Let’s talk about Wendy.
She’s only been in Salem a week, and viewers either love her or hate her.
On Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-17-22, Wendy progressed toward finding out what her brother Li’s secret was, while Tripp and Joey fought for her attention, and Johnny may be smitten with her too. Let’s hope she doesn’t get dragged into a stupid competition for her affection when she has so much more potential.
Days of Our Lives needs fresh, strong characters to keep the series going, and Wendy fits the bill.
She’s a determined, intelligent, and feisty young woman who refuses to accept being treated as a second-class citizen by her own family because of her gender.
Some viewers think that makes her an entitled brat, but her frustration is understandable. She’s had to work twice as hard as her brother to prove herself because she’s a woman and was shoved into a position in Fairbanks to shut her up.
She knows she has the talent- in fact, she’s probably more intelligent than Li- but her father and brother will never let her shine because they would consider it a hugely shameful thing if a sister were to outdo her brother. Good for her for not accepting that without a fight!
Wendy’s making one mistake, though, insisting on working for Dimera Enterprises.
Despite her fight to get out from under Li’s shadow, her employment at Dimera depends on him. It would be much more liberating — and compelling for viewers — if she and Gabi decided that since they’d both been squeezed out of positions they could excel in, they’ll start their own company.
If Wendy worked independently of the family business, her father would be unable to stop her from reaching her potential, and it would be exciting for her and Gabi to out-compete Dimera Enterprises.
That would cause some fantastic drama if Gabi found herself stuck between wanting to do a stellar job at her new company and wanting to salvage her relationship with Li.
The problem is that Wendy needs some way to find out what Li is up to, and the job he suddenly gave her at Dimera will allow her to do that.
It sucks that she was given a job out of the blue rather than making something happen for herself, but it fits the plot, so that’s what the DAYS writers made happen for her.
Wendy: So who’s CEO now?
Gabi: EJ Dimera
Wendy: Another straight white man. Of course.
Although Wendy is right that she’s being shunted aside in favor of a white man (and one with a lot of money and resources to force his way, to boot!), Days of Our Lives needs to be careful about being too on the nose with its dialogue.
EJ indeed has a LOT of privilege, and these types of conversations about how hiring decisions are made and who gets to be at the top are ones we badly need to have.
But when it’s said that bluntly, it turns people off, and they dismiss the story as “woke nonsense” instead of considering the point. Surely there was a way to say it that is easier to digest.
Wendy’s also been thrust back into the silly competition between Joey and Tripp for her affections that will hopefully go nowhere.
She made it clear during Beyond Salem 2 that she was not interested in a relationship with either of these guys, only for them to try again to get her attention as soon as they ran into her in Salem.
They aren’t quite as obnoxious as Alex, but still. At least Tripp showed some interest in Wendy’s life or did until Joey showed up, anyway.
Then the brotherly bickering and one-upmanship began. These two will push Wendy into Johnny’s arms with this repulsive behavior.
Let’s hope this love triangle remains a side story. Wendy is too strong a character to get bogged down in this ridiculous excuse for a love story.
The complexity of her relationship with Li is fascinating and adds layers to both of their characters. She’s jealous of him, and he finds her annoying, yet she’s also the first person he called with the news he was getting married, and he is forever grateful that Tripp and Joey saved her life in Hong Kong.
When things implode between Li and Gabi, what will Wendy do? She’ll probably have a hand in it since she and Johnny are looking into Li’s involvement with Stefan. But still.
Gabi is Wendy’s friend, and Li is her brother. What will she do when forced to take a side between them?
Meanwhile, the conclusion of the poisoning story was less than exciting.
There were massive flaws in this story, to begin with. Orpheus stole a vial from Rolf’s lab without any attempted repercussions from the Dimeras.
Where’s Andre when you need him? He’d love to go toe-to-toe with Orpheus over any perceived slight.
Once Orpheus poisoned the women, he was very quickly arrested, and after Steve tried to attack him, Orpheus disappeared from the canvas.
That’s not how a compelling villain story goes. It should have been about the guys taking action to get the antidote while Orpheus opposed them at every turn until finally, they defeated him and got back to the women with the cure in the nick of time.
Instead, the poisoning was nothing more than a vehicle for Kristen to blackmail Brady into dumping Chloe and reconciling with her. We got some intense drama out of the men’s frustration with watching their wives become sicker and sicker, but it was cheapened by the knowledge that the women would somehow live.
The serum magically appeared at the police station, the women were given it, and two of them worsened for five seconds before bouncing back and beginning to recover—the end.
The only exciting thing about this is trying to guess who will catch on to Kristen’s role in this first.
Kristen thinks she won, but she’s being so obvious that she will get caught. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Chloe walked in on Kristen gloating that Brady had no choice but to let her move in. It would be nice if she had overheard, but either way, she should remember Kristen basically laying out this whole thing before it happened.
John also thought it was odd that Brady suddenly dropped Chloe. And what will he think when he returns home and finds her in his house?
And Stefan figured out already that Kristen may have brainwashed him so that he could interfere with Brady and Chloe’s relationship. He also found it odd that Kristen already knew the two had broken up.
Brady should never have agreed to this. He should have told Rex what had happened and had him synthesize extra serum from the vial Kristen dropped off.
Instead, he gave in without much of a second thought. Ugh.
Meanwhile, can someone please make this Jada/Eric/Nicole/Rafe nonsense stop?
Nobody is acting like an adult here except for Eric.
Nicole should not have hired Eric for the sole purpose of covering a lie about why she went to visit him.
Jada should not have spied on Nicole and Rafe’s fight (sorry, I don’t believe her claim that she was “stuck” because they would have seen her walking away.).
And Rafe should not have decided to hide from Nicole because he was scared of continuing to fight for her.
Firing someone over email is also very tacky. Ugh.
This is all predictable now, too. Nicole will likely rehire Eric, only for the two of them to cheat on Rafe.
This would be more heartbreaking if we’d ever been privy to Nicole and Rafe’s alleged happiness.
After she and Rafe married, they didn’t share many scenes. Rafe was always running off to the crime scene, and Nicole was always finding a reason to comfort Eric.
It’s hard to feel sad about a relationship ending that didn’t exist on-screen, even for people like me who have shipped Nicole/Rafe for years.
It’s also hard to believe that Gwen has reformed this time.
We’ve heard this song and dance before. Gwen is always sorry when she gets caught and swears she’s learned her lesson, only to do something horrible that angers Jack when he finally finds out about it.
Viewers were burned out on this story about three cycles ago, so she’d better stay reformed this time!
Gwen turned Ava down, but she did that before, only to change her mind when she wanted to play a childish prank on Abigail. So why should anyone believe that this time will be any different?
Strangely, Sarah and Rex haven’t had more than a scene together since they both returned to town, and Gwen’s trying to keep her promise to leave Sarah and Xander alone.
Jack refused to give Xander a job because he didn’t want him to continually cross paths with Gwen and tempt her into bad behavior.
Could Sarah and Xander actually be allowed to move forward as a couple? So far, the only bump in the road is Xander owing money to the Salem Inn and Maggie having a strange reaction to them deciding to move into the Kiriakis mansion.
Ava has now targeted Xander to help her get EJ back. If he does it, Sarah won’t be happy. Let’s hope they have a better storyline than that planned for these two!
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts.
Don’t forget to check back on Sunday for the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives airs on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekdays at 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.