Photo Credit: JPI Studios

EJ gives Nicole the final ultimatum – Brady or Sydney. Nicole breaks up with Brady, who is angry and bitter. Her decision destroys her.  Rafe comforts Sami over spending New Year’s Eve without her children. Kayla calls about Caroline’s stroke. Sami visits Caroline and gets inspired not to give up. Sami and Rafe decide to attend a fireworks celebration at the pier. Meanwhile, Nicole returns to EJ with news that she broke up with Brady, and he decides to celebrate. At the pier, Sami and Rafe are having a good time until EJ and Nicole show up. The couples get into it a bit, and EJ announces he and Nicole are remarrying. Sami is fuming, but manages to contain herself and, with Rafe’s help, enjoys the coming of the New Year. Daniel tells Melanie they can’t take Parker from Chloe and Philip because it’s not what’s best for the baby. At the same time, Chloe reluctantly lets Philip hold his son, but she still believes Daniel will come back to her. At the Kiriakis mansion, Melanie walks out on Philip. Kate arrives and wonders what’s going on. Philip explains all. Kate is appalled that Chloe is the mother of her newly acquired grandson, but vows to love him just the same. She comforts a devastated Philip. Chloe fantasizes about Daniel coming back to her and remembers last New Year’s with him. Daniel recalls the memory as well. Stephanie gets a call from Kayla, but ignores it. She fears her mother will pressure her to tell the truth about Parker (she doesn’t realize his paternity already been exposed). She tries to convince Nathan to marry her right away in Baltimore. Nathan finally agrees, but wants to wait until the next day. Stephanie then listens to a message and learns Caroline is in the hospital. Nathan comforts her. Kayla feels guilty about Caroline’s stroke. Bo, using a payphone, calls Carly at the hospital, thinking the phone lines will be safe. He asks her to put him in touch with Roman. Carly agrees but when she hangs up, Bo realizes the line was tapped. He returns to the cabin, and tells Hope they’re not safe – they have to leave now! At the prison, Jennifer is trying to buddy up to Jane when Rafe arrives. Jennifer thinks about alerting Rafe to her identity, but decides against it. Rafe wants to question Jane, but she knows his wife is Bo and Hope’s niece and refuses to talk to him. Rafe rattles her and suspects she’s up to no good. Jane hears from the state investigator that he traced Bo’s call, but Bo left before they could grab him. Ben worries that he can’t get organs for his dying patient as he bonds with Jennifer.

