There's a moment in today's episode where Alex holds his daughter for the first time and just… stops. Everything else falls away. It's one of those scenes that earns its silence. But while Alex is falling in love, Sophia Choi is three steps ahead of everyone, running a sting operation Holly doesn't even know she walked into. And if you think this week is big, the two-weeks-ahead spoilers have Lexie waking up, Stefano's will finally being read, and a secret that could blow up Philip and Gabi's engagement. Monday brought the feelings and the scheming — and May Sweeps is just getting started.

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Joy Tells Alex He's a Father - Thanks to Jeremy

Friday's cliffhanger picks up right where it left off. Joy is at Alex's door with a baby girl, and she doesn't waste time. “This is Kelsey,” Joy says. “She's our daughter.” Joy admits she lied about the pregnancy test. She saw how relieved Alex was, how the first words out of his mouth were "thank God," and she wasn't going to bring a child into the world feeling unwanted. She grew up as a kid nobody wanted except for her bone marrow, and she refused to do that to Kelsey.

Alex pushes back. If she lied then, how does he know she's not lying now? Joy says she'll do a DNA test whenever he wants, but she's not forcing anything. If he wants to be part of Kelsey's life, the door is open. If not, she and Kelsey are fine.

Then she hands him the baby. Alex holds Kelsey and melts. He looks at those eyes, sees the smile, and you can see it land. He asks Joy why she came back now. She heard through mutual friends that Alex had been telling people he couldn't wait to start a family. She thought maybe she'd misjudged the situation.

Later, Stephanie comes home from the shooting range and Alex sits her down. He can barely get the words out. "I just found out I have a daughter." Stephanie's face says everything.

The episode ends with Joy at Small Bar with Kelsey, and Jeremy is there. She tells him Alex wanted to hold the baby, that he looked so happy. Jeremy's response: "Told you." So Jeremy didn't just pick Joy up at the airport. He brought her back to Salem knowing exactly what it would do.

Stephanie Takes Aim at the Shooting Range

Steve, Stephanie, and Brady are at the range. Steve walks them through gun safety, and Brady is a natural. He's nailing targets on his first round. Stephanie starts strong but then loses her focus. She's having flashbacks to Owen, to being kidnapped and handcuffed. The shots go wide.

Steve pulls her aside. Control your breath, concentrate, visualize. Stephanie tries again and by the end of the session, she's finding her rhythm. She tells Steve and Brady that it helped to imagine Owen as the target. Part of her wishes she could put a bullet in him for real.

The Owen conversation gets heavier over lunch at the Pub. Steve says they're doing a psych evaluation on Owen to determine if he's fit to stand trial. Jada thinks his lawyers will go with an insanity defense. Stephanie isn't having it. He knew what he was doing to her and Jeremy seventeen years ago, and he knew what he was doing this time. Delusional or not, he had a plan. She's going to make sure he faces justice.

Before he leaves, Steve reminds Stephanie to put the unloaded gun in the safe, away from the ammo. She says she will, but we know that’s not her plan.

Gabi and Philip Go All In

Gabi walks into Philip's office at Titan, locks the door, and turns off the lights. They have sex on Philip’s desk.

Afterward, it's back to business. Gabi has been weighing whether to give the Gabi Chic international distribution contract to Titan or DiMera. DiMera's offer is cheaper, but Gabi doesn't trust what's happening over there. Theo walked away, Johnny is a rookie facing a plagiarism lawsuit, and she'd rather work with someone experienced who has her back. She gives the contract to Philip.

It's not charity. Gabi says she has a vested interest in Titan surviving since she's living in the Kiriakis mansion. And she doesn't owe Philip anything, she says, but she wants to be there for him the way he's been there for her. Philip is thrilled. Titan needs this.

Separately, Philip meets Brady in the square and delivers the bad news about Basic Black. Xander won't budge on the Kate requirement, and Philip isn't going to push him. His advice to Brady: tell Marlena to take the deal. If she doesn't, Basic Black could be sold off or fold entirely.

Sophia Builds Her Case Against Holly

Sophia walks into Bookshop and runs into Ari, who immediately goes on the attack. She lists Sophia's greatest hits: drugging Holly, the revenge porn, lying about the baby's father, the psychiatric hospital. Sophia tries to defend herself, saying she didn't drug Holly and that Holly has been spreading lies. Ari isn't buying it. "You have no friends. If you want to know why, look in the damn mirror."

Liam steps in and asks Sophia to leave. She throws a book on her way out.

