Days of Our Lives Review Week of 11-15-21: A Soul-Crushing Secret Comes Out

Salem weddings these days are tiny affairs that rarely end in celebration.

Abe and Paulina’s wedding was no exception. After Chanel jumped up to reveal the truth about Lani’s parentage on Days of Our Lives during the week of 11-15-21, the wedding descended into chaos, and the few guests in attendance wandered off broken-hearted.

The Devil helped the drama along, but this was typical soap fare that could have worked just as well without any supernatural interference.

In some ways, this reveal was incredibly predictable.

As soon as Paulina and her guilty looks kept pushing for a wedding, then just as quickly begging Abe to postpone, I knew the chances were that the wedding would end in disaster… and with Paulina’s secret coming out.

I didn’t guess that Chanel would be the one to stop the festivities or that the Devil would influence her to do so, but still.

People make so many dramatic objections during Salem weddings that that useless bit of the ceremony should be cut out altogether!

There were a couple of problems with the setup for this, though.  Most importantly, Chanel’s immaturity was grating on my last nerve.

Okay, so she wanted to be the maid of honor and instead was asked to walk Paulina down the aisle. Get over it!

That’s not a reason to sulk, refuse to go to the wedding, or sit for half an hour with MarDevil whining about it.

Chanel and Paulina’s relationship has been rocky in the past, but Chanel seemed to have grown up a lot since getting the bakery, and that helped things.

But when the plot demanded that Chanel sulk, whine, and act petty over not getting to be maid of honor, the character reverted to being an overgrown teenager.

It wasn’t a good look, and it didn’t make me feel bad for her.

Plus, as so often happens on Days of Our Lives, Chanel did a 180 to accommodate the plot, going from wishing Lani was her sister instead of her cousin to resenting the hell out of her and feeling that Paulina ALWAYS treated Lani better and Chanel like an unwanted stepchild.

That kind of inconsistency made it harder to believe her distress as she poured her heart out to Marlena, and from that point onward, she seemed more like a high school girl than a 20-something who owns and runs a successful business.

The wedding itself was a bit on the bizarre side. It was the tiniest wedding ever — the only guests besides Olivia and Chanel were Roman and Kate, and the excuses for Steve and Kayla not to be in attendance were flimsy.

But more to the point, nobody but Olivia noticed Marlena’s weird behavior, and when MarDevil turned her yellow eyes to Chanel, it didn’t appear that anyone saw that either.

Chanel didn’t — she just felt like Marlena was looking into her soul. And even though she was standing right next to her, Paulina didn’t either.

MAYBE Olivia did since she felt the Devil’s presence within Marlena, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

How weird.

The aftermath of Chanel’s reveal has been strong, though there’s one problem here as well: this secret is not nearly as shocking or traumatic as the writers are making it out to be.

It’s written as if this devastating news is on par with JJ finding out that Jack raped Kayla, and it’s not.

Abe found out that the woman he treated as his daughter was a surrogate daughter rather than a biological daughter and then overreacted in ways similar to how Eric overreacted to Nicole’s shredding evidence that he claimed he didn’t want to back in 2014.

To be clear: it’s legitimately upsetting to learn that you were adopted when you thought you weren’t or that the woman you accepted and loved as a long-lost daughter is just an excellent friend.

But it’s NOT the super traumatic, super devastating news that it’s being treated as. Realistically, everyone needs some time to adjust, and then life can go on as it always has.

Abe’s response to Paulina was the worst of the aftermath. It made little sense for him to claim that his identity as a man was bound up in being Lani’s father and even less for him to insist that this reveal meant that Paulina was only pretending to love him.

I predict that Abe will eat those words when abusive ex Ray comes to town someday and tries to hurt Paulina, causing Abe to realize he loves her after all.

The other thing that’s missing from all of this is any sense of anger or disappointment toward Tamara and Olivia. Olivia came up with this plan in the first place, and at the very least, Tamara was complicit in it. She was the one who told Lani and Abe they were related, to begin with!

Yet Abe and Lani’s only response to learning this is that Paulina better not be blaming them for her bad choices, as if they are absolved of wrongdoing because Paulina didn’t defy them.

