Happy Memorial Day! A gun pulled from the river just blew the Sophia investigation wide open. Gwen Rizczech finally said out loud what she's been hiding from herself for years. And J.J. Deveraux walked away from his badge for good — this time on his own terms. Plus the coldest Memorial Day goodbye in Salem history. Let's get into it.

Forwarded to you? I write The Salem Dispatch on weekdays for other fans of Days of Our Lives: full recap of yesterday's episode, tomorrow's spoilers, and what other fans are saying.

Amy is Still Searching for Answers

The show opens with Amy Choi at the Brady Pub. Jada arrives with news Amy doesn't want to hear: the search and recovery operation for Sophia has been called off. The team determined that there's almost no chance of recovering her remains.

Amy refuses to accept it. She demands they keep looking. Jada promises the investigation is ongoing, and then delivers the rest of the news. When divers dragged the river, they recovered a gun. FBI forensics confirmed Sophia's fingerprints on it, along with Johnny's blood. The serial number was filed off. An untraceable weapon in the hands of a teenager doesn't add up.

Later, Amy approaches Philip at the pub. She's been researching what it takes to survive a fall into the Salem River and came across his name. She asks him to tell her everything he did to stay alive. Philip tells her the truth: he can't, because he never fell. He staged his own murder during a mental health crisis and threw his prosthetic leg into the water. It's a brutally honest admission to a mother desperate for hope, and he can't give her the answer she's looking for.

Jennifer Tries to Move On

Jack comes home with news Jennifer wasn't expecting: he visited Gwen. He wants to try again. Chad told him that Gwen felt like there was only room for one daughter in Jack's life, and the words landed hard enough to bring Jack to her door. Jennifer doesn't fight it — of course he should have a relationship with his daughter.

But something else comes through. Jennifer is envious. She misses Abigail. She saw a mother and daughter buying a prom dress at a department store and had to leave the building. She would give anything to have that — a daughter to laugh with, to hold onto, to watch grow up.

Then she says something beautiful. She compares her anger over Abigail's death to a candle she's been keeping lit all these years. She's terrified that letting the flame go out means starting to forget. Jack tells her they will never forget, and you can see something release in Jennifer's face. She decides to let the grudges go — starting with Gwen. It's one of those quiet scenes this show does so well when it remembers to slow down.

Gabi & Gwen Commiserate

Gwen and Gabi have a drink at Small Bar. Gabi announces that Philip dumped her — it's over, for real this time. She won't say exactly what she did, just that she betrayed him in a way he'll never come back from. "I take every chance I get to self-destruct," she says. Gwen raises her glass. Same.

Then Gwen opens up. She made a casual arrangement with Xander. Told herself she could keep it physical. She couldn't. Her feelings came back anyway, and Xander still loves Sarah — Gwen is just someone to pass the time with. She tries to brush it off with a joke, and then the mask drops entirely. She's wanted to matter to someone her whole life. Since her mother died, she told herself she didn't need love. "No matter how much I tell myself I don't need love, I bloody do," she says. It lands like a gut punch.

Gabi's advice on the way out: be completely honest with whoever comes next. Don't make my mistake.

Xander Moves In and Sarah Heads Out.

Xander has moved back into the Kiriakis mansion, and he's already settled in before Sarah even knows about it. Classic Xander: ask forgiveness, never permission. Sarah is not amused. She calls it a farce to think they can live under the same roof, and Xander fires back with the Victoria card: wouldn't it be better for their daughter to have both parents in one home?

Sarah accuses him of making things awkward. Xander accuses her of being afraid of something other than fighting. It's one of those lines that lands too close to the truth, and Sarah doesn't exactly deny it. Brady arrives, reads the room in about three seconds, and offers Sarah his place. She takes it. As she and Brady walk out together, Xander watches them go. That look on his face says everything he won't.

