You know the song and the adage, “Save the Best for Last”, well, that is exactly what Sal Stowers (Lani Price Grant) did, when she had viewers of Days of our Lives in tears during her final scenes on Friday’s episode of the long-running NBC soap opera.

Stowers, who along with her co-star, Lamon Archey (Eli), opted not to renew their contracts with the series, which then facilitated their exits. Thus, viewers were in for one last emotional ride during their departures.

Now, while Lani admitted she killed TR, and quickly got a plea deal, she was then ready to be transferred to an out-of-state prison facility to serve out her time.  While all of this happened in short order, for the back-half of Friday’s episode you needed to have the hankies ready. That’s because of Stowers heartfelt goodbyes with her co-stars, which also played out for her on-screen alter ego, Lani.

In story, Abe (James Reynolds) joins Paulina (Jackée Harry) and Lani in the Salem PD interrogation room. With tears welling up in his eyes, Abe hands Lani some documents to sign.  After she realizes what they are, Lani says, “You want to adopt me?” Abe says, ‘yes’, and lets her know that she’s his daughter in every way that counts.

After Lani and Abe share a tender moment together, Lani turns to Paulina and gives her the greatest gift – acknowledging Paulina as her mother.

Photo: JPI

Later with Chanel (Raven Bowens), Theo (Cameron Johnson), and now Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes) and Eli present, Rafe shows up to tell Elani that the transfer is done, and Lani can go to the facility in D.C.  That prompts Rafe to share emotional hugs with his two best cops.  It is then that Eli tells Lani he is moving to D.C. to be close to her.

Before Lani heads off, Paulina asks her to say it one more time.  Lani simply, once again, calls her “Mom”.  Elani’s twins, Carver and Jules are there as well, and Lani tells her children she is going on a little trip, but she will never, ever stop thinking of them.

Photo: JPI

The final moment of the episode has Lani and Eli giving one last look to their family collectively, before they exit the police station.

Throughout all of the goodbyes, there was never a false note delivered by Sal Stowers.  She always brought the strength, elegance, and determination of Lani Price to her performances, and this time, she did it with heartbreaking moments we will remembers for some time to come.  For all of these reasons, Michael Fairman TV names Sal Stowers work, The Power Performance of the Week.

What did you think of  Lani and Eli’s goodbyes to their loved ones? Sal’s performance? Let us know in the comment section below.

Finally, after many preemptions, General Hospital’s 15,000the episode aired on Wednesday. In it and front and center in the standalone episode was GH icon, Genie Francis (Laura).

In story, after a scathing op-ed is run in The Invader from a group of citizens called “The Friend of Port Charles”, they take aim at Mayor Laura Collins and want a recall to replace her. When trying to figure out who was behind the story, Laura’s friends and the citizens of the town, band together to keep her from being ousted and to figure out who would attack her in the press like this.

That sets up a few sentimental flashback clips featuring the three current longest-running members of the cast, Genie, Kin Shriner (Scott) and Jackie Zeman (Bobbie).  Viewers get a glimpse of Scotty and Laura’s wedding, and then Bobbie’s contentious and duplicitous side when she fought for the love of Scotty against a teenaged Laura.

As Laura tries to determine who is behind the op-ed, Curtis (Donnell Turner) gets a lead from Ms. Wu (Lydia Look) that Laura’s half-brother, Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober) is behind it.  Laura then heads to Pentonville to confront Cyrus.  She asks if he’s the brains behind “The Friends of Port Charles”.

Cyrus insists he is only an advisor. He goes on to say that this is a group of people who are disillusioned by the way she is running the town.  Cyrus gets angry and vengeful, and emotional, when saying the police department is corrupt and how ELQ and Cassadine Industries gets tax breaks at the expense of less fortunate people, etc.  Laura can’t figure out if these people in the ‘friends’ group have such high moral value why would they hire a criminal, like him, as an advisor?

Renault goes on to say that it’s up to God and preaches she needs to be less self-righteous.  Laura throws back to Cyrus that where was God in that scathing op-ed, that he did filled with such hate?  Laura then forgives him and walks out, which stuns Cyrus.

