listen here.

Will Holly go to jail? SheKnows examines the legal landscape around Holly's situation after today's episode, where Belle shut down Amy's manslaughter push. The piece weighs whether Holly is truly out of legal danger or if Amy might find other avenues. Read more.

Eric Martsolf opened up about Brady's journey in a SoapHub exclusive, saying he was "brought to tears" by the parallels between Brady and John. With Brady training for his PI license and now inheriting John's chess set, Martsolf sees his character following in his father's footsteps in ways that feel deeply personal. Read the interview.

Are Johnny and Chanel the healthiest couple on soaps? Soap Central's Daily Rehash makes the case that while Salem burns around them, Johnny and Chanel have quietly built the most stable, functional relationship on daytime television. Read the argument.

CelebBabyLaundry examines Amy's escalating behavior and asks whether her vendetta against Holly is about justice or something darker. With spoilers suggesting Amy may take matters into her own hands next week, the piece questions how far a grieving mother will go. Read it here.

In yesterday's poll, we asked who Abe should choose — and you weren't torn at all. Three quarters of you picked Paulina, the woman who stood by him through amnesia, through Lexie's return, through all of it. Lexie and the "he shouldn't choose yet" camp split the remaining votes evenly.

But the comments told a more complicated story. One Paulina voter put it bluntly: "This Lexie is mean! Abe is not mean. Kill Lexie off and let Abelina continue." And a reader who voted Lexie wasn't really voting for the Lexie we're seeing now: "The writers have gone out of their way to turn the warm, kind Lexi into a nasty shrew, while Paulina is being noble and unselfish. I really dislike this macabre reanimation of Lexi, as her character is being destroyed. Is this just another storyline to show us how wonderful Paulina is?"

That's a fair question. Readers on both sides seem to agree: the Lexie who came back isn't the Lexie they remember, and they're not sure the show is doing her justice.

Belle laid out the forensic evidence today: Sophia started the social media thread herself, her fingerprints were on Holly's pill bottle, and Holly tried to make amends at Bayview. But Amy still holds Holly responsible. Do you think Holly bears any culpability in Sophia's death?

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

Any other thoughts you want to share? Hit reply — I read every response.

Think you caught everything Salem threw at you this week? Put your memory to the test with my weekly quiz — fifteen questions from this week's episodes.

Take the quiz

Eli's mother is Valerie Grant, one of Salem's original legacy characters. Valerie kept Eli's paternity a secret for decades — Eli didn't learn David Banning was his father until David's funeral in February 2017, when he showed up and stunned everyone, including Julie.

That's all for this week, Salem. See you Monday.

P.S. Know someone who loves Days? Send them our way — The Salem Dispatch is free and lands in your inbox every weekday morning.