The Justin/Kayla/Steve triangle had to end sometime.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like the way it went down. After all, Kayla was angry at Steve for making decisions for her, yet Justin seemed to be doing the same thing.
Justin’s decision to tell Kayla the truth on Days of Our Lives during the week of 7 -06-20 was heartbreaking, though, and it was a mostly satisfying ending to this messy story.
On the one hand, Justin didn’t give Kayla much more of a choice than Steve did.
He bowed out of the wedding, sent all the guests home, and went to pack his things.
But at the same time, Justin’s decision was full of the type of integrity that is rarely seen on Days of Our Lives anymore.
Sonny: You could have not said anything and then you and Kayla would have been married by now.
Justin: Then I would have felt like our marriage was based on a con, a lie. I couldn’t do that to her.
He felt that Kayla needed to have all the facts, even if it meant she rejected him in favor of Steve, and telling her the truth took a ton of courage.
I never shipped Justin and Kayla at all. I thought they were mismatched, better off as friends, and thrown together hastily as part of the time jump.
But I certainly felt Justin’s heartbreak as he told Kayla that he could tell she wanted to be with Steve, and I ended up feeling bad for him.
Justin has suffered two big losses in the space of only a year or two. He’s lost his wife of 30 years (even though they were separated for part of that time for various reasons) and now he’s lost his new love to Steve.
This is why Justin and Kayla shouldn’t have rushed into marriage, though. I always thought Justin was only proposing because he thought it was the best way to hold onto her, and this whole mess proved it.
Ever since the proposal, Justin has assumed Kayla was leaving him for Steve and gotten angry at her over it several times, only for her to reassure him that she was choosing him.
The only difference between this time and all those other times is that Kayla didn’t reassure him.
She stood silently while he said he wished he’d never learned that Steve was still in love with her and as he canceled the wedding, then apologized tearfully for hurting him.
It was as if everything she had said previously was forgotten. She heard Steve wanted her back and that changed everything.
But as Kayla’s conversation with Steve showed, it was really more complicated than that.
Until Kayla spoke with Steve, I would have said she had convinced herself she was in love with Justin when she wasn’t.
But now I had the feeling that she was more conflicted than she had ever let on.
Yes, Kayla partially talked herself into marrying Justin because she thought Steve wasn’t available.
But I think by the end she was in love with both men.
She hated hurting Justin, and not just because she is an empathetic person.
I think she loved him even though she preferred being with Steve, and it was heartbreaking for her not to marry him even though in the end it was the best thing for both of them.
Kayla was angry at Steve for keeping her and Justin in the dark, especially when so many of her friends knew. I thought her anger at him was a little too short-lived.
She had every reason to be furious. Steve not only lied to her for months, but ended up humiliating her at her wedding when her husband-to-be told her the truth and revealed that all her friends knew.
Plus, his solution to the whole thing was to leave town and even though he ulitmately changed his mind, that wasn’t cool.
Steve’s decision to get off the plane was all sorts of weird, too. He was determined to run away… until he wasn’t.
Maybe he had an intuition that Kayla was around. But when he saw her, he assumed she was headed off on a honeymoon with Justin and didn’t expect her to be single.
Steve and Kayla both should have known each other well enough to see through the other’s BS, and it was weird that they didn’t.
This isn’t Kayla’s first rodeo with Steve, and she should have been well aware that his pushing her away had nothing to do with not loving her anymore.
And Steve should have known that Kayla’s determination to be with Justin was half out of anger that Steve wouldn’t let her be with him.
Their reconciliation was a long time coming, yet it wasn’t totally satisfying because Kayla’s anger was so quickly resolved. I don’t know what would have been better — I didn’t want this dragged out too much longer — but it seemed rushed.
The one part of this story I could have done without altogether was Bonnie’s reappearance.
What did we need her for?
Justin thought she was Adrienne, then ranted at her for the better part of an episode when he found out she wasn’t. These scenes weren’t compelling, especially compared to the much more complex and relatable Lucas/Allie storyline.
Bonnie is obsessed with Lucas, but that adds nothing to the current stories. I’m thrilled Judi Evans still has a home on Days of Our Lives, but I’d rather she do dream sequences as Adrienne than this silliness.
