Chanel walked out on her oncologist today, and I don't blame her. Dr. George told a pregnant woman with cancer to calm down and get off the internet after she cited the mortality statistics for Black women. Meanwhile, Marlena told Xander to drop the plagiarism lawsuit or find a new therapist, Alex introduced Justin to his new granddaughter, and a young woman named Destiny collapsed in the Square with no pulse. Let's get into it.

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Chanel Takes On Her Doctor

Johnny and Chanel run into Marlena at the hospital. Johnny tells her about the cancer. Marlena offers babysitting, a shoulder, anything they need. Then they head in to meet Dr. George, the oncologist from Chicago, and it goes sideways fast.

Dr. George opens by greeting Chanel as "HER2 positive and hormone positive." Chanel stops him cold: "I'm not HER2 anything. I'm the owner of a business. I'm Johnny's wife. I'm Trey's mom. I am a person, not a disease." He outlines a plan — surgery first, then chemo that stops a few weeks before the due date, followed by Herceptin and hormone therapy after delivery. He calls it "pretty straightforward."

Chanel doesn't think it's straightforward at all. She wants to know about the effects of anesthesia on the baby. She wants long-term studies. She brings up the numbers: Black women have a 38% higher breast cancer mortality rate than white women, and the maternal mortality rate is two to three times higher. She asks how many pregnant patients he's treated. "A handful," he says. She presses: breast cancer during pregnancy isn't as rare as he thinks, and the numbers are growing.

Dr. George tells Chanel to get off the internet and calm down, because "this level of stress isn't doing you or your unborn baby any good." Chanel walks out. She tells Sarah in the hallway that she refuses to be pressured into treatment by "some egomaniacal jerk who cares more about his success rates than he does about me or my baby."

Marlena Draws a Line with Xander

Xander shows up at Marlena's office expecting a therapy check-in. Instead, Marlena has an ultimatum: drop the plagiarism lawsuit against Johnny and DiMera Publishing, or find a new therapist.

She frames it as breaking his cycle — he's been working through his regrets, owning what he can't undo, but the lawsuit is something he can fix right now. Xander pushes back. He says it sounds like extortion. Marlena says any therapist worth their salt would tell him the same thing. Xander argues that if Kate does the right thing and admits her role, Roman would never forgive her. Marlena's response: "Not my concern."

Xander doesn't agree, but he doesn't walk out either. He tells her she's given him a lot to think about.

Sarah Sees a New Patient

Sarah sees a new patient at the free clinic — a young woman named Destiny, who's been sick for days. Headache, dizziness, nausea. She came because the clinic is free. Sarah runs tests: no fever, negative for flu and strep. She diagnoses a stomach bug and prescribes an antiemetic.

But something's off. Destiny mentions she was taking prescription painkillers from a bottle in the back of a cabinet. She doesn't know what kind. She threw the bottle away when she finished the pills.

Destiny gets frustrated that Sarah can't do more and storms out.

Later, Sarah runs into Destiny in the Square, clearly in a lot of pain. She collapses in Xander’s arms. Sarah finds her without a pulse and calls for an EMT.

Alex Steps Into Fatherhood

Alex brings Kelsey to the Kiriakis mansion to meet Justin. Justin is immediately smitten. Alex is honest about how hard it's been — he's nervous and inexperienced and the baby screamed through most of her visit. Justin tells him it's messy, nonstop, and the best thing in the world. Alex says Kelsey already has his heart.

Later, Bonnie arrives and the conversation turns to the plagiarism lawsuit. Her book "One Rainy Afternoon" crossed the line, and she takes full responsibility. Justin says he's tried to broker a deal but Xander won't budge. Bonnie asks if he can try harder. Justin's gut says the only way this ends is if someone pulls off the impossible and makes Xander settle.

Joy Opens Up to Kate

Joy is anxious. She left Kelsey alone with Alex for the first time and both of them were wrecks. She confides in Kate about Stephanie — she doesn't think Stephanie will ever feel maternal toward Kelsey. "She wishes my kid didn't exist."

Kate gives her perspective. She had a baby with a married man and kept it secret to protect the family. When the truth came out, nobody embraced her. Joy points out that at least Stephanie and Alex weren't together when she got pregnant. Kate tells her to give Stephanie time.

Later, when Alex arrives with Kelsey, Joy offers to host future visits at her place or the park — anything to make it easier. Alex says he needs to talk to Stephanie first. Joy watches him leave with a look that reveals she does have feelings for him.

