DAYS spring preview

Nicole/Eric/Mackenzie: “Nicole has pieced together that Mackenzie is most likely really Rachel, Kristen and Brady’s child. So, here Nicole is in this very odd place because she kept this secret for an entire year and kept Eric away from his baby. And now she’s in this position where she wants to tell the truth, but if it turns out to be right, she basically is going to be depriving Eric of a child.” After Xander tampers with the DNA test Nicole orchestrated, “She’s now on a new track to proving that the baby really is Kristen and Brady’s.”

Gabi: “Gabi really never got to truly mourn Stefan because she threw herself into a revenge plan, and was driven by punishing Lani. Now that the revenge has sort of slipped away from her, she’s just left with the loss of this guy. Naturally, she’s thinking about him more and dreaming of him. She thinks she catches his reflection in the glass of a storefront in Horton Town Square. She turns around and he’s not there. She starts to get this weird feeling that Stefan’s alive, which of course seems completely irrational because we know that his heart went to Julie, but it is sort of setting her on this path that you will see unfold very soon.”

Xander/Sarah: “Xander is finally so close to getting what he wants. Sarah’s agreed to marry him, but he’s keeping this terrible secret from her, which is that her child is not hers. He’s really scrambling to try to contain it and he thinks he can be one step ahead of Nicole. Now that Nicole seemingly accepts that she was wrong about Mackenzie, he’s starting to get his confidence back and he’s going to live happily ever after with Sarah. It’s all kind of back on one track while Nicole is still digging on the other side.”

Brady/Kristen: “Kristen has started to have these odd dreams that her child is out there and needs her. While she says in her head she knows it’s not true, in her heart she can’t quite accept it. She’s like, ‘I know it’s irrational. I know that my baby is dead, but I can’t shake this feeling,’ which is just so interesting because her maternal instinct is correct. She’s struggling to basically give up this idea that her baby could be out there.”

Hope: “When Hope finds out what she did to Jennifer and what she did to Marlena and John and really just so many of their loved ones and also that she wreaked havoc on the police station, she really is overcome with guilt over everything. And while people try to tell her, ‘You didn’t have a choice, there was something controlling you. This was not in your free will. You would never have done these things,’ she knows that on some level, she’s just like, ‘It was still me. I still did these things.’ So she will be dealing with that.”

Abigail/Chad: “The audience has seen Chad was brainwashed by Stefano, he’s under his control. We did that while Abby was away in Africa because we figured the person closest to him would be able to see the change. Now Abigail is back and that’s sort of throwing Stefano’s plan into a tailspin because now Abigail is kind of realizing something’s up with her husband. She’s becoming a little bit of a problem for Stefano and we’re wondering is she going to uncover what’s going on with Chad and is this going to put her in some kind of danger from Stefano.”

Evan/Orpheus: “There is a chance that because his confession was coerced, there is a legal argument here that Evan might end up slipping through the fingers of justice. Orpheus brings in a lawyer to defend Evan and there is a chance that the case against him may fall apart and he may be back on the loose.”

Ben/Ciara: “It’s been a long journey for Ben and Ciara. Luckily, the audience didn’t have to live through his entire incarceration because some of that happened in the gap year, but we know that they’ve been apart for so long. What’s great about this couple is instead of the charges against him and his incarceration tearing them apart, it actually pulled them together. Ciara did not turn her back on him. She never believed it. She believed in his innocence and she fought to save him the entire time, and ultimately she did. Now after some legal wrangling about Evan’s confession, even if that’s still up in the air, it’s still proven that Ben is innocent. So whether or not they can charge Evan kind of turns out to be a separate issue from Ben. Ben is cleared. His conviction’s overturned. Ben is released. We have a big romantic reunion between Ciara and Ben. It becomes a question of, ‘What is the next logical step for this couple?’ Without going too far, I think the audience could speculate on what they want the next step in their relationship to be. I can say that we will most likely be delivering on that very soon.”