I am stunned and awed by this episode for SO many reasons!!! I don’t even know where to begin!! So I will start by saying And the 2017 Emmy goes to Melissa Reeves!!! Missy has been a daytime sweetheart for 32 years since she hit the airwaves on Santa Barbara. She has always been a reliable, solid performer, and even underrated, but she has never really been given a real breakout story. So to have this kind of a star turn at this point in her career must be very thrilling for her, as it certainly is for us fans!! Bravo!!

In one of those rare confluences of excellence, the writing was ample back up!! When I see these kinds of episodes, I always wonder why…if soaps CAN tell this kind of riveting, dynamic, family oriented, veteran heavy drama, why DON’T they?? The writing was sophisticated, mature, and just spot on!! The last few regimes have NOT gotten the character of Jen at all!! However, in one episode, all those mistakes were explained and erased, and offered renewed hope for Jen in the future.

Jack came back, and it wasn’t slapstick as he tended to be in life…that would have diminished the impact of the episode. Another good thing was that it wasn’t sappy or wishy washy…because Jack and Jen were not like that. We learned how deep seated Jen’s hurt was at being abandoned by Jack so often. We saw what his real, final death did to her…it broke her!! When Jack told her to start her story anew, that she was a blank page…I felt that was also for the show writers…who now have the freedom to take the character in ANY direction, but hopefully one with some light, happiness, and some of the spunk that she used to have!!

The past few regimes have also done no favours for Julie…writing her often as an annoying buttinsky, but Susan Seaforth Hayes shone here! She was right there for her cousin Jen when the going got tough. It is always a treat to see Doug and Julie on their limited appearances. I also do not understand why the show keeps hiring new leading men every year or so, when they have Bryan Dattilo! His acting improves with each passing year, and when he is given the material, he can knock it right out of the park!! Lucas has grown into a kind, caring, mature man. He is a Horton! He is a viable leading man! Give him a story worthy of his talents!!

I am also floored by Kate Mansi. She had a very brief part in this episode, but it was crucial! Abigail has been through the wringer this last year, and Kate absolutely owned it! She was robbed this year by not even getting an Emmy nomination, so hopefully even though she has left the show, her work will be remembered next year. Her descent into madness has been chilling, heartbreaking, and realistic given both family history of mental illness AND the hell she has gone through due to Ben. The show has some very big shoes to fill both talent wise, and someone who will have the kind of special connection that Abigail and Jennifer share.

Also, some people complain about these stand alone episodes, but I personally LOVE them!! The late great Santa Barbara probably did them the best, but I feel almost every show has had success with them when done right! Another World used to be great at them too, although theirs were generally more light hearted and campy told in conjunction with a love story. While it was jarring and unnerving to see our beloved Jennifer Rose tearing her house apart, and screaming while looking for her pills, it was emotionally affecting!! As a long time vet, Missy deserved this kind of an episode. You can bring on all the Summer’s, and Madison’s, and Serena’s you want…played by big name talent from other (mainly cancelled) shows…but what the heck for when you have this kind of legacy talent just waiting to be explored?!

Daytime soaps have largely become plot driven, and just full of constant sturm und drang, and never ending misery. Just one story point after catastrophe after calamity, and it’s draining to watch. Give me an episode like the infamous Book Club one from a couple years ago where JJ accidentally fed marijuana laced brownies to the ladies of Salem. It was hilarious, and it was clear that those actresses relished the opportunity to play something like that! No real plot was advanced, but it was so nice just to be able to hang out with these characters in a surprising and light hearted way.

Daytime used to have scenes, or whole episodes, where we just got to know the people. That’s why they feel like family now. Of all the soaps currently on the air, DAYS does family best. All the other shows have abandoned the long successful format of the core family. GH killed off most of their families, and the Corinthos’ do NOT count as a core family, because they are a bunch of mobsters and criminals, and they have no roots on the show prior to 1996. Bold and Beautiful kind of has the Forrester’s and Logan’s, but they are so fractured, and so many of them are gone or missing. They have also been damaged by the never ending go-round of near incest between family members. Young and Restless has the Abbott’s, kind of, but they are making a HUGE mistake in having Billy and Phyllis cross the line and having sex. DAYS has the longest running family in television history…the Horton’s, and they are still driving the story!!

Every time I see episodes like this, I am reminded of how good daytime CAN be!! I realize that producing the amount of material they do is a daunting and Herculean task, and the writing can’t always be top notch! But when it is…WOW!! Bursts of creativity like this, when the writing, acting, and directing all collide to achieve brilliance makes me happy to be a lifelong soap fan, rather than being embarrassed and wondering “why do I watch this crap”…which is the way soaps have made me feel too often in the last few years!

Even though it takes a village…and everyone in the episode was great, the weight of the episode fell on Missy’s shoulders, and it was some heavy lifting! She was mesmerizing, especially when she became that confused little girl who didn’t understand how this could have happened to her. I just wanted to give her a hug through the whole episode and tell her that everything would be okay!

I don’t know what the future holds for Miss Jen, but I will say what I HOPE it holds! First of all, I hope the show finds an awesome recast for Abigail, and gets her on the show soon, and mentally healthy. That will be a huge relief for Jen. Next, I hope she finds some romance in her life, but not an intense, dramatic one. Daniel drained the life and the fun right out of her. Well to be fai, the writers did that too. I would love to see a relationship with light hearted banter and really fun moments. It would be nice if it was with Jack, but the show has killed him off one too many times and to bring him back now, especially after this episode, would be a big cheat to the audience. His death was one of the contributing factors to why Jen was in this predicament.

DAYS has been very dark for the past 6 months, and though this episode featured a core character hitting rock bottom, it also featured hope for the future. It offered what daytime does best, and if there was a Check List, this episode would have all the boxes checked. Family, drama, character development, returning favourite, under utilized veterans….CHECK!!! I don’t know if this episode should be submitted for Best Drama at the Emmy’s, as the voters tend to go for the really flashy episodes, laden with production values, and a lot of scenes and actors. But this is DEFINITELY Missy’s Emmy reel. Like Mary Beth Evans, who finally got recognized for a 30+ year body of work at this year’s Emmy’s, I think the same will happen for Missy next year, and I couldn’t be happier!! I know the year is not even half done, but someone is going to have to do SOME kind of stellar work to top Missy!!

I don’t know what DAYS has against Matt Ashford! He’s one of my all-time favorites, the only partner for Missy Reeves as far as I’m concerned, he has life, personality, humor .. I want to see him and Stephen Nichols light up the screen together again as the Johnson Brothers! DAYS could be so great again if they’d only get a clue ..

Matthew Asford may be perfectly happy working on The Bay and be unwilling to return to DOL.