J.J. Puts Down the Gun for Good

J.J. comes home to the Horton house and finds his parents. There's a moment where Jack and Jennifer exchange a look before they ask how he's doing — the kind of look parents give each other when they're still scared. "When your child nearly takes his own life, even though it was almost a decade ago, the fear that it could happen again never goes away," Jack says.

J.J. puts them at ease. He's been thinking about why he rejoined the police force, and he figured it out: it wasn't because he wanted to be a cop. It was because he wanted to do good. He still does — just not with a gun. He got recertified as an EMT and applied to rejoin the Salem Fire Department. The pride on Jack and Jennifer's faces is immediate, and you can feel the relief fill the room.

Meanwhile, Shawn tells Jada that his breakfast with J.J. went well. J.J. is still carrying weight from the shooting, but Shawn made sure he heard it directly: he doesn't blame J.J. for anything. He thinks J.J. is turning the corner.

Philip Gets the Last Word

The episode closes at the pub. Philip, in Marine dress blues after a day at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, runs into Gabi on his way out. He looks her in the eye and delivers one line: "Semper fi means always faithful, always loyal. Those don't apply to you."

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J.J. Deveraux told his parents today that he's joining the Salem Fire Department. It was a lovely scene — Jack and Jennifer exchanging worried looks, J.J. assuring them he's in a better place, everyone visibly relieved. It lasted about three minutes. Then the show moved on to Philip in dress blues and Gwen crying at Small Bar.

That's the Casey Moss experience in a nutshell. He shows up, delivers something real, and the camera moves to someone else.

I've been watching Moss play J.J. on and off for thirteen years, and he’s been through a lot. Drug abuse as a teenager. Murder grief — Paige Larson, the first girl he ever loved, killed by the Necktie Killer in 2015. He shot Theo Carver, his friend, an unarmed Black man, in the town square in 2017. He attempted suicide that same year, played with the kind of raw vulnerability that doesn't feel like acting. PTSD. A crisis of professional identity when he froze during a shootout in March and Shawn took the bullet because of it.

That's a résumé most actors on this show would kill for. And yet every single one of those stories belonged to someone else.

The Theo shooting was really Theo and Abe's story — J.J. pulled the trigger, but the show was interested in the Carver family's pain, not J.J.'s guilt. The shootout was really Shawn's story — J.J. froze, Shawn got hurt, and the fallout centered on Shawn's recovery and Jada's reaction. Even the suicide attempt, which should have been the most personal story J.J. could have, played out largely through Jack and Jennifer's fear rather than J.J.'s internal experience. Moss did the work every single time. The show used it as fuel for other characters' arcs.

Today was the same pattern. J.J. announces he's leaving law enforcement for good. He's recertified as an EMT and applied to the fire department. It's a full-circle moment for a character defined by the consequences of pulling a trigger, the inability to pull one, and the question of what kind of man he can be without a gun. That's a beautiful arc. And the show gave it about three minutes of screen time in an episode dominated by Sophia's fingerprints, Gwen's love confession, and Philip's cold-blooded goodbye.

I don't blame the writers for how they divided today's episode. But the pattern is the problem. J.J. has never had a sustained front-burner story that was actually about him. He's always the catalyst, never the center. He shoots someone, and we watch the other person's family deal with it. He spirals, and we watch his parents worry. He quits, and we get a nice scene.

The fire department could change that. A first responder storyline puts J.J. in the middle of action every week — emergencies, rescues, moral dilemmas that don't involve a weapon. It could give Moss the sustained screen time he's earned and the kind of story that lets a character evolve over months instead of minutes. Days has done this before. Steve Johnson was a bad boy who became a spy who became a husband who became a father. That transformation happened because the writers committed to keeping him at the center of the story for years.

Or the fire department could be another sidebar. Two scenes a week. J.J. in a new uniform, saying something noble, going home. We've seen that version too.