Roman Apologizes to Kate

Roman pulls Kate aside and says he owes her an apology. He should have trusted her. If she says she didn't set up Johnny, he believes her, and he'll fight anyone who says different. Kate accepts.

My Take

Marlena told Xander today that he has two options: drop the plagiarism lawsuit against Johnny, or find himself a new therapist. She framed it as a clinical breakthrough — a chance to break his cycle of abusing power and then beating himself up for it. Xander framed it differently. "That sounds rather a lot like extortion."

They're both right, and that's what makes Marlena such an interesting character to watch.

Marlena has been pushing Xander on this for weeks. Back in April, she asked him point-blank in a session whether he set Johnny up to publish a plagiarized manuscript. Xander called it manipulative. She didn't back down then, and she didn't back down today. The difference is that today she added teeth: do this or I'm done with you.

Here's the thing about Marlena. She's Salem's therapist. She treats Xander, Leo, Stephanie — half the town walks through her office door. She knows their secrets, their fears, the progress they've made. She also happens to be John Black's widow, Brady's stepmother, and Johnny's grandmother. These roles don't live in separate rooms. They never have.

Any real-world ethics board would have flagged this years ago. A therapist issuing an ultimatum to a patient about a lawsuit involving her own grandson isn't a gray area — it's a conflict of interest bright enough to see from space. Marlena knows this. When Xander pointed out that she can't disclose what he's told her in session, she agreed immediately. "That wouldn't be ethical." But she found another way to use the leverage the therapeutic relationship gives her: the threat of abandonment. Xander has made progress. He doesn't want to start over, retelling his life story to a stranger. Marlena knows that, and she used it.

This isn't new for Marlena. She has spent decades as Salem's moral compass, but the needle has always wobbled when her family was involved. She helped John through identity crises when she was both his doctor and his wife. She treated Brady during periods when their family dynamics were central to his problems. She sat across from EJ Dimera in therapy sessions while her own granddaughter's custody case was at stake. Every time, Marlena believed she was the right person for the job because she understood the full picture better than anyone else could. And every time, that belief made it harder to see where the doctor ended and the grandmother began.

What makes today's scene work is that Marlena isn't wrong about Xander. He does need to break the cycle. He has been expressing regret about past behavior he can't undo, and here's a piece of current behavior he can fix. The therapeutic logic is sound. But the motivation isn't purely clinical. Johnny has a wife with cancer and a newborn at home. He doesn't need a lawsuit on top of that. Marlena said as much: "Johnny has enough on his plate."

That's the grandmother talking, not the therapist. And Marlena doesn't seem to care about the distinction.

Xander raised a good point before he left. If Kate admits her role in setting up the plagiarized publication, Roman would never forgive her. Marlena's response was cold: "Not my concern." That's striking from a woman who has built her career on concern for other people's emotional well-being. It suggests that when Marlena decides who she's protecting, everyone else falls outside the circle.

The show has been smart this week about characters whose professional and personal lives can't be untangled. Yesterday it was Cat, the spy whose real emotions are her cover story. Today it's Marlena, the therapist whose clinical advice happens to serve her family. In both cases, the question isn't whether they're acting in good faith. It's whether good faith is enough to justify using the tools of one role to get the outcomes you want in another.

Xander said he'd think about it. That means Marlena's leverage worked — at least for now. Whether it was therapy or extortion probably depends on which side of her office door you're standing on.

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Kate told Joy today about keeping a baby secret to protect a family. Kate has had children with multiple men in Salem. How many biological children does Kate Roberts have?

(Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

I asked whether Lexie's demand that Abe go no-contact with Paulina was fair. The answer was emphatic: not a single reader voted yes. The overwhelming majority said asking Abe to cut off all contact is controlling, not loving. 17% said it is "too soon to say," giving Lexie the benefit of a 14-year adjustment period. Everyone else drew a harder line.

One reader comment stood out: "He's completely negating the life and love he and Paulina built together. It's going to be sad when Lexie dies again although I'll feel awful for Theo." That last sentence is doing a lot of work. Readers aren't just judging Lexie's behavior. They're bracing for where this story is going.

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Kate has six biological children: Austin (with Curtis Reed), Billie (with Curtis Reed), Lucas (with Bill Horton), Philip (with Victor Kiriakis), and twins Rex and Cassie (with Roman Brady). For a woman who told Joy today that she kept a baby secret to protect a family, Kate has had plenty of practice.

Want more trivia? Try my new Resurrections Trivia Quiz

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That's all for today. See you tomorrow.