Days Of Our Lives
DAYS Massey, Wilson & Sweeney Deliver Heart-Stopping Performances As Sami’s Twisted Plot Backfires!
Photo: RScottWilsonInstagram
This week, Days of our Lives served up can’t-miss soap opera! Head writer, Ron Carlivati crafted a riveting story arc that had viewers on the edge of their seats with some frightening drama portrayed masterfully by three all-star performers involved: Chandler Massey (Will), Rob Scott Wilson (Ben) and Alison Sweeney (Sami).
In story, a misguided Sami wanting to trigger the buried memories of her son, Will, takes a lesson from her mother’s psychiatry books about re-creating a traumatic event to do that. In some patients, that works in opening the floodgates to their memories. So, what does Sami do? She gets her goons to kidnap Killer Ben. Sami quickly lets him know who’s in charge, and she slaps him around, and tells him he’s going to bring her son back to her. Next, Sami’s got a gun, and uses it to make Ben stay in-line. Later, Sami has detailed what she wants Ben to do for her. He doesn’t think he can do it, but then he agrees. Meanwhile, Sami has Will kidnapped, and thrown into Ben’s apartment in the dark. Let the plot unfold …
Then comes the reveal, while Sami stays hidden with a gun on Ben, the killer appears with a red necktie in front of Will. A frightened Will asks, “Who are you?” Ben says, “Benjamin” and moves toward Will. Next, Ben starts to strangle Will with a red necktie, and when Will, who has fallen to the floor, is being choked he seems to flashback to the first time he was “killed”. Sami is watching from the closet in tears.
Will begs for Ben to stop, and an anguished Ben realizes he can’t “murder” Will a second time. The whole plot falls apart. Ben tells Will it was his mother who put him up to strangling him again. Sami’s henchmen emerge and nab Ben as Sami comes forward and explains she was trying to jog her son’s memory! Will screams at her, “What is wrong with you!? You’re a terrible human being. I never want to see you again as long as I breathe!” Will storms out devastated. Sami yells at Ben for wimping out on her before Will remembered everything. As the henchmen hold Ben, he tells Sami, “You’re sick!” Ben tells the henchmen, “Bring this bitch to the padded room!”
Later at Marlena’s (Deidre Hall), Sami tries to apologize to Will by stating she needed him to remember his life, but Will says, “If remembering his life is remembering she’s his mother, he prefers to forget.” He runs to his room! Everyone is pissed at Sami, and she leaves in tears. Chandler Massey, Rob Scott Wilson, and Alison Sweeney all played their beats to perfection in this very dark and twisted plotpoint.
So what did you think of Sami’s plan to jog Will’s memory on DAYS? Did you enjoy the performances? Comment below!
Days Of Our Lives
‘Days of Our Lives’ Favorites Making Returns: Alison Sweeney, Christie Clark, Chandler Massey and Bryan Dattilo
Great news for Days of Our Lives fans, now that Ryan Quan is co-head writer of the long-running soap opera. Coming in June of 2027 (since DAYS tapes ten or so months ahead), you can look forward to the returns of Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady), Christie Clark (Carrie Brady), Chandler Massey (Will Horton) and Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Horton).
The foursome is back on set and began last week to tape their upcoming story arc, according to TV Insider. As to what exactly is going on that brings sister Sami and Carrie’s history back up, as well as Will and Lucas’ is only being teased at this time, but suffice to say, it should be intriguing.
Alison Sweeney explained on being back on set, “It was a lot of dialogue and emotion, but with all the best actors to work opposite, we fell into it as if no time had passed. It was really wonderful.”
Photo: JPI
As to working with the longstanding rivalry of Sami and Carrie, Alison added on working with Clark, “So, it really does feel like we’re sisters. It’s so fun, and she’s such a good actor that she makes everything so natural that you can really disappear into those stories.”
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
It also seems like the deep-history, which often had the sister fighting for the love of Austin Reed, but that might not figure into the equation this time, or will it?
