EJ’s Evil Evolution: DAYS’s DiMera Villain’s Darkest Deeds

EJ (then-James Scott) was summoned to Salem by his father, Stefano, in 2006 to kill John, hook up with Sami to father a Brady-DiMera child, and wreak havoc on the Brady family. He was the mastermind behind “The Gloved Hand,” whose misdeeds included rigging Max’s (Darin Brooks, l.) race car to explode, poisoning Steve and Kayla, and sabotaging Belle and Mimi’s in vitro fertilization procedures by switching their embryos. (Also pictured: Brandon Beemer as Shawn.)

In 2006, EJ shot John (Drake Hogestyn) and followed that up by forcing Sami to help him through police road blocks at gunpoint. Sami obliged, then begged EJ to help her save Lucas, who was trapped under a fallen beam at a cabin. EJ agreed for a price: He forced Sami to have sex with him.

After Steve (Stephen Nichols) returned from the dead, viewers learned he’d been brainwashed by EJ and turned into a DiMera pawn. In 2007, EJ ordered Steve to kidnap John, so that one of his kidneys could be removed to save an ailing Stefano. Kayla was summoned to a makeshift clinic and forced to perform the surgery.

When John was “killed” by a hit-and-run driver in 2007, Sami (Alison Sweeney) agreed to Stefano’s terms to end the DiMera-Brady feud: Marrying EJ. Although EJ promised to have the union annulled, he put it off claiming his visa had expired. Sami agreed to remain his wife so he wouldn’t be deported. Ultimately, Sami learned it was a lie and that EJ had bribed an immigration agent to lie about his status, and their marriage was terminated.

EJ orchestrated the ultimate revenge plot in 2009, when he staged Sydney’s kidnapping and faked her death to get even with Sami for initially trying to keep their child a secret from him. Then he played the hero by bringing Sydney home and winning back Sami. The couple even planned to wed in 2010. That is, until Rafe (Galen Gering) interrupted ceremony, revealed EJ’s twisted machinations, and Sami walked out on him.

Determined to remove Rafe’s influence from Johnny and Sydney’s lives, Stefano and EJ abducted Rafe and hired lookalike Arnold Feniger (Gering) to take his place in 2011. Arnold began destroying Sami and Rafe’s marriage according to plan. Things went awry when Fay overhead Arnold and EJ discussing their scheme, and Arnold killed her. Although Rafe escaped and reunited with Sami, Stefano and EJ were never brought to justice, because Arnold was killed before he could testify against them.

In an effort to redeem himself, EJ ran for mayor against Abe (James Reynolds) in 2011, but his campaign tactics were anything but honorable. He framed John for corporate embezzlement and filed a class action suit on behalf of the wronged citizens of Salem. Then he blackmailed Will into stealing critical information from Abe’s camp, his new jobs plan, and took credit for it. In the end, his campaign manager, Nicole, fixed the election results, and EJ was declared the winner in 2012.

EJ helped Sami, Gabi and Kate cover up their crime, when they thought they’d killed Nick in 2013. However, after Nick resurfaced alive in 2013, EJ became one of many on his hit list. When photos of EJ and Abigail’s (Kate Mansi) secret tryst at the Horton cabin arrived at the DiMera mansion in 2014, EJ tracked down Nick’s pal, Percy, as the photographer and threatened him into leaving town. Then he ordered a hit on Nick, desperate to get rid of him. Soon after, Nick ended up murdered but by Gabi.

Moving Ava into the family mansion following Jake’s death in hopes of gaining control of her shares in DiMera Enterprises proved a fatal mistake for EJ. The former mobster stood up to EJ and got the upper hand, when she hired Xander to kidnap EJ’s mother, Susan, and demanded a hefty ransom in 2022. EJ retaliated by kidnapping Ava’s son, Tripp. When all was said and done, Susan ended up “dead,” and EJ was hellbent on revenge. He tried to coax Xander into killing Ava in 2023, but Xander refused. Then EJ hired a hit woman to take out Ava, but she was intercepted by Harris.

EJ and Stefan’s brotherly feud for control of the family business led EJ to join forces with Li (Remington Hoffman) in 2023. Li promised to sign all his DiMera shares over to Stefan’s true love, Gabi, if she remained married and faithful to him for six months. Determined to get Gabi to break that fidelity clause, EJ plotted to lure Gabi and Jake together. Eventually, he discovered the couple making love in the wine cellar, and snapped a photo of them together, negating Gabi and Stefan’s hopes of running the company.