Happy Monday, Salem. Kristen asked Xander to kill EJ and he said absolutely not. Then they had kinky sex. Meanwhile, Gwen broke down to Leo over coffee, Stephanie told Alex she's not ready to be a stepmom, and Paulina is thinking about stepping aside so Abe and Lexie can have their life back. It was one of those episodes where every storyline moved forward, and a couple of them moved fast. I’ve also got tons of spoilers for tomorrow, this week, and the two weeks ahead. Let's get into it.

Forwarded to you? I write The Salem Dispatch every weekday for other fans of Days of Our Lives: full recap of yesterday's episode, tomorrow's spoilers, and the stories behind the stories.

Kristen and Xander: From “No” to “Oh Yeah”

Picking up from Friday's cliffhanger, Xander tells Kristen he's not going to kill EJ in her room at the Salem Inn. He's been in therapy with Marlena for months, working on his anger, and he's not about to throw that away. Kristen tries the money angle — she has millions from her Stefano inheritance, plus the argument that Titan is in trouble and this solves both their problems. Xander doesn't budge.

Kristen gives up and says she's sorry for wasting his time. But Xander doesn't leave. He reminds her he showed up expecting an afternoon delight, and asks if the offer still stands. Kristen is surprised but interested, and what follows is the most aggressive hookup the show has done in a while. She takes off his shirt, ties his hands with his belt, and they have what was apparently rough sex. Afterward, Xander undoes his restraints and slips out.

Xander heads to the hospital with a dislocated elbow he says came from losing his grip on the pull-up bar at the gym. Sarah, who's working a double after a colleague got the stomach flu, isn't buying it but pops the elbow back into place and seems to enjoy it a little more than necessary. "There. All done." Xander: "You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Sarah: "What gave it away?"

Back at the Salem Inn Inn, Gwen and Leo spot Kristen walking out of her room looking, as Leo puts it, like she just auditioned for an 80s hair band. Leo can't resist: "I'm no expert, but judging by the 'I just burned a thousand calories and did absolutely zero cardio' look on your face..." Gwen says nothing, but she clocks it. Kristen insists she was in a business meeting. Gwen, with perfect deadpan, tells Kristen that if her being with Xander was any inspiration, she'd take that as a badge of honor. If Gwen only knew.

Brady and Sarah

Brady shows up at the hospital with Victoria in tow, having met the nanny at the park. He brought Victoria to Sarah since Sarah couldn't leave work. He even convinced one of the nurses to keep it a secret. Sarah melts. Brady mentions he's heading to the gun range to work on his PI license, and Sarah tells him she's worried. "It's a dangerous job." Brady brushes it off, but Sarah isn't letting it go: "You'd better be fine. I need you to be." They make plans for dinner this weekend and a 30 Rock binge, and Brady heads out.

Stephanie Tells Alex the Truth

Alex and Stephanie finally have the conversation they've been avoiding. Stephanie says she's not ready to be a stepmother. Alex pushes back: Kelsey exists whether or not they were ready for her. Then Stephanie drops the real issue. Joy told her that Alex asked Joy to stay in Salem, but Alex told Stephanie it was Joy's decision. The trust crack is now out in the open. Stephanie says what she's feeling doesn't seem to matter, and Alex insists it does, but neither of them can land the conversation. Stephanie leaves for the gun range. Alex watches her go.

Brady and Stephanie at the Gun Range

Brady and Stephanie run into each other at the shooting range. Stephanie is clearly off, and Brady picks up on it. She unloads about the baby situation, admitting she wasn't even sure she wanted children, and now a baby has been thrust into her life. "How am I supposed to warm up to her when all I see is that she is just this reminder that Alex slept with someone else?" She catches herself: "God, listen to me, I sound like a heartless bitch." Brady tells her she doesn't, and offers some perspective. Babies tend to work their way into your heart, he says, and Kelsey is Alex's too, even if she's also Joy's. Stephanie knows he's right. "I love Alex so much. And I hope that someday I can find a way to love his daughter, too."

Joy and Lani Bond at the Park

Joy has Kelsey at the park when Lani arrives with Jules and Carver. They don't know each other, but Lani recognizes Joy from Body & Soul and introduces herself. Joy opens up about giving Alex a chance to know his daughter, and Lani gets it. She defends Joy against whatever Chanel might have said about her, pointing out Joy didn't know Johnny was married when they almost hooked up. Joy appreciates it and says she'll give Chanel space.

Later, Alex shows up with a stuffed elephant named Horton, after the Dr. Seuss book he loved as a kid. Joy mentions she hasn't given Kelsey a middle name yet, but she's thinking Adrienne, after Alex’s late mother. Alex picks up his daughter for what feels like the first time he's really held her.

Paulina Considers Stepping Aside

Chanel is at Paulina and Abe's place, working on the fall menu for Sweet Bits while Trey naps. Paulina checks in, and assures Chanel that she and Johnny and the kids aren't a burden. Paulina isn't worried about houseguests. She's worried about her marriage. With Lexie alive, Paulina isn't sure she's still Abe's wife — maybe not legally, maybe not in God's eyes. She says she'd rather step aside on her own terms than sit around waiting for the inevitable. Chanel pushes back hard: don't make any decisions until you talk to Abe.