Alison indicated what she thought of the scripts she was given. “I felt like when I read it, it was a page-turner. I was very excited. There’s a lot of history here, and a lot of things that haven’t been said. So, it’s really not like, ‘Oh, rehashing stuff.’ And now having played some of the scenes, I’m psyched.” Sweeney added, as for the men, working again with her on-screen son, Chandler Massey and Will’s on-screen father Bryan Dattilo, was also extra special.
The last time DAYS viewers saw Sami on the canvas was back in November of 2025, when she revealed she has gotten engaged to never-before-seen Dante Vitali. As for Clark, she last visited Salem for the episodes surrounding John Black’s memorial in June of 2025.
Chandler Massey’s Will Horton last made a visit to Salem in November of 2025 when he attended the gala for the Tom Horton Free Clinic as part of the soap opera’s 60th anniversary celebration. Bryan Dattilo was last seen in December of 2025. So, by the time we see all four again it will be close to two years since they were on new episodes of the series. Time to look forward to June of 2027.
So, excited by the news of Alison, Christie, Chandler and Lucas making a return to Days of Our Lives? What do you think the story will be involving, Sami, Carrie, Lucas and Will? Let us know via the comment section.
Days Of Our Lives
‘Days of Our Lives’ Alum Al Calderon Talks On His Daytime Emmy-Nominated Scenes as Javi Hernandez (Exclusive)
Last Tuesday, Al Calderon scored the first Emmy nomination of his career for his role as Javi Hernandez on Days of Our Lives.
Calderon name was announced as one of the performers competing for gold in the Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series category at the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on October 30.
This week, Calderon chatted live on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel for a one-on-one conversation where he discussed: his nominated scenes and time on the Peacock streaming soap opera, his decision to leave DAYS, his role of Nico Silva on Brilliant Minds and its sad cancellation, plus his passing the torch of Javi to Jacob Martinez, who took over the role on-screen on the June 30, 2026 episode of Days of Our Lives.
Photo: JPI
JAVI REVEALS TO LEO THAT HE HAD A DAUGHTER WHO DIED
Al revealed the scenes that comprise his now Emmy-nominated reel have at its epicenter the heartbreaking moments from the September 12, 2025 episode. In it, Javi shares for the first time to Leo (Greg Rikaart) that he had a daughter named Solana, with a woman he was seeing named Sylvia. One fateful day, Sylvia left their child in a car when she went to work and the little girl died. Javi had blamed himself for not being the parent to take his daughter to school that day since he was hungover the night before, therefore it opened up the opportunity for something to happen to the his child, and it did.
The multi-talented actor/singer explained his reel: “It was the scene where he is talking about his daughter to Leo. I also included the scene where Javi goes to talk to Melinda (Tina Huang) and to see if it would be a viable option to adopt, because I wanted to introduce the subtlety and nuance of why Javi kind of has this whole connection to Tesoro, in a way.”
It is true that Al can bring the tears and make us cry right along with him during his run as Javi. To that, Calderon added, “I’ve read the comments that I’m a little bit of a crybaby, so I didn’t want the entire reel to be of me crying, but I wanted it to show a little bit of an emotional range of the restraint that Javi was feeling so I included that scene
In addition Calderon shared, “I also included a really beautiful scene with Cherie Jimenez (Gabi Hernandez, DAYS) where I’m looking at photos of Tesoro, and of course, Javi is crying. I just wanted to show the relationship between Javi and his family as well, and as I mentioned the reveal of the child that he lost.”
Photo: JPI
ALUMS AL CALDERON AND ALICE HALSEY REPRESENT DAYS OF OUR LIVES IN EMERGING TALENT CATEGORY
In a twist of fate, Calderon is also nominated in the Emerging Talent category with Alice Halsey who played Rachel Black. Halsey is currently starring in the reboot of Little House on the Prairie in the lead role of Laura Ingalls on Netflix.
As to his hope on Emmy night, Al expressed, “Of course, I want to win, but Alice Halsey is going to give me a run for the money. And if’s not me (who wins the award), it better be her!”
You can check out the full interview with Al below.
