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Jen Lilley Delivers Power Performance As Theresa Leaves Salem On Days of our Lives!

By Michael Fairman

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Courtesy/NBC

Courtesy/NBC

She hit all the right notes of playing Theresa’s (Jen Lilley) inner turmoil, resolve and strength, and heartbreak, on her final air show on Days of our Lives!

For those who have witnessed Jen Lilley’s portrayal of former wild child, bad girl-turned-mother, who made the ultimate sacrifice for her child and the man she loves, it has been a tour de force performance all along the way.

In story, Theresa is exiting Salem with drug lord Mateo, who wants her back and is threatening harm to Brady and her son, Tate if she does not comply.  In a twist, Theresa is also helping her dad Shane (Charles Shaughnessy) and the ISA nab the guy for his criminal activities.

Lilley, who announced her exit from the long-running NBC series months ago, wrapped up her time on DAYS on Friday’s episode with quite a stellar line-up of goodbye scenes. Chief among the stellar scenes had Theresa looking at Brady Black (Eric Martsolf), the man she loves straight in the eye when he asks her, “There’s something you’re not telling me. What is it?”  When she offers nothing, Brady tells her to tell him she doesn’t love him.  Theresa’s reply … she is not sure she ever did! Crushing.

To continue her charade to protect Brady and Tate, she really goes in for the low blow by telling Brady she’s outta there and not to leave the light on.  After she exits the Kiriakis mansion, Theresa sobs.  In that sequence of scenes, Lilley displayed a multitude of emotions from the cover-up to the raw truth of her situation, and the consequences of her actions.

And in another memorable scene it is Lilley and long time veteran icon, John Aniston (Victor) who broke our hearts.  When Theresa arrives at the Kiriakis mansion to pack her things and take some mementos with her, Victor informs her that the nanny just put Tate down so she can spend some final minutes with him.  Next, Theresa implores Victor to help Brady get through this.  She doesn’t want him using drugs again. Victor hopes she can get the goods on Mateo to put him behind bars forever, so everything she is sacrificing is worth it.  Victor tells Theresa how proud he is of her, adding “You’ve come a long way.”   Theresa is overcome.  Victor tells her he will always consider her part of the Kiriakis family. In Greek, he tells her to come back to them soon.  They share an emotional hug as Theresa then goes to share her last goodbyes to her son.

At the end of the episode, Theresa meets with Mateo and walks off out of Horton Town Square as Shane makes a call to someone to tell them, “They are on the move.”  Fade to black and the final performance of Jen Lilley on DAYS.

Lilley tweeted on the overwhelming response to her final episode: “Thank you for the outpouring of love today #days fans!! I love each and every one of you!” Prior to the airing of the episode, Jen shared: “I don’t think I’ve fully processed that today is my last day airing on @nbcdays. I’m so grateful for every moment we’ve shared!” To her on-screen love interest, Eric Martsolf she said, “Oh how I miss this wonderful man.”

So, what did you think of Jen Lilley’s final bow on Days of our Lives as Theresa? Share your comments below!

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I hated this storyline. Cruel and preposterous. As though anyone’s family would supprt such deception and willingly abandoning a baby? There were other ways for this actor to leave.

I agree they shoulda killed her off

Agreed, Anne….the presumption of leaving one’s baby is outrageous and inconceivable for any mother; unless said mother is a heartless b**ch.
However, aside from the ridiculousness of the story, so typical of any soap, Lilley delivered a stunning performance. I am very partial to Jen, I love her to pieces as an actress, so, I tend to sing her praises at every opportunity. To put cream and cherry on her skillful acting, Jen is, also, gorgeous!!
I only hope we will see her again, either on Days, or elsewhere……whatever her endevors, I will be watching.

seriously? Theresa came in with years of bad baggage dragging behind her..it’s easy to see how mateo or any other loser she left hanging from her pre-salem days would come back to haunt her. He probably isn’t even the worst of them and her lying butt probably has another kid out there somewhere. With a well developed and portrayed anti heroheroine anything is is possible. She’ll be back..they scored a coup re casting abby so..on the other hand when all was said and done brady seemed relieved and gave up too easily..jmo.

on a brighter note anne leaves the hospital and becomes jen’s assistant at the spectator..hee hee i can’t wait for that pairing..don’t know how it comes about but it does.

jen lilley chose to leave the show , this is her decision . i am glad they didn’t kill off theresa . Days is really good at the moment . can’t wait for monday !

