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By Any Other Name: Jada (Elia Cantu, r., with Galen Gering as Rafe, r., and Abigail Klein as Stephanie) doesn’t hold back her anger when she encounters Everett/Bobby (Blake Berris).
Jada and Rafe’s double date with Stephanie and Everett implodes when Jada arrives and comes face-to-face with her former husband, “Bobby”. “She’s stunned, as anyone who would be in a situation like that, when your mind is not prepared to see something,” explains Elia Cantu (Jada). “He’s somebody that is out of her life, that’s [in] the past. She doesn’t know he’s in Salem. So it’s almost a feeling of, ‘Am I dreaming? Is this real life right now’? She’s in disbelief [and wondering] what the hell is going on!”
Jada immediately confronts Everett about actually being Bobby, her ex. “She gets right into it in the Brady Pub,” says Cantu. “It doesn’t matter if there are patrons there. She just really digs into him.”
Rafe and Stephanie try to defuse the situation, to no avail. “Jada is laser-focused on Bobby,” asserts Cantu. “She didn’t get closure [when their relationship ended]. That’s the most horrible feeling for a person, to not get closure. Plus, her marriage ended in divorce. She was cheated on, she was betrayed, all this stuff. She never got a chance to tell him how she felt and how he hurt her. So it’s almost like you’re getting all of her past [feelings] in two minutes. She just comes out with everything she probably ever wanted to say to him.”
While Jada continues to badger Everett/“Bobby”, he denies knowing or ever being married to her, insisting she’s got the wrong guy. “Which is insane!” notes Cantu, who says that his denial “is what really triggers Jada. Imagine you’re married to a man, you’re in love with him, and you thought you would have children together. Then all of a sudden he just cheats on you and disappears. And now he’s [saying], ‘I don’t know who you are.’ ” Over the course of “a lot of that back and forth” between the characters, Cantu reports, “It’s a lot of his word against hers, and the audience is going to have to decipher who’s being truthful here.”
Jada’s conviction that the man in front of her is Bobby, no matter what name he’s using. “In this moment in time, she’s like, ‘I know it for sure,’ ” says Cantu. And Cantu is firmly on Team Jada. “I think it’s kind of clear,” she says. “I mean, Jada hasn’t given a reason to ever [doubt her word]. She’s been very honest. But it’s going to confuse the audience.”
Finally, Rafe and Jada take off, and Stephanie is left to wonder if what Jada said is true. While she leaves Everett so she can have time alone to think, Rafe comforts a distressed Jada. “Rafe is being supportive and a listening ear,” says Cantu. “But everyone is confused at this point. Everyone that’s involved is like, ‘What is happening? What’s going on?’ So I think he’s trying to figure it out as much as Jada is. But he’s definitely giving her a shoulder to cry on and being as supportive and understanding as he can be. And he’s trying to be objective, because he slightly knows Everett; he’s had a few interactions with him and Chad. So Jada might not like that. But, at the end of the day, Rafe is there for Jada no matter what.”