But Sophia isn't done. She finds Holly and Ari's dorm social media feed, creates a fake account under the name "Lily," and posts: "What's the deal with this Sophia Choi girl? All I know is everyone hates her. Can someone fill me in?" The responses pour in. Students call her toxic, dangerous, a liar. One brings up the revenge porn. Another warns people to lock their doors now that she's out of Bayview.

Then Holly herself replies, calling Sophia "psycho," saying she drugged her, that Sophia is "dead to me" and "TOTAL TRASH." Sophia screenshots the whole thing. She looks happy. She's building a case, and Holly just handed her the ammunition.

Gabi Figures Out Who Liam Really Is

Gabi stops by the bookshop to pick up a book and spots Liam behind the counter. She calls him "Gage." Liam freezes. Gabi remembers exactly who he is: the kid who got shot because he helped with the kidnapping. Ari told Gabi the other night she didn't know anyone named Gage. She lied. Liam wasn't a "non-traditional student." He was hiding from the police.

Gabi goes full mama bear. “Stay away from my daughter,” Gabi warns, as Ari watches it all happen.

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Two days out of Bayview and Sophia Choi is already running a sting operation.

Today she walked into Bookshop, got torn apart by Ari, thrown out by Liam, and left with a book on the floor and her dignity in pieces. That's the version of the story everyone in Salem would tell. But it's not the whole story.

Because after she left, Sophia went online, created a fake account on Holly and Ari's dorm social media feed, and posted a question designed to make people say the worst things they could about her. And they did. Students called her toxic, dangerous, a liar. One brought up the revenge porn. Another warned people to lock their doors. And then Holly herself replied, calling Sophia "psycho" and "TOTAL TRASH," saying she drugged her and that Sophia is dead to her.

Sophia screenshotted the whole thread. She looked happy.

This is not the Sophia who went into Bayview. That Sophia reacted to everything emotionally. She switched Holly's pills out of jealousy and desperation. She lied about her baby's father because she had a crush on Tate. She made revenge porn because she was angry and scared about losing her child. Every move was impulsive, every consequence was something she didn't see coming.

The Sophia who came out of Bayview is different. She reads Jane Austen in the square while EJ DiMera tries to intimidate her and doesn't flinch. She takes Kristen's orders with a calm "okay" instead of panicking. And now she's building a documented case against the girl who's been publicly destroying her reputation.

Think about what she has now. A screenshot of Holly calling her "psycho" and "TOTAL TRASH" on a public feed. A screenshot of Holly saying Sophia drugged her, which Sophia has consistently denied. A thread full of students repeating unverified accusations as fact. If Sophia wanted to file a harassment or defamation claim, she's got a folder full of evidence that she provoked by doing nothing more than existing.

The trick is that she didn't do nothing. She created the fake account. She wrote the bait post. She manufactured the whole thing. But none of that shows up in the screenshots. All the screenshots show is Holly and her friends saying vicious, public things about a girl who just got out of a psychiatric hospital.

Is this sympathetic? That depends on whether you believe Sophia is defending herself or setting up her next victim. She did terrible things. Holly has every reason to be angry. But Holly also just called a recently released psychiatric patient "TOTAL TRASH" on a public feed, and Sophia has the receipts.

The show has been quietly repositioning Sophia since she got out. She's not the messy, desperate girl who went in. She's calculating. She reads books about the philosophy of fact versus fiction. She builds traps and waits for people to walk into them. Whether that makes her a survivor or a sociopath is the question the show is asking, and right now it's not giving us the answer.

What's clear is that Salem still sees the old Sophia. Ari listed her crimes. Tate told her to stay away. EJ threatened to ruin her. Everyone is treating her like the girl who went into Bayview. Nobody has noticed that the girl who came out is playing a completely different game.

Joy told Alex she grew up feeling like a kid nobody wanted except for her bone marrow. What other Salem character was conceived specifically to be a bone marrow donor for a sick sibling? (Answer at the bottom of the email.)

Chad Volunteers to Help Marlena

The new Chad (Conner Floyd) makes his first move toward Marlena, according to SoapHub's weekly update. What exactly he's helping with isn't clear yet, but the pairing is interesting. Chad has been reorienting since he got back to Salem, and Marlena is in the middle of the Basic Black fight with Xander. If Chad steps into the business vacuum that Kate's departure would create, that could change the whole equation.