Absolutely, Nicholas. It is never a good idea to kill off a viable actor/character. Just look at Will. Many of us WANT him back. However, the good thing is that even when dead, there’s always hope of a return, in soaps. LOL.

If they bring back Chandler Massey as Will, then I will start watching the show regularly again. Until then, I will check-in occasionally, and likely check-out within a few minutes of boredom.

I fear that if they do bring Chandler back, they will fill his time with inane nonsense, rather than meaningful character growth. It will irritate me if they waste Chandler’s acting talents, but I’ll still watch anyway.

Although Chandler seemed to work well with any of the other actors on the screen, he seems to shine most in his scenes with Marlena doling out wise grandmotherly/psychiatrist advice.

If the only way to make Will’s character acceptable and palatable to the show’s core audience of squeamish blue-haired matrons is to have him primarily interacting with his mother and grandmothers (or showing how his actions affect the elder females in his life), then I could live with that.

@ChandlerFan.
Everything you said. When I think of ‘Will’, I think Chandler….love him forever.

Jen’s performance throughout these last few weeks has been amazing, but Friday’s performance was Award winning. It was impeccable. The scene with Victor was phenomenal and heart breaking at the same time. She is an amazingly talented actress. What Victor said in Greek , I say ditto.

Ageed! Great Acting and I did like the storyline.. We all need to remember it is a soap and we need to get a few wild soap stories out there. I liked how we finally realized why she did not go by her real name.. that now makes sense. .even though that was figured into this exit storyline. Great writing by the writers in my opinion…

Jen is a treasure and they masked horrible story points with her tour de force performance and stellar dialog from all the script writers this week, particularly Kreitman’s first script on Thursday, and of course, Carolyn Culliton’s Friday script. Couldn’t the head writers have connected Matteo to Eduardo and that budding story or instead of having Zander as the third wheel of the baddies who broke out of jail, they could have had Matteo getting out on a technicality and gunning for theresa and connecting him to Orpheus and Clyde. The lack of creating in creating an umbrella storyline is mind boggling given the writers had just launched their stories nine weeks ago.

Z
Loved this storyline ending!! Now she could always come back

Jen Lilley did a fine job, but I don’t want Theresa back unless she’s the mean bitch that I loved!

Yeah, 4ever, my friend. But, mean with a good heart. One who loves her man with powerful conviction. LOL.

DAYS lost another major talent with the loss of Jen Lilley. She was one bright spot in a really terrible show. I swear their desire to relive the 80’s is awful. The stories have ZERO depth. The couples they are focusing on are total snoozes. For once and for all — John and Marlena are not 25, they are well into their 60’s and 70’s and need story lines that focus on this. They are not secret agents or government employees. Patch and Kayla — sweet lord they are so boring. In the 80’s they fit together but now they are comic book characters in a comic book that you drip water on the page so their thought bubbles get blotted out. I know he is wearing the same leather jacket he wore in 1988. Time to grow up already. Hope going to prison, maybe realistic for what she did but now we will have the typical story of a prisoner getting beaten up by some gang chick with the Marlena doppelganger Hattie saving her. I swear these story lines aren’t even being written, they are just being re-acted by the same actors. DAYS needs to throw someone in a grave or bring back Satan or find a new serial killer. These pathetic excuses of stories are just awful. The Theresa story was only good in that it gave Jen Lilley a chance to act up a storm. But the excuse they made to get her out of town was just awful. The way it’s going now the next ax to fall on DAYS will be them hiring Jill Farren Phelps and Chuck Pratt to produce and write. Then that final nail will go in. It is sad because for awhile DAYS was cranking out some decent stories. Sami and EJ, Will and Sonny and Paul. Kristen. Eve and Jennifer. Theresa and Ann ganging up on Jennifer. Now we get a pirate who doesn’t want to grow up and some old codger with his psycho…oops I meant psychiatrist wife who wants to be a modern Lone Ranger. (C’mon Marlena, the theme from The Exorcist is playing, let’s get going one more time)….