Casey Moss has been showing up for this show for over a decade. He's played some of the hardest material in the current cast's history, and he's delivered every time. At some point, the writers need to decide: is J.J. Deveraux a character, or is he a device they wheel out when someone else's story needs a push? Because right now, the fire department pivot could go either way. And after thirteen years, Moss has earned the answer being the first one.

Philip revealed today that he once staged his own murder and let someone else take the fall. Who did Philip frame for his "death"?

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Jennifer Extends a Hand to the Enemy

Jennifer just lit that candle monologue on fire and she's not done. CDL's week preview and SoapHub report that Tuesday brings her face-to-face with Cat Greene — the woman who's been lying to everyone in Salem since the day she arrived — and Jennifer proposes a truce. Bold move from someone who just decided to stop keeping grudges. Even bolder when the person across from you is hiding an ISA cover identity. Whether Cat wants peace or just needs Jennifer to stop looking too closely is the real question.

EJ Drops the Hammer on Johnny

The DiMera boardroom games are about to get personal. CDL reports EJ sits Johnny down Tuesday and tells him Tony is coming for his job at DiMera Enterprises. Tony's been circling for weeks, and the show has treated Johnny as CEO in name only for just as long. But this is EJ — he doesn't warn people out of kindness. He warns them when he needs an ally. Johnny's about to find out whether his father is protecting him or positioning him as a human shield.

Chanel Gets the Call Nobody Wants

Sarah phones Chanel with her biopsy results and refuses to share them over the phone — she wants Chanel and Johnny to come to the hospital. That's never good news. Soap Central's video preview flags this as one of the week's most devastating moments. When your doctor won't tell you over the phone, you already know.

Xander and Sarah Stop Pretending

After today's blowup over Xander moving into the Kiriakis mansion uninvited, SoapHub reports the two of them finally drop the act and acknowledge what's actually happening between them. Sarah left with Brady tonight, but Xander's parting shot — that she's afraid of "something else" — is going to hang in the air until one of them is brave enough to name it.

Alex and Joy Keep Playing House

With Stephanie in China for Tripp and Wendy's wedding, Alex and Joy are spending more time together than either of them probably planned. CDL's two-week preview says this quiet domesticity is the slow fuse that detonates when Stephanie walks through the door next week. Alex, Joy, and baby Kelsey are starting to look like a family. Nobody's asking whether that's real or just two lonely people filling a gap — and that's exactly the problem.

Salem Buries Sophia — and the Drama Is Just Getting Started

Sophia Choi's funeral takes place this week, and it's shaping up to be anything but peaceful. CDL's week preview reports that Sarah urges Holly to attend — a move that could either show respect or pour gasoline on an already raging fire. Amy Choi is burying her daughter. Holly is the reason. Putting them in the same room is either an act of grace or a match near dynamite, depending on which side of the casket you're standing on.

Amy Pushes to Have Holly Charged with Manslaughter

This is the storyline to watch. After today's gun discovery and the end of the river search, Amy isn't waiting for the system to catch up to her grief. CDL reports she pushes hard to have Holly prosecuted for manslaughter this week — and after what we learned today about Sophia's fingerprints on an untraceable weapon and Johnny's blood at the scene, she's got ammunition she didn't have before. Holly's about to go from mourning her friend to fighting for her freedom.

Gabi's World Comes Apart at the Seams

Philip's "Semper fi" goodbye wasn't the end of Gabi's bad week — it was the opening act. CDL's spoilers say Gabi tries to repair things with Philip (good luck with that) and has to move out of the Kiriakis mansion on top of it. Then the real blow lands: Ari discovers what Gabi actually did — the bribe to Liam — and the fallout is explosive. Losing a boyfriend is one thing. Watching your teenage daughter lose respect for you is something else entirely.

Sarah Stumbles onto Xander and Kristen's Secret

Sarah's about to learn something she really doesn't want to know. CDL reports she may discover the truth about Xander and Kristen's bedroom arrangement this week — all while Kristen is still actively trying to convince Xander to kill EJ. That's a lot of secrets crammed under one roof, and after today's "something else" conversation, Sarah's going to have very strong opinions about what she finds.