Now let us know, do you remember Al’s emotional scenes when he explained to Leo he had a daughter who died, which made it all the more heartbreaking to not end up with permanent custody of Tesoro? What do you think of Al’s chances to win the gold based on his Emmy scene selection? Do you miss him as Javi? Weigh-in via the comment section.
Days Of Our Lives
Emily O’Brien Talks On Her Y&R Past as Jana Hawkes and Working with Peter Porte on ‘Days of Our Lives’
On the latest edition of Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart which dropped on Tuesday, July 21, Emily O’Brien is the featured guest. As soap fans know, Emily has worked with Rikaart both in her first soap role on The Young and the Restless as Jana Hawkes and now on Days of Our Lives in her current role of Gwen Rizczech.
While Emily continues on DAYS, she has very impressive list of credits in the other part of her career as a voice-over actress and one in motion-capture in some of the most popular video games in the world.
O’Brien was first seen on The Young and the Restless back in 2006. She recalled her landing the role which eventually paired her for her five year run with Greg Rikaart.
Photo: JPI
BEING CAST ON THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
“The role was just a few days and she wasn’t even supposed to be English,” Emily recalled. “The role was originally called Jade. Karen Rae, the casting director of The Young and the Restless at the time said to me “Oh, you’re from England. Try it with the dialect.” I put it on and she said, ‘I’m going to bring you back at like 3 for s callback.’ So then they changed the role to Jana and they said she’s going to be a Brit. I was only supposed to be on for like five episodes and it turned into 5 years.”
In explaining why she loved crazy Jana, Emily shared, “Jana was sort of like the misanthrope. She was just was the odd one out and I loved it. I felt so comfortable playing that because she was just eclectic and weird and she loved playing with Ouija boards and she rode a motorbike. There was just so much color to bring to her. It was just such a great match to play with Greg (Kevin), and Christian LeBlanc (Michael) and Tracey Bregman (Lauren).
Photo: JPI
GWEN, DIMITRI AND LEO ON DAYS OF OUR LIVES
On Days of Our Lives, the Leo, Gwen, Dimitri dynamic is quite unique and been through many schemes and entanglements. Often Emily finds herself in repartee with her ex-lover, Dimitri, who turned out to be gay and then had a thing for her bestie, Leo (Greg Rikaart)!
During the conversation, Greg and Emily sang, Peter Porte’s praised with O’Brien expressing, “Peter is just ready to play. He comes on set prepared. I’ve never seen him with his script. From blocking and rehearsals, he doesn’t have it. He’s prepared. He’s a physical actor and he always trying to come up with something. I think he let me slap him. He let me kiss him. He let me throw a cheeseburger in his lap. He’s ready for anything for anything.”
You can catch the full episode of ‘Soapy; featuring Emily O’Brien below where the actress also talks about replacing Jen Lilley as Theresa Donovan after being let go as Gwen; and being paired again with Greg Rikaart on the Peacock streaming soap opera this time as best friends and more.
So, were you a big Jana Hawkes and Kevin Fisher fan on Y&R? Did you like them as a couple? Do you like the dynamic between Emily and Peter Porte and Greg Rikaart on DAYS? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
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I love having the Sami/Will (Alison Sweeney/Chandler Massey) dynamic on the show. Alison needs to submit these scenes for Emmy consideration. This past month of “DOOL” has been edge-of-your seat great drama. It has been a long time since the show has had two great stories moving at the same time, with the other being the fallout of Theo’s shooting. It seems none of the actors are standing on the sidelines. I also love the Hope/Rafe drama. I have never felt chemistry with the characters and actually liked Hope better with Aiden. I look forward to the return of Ciara, Vivian and also the arrival of Tyler Christopher. DAYS IS BACK!
I would be mad at Sami too…and shouldnt she be arrested????
Will doesn’t want to press charges.
maybe he doesnt but Sami broke the law when she snuck/kidnapped Ben from the mental hospital or wherever he was so there should be criminal charges for that!!!
That was something so outrageous, Jimmy. What is wrong with this picture? Jar his memory by shock?
Why didn’t Sami or anyone else try something more, gee, I don’t know…..watchable?