I wish they would bring back sami too and those big gothic storylines

The storyline of Theresa’s exit was beyond ridiculous – I couldn’t even finish watching it the other day (I guess it was Friday’s episode) – combined with that stupid wedding, please. Maybe I have just seen one too many soap plots and after a while they are all EXACTLY the same idiotic formula. Bad girl turns good, turns her life around, becomes self-sacrificing like Mildred Pearce, it’s all redundant after a while.

The thing that really sucks about this is that Jen really had this character nailed down and it will be very tough to get another actress to follow in her footsteps should DAYS decide to recast. The soap world is/was lucky to have her because she can do a very good job playing anything she’s handed and I am talking about both her roles because she did an awesome job filling in for Kirsten Storms as Maxie on GH when Kirsten was ill. With luck, we’ll see her in something else very shortly!!!

I would much rather have had Shane and Victor arrange for Theresa to go into hiding until they could deal permanently with Matteo. That the writers would have a Mexican drug lord force Theresa to abandon Brady and her son to return to Mexico with him is awful.

I was very dissapointed in the outcome and goodbye to Jen Lilley. She promised months ago it would be sad but make us laugh also. Don’t know about anyone else, but I sure was not laughing. Where was her beloved grandmother Caroline, with some sort of goodbye. Hope she is well in real life. I am sure we all wish Jen good luck and we know it was her choice, but I really think it could have been done in a more realistic way.

Caroline was busy making sandwiches but did call Theresa to wish her a good trip…..okay I just made that up but this show is so stupid what’s the difference.

Yes, and drugs are stupid too, but after more than fifty years of watching these shows, I guess I am hooked, a soap opera junkie, or whatever.

Bravo to Jen Lilley for all of her scenes over the past 2 weeks and especially on Friday. As others have mentioned, I wasn’t thrilled with the ridiculous story; but, Jen did an excellent job playing what she was given. She portrayed the perfect amount of pain and guilt over leaving her family along with the resolve to make this break work. Jen had done a great job with Theresa growing from selfish, scheming wild-woman to a committed partner for Brady and mother to Tate.

Thank you and congratulations Jen. I wish you the very best life has to offer.

This actress deserved a better story! That said, her talent will shine through sub par writing. When she was on GH She took over a cpmlex role played by a beloved actress and made it her own.

Best of luck!

Zzzzzz.

You were brilliant! I felt your pain over the last couple of weeks and in that final moment you had me tears. Best of luck and I really hope you come back to days.

I think she played all her rolls quite well. When she was evil n causing trouble we all wanted to hate her n think some one should get rid of her. When she was lying or covering up her actions you wanted to say ” can’t some one see that she is lying”. What is wrong with the others that they can’t see what she was doing! I was horrified when Kristin stole her baby n claimed it was hers, what an awful thing for someone to do or even think of doing. You have some evil writers there! Wow!! Her last performance I thought was very, very thoughtful n kind. To give up your child n the man you truly love in order to help others get Mateo with the evidence they need to put him away I thought was so sad. I admire her for putting her family first that was totally an unselfish act. She was kind, n tormented that she had to do this. I don’t blame her for not telling Brady because he would have done just what she said he would do…go after Mateo n her. He would have ruined everything. She was so brave . She was hurting so bad when she played the part she did around Brady. She showed real love for her family. She showed how she really wanted to put Mateo away once n for all. It is too easy to just kill someone off to get rid of. But her performance showed real character, someone is doing something she hates to do with a real scumbag just for the RIGHT reasons. I applaud you for your final episode. You are very talented.

Definitely a great actress that surely will be missed, wish we new why she is leaving and if we will get to see her performe on some show or movie in the near future, thank you Lilley, for the best performance on Days of our Lives!

I think Jen and everyone did a great job, but I really despise the storyline. They should have recast the character.

Brady has horrible luck with women.

If they wanted to keep the character, they could have done a re-cast rather than come up with this absurd exit storyline.

