Happy Thursday, everyone. Today’s episode was all about family — and non-traditional ones at that. Justin told Alex how Adrienne raised four sons and never made a distinction between step, adopted, or biological. Alex and Stephanie are about to become co-parents with Joy, a woman Stephanie doesn't trust. Johnny and Chanel have an adopted son and, hopefully, a biological child on the way. Gabi raised Ari with her gay ex-husband Will and his partner Sonny, and it worked. Not a single one of these families followed the script, and every one of them is trying.

It was also a day for hard conversations. Roman told Kate he loves her but something doesn't add up. Amy Choi promised to get justice for Sophia. And Chanel waited until the final scene to tell Johnny her biopsy is tomorrow. Friday is going to be a lot.

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Roman and Kate Stop Pretending

The pub fight that's been simmering for weeks finally boils over. Kate pushes Roman on whether he trusts Marlena's gut over her word. Roman doesn't flinch. "No, I don't," he says when she asks if he knows what to believe. Kate fires back that Marlena got into his head, that Xander told her Marlena had second thoughts about working with her at Basic Black. Roman doesn't take the bait.

Roman tells Kate he loves all of her, even the parts that drive him up a wall. She doesn't take crap from anybody, she's sharp, she's fearless. But he also knows what she's capable of when someone backs her into a corner. And the fact that everything that's happened to Johnny has benefited her son's company? "Something doesn't smell right," he says. Kate deflects with a joke about the fish she was cutting earlier.

It's the most honest they've been with each other in months.

Alex and Justin Have a Great Father-Son Talk

Justin finds Alex in the Kiriakis living room. Justin wants partly to talk about the plagiarism lawsuit. EJ has been leaning on him to convince Titan to drop it, and for once, Justin agrees with EJ. Alex says he was against the suit from the start and tried to get Xander and Kate to back down. He'll take another run at it.

But that's not why Alex came to see his father. He has news: Justin is a grandfather again. Alex tells him about Kelsey, his six-month-old daughter with Joy Wesley. Justin takes one look at pictures of the baby and she immediately has his heart.

What follows is one of the best father-son conversations the show has had in a while. Justin opens up about the early days with Alex — how Anjelica kept Alex from him and Adrienne, how finding Alex changed him. "Not a day goes by that I don't thank God that I did find you," he says. He tells Alex that Adrienne became so proud of being a boy mom — one step, two adopted, one biological, didn't make any difference. They were all hers equally.

Alex says he hopes Stephanie will eventually feel the same way about Kelsey. Justin doesn't oversell it. He just says he's there. Before he leaves, he's off to tell Bonnie the news over lunch.

Stephanie Meets Kelsey

Jada stops by to check on Stephanie, and Stephanie doesn't hold back. She hates the situation with Joy and Kelsey. She hates it so much.

The problem isn't just another woman's baby in her life. It's the timing. Stephanie is dealing with PTSD from her kidnapping earlier this year, crawling out of her skin most days. She already told Alex she wasn't sure having a kid was on the table for her anymore. And now she has to figure out how to fit someone else's child into a life she's barely holding together. "How am I supposed to tell Alex that without sounding like the worst person in the world?" she asks.

Jada doesn't sugarcoat it. Don't worry about how it sounds, she says. Just say it. She also reminds Stephanie that Alex wouldn't be the man she married if he didn't step up for Kelsey right now. And she points out that Stephanie hasn't even met the baby yet — maybe Kelsey will surprise her.

Later, Stephanie runs into Joy at the pub. Joy introduces Kelsey and offers to let Stephanie say hello. Stephanie manages a quiet "Hello, Kelsey" before excusing herself.

Amy Choi isn’t Done

Amy shows up at Johnny's hospital room unannounced to apologize for what Sophia did. Johnny is gracious. He promises that all they'll ever tell Trey about his birth mother is that she loved him and did what she thought was best for him. He invites Amy to visit Trey anytime.

But Amy isn't ready to grieve. She insists Sophia is alive. "If she were gone, I'd know it," she says. "I believe in my heart that my daughter is still alive." She gives Johnny a photo of Trey that Sophia had taken with her and tells him Trey looks like Sophia. Johnny says Amy should keep the photo.

Later, Amy crosses paths with Ari in the Square. Ari tries to offer condolences, but Amy isn't having it. She reminds Ari that Sophia thought of her as a best friend — sleepovers, dinners, inseparable as kids. Then Ari turned her back when Sophia needed her most. "She was sick," Amy says. "She needed your help, not your hate. She deserved compassion."

Ari admits she didn't see how badly Sophia was hurting. Amy says none of them did, and she'll never forgive herself for that. But she'll stand up for Sophia now. "I will get justice for my daughter. So help me God."

Gabi and Ari Go to War Over Liam

It's move-out day at the dorm, and Gabi is waiting at the house when Ari arrives. Ari sees through the pretense immediately. This isn't about helping her unpack.

Gabi lays it all out: Liam's real name isn't Gage, he has court documents going back to his teens, his son's mother died of an overdose, and he's functionally illiterate. Ari pushes back at every turn. Liam didn't know the DiMeras were being held in the crypt. He was scared. He thought he was delivering food.

"A perfectly normal job in today's gig economy," Gabi says.

Ari fires back with the one weapon that actually lands: "Oh, you mean like you used to when you were married to Stefan?" Gabi calls it a low blow. Stefan was smart and charming, she says. "And a criminal," Ari answers.