Lani arrives, and privately Chanel admits to her sister that she's still waiting on biopsy results and hasn't told Paulina. Lani says Mama would want to know no matter what. Chanel isn't ready. “Maybe I'm due for a miracle.”

Gwen Tells Leo Everything

Gwen and Leo sit down for coffee in the Square and Gwen falls apart. She tells him about Xander, about how she thought she could keep it casual but her heart got in the way. She's tired of not coming first for anyone. Then she tells Leo about EJ renegotiating their deal, cutting her share, and using the law to back her into a corner. Leo listens without making it about a story, proving that their old friendship is still important to him. Gwen says she believes he's being sincere, and asks if there's any friend he's liked more than her. Leo says Joni Lombardo in eighth grade. Gwen starts crying again. "I am so bloody tired of not coming first. For anyone."

My Take

Gwen Rizczech has been losing to someone for as long as Salem has known her.

She arrived in 2020 as Jack Deveraux's secret daughter, raised in England by a mother who told her Jack didn't want her. That wasn't true — Laura Horton had intercepted the connection, paid off Gwen's mother, and kept Jack in the dark — but by the time Gwen found out, the damage was done. She showed up in Salem and discovered Jack had built an entire life with Jennifer and Abigail, a family that didn't know she existed. She wasn't the other daughter. She was the one who'd been edited out.

Her response was to burn it all down. She drugged Abigail, wrecked Jack and Jennifer's anniversary, and spent months scheming to dismantle the family she felt had stolen her father. It was ugly, and it cost her. But when the anger cooled and Jack finally offered her a real relationship, Gwen softened. She called him “Dad” for the first time in November 2021. It was one of the few moments in her run where she got what she actually wanted, and it didn't last. Jack kept forgiving her, but every time something went wrong, Gwen ended up on the outside looking in while Abigail stayed at the center of Jack's world.

Then came Xander. They found each other in 2021, two people with terrible reputations who understood each other's worst impulses. Xander told her he'd only ever truly loved Sarah, and she accepted it because she wanted him anyway. But Sarah was never gone. Kristen had used a mask to impersonate Sarah and drive her out of Salem, and when the truth started surfacing, Gwen panicked. She wore the mask herself to keep Xander from looking. She spent months having nightmares about Xander leaving her for Sarah, and when Rolf produced an antidote that could restore Sarah's mind, Gwen switched it for a serum that would keep Sarah confused. She chose sabotage over risking second place.

It came out at the wedding. April 2022, a double ceremony with Leo and Craig in Horton Square. Abigail exposed what Gwen had done to Sarah, and Xander rejected Gwen at the altar. Rafe arrested her on the spot. It was the most public humiliation of her life, and the worst part wasn't the arrest. It was that Xander walked away without looking back, because Sarah was always going to be first.

After that, Dimitri. Megan Dimera’s son needed to marry someone to secure his Von Leuschner inheritance, and Gwen was available. It looked like a fresh start. Gwen actually fell for him. But Dimitri was sleeping with Leo behind her back the entire time, and Leo — her oldest, closest friend — knew and said nothing. When it came out, Gwen had lost the boyfriend and the best friend in one revelation. She wasn't even second. She was third.

Now it's 2026, and the pattern keeps repeating. She came back to Salem tied to EJ's secret resurrection project, funding it with Dimitri's money, taking all the legal risk. EJ repaid her by renegotiating their deal and cutting her share. When she pushed back, he reminded her she had no legal recourse because he's her attorney. She moved in with the promise of a partnership and got evicted so Kristen could have her room.

And Xander. They fell back into a physical arrangement after EJ kicked her out — no strings, no expectations. Gwen told herself she could handle it. Today, she told Leo she couldn't. She asked Xander if he still loves Sarah, and his silence said everything. He left to answer a text from Kristen, and later Gwen spotted them both at the Salem Inn, the evidence all over Kristen's hair.

“I am so bloody tired of not coming first. For anyone.” That's the line she gave Leo over coffee today, and it's the most honest thing she's said since she came to Salem. Leo's response was to name his eighth-grade best friend Joni Lombardo. Even in a moment of genuine vulnerability, Gwen couldn't get a straight answer.

The question now is whether Leo is actually the exception. He showed up today not as a reporter chasing a scoop but as a friend who missed her. He listened without deflecting. He didn't try to fix it or spin it into a column. For Gwen, that might be the rarest thing anyone in Salem has offered her — presence without an agenda. Whether it's enough to break the pattern is a different question, but today at least, someone showed up.

Today's episode featured Joy telling Alex she's thinking of giving Kelsey the middle name Adrienne, after Alex's late mother. Adrienne Kiriakis was a beloved figure in the Kiriakis family — and her death was one of the most dramatic storylines of the 2019 time jump. How did Adrienne die?