Besides, we already have one doppelganger of a dead spouse story. We don’t need another one.
The Allie storyline continues to be one of the best parts of Days of Our Lives.
I could have sworn John and Marlena already knew Allie was pregnant, but maybe not. Either way, the family scenes with Allie, John, and Marlena were fantastic.
Allie: You know, Grandma, I don’t understand how someone as rational as you could have produced my mother.
John: She has a point there.
Allie keeps worrying that everyone will think she’s like Sami, but it’s obvious the only person who thinks that is Allie herself.
Her family sees her as a troubled young woman who has made her own mistakes, but not an extension of Sami or as a Sami clone.
Allie clearly has issues with her mother that have been swept under the rug for a long time. It was surprising that Marlena didn’t have an inkling of the dynamics.
Besides being a therapist, Marlena knows first-hand how difficult Sami can be. After all, she recently refused to be the one to tell her Eric and Nicole were engaged because she didn’t want to deal with her reaction!
Everyone is right that Sami will react worse if she finds out secondhand that her daughter is pregnant, yet Allie has valid reasons for not wanting Sami to know.
And regardless of how immature her thought process is, Allie is legally an adult, and it is her choice who to tell or not tell — not Lucas’ or anyone else’s.
Marlena suggested that Allie needed family support, but maybe part of what she needs is someone to be with her while she talks to Sami to try to redirect the conversation if Sami loses it.
But that would be too simple a solution for a soap opera. We all know that Sami is going to find out in the worst possible way and then do what Sami does best: create chaos.
In any case, Kate was the voice of reason with Lucas, which was a better role for her than this silly Key to the City ceremony she’s been involved with.
It may seem hypocritical to some viewers, but Kate speaks from experience, and sometimes people find it easier to see their own mistakes in other people.
And she was right: Allie would take it harder if Lucas betrayed her than if anyone else did. Their relationship is already rocky, so bringing in Sami would have been a terrible idea.
Besides, Lucas wasn’t doing it because he thought it was right that Sami knew. He wanted to stop Allie from giving the baby up for adoption, which is not his call to make.
Also on the annoying list with this: Will.
His desire to adopt Allie’s baby is understandable, but his refusal to leave her alone about it isn’t.
Will says he’s not pressuring Allie, but he really is. He’s too determined to get that baby, and he won’t give Allie any space.
I’m glad that she wasn’t home when he stopped by to talk to her. There’s no way that yet another talk about how much he and Sonny want to adopt the baby wouldn’t make her feel pressured.
I don’t believe for one second that he was sincere when he told Rafe he was fine with whichever man Allie chose to raise her child. If Rafe does adopt that baby, Will is going to be just as annoying as Sami would be.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of drama in Jake’s bedroom as Gwen and Gabi battled it out for him again.
Does anyone care about this? Because I certainly don’t. Jake needs to get away from both these obsessive women.
Also uninteresting: the continued mystery over whether Claire is sabotaging Ciara’s wedding.
The nail polish-stained dress was unrealistic enough. There is no way Ben would have bought a ring only to find the box was empty.
The whole thing makes no sense and the story lacks substance. Plus, Ciara is right about Ben being a hypocrite when it comes to Claire.
Friday’s Days of Our Lives was pretty much a wash between the Gabi/Jake/Gwen nonsense and the Ciara/Ben/Claire silliness. Eli and Lani spent too much time in bed, too.
Kate and Vivian’s interactions saved this particular hour of Days of Our Lives, though I still fail to understand why Kate is so easily blackmailed.
Vivian can’t accuse Kate of murdering her. The fact that the so-called victim is alive would scotch that.
And Kate has been accused of shooting Vivian on purpose a billion times before and simply said with a straight face that it was an accident. That’s all she has to do here.
Testify, Kate! Hold someone accountable for their horrendous actions for once. Sheesh.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics.
Share your thoughts about Kayla and Justin’s aborted wedding, Lucas’ desire to tell Sami the truth, and all other things Days of Our Lives.
Don’t forget to check back on Sunday for our Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion.
Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.
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.