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.

It has been a long, strange year on Days of Our Lives. The show celebrated its 60th Anniversary, welcomed new writers and took us down paths we never would have expected way back in 2024. So Soaps.com is ending the year with a look back at 12 months of twists, turns, thrills and heartbreaks, some of which hit way too close to home. And to cap it all off, we’re taking a peek ahead at what 2026 has in store for us! So strap in, because this was one wild year!

When Soul Leaves Body

The year started with all things Body and Soul. (No, really, that was still this year!) Chanel was reeling from thinking Johnny and Joy had had an affair. Superfan Kerry was undermining the show as the new Lady Whistleblower, and Alex and Stephanie couldn’t be together because of their working relationship, prompting him to hook up with Joy. Plus, someone was stalking the set, and Bonnie nearly died falling down an elevator shaft! But don’t worry, things weren’t that dire. It was just a soap (within a soap) after all. Johnny and Joy didn’t actually sleep together, the artist formerly known as Nurse Whitley (yup, she came back) was stopped before she could kill anyone and once the show was sold to folks in Los Angeles, Alex dumped Joy for his true love Stephanie. Then Joy left, Hattie moved to be a star and that was the end of Body and Soul. And the people rejoiced!

Johnny and Chanel’s False Family Starts

Johnny and Chanel eventually found their way back to each other and, all forgiven and forgotten, decided it was time to expand their family. Unfortunately, that was happening just as he learned that he was conceived when his dad raped his mom. The good news is that it brought Johnny and Sami closer than ever, the bad is that he decided he couldn’t be a father, just in time to back out of adopting Tate and Sophia’s baby. After his exoneration, he decided he was ready to be a dad, so Johnny and Chanel set about adopting baby Tesoro — you know, the baby they were going to adopt before! Sophia wasn’t about to let that happen and did her best to destroy the happy couple along with Holly and make sure social services never let them get their hands on any baby. But in the end, they got baby Tesoro (renamed Trey) and Chanel ended up pregnant once more!

Sophia Ran Amuck Hiding the Truth

Sophia’s pregnancy was all over the place as she convinced her mom to let her and Tate put the baby up for adoption, then had the whole thing ripped out from under her by Johnny. By the time Sophia gave birth alone in her bedroom, she was so desperate not to be a mom, she convinced Melinda to help her fake an adoption while leaving the baby at the firehouse for Javi and Leo to ultimately care for. But Sophia’s web of lies just kept growing and growing until Brady, of all people (we know!), figured out that baby Tesoro was his grandson. Or he would have if Tesoro was his grandson. Tate was never the father. Aaron was. And once everyone cornered Sophia, she flipped out, then stopped talking and was committed to Bayview.

Public Enemy No. 1

The year also started with EJ doing everything he could to set himself up for his shooting. (We’ll get to that shortly.) After some Aremid shenanigans reunited Kristen with her very much not-dead-mother Rachel, EJ made the unstable Blake matriarch disappear. (In his defense, she did try to kill a few people and wipe his memory.) Kristen was not happy with her brother, but she didn’t have much choice but to go along with it or risk her mom’s life. As this was all going on, Arnold was busy blowing up Rafe’s life, framing Jada, ditching her at the altar and taking her job as police commissioner. By the time the truth came out, the real Rafe returned and Arnold vanished, though, too much damage was done for Jada and Rafe to survive. Jada eventually got her job back, but Rafe returned to the FBI and the two went their separate ways.

Who Shot EJ?

When EJ was shot and put in a coma, the whole town was under suspicion — including the police commissioner! As we worked through suspects, EJ came out of his coma, vowing to be a better, kinder, gentler man. He even seemed to be serious about it for about five seconds. Then the old scheming, snarky, controlling EJ emerged once again. Eventually, Johnny was charged and put on trial, only for us to learn that Rachel had shot her uncle and blocked it from her mind. EJ had no problem using that to his advantage to get Johnny off for the shooting — by forcing Kristen to confess to protect her daughter!

His Grand Design

EJ, meanwhile, won a bidding war with Xander for the hospital, thanks to a little extra infusion of capital courtesy of Gwen (yup, she finally came back) and the Von Leuschner fortune. Don’t think for a minute that this was altruistic, though, as EJ set about cutting costs to the bone and used his new facility to house a secret lab. The plan seems to be creating a lucrative revival drug with Dr. Rolf’s help, while EJ keeps talking to someone in a suspended animation tube who may or may not be a deceased family member. The FBI and the ISA knew something was up, but they couldn’t be sure what that something was, so Shane forced Cat back into the ISA and teamed her up with Rafe to get to the bottom of things. They… didn’t. But hey, there’s always 2026!