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Tuesday is all about the Carver family, and it's going to be heavy.

Lexie demands a face-to-face with Paulina. This is the collision that's been building since the will reading. Lexie is awake, she knows Abe remarried, and now she wants to look the woman who replaced her in the eye. Paulina told Abe last week to go back to his first wife — but saying it to Abe and saying it to Lexie are two very different things. Expect tears, tension, and two women who both love the same man trying to figure out who blinks first.

Meanwhile, Abe pulls EJ aside to thank him for bringing Lexie back from the dead. That gratitude might be short-lived, because Theo corners Abe afterward and tells him to stop stalling — it's time to make a choice. The family has been watching Abe sit at Lexie's bedside for weeks without saying what he actually wants, and Theo is done waiting.

Elsewhere, Anna gets irritated with Tony over what looks like the fallout from his push to install Gabi atop DiMera. And despite today's painful fight about the stepmom issue, Alex and Stephanie manage to steal a romantic moment — though whether that's a genuine reconnection or just two people avoiding the hard conversation is an open question.

This is a big week across the board. Multiple storylines hit turning points, and at least one couple doesn't make it to Friday intact.

Jack Deveraux shows up at Gwen's hotel room. Matthew Ashford is back for a brief arc, and the timing is perfect. After today's breakdown with Leo, Gwen is at her lowest — and the one person she's always wanted to choose her is about to walk through the door. Jack reportedly wants to take a real step toward the father-daughter relationship Gwen has been chasing since 2020. Whether she lets him in or pushes him away is the question.

Xander and Philip are headed for a physical confrontation that leaves Xander in a sling. The fight appears to be connected to Gabi's sabotage of the Titan-DiMera merger — Philip finds out what Gabi did, and Xander gets caught in the middle. That dislocated elbow from today's episode might just be the warm-up.

Speaking of Gabi: her week goes from bad to catastrophic. Anna leaks Gabi's involvement in the merger collapse, and once Philip finds out, he's done. He dumps Gabi and kicks her out of the Kiriakis mansion. Philip's big secret also comes out Thursday, adding another layer to the fallout.

Chad and Belle finally get their dinner date, but it gets derailed — possibly by EJ and Cat crashing the evening. These two can't catch a break.

Kristen isn't done with Xander. After today's hookup, she reportedly keeps working on him all week, trying to seduce him back toward the plan to take out EJ. He said no to the murder today — but Kristen has never been someone who accepts no the first time.

Steve and Kayla get a spotlight as Mary Beth Evans marks 40 years in the role (she debuted as Kayla on May 23, 1986). The show is celebrating with "Sweetness" memories and the start of a new adventure for the couple. After four decades, they've earned it.

And Xander has a surprise for Sarah on Friday. No details yet, but given today's flirty hospital scene and Kristen's escalating plans, the timing feels significant.

The week of May 25 looks like a reckoning for several characters who've been playing dangerous games.

Gabi's spiral continues. After getting dumped and kicked out of the Kiriakis mansion this week, she tries to bribe Liam into walking away from Ari. But Liam genuinely cares about Ari, and there's a real chance he refuses the money and tells Ari exactly what Gabi tried to do. If that happens, Gabi doesn't just lose Philip — she could lose her daughter, too. On Wednesday, Gabi makes Liam a formal offer, which suggests the bribe gets more serious before it blows up. Theo reportedly steps in to comfort Gabi as she becomes increasingly isolated — an interesting pairing given their history.

The Carver family drama deepens. Paulina may announce she's moving out, making good on what she told Chanel today about stepping aside on her own terms rather than waiting for Abe to choose. Meanwhile, Abe reconnects with Lexie but can't stop worrying about Paulina. The triangle that seemed like it might resolve quickly is settling in for a longer, messier stretch — and with Chanel still waiting on biopsy results she hasn't told anyone about, the family is sitting on a time bomb.

Kristen refuses to give up on her plan to take out EJ, whether or not Xander agreed to do it. After today's hookup and the way she's been working on him, expect more seduction, more manipulation, and possibly a new recruit if Xander keeps saying no. Kristen has wanted EJ gone for months, and she's not the type to let one rejection stop her.

Amy officially presses cyberbullying charges against Holly. The legal case that's been building for weeks becomes real, and Holly's going to need more than an apology to make this go away. This is the storyline that could pull Nicole and Eric back into the center of things.

Philip's big secret — teased for Thursday this week — may carry consequences into the following week as well. Whatever he's been hiding, the timing of it landing right as Gabi's world collapses suggests the two are connected.

A few things I'm chewing on after today.

Hit reply and tell me what you think.

Adrienne was killed in a car accident in 2019, during the show's famous one-year time jump. Will Horton was initially convicted for the crash, but it was later revealed that Victor and Xander had framed him to protect Maggie Kiriakis. In the end, the whole thing traced back to Orpheus, who had engineered the accident and set Maggie up to take the blame. Both Will and Maggie were eventually exonerated.

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