EJ gives Nicole a bracelet, and reveals it’s a tracking device. She can never take it off or he’ll know and take Sydney away from her. He then tells Stefano he and Nicole are getting married. Stefano thinks it’s a mistake, but can’t change EJ’s mind. EJ tells Johnny he’s marrying Nicole. Johnny is not happy. Nicole tells Rafe they’ll both lose if Sami does something crazy to EJ. Sami promises Rafe she will not do something crazy to hurt EJ and Nicole. She runs into Brady and learns Nicole left him to marry EJ and be with Sydney. Sami is surprised Brady is letting the matter go and, alone, decides she needs to push EJ’s buttons as much as he’s pushing hers. On the pier, she fakes a call to Brady, telling him it’s okay for him and Nicole to use her place as their secret love. EJ tells Johnny he’s marrying Nicole and that doesn’t go over so well. At the same time, Sami tries to make Stefano believe Nicole is still secretly seeing Brady. He tells EJ, who makes a beeline to Sami’s where he catches her in her own ruse. Sami tells him marrying Nicole is a mistake, but EJ begs to differ. Sami warns that Nicole and Brady will find their way back to each other. Smug EJ tells Sami he’s got the situation covered. At the same time, Stefano confronts Nicole and lays into her about secretly seeing Brady. Nicole says she’s not and reveals the tracking device. She goes off about all she’s given up, but Stefano doesn’t trust her. Nicole is fine with that because the kids do and that’s all that matters. As Stefano and Nicole continue to argue, Johnny runs away.  Chloe is in denial over her relationship with Daniel. Nicole tries to set her straight, but it’s to no avail. At the same time, Daniel asks Victor – as the patriarch of the Kiriakis family – to provide for Chloe and Parker. Victor says he can’t do much now that Vivian has taken over the company and the last thing he’d want to do is bring the child into the house while Vivian is there. Daniel understands, and Victor thinks it’s in Daniel’s best interest to forget about Chloe and Parker. Daniel says that’s easier said than done. Later, Daniel arrives home. At first, Chloe thinks he’s back to reconcile, but Daniel informs her she and the baby must move out – ASAP. Kayla informs Caroline that Stephanie is on her way back to town. Caroline begs Kayla to keep Stephanie’s name out of the paternity test switch debacle. Roman thinks their ma might’ve had help with the switch. He doubts that she could have accomplished all of this on her own. When Stephanie arrives, Kayla tells her daughter the jig is up. Kayla is called away before she can be more specific. Thinking her part in the switch has been revealed, Stephanie breaks down in tears. Nathan moves up to her and says he knows why Stephanie is crying. He heard everything. Ben and Jennifer have a friendly coffee date. Johnny runs away from home and finds Rafe at the police station. Rafe contacts Sami, who shows up and has a moment with her son. Meanwhile, EJ and Stefano have their men search the grounds. EJ is furious with Stefano and Nicole. Rafe finally calls EJ and tells him Johnny’s whereabouts. EJ picks up his son and, after getting into it with Sami and Rafe, takes Johnny home. Sami tells Rafe that Johnny doesn’t want Nicole to be his mother, and he’s going to get what he wants. Nathan tells Stephanie he heard the truth about Parker, but she stays mum when he wonders why Caroline would switch the results. Nathan is called away as Kayla returns. She explains to Stephanie that her name was kept out of the reveal. Stephanie and Kayla visit Caroline, whose blood pressure rises when she sees Kayla. Nathan comes in and, after Caroline settles down, he wonders what upset her. Kayla covers and refrains from telling Nathan about Stephanie’s role in keeping the paternity secret. Maggie blasts Philip for all the trouble and pain he’s caused and he takes it like a man. Melanie arrives and talks to Philip about his plans for Parker. Later, Nathan is shocked to learn from Stephanie that Philip cheated on Melanie and is Parker’s father. He shows up at Melanie’s door. Kayla tells Stephanie she can’t promise no one else will tell Nathan the truth. Later, Stephanie finds herself face-to-face with Philip. Philip has it out with Vivian about Chloe. Brady and Kate put their plan in motion to neutralize Vivian. When Vivian and Gus take a flight to deal with supposed Titan business, they are pushed out of the plane!

Nathan tries to comfort Melanie, who admits she made a big mistake marrying Philip. She backs off when she finds out Nathan is still marrying Stephanie the next day. Meanwhile, Philip has figured out Stephanie knew all along that he was Parker’s father. She tells him not to let anyone know that because if Nathan finds out, he might break up with her and reunite with Melanie. This would ruin any chance Philip has of getting Melanie back. Philip promises not to tell Stephanie’s part in it all. However, Nathan arrives in time to overhear the last part. Nathan reads an email Stephanie sent to Ian, telling him not tell anyone what they did. As Stephanie puts on her edding dress, Nathan, having learned all from Ian, bursts in to confront her! Bo and Hope get help from Leo, an old Merchant Marine pal. He lets them escape on his boat. Bo and Hope try to investigate via computer what Jane and Lee are doing. Meanwhile, Lee convinces Jane to start selling organs again in case they’re caught and need money to skip town. Jennifer feels for Ben’s frustration over not getting enough organs for transplants. Back on the boat, Bo and Hope discover Jane is making calls to someone on a secret cell, but are unable to find out who the number belongs to. Bo reminds Hope they make a good team and always have been. Vivian and Gus have landed on a deserted island. After a supply crate is airdropped to them, they realize they’re going to be there for awhile. Vivian vows to survive.