Abe Pushes Theo to Decline the Executor Role

Abe urges Theo to step back from his new role as executor of Stefano's estate, per CDL's weekly preview. Abe has spent his whole life trying to keep his family away from DiMera influence. Having his son manage Stefano's will is probably his worst nightmare.

EJ Vents to Cat

EJ unloads on Cat about Kristen, the will reading, or both. Soaps.com has this on the Tuesday schedule. After Friday's physical fight with Kristen and losing the executor role, he has plenty to vent about.

Finally, Joy and Jeremy Question Each Other's Motives

Today's final scene showed Joy and Jeremy together at Small Bar after Joy visited Alex. Tomorrow they dig deeper. Primetimer has them questioning each other's real reasons for being involved. Stephanie still doesn't know Jeremy orchestrated Joy's return.

SoapHub's critics named Conner Floyd's Chad debut the #1 hit of the week across all five daytime soaps. The weekend roundtable called Floyd "the actor formerly known as Chance Chancellor" and said he's going to thrive on Days. For a recast stepping into Billy Flynn's twelve-year run, the trade-press reception out of week one couldn't be much better.

SoapHub's "Slow Burn Sunday" column drew a direct line between Sophia and Jan Spears. The piece argues Sophia's "switch flipped" once Johnny and Chanel tried to adopt her baby, and that she's now firmly in Days' iconic-villainess territory heading into the sweeps-opening attack. Soap Opera Spy ran a parallel piece asking whether Sophia is the new Jan Spears or the new Salem Stalker.

Michael Roark's (Jeremy) final week is underway. His last airdate is Wednesday, April 29. The CDL weekly preview confirms Jeremy "misreads a moment with Stephanie" before leaving Salem to visit his father in New York. Whether the door stays open for a recast is still unknown.

Later this week: Sophia leaves a suicide note, Javi collapses, and Kristen gets her revenge. CDL's weekly preview headlines "Sophia's Suicide Note, Johnny Attacked, Javi Collapses" for the week. On Friday, the Peacock promo shows Javi collapsing at the hospital in front of Sarah, Brady and Jada searching for Sophia, and Kristen "getting her revenge." Between Sophia's escalation, Chanel's mammogram, and the will reading still on the horizon, May Sweeps is hitting the ground running.

The first full week of May Sweeps looks like a turning point for half the canvas.

Lexie Awakens — and Abe Finds Out Who Knew. The signature event of sweeps, according to multiple outlets: Lexie Carver officially awakens from EJ and Dr. Rolf's Versavix-modified resurrection serum. But the bigger explosion may be what comes next. Celeb Baby Laundry's sweeps preview reports Abe is expected to react badly when he learns Paulina and Theo sat on the secret instead of telling him. Soap Opera Spy is already asking the question everyone's thinking: does Lexie's return threaten Abe and Paulina's marriage?

Stefano's Will Reading Drops a DiMera Shockwave. Theo is named executor thanks to a surprise codicil, and Abe is pushing him to walk away from it. But the will itself is the bomb. CDL's May sweeps preview and Celebrating The Soaps both frame the reading as the ignition point for a full DiMera civil war, with EJ, Kristen, Chad, and Johnny all affected. Whatever's in that document changes the balance of power in Salem.

Sophia's Attack on Johnny — and Chanel Caught in the Crossfire. Multiple outlets hint that Chanel could end up in greater peril than Johnny himself from the fallout of Sophia's sweeps-opening move. Johnny survives, but CDL's two-week breakdown suggests things could take a "truly deadly turn" for Sophia depending on whether the writers have an exit in mind for her.

Alex, Joy, and Whether Stephanie Files for Divorce. Joy's return with baby Kelsey is only the beginning. As Alex bonds with his daughter, Joy is positioned to pull him closer, and CDL reports Stephanie may grow increasingly uncertain about where her marriage stands. The question heading into sweeps: does she fight for it or walk?

Philip Learns Gabi's Secret. Philip is positioned to discover that Gabi helped sink the Titan merger, per Celebrating The Soaps' sweeps overview. They just got engaged. The timing couldn't be worse.

Chad Tests His Promise to Thomas. Chad told Thomas he'd avoid romantic entanglements when he came back to Salem. Celeb Baby Laundry flags that promise as one of the first things sweeps will test — though with whom remains unclear.

Shawn and Jada: Sparks Fly Again. After Thursday's flirting at the range, the romantic tension between Shawn and Jada continues to build into the following week per CDL's two-week spoilers.

Rex Brady. Rex and his twin sister, Cassie, were created using Kate and Roman's DNA as part of one of Stefano's experiments.

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