Allie finally remembered what happened to her in London.
She had an emotional session with Marlena that gave me hope that maybe Days of Our Lives was finally taking her rape seriously.
Unfortunately, that was a one-shot deal, and Days of Our Lives during the week of 1-25-21 quickly jumped to Allie apologizing profusely for hurting Tripp with her false accusation.
I have mixed feelings about the apology.
Allie DID hurt Tripp. She not only mistakenly accused him of rape, but she tried to shoot him between the legs in the name of vigilante justice, and then her father tried to finish the job with a pair of scissors.
Allie: Do you mind if I talk to Tripp alone?
Steve: Sure.
[After Steve leaves.]
Allie: I just came from the police station.
Tripp: So I guess Shawn told you that the DNA proves that Charlie is Henry’s father. You believe now that I’m innocent?
Allie: I already believed you. I’ve been working with Grandma Marlena and I know now that Charlie was the one who raped me. I came to say I’m sorry. And I know that just saying that isn’t good enough, that it won’t make up for what I said and did to you. I really thought you were the one. I should have gone to Grandma Marlena in the first place. I was wrong and I’m so, so sorry.
So in the context of the story, it makes Allie a stand-up person that she took responsibility for her poor behavior toward Tripp, felt guilty about it, and wanted to make amends.
But at the same time, this story’s focus has been almost 100% on how hard it is for Tripp to be falsely accused rather than on Allie’s emotional reaction to a traumatic attack.
Allie got ONE day to cry and scream and cling to Marlena. ONE day.
By morning, she seemed to be over it and ready to go on an apology tour while Shawn arrested Charlie and Belle broke the news to Claire that Allie had accused the wrong man before.
The focus was STILL almost exclusively on Tripp; the message was that the only thing a rape survivor needs to be okay with is to know the name of her rapist so that he can be arrested. On top of that, the survivor is now the only one apologizing for anything.
This was wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Allie: What if I didn’t say No as much as I think I did? What if I didn’t fight enough? What if I remember and it turns out that it’s my fault I got into this mess?
Marlena: Listen to me. This is not your fault. Whether you fought or you didn’t, you said No or you didn’t, doesn’t matter.
The one day dedicated to Allie’s trauma proved that Days of Our Lives could get it right if they really wanted to.
During Allie’s therapy session, she expressed fear and pain, didn’t want to go too deeply into her traumatic memories, and confided in Marlena that she was afraid that she hadn’t fought back hard enough for it to “count” as rape, which Marlena assured her was not the case.
These scenes hit all the right notes, but the message fell flat because the story had been handled so irresponsibly in the first place.
Days of Our Lives could have done so much better than this.
Instead of there being a whodunit, Allie could have kept the rape to herself when she showed up pregnant but given off subtle signs that something was wrong, like being nervous around gentle Eric because to her, all men are now rapists.
Eric is a rape survivor, and he could have seen the signs long before anyone else, only for everyone to dismiss it as him imposing his own experiences onto Allie.
With Sami also being a rape survivor who wouldn’t want to believe something similar could happen to Allie, this would have led to some great side drama between Eric and his hotheaded twin.
We could even have had some ignorant people blame Allie for her rape because she was drunk, only for people like Nicole, Marlena, and Kayla to come out strongly for the fact that Allie’s inability to consent made this rape and that it was in no way her fault.
It would have been powerful drama if this were intertwined with a story about Lucas worrying that his daughter was an alcoholic like him and struggling to separate his belief that Allie needed to stop drinking from his feelings about what happened to her.
But instead of that nuanced, responsible, emotional story, we got month after month of everyone attacking poor Tripp while Allie insisted the wrong guy raped her.
And to add insult to injury, the real rapist turned out to be, by a huge series of coincidences, Tripp’s unhinged half-brother who followed Tripp to Allie’s flat, waited for him to leave, and then sneaked in to rape her so that the DNA would match Tripp.
There are some annoying plot holes in the story now that Charlie has been outed as the rapist.
For one thing, as Charlie gloated about to Tripp, the incident took place in London, so there is no jurisdiction in Salem.
That was a plot point that could have led to an emotional story for Allie but instead led only to Allie and Lucas attacking what Tripp had between his legs. Anyway, since that’s the case, why on Earth was Shawn able to arrest Charlie?
And the DNA test that “proves” Charlie is baby Henry’s father also “proved” Tripp was, since, in Salem, half-brothers with different fathers have similar enough DNA to fool a paternity test. So even if the DNA evidence was judged admissible, how on Earth does it help anything?
At this point, there’s no way a criminal trial could proceed.
A defense attorney would argue successfully that Allie spent months claiming Tripp raped her, only to turn around and claim Charlie did. There is no forensic evidence of the rape. The baby’s existence only proves that Allie had sex, and she could have had it with either of these men.
