Days Of Our Lives
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: After Realizing Rachel is the Culprit, EJ Won’t Sacrifice His Son for Kristen’s Daughter
Tuesday and Wednesday’s episodes of Days of our Lives have been on fire, with the reveal of “Who shot EJ (Dan Feuerriegel)? As many had suspected it was his little niece, Rachel (Alice Halsey) who pulled the trigger.
The moment of the revelation happened as Marlena (Deidre) was reprimanding Rachel while in the presence of EJ for playing with a glass paperweight and it triggered EJ’s memory of when he was shot. As he flashes back, he sees Rachel holding a gun on him upset for making her grandmother (Rachel Blake – the Woman in White) disappear and demanding to know where she is!
In the flashback, EJ tells little Rachel, he doesn’t know where she is, and she shoots him. When EJ snaps out of it, Marlena takes one look at him and realizes he had remembered that Rachel was the culprit.
Courtesy/Peacock
In the pick-up on today’s DAYS, reeling from the revelation as confirmed by Marlena, that Rachel shot him, she explains that she thinks Rachel has blocked out the fact that she shot him. Marlena also reminds EJ, no matter how difficult it was for him to recall, that he was sitting in the chair when the bullet was fired, and Rachel was the same height of him in the the chair, so it makes sense it was her, and not his son, Johnny, who would be shooting at him from a downward angle.
Courtesy/Peacock
Kristen (Stacy Haiduk) arrives to the DiMera mansion and talks with her daughter, then heads downstairs where EJ and Marlena are putting the pieces together of how it was Rachel who shot him. EJ tells his sister the truth. That is was her daughter, Rachel who shot him which causes Kristen to flip out. Marlena exits the room for the siblings to talk.
Courtesy/Peacock
EJ tells his sister that he cannot let his son, Johnny be sent to prison by a jury for a crime he did not commit, and while he does not want to turn in his niece, he is not sure what choice he has. Kristen is overwhelmed. As the show fades to black, will Kristen turn herself in to save her daughter from going to jail or a juvenile detention center?
So, what did you think of the big reveal and the aftermath? Did you know it would turn out to be Rachel? Do you think Kristen will cover for her daughter and say she tried to kill her brother? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
Practically speaking, it’s better that Rachel is identified as the shooter, because nobody’s sending an 8 year old girl to prison, or even the looney bin, where as Johnny could do hard time for a crime he didn’t even commit.
Rachel obviously will need some serious therapy, but her grandma Marlena is well qualified to take care of that. If Kristen wants to offer a false confession to spare her daughter, it might help her “karmic balance” in the long run, considering all her previous crimes she got away with and was not ever prosecuted for. And I would probably reserve an air conditioner for her, in the future – because we all know Kristen ain’t ever going the other direction. That was true, even when she was pretending to be a nun!
As for EJ – anybody can understand his attempt to defend Johnny, even when he thought he could be guilty. But the deepfake vidoe of Chanel… sorry Elvis. That’s not going to win you any points with your kid, throwing his wife under the bus
Of course when you dont wanna have a major character do it, have a child do it bc they won’t go to prison. Lazy writing.
I view Rachel as a major character. “Lazy writing” would be the shooter being arrested and never heard from again. Rachel being the shooter creates a bunch of story. You make it sound like Rachel is an extra instead of a character ensconced in story.
to you.
Keep up the good work, Days!
I agree with you about the lazy writing, Richard. I suspected Ava as the culprit all along, which would also have been lazy writing, but she’s no longer on the show and she could have been brought back for a couple of days admitting to the crime and then being sent to prison.
Days Of Our Lives
Brandon Butler, Who Once Played Zack Brady, Returns to ‘Days of Our Lives’ in New Role
Days of Our Lives has revealed another addition to the cast of the Peacock streaming soap opera; only this time his face is familiar to fans of the soap opera. Brandon Butler is taking on the new role of Mason Whitfield, but he previously played Bo (Peter Reckell) and Hope’s (Kristian Alfonso) deceased son, Zack Brady for a stint back in 2025!
In a post on Thursday, August 27 on the official DAYS Instagram account, they shared a video of Butler telling 5 interesting things about himself caption with, “Get to know Brandon Butler, who will be playing Mason Whitfield! Here are five fun facts about the newest addition to the Days of our Lives cast before his first episode on September 1.”
That means that viewers will see Butler’s debut as Mason next Tuesday! When Brandon named his fifth fun fact, he shared, “Last but definitely not least for me: Days of Our Lives was my late mother’s favorite show. So this one’s for you, Mom. Love you.”
