Days of Our Lives Recap: Eric Punches EJ, Assaults Shawn & Is Arrested

As we get into Salem, Nicole’s scoffing at EJ’s offer to go back home with him — until he explains he’s just trying to help her out. And is a bit lonely himself. The two start stumbling out when Eric walks in. “Oh,” Nicole mutters, “God give me strength.” Eric stops them, asks if she’s drunk and the two go at it as EJ goads Nicole’s ex as they trade barbs over which one was the “biggest mistake of her life.”

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Nicole makes it clear that she wasn’t sleeping with him, she just has nowhere else to go because she blew up her marriage for him and he wants nothing to do with her. EJ keeps pushing and Eric warns him to stay out of it. “It’s all on you. You didn’t have to lose your baby and Nicole. That was your choice.” So Eric punches him in the face.

At the precinct, Belle walks in to let Shawn know Trask is charging Paulina and not backing down. Shawn warns his wife that Paulina could be extradited to the UK, so this isn’t going to be easy. Shawn’s stressed and Belle mentions at least he has the next day off, but no, he doesn’t. Jada called out after a medical procedure. Belle’s concerned: “What kind of medical procedure?” Shawn doesn’t know and it’s not his business, but Belle mentions that her mom said Jada’s pregnant. But no, of course it wasn’t an abortion! She and Eric were too excited for the kid. The two head out to Small Bar.

Shawn and Belle walk in as EJ gets back up and tells them what happened. Shawn tries to remove Eric from the situation, then realizes he had a drink. He tries to get him out of the bar again when Eric shoves him down to the ground. EJ’s a bit too happy and tells Shawn to arrest Eric. He’s pressing charges. Nicole half-heartedly protests until EJ makes it clear, “You don’t owe him anything, Nicole, not a damn thing.” She agrees and Shawn slaps cuffs on him.

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At Paulina’s office, Alex walks in on Chad and Stephanie hugging. He brought food for her since she was so busy. He gets salty and assumes she lied about being busy with work. They inform him it’s not what he thinks, Paulina was arrested and they’re scrambling to figure out what to do. Alex offers to help with a fresh pair of eyes. He helped them with the file, so he’s in this one way or another anyway.

The three break out the food and get to work, with Alex getting flirty with Stephanie, to Chad’s annoyance. Alex also says Paulina shouldn’t apologize for protecting her kid and Stephanie agrees. They workshop it a bit and Chad offers a few improvements, glaring at Alex and Stephanie as they make eyes at each other. They finish up and share a threeway toast with sodas, then break out the fortune cookies. Stephanie’s says, “You’re looking at the man of your dreams.” She looks from Alex to Chad, making them both uncomfortable.

Over at the Kiriakis mansion, Sonny’s still trying to help Leo find a job. The sometimes conman lets Sonny know how much he appreciates the help. Leo’s hungry and Sonny offers to have the cook make food. Once he’s gone, his phone rings… and Leo picks up and says hi to Will. Sonny comes back and grabs the phone away from Leo and says he was just helping, but Will doesn’t seem happy about it. Then he tells a devastated Sonny he won’t be home for Christmas. They hang up as Sonny fights back tears and Leo offers support, saying he’s sorry. “Yeah, me too.”

Will’s too busy making a movie… for Peacock. (We see you, Days of Our Lives.) Leo acknowledges that maybe answering Sonny’s phone didn’t help. He offers to go, but Sonny tells him to stay for dinner.

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Kristen, meanwhile, is talking to a doll, admitting her plan worked to get Brady to see her as a generous, supportive person by pretending she was going to console EJ. Naturally, Brady walks in and lets Kristen know he heard “just enough to be concerned.” But he only thinks it’s strange she’s talking to dolls. Then they go over Rachel’s Christmas list — which includes mommy and daddy marrying. Brady thinks Kristen put her up to it, but she says no. It’s just natural for a kid to want her parents together. If she intended for them to marry, she’d just force him into it with her orchid, but she doesn’t want to do that.

She just had to break through the wall he built. She did it, so now she’s just letting things grow naturally. Fine, then. Brady says she should prove her sincerity and love by giving him the orchid. She’d love to, but she doesn’t trust him. But this arrangement isn’t terrible, is it? Maybe they should spend the night together? They’ve had sex before after all, he should just give in to his feelings.

In the show’s last few moments. Nicole and EJ get back to the DiMera mansion and Nicole says she feels responsible for…