Salem Said Farewell to John

John disappeared while on assignment, which put Steve and Marlena up against their old nemesis, Orpheus. Once the villain was taken down, the ISA found and rescued John, but things took a turn on his way home. Because at the same time, Bo’s condition deteriorated and the only thing that could save him was an experimental drug that was promptly stolen. John showed up in Salem just in time to help recover the drug, but he was caught in an explosion in the process and his wounds soon killed him. Bo recovered to run off into the sunset with Hope, but that wasn’t nearly as joyful as it should have been as all of Salem mourned John. None struggled more than Marlena, who’s still trying to figure out what life looks like after John. It didn’t help that she was having a series of mysterious health issues that she thought were just in her head until she was finally diagnosed as having Lyme Disease!

Rachel Was Finally Sent for Treatment

Rachel (Black, not Blake) had her own mental break after the whole EJ shooting and despite her bond with Sarah, had no problem poisoning her with pistachio when she learned the doc had once kidnapped her as a baby. Rachel immediately felt bad, claiming she didn’t know Sarah could die from her allergy, but there’s only so many times you can almost kill people before folks start questioning if you’re OK. To top it all off, Rachel finally remembered shooting Uncle EJ. Brady, finally at a loss, had her committed to Bayview, where she could get treatment — and secretly befriend a very not comatose Sophia! She’s still being treated, but luckily Brady got over his anger with Marlena before the year ended.

Stephanie May Have a Stalker

Once Alex and Stephanie got back together, the two were full steam ahead. And we do mean steam! They couldn’t (and still can’t, despite Steve’s constant interruptions) keep their hands off each other, especially once Alex got his hands on Steph’s red-hot romance novel. It was an instant best-seller (though her follow-up didn’t fare nearly as well) and “Anastasia Sands” was an overnight sensation. But trouble soon followed, as Stephanie’s abusive ex, Jeremy Horton returned to town — though he did promise that he’s changed for the better! And when EJ told Leo about Anastasia’s true identity, Stephanie had to come out of the shadows and deal with the fame that came with One Stormy Night. Oh, and she also had to deal with a creepy, obsessed fan/stalker, who may or may not be Jeremy!

Xander Went Way, Way Too Far

The year was going swimmingly for Xander, who was happy in his marriage and had finally warmed up to running Titan with Philip. In fact, the two brothers even managed to swipe DiMera out from under their enemies’ noses! But then it all fell apart when Vivian returned to tell Xander about Philip’s forged letter from Victor. Xander beat his brother within an inch of his life and Philip, in turn, told him that Sarah knew about the forgery the whole time. Somehow Philip and Xander made up, but the blinders were off of “Xarah” and they imploded in a bitter, nasty divorce that ended with Sarah taking full custody of Victoria. But hey, at least Xander finally got therapy and is actually turning into a pretty decent guy! Who may or may not be seething at Sarah and Brady getting close…

Back With a Vengeance

Tony returned to town to discover his siblings had all but given up on DiMera and, disgusted by the lot of them, brought Theo in to take over after duping Gabi into betraying her Titan bosses. She got the dirt needed to blackmail Philip and Xander into giving up DiMera, but instead of getting the top spot at Tony’s family company, she was just given Gabi Chic as reward. And honestly, that may have saved her since someone started targeting and kidnapping all of Stefano’s kids, along with Theo, who was the DiMera CEO. The kidnapper ended up being Peter, who dumped them in the family crypt and was all mopey and bitter over being forgotten for decades. So he decided to kill all of Stefano’s heirs (and Theo) in revenge. He didn’t succeed, but Theo was put in a coma — and the DiMeras were left deciding if Peter should live or die! (Oh, and Stefan’s apparently dead.)

And to top it all off, Days of Our Lives celebrated 60 years with a Horton-tastic anniversary centered around the Tom Horton Free Clinic that EJ opened at the hospital! And that clinic has been MIA ever since other than housing EJ’s secret lab…

What’s Next

With Dimitri dropping in, we’re going to say that Leo and Javi’s New Year’s Eve wedding is anything but calm — which is exactly what we’re guessing Gwen is hoping for! But our bet is Leo sticks to his guns and his man, and gives Dimitri the boot. Speaking of giving people the boot, our hope is that Chad does that with Jennifer and Jack and finally gets them to drop this custody fight. And if he does manage that, then he and Cat are sure to find their way back to each other!

As for who’s in EJ’s green tube, our favorite contender is still Lexie, and that’s sure to cause trouble between Abe and Paulina, no matter how much they love each other! Plus, she’s sure to have a thing or two to say about Theo being CEO once he’s awake and healthy again. That’s probably exactly what EJ is hoping, since he admitted he’d rather have Johnny run the company, which is good, because John Roman isn’t going anywhere! Speaking of Johnny, he’s probably right to be worried about Chanel’s pregnancy, but with Sophia seething over them adopting her baby and scheming from within Bayview, we’re worried that the threat to the new baby will end up coming from outside instead of in!

And that’s just the start because the winter preview has already teased Shawn getting shot, Holly taking a turn, Alex and Stephanie getting engaged and Sarah and Brady growing closer. So buckle in because 2026 is sure to be a blast! (Since this is Salem, though, hopefully not of the literal kind!)