Photos: Peacock
Previously on DAYS, Butler took over the role of Zack Brady from Scott Shilstone, who last played the adult version of Bo and Hope’s son back in 2022 during the Peacock limited series, Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem Chapter Two. Fast-forward to the June 2, 2025 episode on Days of Our Lives.
In story, as Bo Brady finally comes out of his coma after receiving the critical dose of Versavix, thanks to the late John Black (Drake Hogestyn), he is visited by his deceased son, Zack in heaven and he helps push his dad to return to the land of the living.
Brandon’s previous TV credits include roles on: 13 Reasons Why, Hysteria!, Trinkets, and Seal Team, to name but a few. He also appeared on General Hospital back in 2016 for one episode.
It should be noted that also heading to Salem on-screen in September is actress Sydney Malakeh who as previously reported is starting her run in a ‘mystery role.’ Malakeh’s first airdate is September 9. Does this mean that Butler’s Mason will cross paths with Malakeh’s Salem alter-ego? Stay tuned.
So, intrigued to see Brandon Butler back on DAYS in the new role of Mason Whitfield? Let us know your thoughts via the comment section.
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More casting news from Days of Our Lives, and for now, the soap opera seems to be breaking their new additions to Salem via their Instagram account. Now comes word and picture on August 24, that General Hospital and The Young and the Restless alum Brytni Sarpy has joined DAYS!
The Peacock soap opera’s Instagram account, showed a photo of Sarpy standing in front of her dressing room in the hallways of Days of Our Lives’ studios. The caption read, “Someone new is checking into Salem… Welcome Brytni Sarpy to the Days of our Lives family! Stay tuned.”
The casting of Sarpy comes on the heels of the announcement of Sydney Malakeh coming to the show in September, and earlier this year General Hospital favorite, Sofia Mattsson (ex-Sasha Gilmore, GH) joining the show in a mystery role when she began taping back around the end of March of this year. Now Sarpy is the “mystery role” category too!
In addition, the Days of Our Lives social team dropped a video ditty of the cast spoofing Love Island, where Sarpy appears as the new “bombshell” of the villa. Other cast members such as Rob Scott Wilson (Alex), Abigail Klein (Abigail), Casey Moss (JJ), Sal Stowers (Lani), Paul Telfer (Xander) and Linsey Godfrey (Sarah) pop-up in it too, among others.
Photo: JPI
SOAP HOPPING
Soap fans first met Sarpy when she played Valerie Spencer, the niece of Luke (Anthony Geary) and Bobbie Spencer (Jackie Zeman) on General Hospital back in 2015. She made her final appearance on the series back in 2019 to join the cast of The Young and the Restless in the role of Elena Dawson.
Elena was introduced as a love interest for Devon Winters (Bryton James). She later cheated on him with his cousin Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic). Elena began to be back-burned by 2023 with Sarpy’s last on-screen appearance in Genoa City in November of 2024.
Due to Days of Our Lives nearly year in advance tape schedule, viewers will have to wait till sometime in the early summer of 2027 to see Brytni’s arrival in Salem.
So, happy to see Brytni Sarpy has landed another soap role? Now that she is at DAYS, who you think she might be playing and paired with? Put on your casting director hats and let us know via the comment section.
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Days Of Our Lives
Sydney Malakeh Joins the Cast of ‘Days of Our Lives’ in Mystery Role: Who Do You Think She’s Playing?
There’s a new gal coming to Salem, or is she new and a recast? That’s what inquiring minds from Days of Our Lives fans have been trying to figure out since the Peacock soap opera dropped an Instagram video heralding actress‘ Sydney Malakeh‘s arrival in Salem.
The soap did confirm that viewers will first see Malakeh on the September 9 episode. In the video, Malakeh is seen going set to set from her dressing room and in to the halls of Days of Our Lives studios.
What we do know id that Sydney has been acting professionally for 6 years and had appeared on Grey’s Anatomy, Apple TV’s Shrinking and the HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls.
Plenty of Malakeh’s DAYS castmates jumped into the comment thread with positive emojis symbols or written excitement including: Paul Telfer (Xander), Linsey Godfrey (Sarah), Sal Stowers (Lani), Conner Floyd (Chad), Eric Martsolf (Brady) and Christie Clark (Carrie) and more now that fans will finally see her on-air. Since Days of Our Lives tapes 10-11 months in advance, Sydney would have started taping the show sometime back in 2025.
DAYS fans think perhaps because the actress’ name is Sydney that she might be playing the grown-up daughter of Sami and EJ. That character hasn’t bee on the canvas since 2021.
So, who do you think Sydney Malakeh might be playing on Days of Our Lives? Drop your casting director thoughts via the comment section below.
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