All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Soaps.com may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Well, that took a dramatic turn. But then, when it comes to Days of Our Lives‘ DiMera family, drama tends to occur on any day ending in “y.” We speculated that with all the non-on-the-run DiMera siblings now thrown into the crypt, their kidnapper would be revealed — and he was! Yes, the kidnapper is a “he,” but no, it wasn’t EJ. Peter, though, did his best to turn his family on Stefano’s favorite, but he pushed a bit too hard, too fast, and it didn’t take long for everyone to realize he was behind it all!

Peter denied it, right up until he shoved Theo away and cracked the poor guy’s head open on one of the shovels sconces. He let loose with a literal, “Yes, you morons, it was me,” then whipped out a vial of poisonous gas and threatened to kill everyone if they got near him. Oh, those DiMeras. But now that we know who went after Stefano’s heirs, we’re still left trying to figure out why.

Peter certainly seems to have one heck of a grudge against EJ for hurting all of his siblings over the years and being the most like Stefano. Heck, he even dredged up Abigail cheating on Chad with him! So was all this an attempt to get everyone to turn on him? Was he just staging a little forced family intervention to, what? Kick EJ out of the family?

Maybe, but Peter also ranted on about how Stefano’s influence has poisoned the family over the years. That’s why he’s stayed away for nearly three decades. So did he decide that the DiMeras were too irredeemable to be allowed to roam free? Maybe he wanted to teach them the error of their ways and make them kinder and more gentle with… kidnapping? Did he want to take over DiMera as CEO?

Perhaps, but to top it all off, Kristen was the first to suggest that her brother was behind everything when she told a story of playing chess with him as kids. Kristen won and Peter was so angry, he broke the priceless chess board and blamed it on her. Stefano believed him and Peter got away with it. He’s always, Kristen pointed out, been blaming others for his actions and flipping out when he doesn’t win. And of all the DiMeras, Peter’s certainly won the least.

Back when he was committing bad deeds left and right, a lot of them were at Stefano’s urging. (If you need a refresher on what he did back in the day, we’ve got you covered here.) And unlike virtually everyone else in the family, Peter had to serve a full sentence in prison for his crimes, then move onto probation before he could get back to his life. If he’s been following everyone’s bad behavior and lack of punishment, that kind of resentment could fester over the decades. And since EJ’s been the one to get away with the most, we could see the bulk of Peter’s ire being directed towards him. (To be fair, Kristen’s not too far behind EJ, but Peter seems to feel a bit more sympathetic towards his biological sister.)

Then there’s the fact that in the very same episode, Marlena mused to Brady that mental illness might just, unfortunately, run in the Blake family. Rachel Blake, Kristen and now little Rachel have all had problems. It’s not a stretch to think that Peter might be a bit touched as well — Jungle Madness or no Jungle Madness.

Whatever the reason, we know now that Peter’s back with a vengeance. And hopefully, it won’t take long to learn why he’s gone to all this trouble — and whether he’ll be sticking around or, like before, will be one of the few DiMeras who has actually had to face consequences.