Photo: ABC

Later, Scotty in front of Laura, Bobbie, Anna (Finola Hughes), Felicia (Kristina Wagner) and Lucy (Lynn Herring), proposes to Liesl (Kathleen Gati), but she turns down his marriage proposal.  Liesl feels they have a good thing going , so why mess it up with a marriage at this point. The two kiss.

In addition, Laura meets up with Maxie (Kirsten Storms), who are visiting an institutionalized Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst).  Maxie brings her some cosmetics from Deception because of the bad lighting in the facility.

The softball game was the throughline of the episode, and at the end, we saw the payoff, when all the characters converged on Charlie’s giving their support to Laura, who says she is ready to write her rebuttal.

Then in a voice-over from Laura, she speaks to the essence of Port Charles and its residents which included: that they have a strong community that she is proud to be a part of it and she speaks to her legacy over generations.  Kevin (Jon Lindstrom) proposes a toast to Laura, as she notes that if she loses the recall then so be it, adding that if the person who replaces her is a Port Charles lifer, like she is, then the town will continue to prosper.

So, what did you think of the 15,000 episode milestone episode? Did you enjoy the performance of Genie Francis? Did you like the way much of the cast was utilized, or did you feel otherwise? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

It’s the end of Chabby! Friday’s episode of Days of our Lives brought with it the beginning of a murder mystery on the long-running NBC soap opera.

In story, with several people wanting Abigail Deveraux DiMera dead, it looks like someone stabbed her from the final moments of the episode, when Chad (Billy Flynn) comes upon his wife, when he returns home from a movie with their kids.  Chad finds Abby in their bed, bleeding and non-responsive. DAYS has teased the death of character for a few months now, and everyone learned it is Abigail, played by Lead Actress Daytime Emmy-nominee, Marci Miller, who has exited the series.

Now, the mystery begins … whodunit? Is it a vengefulLeo (Greg Rikaart), who was brandishing a knife after his call with Gwen (Emily O’Brien)? Could it be Gwen herself who called “someone” while the prison guard nodded off for a nap?  Somehow, made it out of prison and back in time and covered her tracks.  Could it be a drunken Lucas (Bryan Dattilo), who ruined his sobriety overcome with the knowledge that Chad told Abby, that he was the one who kidnapped Sami – a secret he doesn’t want to come out. Could it possibly be Kate (Lauren Koslow), who wanted to protect her son, Lucas’ secret, and went to shut Abby up … or could it be someone else?

DAYS head writer, Ron Carlivati spoke to Soap Opera Digest on their latest issue on newsstands now, about the decision to kill-off the character of Abigail, expressing: “It was mostly for a practical reason because Marci was not going to be available to us full-time on contract and it made it challenging to tell story for Chad and Abigail.  So we didn’t really have the option to have Abigail around, and then that always becomes a problem when one-half of a couple is not going to be available to you. What’s the solution at that point?”

In addition, it appears that bringing back Kate Mansi to the role, was not going to solve the issue the show was faced with.  Carlivati explained: “Kate has been willing to come back, but may not necessarily want to come back on contract, so you risk being in the exact same position that then Kate leaves and what do we do? Then the option would be to recast yet again with someone who maybe is willing to be here on a more permanent basis, but then you’re dealing with a new face. We’ve been very lucky in recasting Abigail, but you don’t always know if that’s going to work. So ultimately, we decided to kill the character.”

But as Days of our Lives fans know, does anyone really stay “dead” dead in Salem?  The head scribe shared on that point: “We decided to do it (kill Abigail) knowing that we’re not saying it’s not a permanent death, but there is always that possibility that death is not permanent, especially on a soap opera and especially in Salem, so you feel that maybe you’re not closing off the future of that character forever. That said, this is not going to be an instance of the car going off the cliff and you don’t see the person again. This is going to feel permanent and we wrote it as permanent.”

So, who do you think will wind up being the culprit who murdered Abigail? What do you think about the decision to take the character off the canvas, with what looks like for good? Share your thoughts and theories via the comment section below. But first, check out the promo for next week’s episodes of DAYS and the returns of Cady McClain and Matthew Ashford as Jennifer and Jack who will grieve the loss of their daughter.