Gabi issues an ultimatum: stay away from Liam, or she'll do something about it. Ari doesn't blink. "Don't test me," Gabi warns. It's the closest these two have ever come to the kind of fight Gabi used to have with Sami.

Later, Gabi gets a phone call from Philip, who says he has a surprise for her…

Joy, Chanel, and the One Person Who Gets It

Joy runs into Chanel in the Square, both women pushing strollers, and you can feel the air change. Joy says she's been meaning to let Chanel know she's back in town. Chanel's reply is ice: "Not sure why you would." She spots the baby and asks who the daddy is — the question loaded with everything she's not saying. Joy answers quickly: "She's Alex's baby, in case your mind went there. You know Johnny and I never —" Chanel cuts her off. "Yeah, I know."

What follows is a conversation where Chanel says all the right words and none of them are warm. She calls Kelsey beautiful. She says congratulations. She asks if Joy is staying in Salem. Then she's gone. Later, she tells Johnny she was probably colder to Joy than she needed to be, but with everything going on — the biopsy, the recovery, Sophia — dealing with Joy being back in town is the last thing she needs. It's an honest moment from Chanel, who knows she wasn't fair but doesn't have the bandwidth to care right now.

Joy later tells Kate the whole town is treating her like a pariah.

Kate is the exception. She greets Joy warmly at the pub, gushes over Kelsey, and overhears Joy's conversation with Alex about Stephanie struggling. Kate offers Joy and Kelsey her old room above the pub. "You're a survivor, like me," Kate tells her. "Life kicks us around and we do what we have to do to protect ourselves and our children. And if people don't get that, then they haven't lived the lives we've lived."

Meanwhile, Gabi finds Alex at the mansion and they bond over complicated co-parenting. Gabi tells him it can't be about Joy or him or how Stephanie feels — it's all about the baby now. She speaks from experience: she made things work with Will and Sonny despite everything, and she doesn't want to miss time with Ari the way she did when she was in prison.

The episode closes on Johnny and Chanel. He's ready to leave, eager to get home to Trey. Chanel stops him. Her biopsy is scheduled for tomorrow. The camera holds on them as the weight settles.

My Take

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Justin Kiriakis has been Alex's father since 1989. That has never changed. What changed was whether anyone believed it.

Alex was born from an affair between Justin and Anjelica Deveraux while Justin's marriage to Adrienne was strained. The paternity was contested from the start — Victor tried to marry Anjelica to claim the baby as a Kiriakis heir, and Anjelica eventually married Neil Curtis, who planned to adopt Alex. But Justin was the biological father, and once that was established, Adrienne chose to raise Alex as one of her own. When Justin's family moved to Dubai in 1991, Alex went with them. He grew up a Kiriakis in every sense.

For decades, that was the whole story. Then in 2022, Alex returned to Salem as an adult, and everything got complicated.

A letter found in Victor's briefcase after his death appeared to name "Alexander Kiriakis" as Victor's biological son. Alex believed it. So did most of Salem. He stepped into Victor's world — took over at Titan, inherited the fortune, started behaving like a man who suddenly had a different father and a different destiny. Justin watched his son slip away, not to another family, but to a lie.

Because the letter was a fraud. Theresa Donovan and Konstantin Meleounis had forged it. The original letter actually referred to Xander — whose birth name is also Alexander Kiriakis — as Victor's son with Fiona Cook. Theresa and Konstantin only had to swap one name on the letter to pull off the scam, and they did it to get their hands on Victor's money through Alex.

The truth came out in July 2024, at Alex and Theresa's wedding, when Xander's mother Fiona arrived and exposed the forgery. Alex's world collapsed. The inheritance, the identity, the version of himself he'd built around being Victor's heir — all of it was gone.

Except for Justin.

At the Brady Pub a few days later, Alex approached his father to apologize. Justin blamed only Theresa. Alex said he was sorry for the arrogance, for the way he'd acted. Justin forgave him and asked for the same. They embraced. By Thanksgiving that year, Justin was telling Alex he was happy he was his son, and they were saying "I love you" like two people who meant it.

That's what makes today's scene land. When Justin tells Alex about Adrienne — how she called herself a boy mom, how she counted all four sons as equally hers regardless of how they came into the family — he isn't just sharing a memory. He's handing Alex a blueprint.

Alex is about to face his own version of the question Justin answered decades ago: what does it mean to be a parent when the circumstances are messy? He has a six-month-old daughter he didn't know about. His wife is struggling with PTSD and isn't sure she can handle a baby in her life. The co-parent is a woman his wife doesn't trust. None of the conditions are ideal. None of them ever are.

Justin's answer has always been the same. You show up. You stay. You don't let the mess around the relationship become the relationship. Adrienne showed him that. Now he's showing Alex.

"If there's anything you need, I'm here for you," Justin says before he leaves. It's the simplest thing a father can offer. It's also the thing that matters most.

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Justin once told Alex that Adrienne called herself a "boy mom" and meant it for all four sons equally. How many of Adrienne and Justin's sons were biological, and how many were adopted or stepchildren?

Friday's episode is the one the whole week has been building toward.

Of Adrienne and Justin's four sons, one was biological (Sonny/Jackson), two were adopted, and one was a stepson (Alex, from Justin's affair with Anjelica Deveraux, whom Adrienne raised as her own). Justin's point was that Adrienne never made distinctions — they were all hers equally.

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