Maybe Will and Ariana should ‘meet’…or did they, already? If they did, then I missed it.
But, seeing his child should stir some dormant memory.
.
Yes they met, and, heartbreakingly, she didn’t trigger his memories. That’s what made Sami so desperate to try anything. (I think maybe that episode was pre-empted? I watched it online. Marlena had also tried hypnosis unsuccessfully).
I liked that they did it. It gave us something new both by taking Sami’s crazy to a new level, and taking Will’s outrage at her to a whole new level! We’ve had excellent Will and Sami arguments in the past, so to give us something new they had to kick it up a gear, and Massey really brought it. He knocked it right out of the park! Loved it! And the Sweeney rocked it when she thought she’d lost Will again and this time properly forever! And it made their reconciliation that much more wonderful!
@Stephen.
Thank you for your well-written, sooo informative post, Stephen. I soaked up every word….
Unfortunately, I did not see that special moment between father and daughter….I am certain it was as hearbreaking as you described.
Yes, Chandler’s maturity, in both his acting and as Will, has risen a few notches—-looove him….always have…
Sami? What can I say—Ali plays her to heaven and back….she is perfection. That is one character which cannot be played by any other…it is what it is. We need her rare visits more often.
Lets hope Day’s keeps Ron.. he is good for Days.. remember you may not like all of the storylines, but he is really good for Days and let us all embrace him!!
Excellent episodes! Great performances and superb writing! Ron has done wonders with DAYS! Where were you a decade ago when GL needed saving? DAYS is the best soap on the air today! Followed closely by GH!
I have tears on my cheeks simply reading the recap ~ the real thing was awe inspiring. Kudos to the terrific trio!
The folks at ABC are quaking in their boots. They let a genius go. In their heads they were thinking, we have better ideas, we can save our show. So Ron disappeared for a bit and then went over to DAYS. DAYS was literally on the chopping block. Their stories were so horrible that no good acting team could save the stories. Then Ron’s writing appeared…and poof, they went from chopping block to top of the heap. They brought back excellent actors in roles that nearly EVERYONE wanted to see. DAYS always thrives on knock you on your butts drama. The Marlena/Hattie, Adrienne/Bonnie story started the roller coaster ride and then comes Will/Sami/Ben and add in the Paul/Sonny drama. Then add in the very relevant – although a little late – story of Theo’s shooting. Casey Moss deserves an Emmy for the intensity of his role. That boy is very underrated in how good he actually is. He was always written as a boy toy but now he’s being written a young man with many layers. This is a perfect vehicle for him to show off. Eve coming back is so great. They need a fireball like her again with a writer who knows how to use her. All I can say is that I can’t wait for what comes next and previous to Ron my statement was I can miss DAYS and not even notice. Now it’s the first one I watch in my DVR viewing schedule. So glad they got it together and I am so THANKFUL to Ron for what he has done to bring the craziness of DAYS back to life.
Um, the folks at ABC are doing okay. While Ron had a good run at OLTL and some great moments at GH, it was time for him to move on. Ask GH fans about Fluke and Denise Demuccio and you’ll discover it’s all not candy canes and lollipops.
And yet, with all the misfires, it was still much more watchable–at least to me–while Ron was writing it than it has been for the vast majority of the time since he left.
Given the number of equally bad story ideas that have played out on GH since Ron’s departure, it’s at least possible that the problem isn’t with the headwriters, but with ABC.
I agree.Plus maybe Ron Carlivati was okay been fired from GH because maybe he knew he needed a break because adding the time he was head writer at OLTL and head writer at GH it was like 8 years or so in total.So maybe he knew it was time to move on.So between the time he was let go from GH and time he was hired Days maybe Carlivati recharged himself and lived his life without the pressure of been head writer.Plus i’m sure both Carlivati and GH are happy with how things went down because Carlivati is probably enjoying writing for Days and GH is doing good right now.
