Days of Our Lives started with Christmas Eve on December 20, 2017 and went through the episode airing on December 27, 2017 with no preemption days. Below are my thoughts about what happened and a brief summary.
The majority of the focus was on JJ. He was suicidal and the December 20 episode featured him remembering the past with recreated scenes including ones with his dad Jack (Matthew Ashford) who came back to act in this episode. JJ relived the most recent times in his life, put on his dress uniform and planned to shoot himself to death. Each letter explained what he wanted from them for example he wanted Hope to take care of his mother and sister. He told his mother that he didn't blame her, wrote Abe and Theo about the shooting etc. Gabi eventually arrived and stopped him. As the week went on (after the ornament hanging), Lani saw JJ and Gabi, assumed the wrong thing and slept with Eli.
Ciara and Claire continued to fight, and on the night of the Horton ornament hanging, they broke each others' bauble. Shawn and Belle helped separate their daughter and sister-in-law/sister. After this stopped, it went back to normal and everyone decorated the tree that was in attendance. Sonny and Will were at the Horton house with Ari as that that point, Gabi was with JJ. Eli went to the Horton event, the first one as a member of the family. Doug made the holiday speech instead of singing, which was a surprise. Otherwise, Brady's plan to get Eve continued.
The hospital had many visitors as Theo remained in a coma and Abe sat vigil. Eli went to the Horton event, the first one as a member of the family. Jennifer convinced Abe to forgive JJ, and eventually Abe went to JJ and told him such.
As part of Christmas Day, Kayla, Roman, Steve, and Tripp went to the Bible reading with the kids in the hospital. Jennifer spoke, and Eric played Santa, which the kids appreciated. They all sang "Silent Night", as Theo woke up surrounded by his family, JJ, Claire, and Ciara.The day continued through two more episodes as Theo awoke. He protected Kate, and said he didn't get any direction to break into the warehouse. Before the end of Christmas, Kate told the truth. JJ gave Lani, her late birthday present at Christmas, after visiting Jennifer and Eric. He was going to speak with Eric to get emotional support.
During the week, we also saw Chad and Abby speak about New Year's Eve, and Abby realize that Andre is in love with Kate wanting a real marriage.
I found most of this very depressing for Christmas, as way too much focus was on JJ and his woes. The story about Theo's shooting was not evenhanded and more about JJ's pain then the Carver family. Actually it was most about JJ, then Kate's lies, the issues with Dimera and finally Abe. Where it should have been the opposite.
The rest of the characters outside of the orbits listed above were underused over the holiday. Will was on only with Sonny, but not his other family, for example. There was barely any time spent with the Brady clan, and many people were only used as extras or only in two or three scenes. It would be different if some characters got more focus at Thanksgiving and others at Christmas, but that wasn't the case either. I hope for more cast and character interaction in 2018.
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