I agree with you on that. I would almost rather they killed her off. As it is, if she ever returns in the future, the character will most likely be re-cast anyway.

Sorry you are leaving Days, Jen! I will miss you and Brady and your scenes together. Is there a chance you will be coming back someday? Hope so! Whatever you do I want to wish you good luck!

Jen Lilley have a wonderful performance. I cried during Baby Tate goodbye scenes.

I did not like this overall storyline. However, it gave Jen a diverse and powerful reel for her to take with her. Days does not always graciously give that opportunity. Jen Lilley was “all in” of her support of show from her first day.

Some of the early writing for Theresa was disappointing. so, by giving this rather odd send off story fixes some of the things for her and her time at Days.

Jen Lilley will be successful as a Mom and as a leading actress. She is an honorable and talented person who gave more to Days than she was given at the show on several key stories.

Godspeed to Jen Lilley. Looking forward to her many upcoming projects.

I’m certainly glad she was killed off. Wonderful actress! Hope she comes back to Days but wish her all the luck in her future !

Correction…. glad she Wasn’t killed off !!

I thought jen played a wonderful part. She is quite the actress . I hate to see her gone .maybe some time in the future she will come back. I,m glad she did not get killed off. My best to Jen

Awesome and memorable performance…..Jen Lilley deserves an Emmy for her performance these last few days……Jen you played this departure so believable that had my husband and I sitting with our mouths open and saying she is really playing this to the max…..we were feeling your pain along with you and then the moment with ‘Victor’…….this did bring tears to my eyes. Well Done Jen…….hope you will have a wonderful life and hope to see you in the future strutting your stuff. Love you girl.

I really never liked her and I never liked her and Brady together . I love him and Melanie together they had such charisma .

Some characters are so easily forgiven and some characters who are decent and respectable get shyt on and just disappear without a trace.

I like Theresa and Brady. I am sad to see this pairing end. Best wishes to Jen and I’m glad the writers didn’t kill Theresa off.

Brady, Tate, and Theresa should have gone into Witness Protection if that guy was really such a threat. It just doesn’t make sense. Just a way to have Theresa leave and Brady melt down…again. Poor Brady.

From my perspective
Im not sure anyone has to “act” ones age. What does acting ones age mean? How does one know if they are acting their age? Ageism? Steve and John have always been hero’s. They are characters born within Days heyday period history when action/adventure
Storylines were dominant. “Saving The day” plots are deeply imbedded not only in the shows dna but also in characters ofJohn and Patch. They’ve explored both couples struggles with aging and trying to escape the danger and chaos of Isa jobs. I think women of mature ages can still be written as as damsel on distress without ignoring the wisdom or know how of the the women in peril.

Jen has been amazing. I am glad the show did not kill off the character. Chances are, Theresa will return at a later date. I do not want to want to see another character come back from the grave. It was Jen’s decision to leave the show. Brady is too important to the core characters to leave. I want Brady to take some time off before he is paired with Nicole, Chloe or whomever.

I also agree it is time Marlena and John act age appropriate.

I think that Marlena and John should be discussing their Medicare coverage, and not these absurd teeny bopper storylines – it’s embarressing to watch them “cope” with problems that would normally be associated with a young married couple.

I am I the only one who doesn’t care about dumb Joey and his even dumber girlfriend having a baby? Am so sick of these teens, playing at being grownups and their problems.

No trust me you are not the only one who grows tired of the teen storyline. Most of the viewers are, I dare to say, 40+ in age – I could be wrong on that point, but I find Joey’s character rather one dimensional and uninteresting.

Days Of Our Lives

‘Days of Our Lives’ Favorites Making Returns: Alison Sweeney, Christie Clark, Chandler Massey and Bryan Dattilo

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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.

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Days Of Our Lives

‘Days of Our Lives’ Alum Al Calderon Talks On His Daytime Emmy-Nominated Scenes as Javi Hernandez (Exclusive)

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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.”

Alice Halsey

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.

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Emily O’Brien Talks On Her Y&R Past as Jana Hawkes and Working with Peter Porte on ‘Days of Our Lives’

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Emily O'Brien

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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