Ron’s tenure on gh was action packed and must see a large Portion of the 1st two years. The 50th anniversary short term return of Legacy characters, The Return of Faison which played out via The fake Duke Mask story, The Saga of Robin Scorpio death, return from dead Saga which brought Anna Robert
Back to battle Faison and tying into Lukes race to secure the cure storyline, The Critchon Clark/!Cassadne adventure! The way he handled Frisco, Aj returns flopped as well the convoluted f
Messy flop that was Lukes last adventure and reimagining as a man with dissocative idendity crisis. I will The say Gh lately feels less disjointedwhilrthe
I love what chandler Massey has done since he’s been back. He definitely grew stronger as an actor. I love Allison and Rob too. The show is on a very even keel right now and I know this is going to be a good journey for all of us.
Gotta agree. At first I did miss the always-smiling, charming, almost coquettish version of Will that Chandler Massey played in the past. However, I’m now enjoying the more worldly-wise version of Will, who has his own agenda, who doesn’t appreciate having his comfortable world ripped away from him, and who doesn’t accept at face value everything his relatives say to him.
It’s intriguing that this version of Will might demand a true blank slate for himself, not WANTING to be pigeon-holed back into his former self, resenting that former self, while resenting even more those trying try to force that former self onto him.
I must commend the new head writer for making sense out of the previous writing team’s mash, and doing so in thought-provoking and fresh ways.
General Hospital is just now beginning to recover from the horrible damage Ron Carlivati did to it. The TRUE return of Jason Morgan – one of the characters he destroyed – was a big help. Sadly the damage he did to Luke Spencer – THE legendary GH character of all time – will probably never be undone, as the lame assed storyline drove Tony Geary into retirement.
I’m going against my better Devil judgment and giving Ron the benefit of the doubt here. Starting off with the ridiculous double doppleganger story was NOT a good sign. Bringing Will Horton back was a good move…. I’ll even accept the memory loss on a temporary basis (standard soap cliche though it is). But throwing him right back into the ridiculous triangle that ruined the previous re-cast version of Will…. sorry, that’s complete dragonshit.
Paul needs to go back to Hawaii Five 0…. or at least find his own boyfriend. Enough with him hopping between Will & Sonny’s beds already.
And for Hell’s sake, bring back Charlotte Ross and quit propping your OLTL pets.
I don’t think Charlotte wanted to return.
I don’t want a Sonny-Will-Paul triangle either. I can understand Paul hanging onto Sonny though. He’s the only other gay guy in Salem!
Cassis D-Eve isnt a pet…she was on Days before Ron took over the show and only just return…would had liked CR as Eve too but had other commitments and thats why CD was recast and that was before Ron’s arrival!!!!
Ron Carlivati was fired from GH in July 2015.So that was over 2 years.I’m not saying that Carlivati didn’t make mistakes at GH but i don’t think he did kind of damage that it would have taken GH 2 years to repair.As for Kassie DePaiva, she was hired to play Eve long before Carlivati was hired.So is it fair to have Kassie be fired just because she and Carlivati worked together in the past?
I agree that Days is in great shape with Ron. Ron is a soap fan. He gets what viewers like to see and has worked hard with Sheri and Ryan to embrace histories etc. GH is a good soap. I liked it under Ron’s pen as well. Charlotte Ross did not want to return full-time. She was only interested in a short story arc. I loved her as Eve too…but Kassie is great in the role too.
Everyone did a great job. Chandler’s face was red and it looked like he was really being choked.
Just sad that Will doesn’t want to have anything to do with Sami. They were always so close.
I do hope they don’t hook Will up with Paul.
This is a perfect example as to why I can’t stand the “Sami” character…never could, never will.
I love all of this, since Ron C. has joined Days it has been firing on all cylinders! Love it so much. We’ll still have Alison Sweeney and Eileen for a while.
Please let Will hook up with Ben, then Paul, then Derrick before he goes back to Sonny lol.
Hook up with Ben, blake? LOL. Who could blame anyone wanting to hook up with Ben….but, he did ‘kill’ Will. LOL.
PS.
So sorry, blake…..Stephen replied to an old post of mine and after I responded, I read on and completely forgot it is an older site, so I replied to your comment….sorry, again. Forgive me? LOL.
Lol it’s all good Celia.