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Well, things aren’t looking good for Alex and Stephanie on Days of Our Lives. They’re struggling to connect while Steph and Jeremy are finding it easier than ever. So is this going to be the shortest marriage in the history of Salem? Stephanie’s been through a lot, and we (and she) are waiting to see if it really has changed her forever.

And that’s… kind of nice! Look, I was not a huge fan of Stephanie’s writing career — it just seemed too light and fluffy and pointless. It didn’t really feel like it added much to her character or her and Alex’s relationship besides constantly getting them worked up and making out. Which, good for them, but it didn’t feel like a lot of depth.

Then they got into Jeremy’s return, his abuse of Stephanie and her stalker. And that felt like something with a bit more meat to it. Except it seemed to drag on forever. But Owen finally struck and it feels like we’re finally to the point of the whole thing: Stephanie’s trauma and a real obstacle for her and Alex.

Storyline Do-Overs?

If there’s one thing this writing team has shown us, it’s that they’re eager to tackle stories around trauma — sometimes by revisiting past traumas, almost as if they’re trying to re-do the stories with a more realistic bent.

Sometimes it feels like it works better than others. Because when they did this with Theo and JJ, putting them in a similar situation as the shooting years ago, it felt a bit out of left field. Theo and JJ had seemed to put everything behind them and while it’s more than possible for lingering feelings to lurk under the surface, Theo’s sudden anger (and his subsequent moving past it) felt a bit forced.

On the surface, Stephanie’s ordeal feels similar to Theo’s. Days of Our Lives brought back her former abusive boyfriend to have her relive their relationship and the trauma of it. And then they brought back her obsessed kidnapper to kidnap her again. It feels like they’re redoing what she went through before to give a more traumatic retelling. But to me, it also feels more substantive and less of a surprise.

Is Stephanie Overreacting?

Head over to the Days of Our Lives Reddit, and you’ll find a thread or two wondering why Stephanie’s reacting so strongly to being kidnapped this time. After all, kidnapping happens all the time in Salem!

At the same time, there’s a thread on the Soaps.com Message Boards wondering why everyone has been so slow to help a clearly traumatized Stephanie. For everyone saying this overreacting is pointless, there seems to be someone stepping in to defend Stephanie and say this should be traumatizing.

On a personal note, I think Abigail Klein has done a fantastic job conveying not just the big moments as Stephanie’s reacted or yelled, but the small things, too. It’s the heartbreaking look of her despondent stares, her quiet tensing up, her almost imperceptible flinches.

And it feels earned. What happens in Salem is traumatic, and it often keeps happening to people. I think it’s kind of nice to deal with it in a “normal” way as characters work through how scary these things really, truly are. Anyone who’s been through a traumatic event knows that it can be tough to shake.

Perhaps it boils down to whether fans want to see more realism, or more escapism in their soaps. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, so I’m happy to go along for the ride with this. Because this is still a soap opera and even Stephanie’s PTSD causes more drama, as Alex and Stephanie are falling apart, just before Joy returns with his kid. (Probably!)

Yes, this is Salem, and yes, the absurd still happens (just ask Lexie, when she wakes up from a little thing called “death”), but I’m all for playing deeper emotional beats out and seeing where they land. Not everything can be fixed by a couple of sessions with Marlena. This can be taken too far, don’t get me wrong. Putting Stephanie with Jeremy would fall under that category for me, but since we know he’s leaving, I’m not really worried about that.

But sometimes, it’s just nice to see that we’re not the only ones struggling with what life throws at us.