The Chess Set, the Pawn, and John Black's Shadow

Brady and Belle find Stefano's old chess set among Marlena's things and notice a piece is missing: a pawn. For any other family, that's a lost game piece. For the Blacks, it's a loaded word — John spent years as Stefano's "Pawn," programmed and controlled, his identity erased and rebuilt. Soap Central's video preview teases this mystery building to a payoff Friday — the one-year anniversary of John's death. Marlena is already bracing for the day. A missing piece from Stefano's chess set is never just a missing piece.

Chanel's Diagnosis Lands

The biopsy results come in this week, and the news is what everyone feared: breast cancer. CDL's spoilers say Lani is distraught, turning to Eli for support as she processes what's happening to her twin sister. Theo steps up to console Paulina. The Price-Grant family is about to face something that doesn't have a villain to blame or a scheme to unravel — just a diagnosis and the fear that comes with it.

Cat's Cover Gets Shakier by the Day

EJ is pushing forward with the Marlena hypnosis plan, and Cat Greene is running out of room to maneuver. If the session goes deep enough, it could blow Cat's ISA cover wide open — which puts Jennifer's truce offer on Tuesday in a whole new light. CDL's week preview suggests Cat is scrambling to stay ahead of the exposure. She's never needed friends more, and she's never been worse at making them.

Amy's Grief Turns Dangerous

The manslaughter push wasn't enough. If the prosecution against Holly doesn't stick this week, CDL reports Amy may take justice into her own hands. She buried her daughter. She watched the river search get called off. She found out Sophia had an untraceable gun. And now the courts might let Holly walk? A grieving mother with nothing left to lose and a case file full of unanswered questions is the most dangerous person in Salem right now.

Stephanie Comes Home to Her Worst Fear

Stephanie returns from China and walks straight into the scene she's been dreading: Alex and Joy looking like a picture-perfect family with baby Kelsey. CDL's two-week roundup says Stephanie suddenly feels like the outsider in her own relationship. She told Alex to skip the wedding and stay home with his daughter. She got exactly what she asked for — and then some.

Gwen Walks Into the Worst Possible Room

This is the collision Gwen's storyline has been building toward all week. She told Gabi she wanted to matter to someone. She admitted her feelings for Xander came back despite every wall she built. And now CDL reports she may walk in on Xander and Kristen together. After that gut-punch confession at Small Bar, the timing couldn't be more devastating.

Lexie Makes Her Move on Abe

With Paulina out of the penthouse and Abe adrift, Lexie tries to step back into the space she left fifteen years ago. But CDL's preview hints Abe may still have feelings for Paulina buried deeper than he's willing to admit. Picking up where you left off after a decade and a half in a pod isn't as simple as showing up. Lexie wants the Abe she remembers. The question is whether that man still exists — or whether she can love the one who does.

Friday's poll results:

On Friday, I asked you all whether the flashback episode did Mary Beth Evans' 40th anniversary justice. The results were clear: the strong majority felt the effort was there, but the flashback choices didn't showcase her best moments. Only a small fraction called it a beautiful tribute, and nobody said she flat-out deserved better.

I'm with the majority here. I loved seeing Steve and Kayla get a full episode, and the love between them is undeniable. But the flashback selection felt random. Mary Beth Evans has given this show forty years of extraordinary work, and the episode could have done a better job letting her greatest moments speak for themselves.

Today's Poll:

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

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Brady Black. In late 2021, Philip was spiraling from jealousy over Chloe Lane and convinced himself that Brady was trying to steal her. He staged his own death at the riverbank, planted his blood on Brady, and threw his prosthetic leg into the water as fake evidence. Brady was arrested and nearly convicted. Philip's parents, Victor and Kate, helped hide him at a psychiatric facility, where he got the help he needed. He didn't resurface in Salem until 2023, when he finally confessed everything to Brady's face. Brady punched him.