It would have made more sense for Allie to drop the civil lawsuit against Tripp and file against Charlie.
Charlie is already likely going to jail on kidnapping charges here in the States. Even though the rape can’t be prosecuted here, it could be argued at sentencing that the judge should throw the book at him considering what he admitted to Ava he also did.
So filing a civil suit should take care of holding Charlie accountable for the rape.
But instead, Charlie is going to jail for a crime he can’t be prosecuted for in Salem unless the writers randomly forget the jurisdiction issue now that we have the right man in custody.
Meanwhile, hopefully, Claire can get away from Charlie without him acting like an unhinged stalker.
If and when Charlie gets out of jail — which he probably will soon since this is Days of Our Lives’ idea of compelling drama — he’s probably going to try to win Claire over, and when she rejects him to kidnap her and convince himself that he’s good to her.
It’s very predictable and annoying, so I’d prefer we not go that route.
I’d also like there to be more focus on Allie healing from her rape and less on the two guys who were involved with her that night, but that requires the writers to take things like mental health treatment and sexual assault seriously, and they’ve made it clear they don’t intend to do either.
In addition to the Allie/Tripp/Charlie mess, we had Kristen taking Tony hostage so that she could be by Brady’s bedside as part of another super problematic storyline.
Philip is apparently a gambling addict, but instead of writing a serious story about that, his addiction is a footnote to the real story about him laundering money for a mob so stupid that their goons shot a man who had nothing to do with it.
It would have been one thing if the mob purposely went after Philip’s family to intimidate Philip into paying up, but they did no such thing. They just assumed that whoever was in Philip’s room was the guy they were after.
Plus, putting Brady in a coma does nothing to recover any of the Vitales’ money. And it’s idiotic considering Victor has infinite resources. Wouldn’t it make more sense to kidnap Philip or Brady and demand the money be repaid as a ransom?
And why would the mob go quietly into the night after shooting Brady, as if that resolved the whole issue?
Philip was so unlikable and smug during this whole thing. The ONLY reason he seems to care about Brady making it is because that’ll get him out of trouble with Victor and possibly the law.
And then we added Kristen’s altercation with the world’s stupidest police guard into the mix, too.
In real life, prison guards often do not carry guns while on duty for this exact reason. There’s too much risk that a prisoner could steal a gun and cause chaos.
And if that bit of unreality wasn’t bad enough, the guard just stood there while Kristen grabbed his gun, held a visitor hostage, and walked off. She even told him exactly where she was going, yet no one knew where to find her until Chad called hospital security.
And after Kristen was re-arrested, she threatened Chloe in front of a police escort who proceeded to do nothing about it.
I know soaps aren’t always realistic, but is it necessary to make the cops THAT incompetent?
There’s also too much gun violence on Days of Our Lives nowadays. It would have been just as good for Kristen to get an escorted visit to the hospital since her husband was seriously injured and do her best not to go back to jail.
I did laugh at Tony’s reactions, though. I don’t know what was funnier: the way he just downed a drink when Anna asked how his visit with Kristen was or the way he dismissed her holding him at gunpoint as Kristen being Kristen.
Another high point of the week was Anna giving Abigail marital advice. Although I think Chad deserves a long time-out before Abby takes him back, I enjoyed the two women talking. This is the kind of friendship and family scene that Days of Our Lives has far too little of.
The other highlight of the week of 1-29-21 was Nicole and Rafe’s date.
Sadly, it was off-screen, probably due to budget constraints. But both Nicole insisting on taking Rafe out for his birthday, and their dialogue about how the day at the arcade went was fun.
Nicole is so much more relaxed around Rafe than she ever was around Eric. I’ve wanted Days of Our Lives to give this couple a try forever, and I’m thrilled they are finally spending time together.
Please, soap gods, don’t have Eric come back just as things are heating up between Nicole and Rafe!
And finally, Ben just had to get a paranormal sign that Ciara is still alive, didn’t he?
In a way, I don’t mind. For months, viewers have known that Ciara is alive, and now she’s apparently being held captive by some weirdo who looks like a reject from Yellowstone.
We now know how Ciara escaped from Vincent and how she ended up being held prisoner in a luxurious hotel room surrounded by Plexiglass.
We don’t know what this guy Rhodes is all about, besides being super loyal to Vincent and afraid of the consequences of letting Ciara go… even if it means foregoing enough of a ransom to buy his own island.
The problem is the same as it’s always been, though. Grief is one thing, but not deciding what shirt to wear without Ciara’s input isn’t romantic or healthy. It’s co-dependent, and it makes this couple cringeworthy.
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought of Days of Our Lives during the week of 1-25-21.
Eager for more Days of Our Lives chat? Be sure to check back for the Days of Our Lives Round Table on Sunday!
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.