That’s hardly fair. I wanted Paulina to respond to that particular accusation with something along the lines of how angry she was that her family’s demands for silence led to Lani and Abe getting hurt.

Tamara was the one who told Paulina not to take Lani to Paris and wouldn’t even let her explain why she couldn’t go.

Olivia was the one who ordered Paulina to leave town so that Lani wouldn’t find out the truth. Olivia also said repeatedly that Paulina had better not tell Lani or Abe under any circumstances, yet stood up in that church and confirmed the truth.

Roman: You weren’t stupid. You were in love. You loved Paulina and she loved you.
Abe: If Paulina loved me, why didn’t she tell me the truth?
Roman: Maybe she was trying to protect you. She didn’t want you to suffer this kind of pain.
Abe: That’s what Paulina said too. Way to make herself the hero in all this.

And yet PAULINA is the one that Abe accuses of “trying to make herself look like a hero?” Come on.

I was pleasantly surprised that Roman was so level-headed and fair about it. Lately, he’s been judgmental, like when he blamed Nicole for Eric deciding to go to Africa indefinitely or how he told Chanel she shouldn’t apologize to him after all was said and done.

Roman was right, both that Paulina was doing her best to protect everyone after being placed in an impossible situation and that biology doesn’t determine family. Abe CAN continue to have the same relationship with Lani, and I hope he gets that someday.

Elsewhere in Salem, the Devil made my skin crawl trying to seduce John — and not because the scenes were scary.

They weren’t. They were disgusting.

John is tied up in the crypt and has not consented to be flirted with, never mind “Kristen” touching him or removing his belt.

I keep waiting for him to blurt out that Kristen claimed her true love is his son!

Also, who thought “Kristen” asking to make love in front of her dead relatives was a good idea? Ew.

Meanwhile, across town, the real Kristen made plans to break out of jail… again.

This thing where Kristen continually breaks out and wreaks havoc, only to alienate Brady further with her crazy behavior, has got to stop. It’s especially annoying that Kristen gets the upper hand because of the cops being so incredibly incompetent.

Kristen should NEVER have been left outside the interrogation room to overhear Trask and Gwen’s conversation in the first place. And she shouldn’t have been left alone with Gwen because a cop assumed Gwen was Kristen’s lawyer without bothering to do as much as check Gwen’s ID.

Gwen has also increasingly become a one-note character who constantly lies about one thing or another or gets blackmailed into doing something that hurts the people she loves and wants to love her.

After incurring Jack’s wrath recently, you’d think Gwen would learn her lesson about keeping secrets. But nope, she’s going to let Kristen blackmail her into helping her bust out because she’s scared of losing Xander to Sarah.

What does she think is going to happen when Xander not only learns that Sarah has been imprisoned on an island all this time but that Gwen knew it and said nothing?

Sheesh. Talk about never learning your lesson.

This story is also a repeat of when Jennifer learned that Nicole only left town because Brady blackmailed her but didn’t tell Eric because she didn’t want to lose him.

The same thing happened: eventually, Eric learned the truth and berated Jennifer for not having told him months before she finally did.

At least Xander will (hopefully) not tell Gwen that Sarah is his past and Gwen is his future. Eric started that awful trend of people saying that and not meaning it, and I’d like for it to die, please.

We did get some genuine romance with Roman and Kate, though.

These two are another couple I’ve shipped forever, and so far, they’re playing it just right, with Kate being reluctant to risk getting hurt again and then being afraid that Roman would decide he’s too good for her.

This is the kind of romance Days of Our Lives needs more of!

I especially liked Roman making it clear that he wants a relationship, not just to get Kate in bed. There are too many relationships in Salem that are little more than races to the bedroom, over and over. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Ben, and Ciara!)

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of the fallout from Paulina’s secret being revealed, the latest Devil antics, and everything else that happened on Days of Our Lives during the week of 11-15-21.

Hungry for more Days of Our Lives chat? Be sure to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.

Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV weeknights after 8 PM EST/5 PM PST.

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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.