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It’s been a long, long time in coming, but we’ve had the sneaking suspicion that we’re closer than ever to learning who Days of Our Lives‘ EJ has been resurrecting in his mysterious green tube. Dr. Rolf has made progress with bringing rats back to life, which is very promising for whomever EJ’s been keeping on ice.

And then on Thursday, Theo’s good news that he got the medical clearance to get back to work sent Abe running straight back to EJ. Months back, he’d asked EJ to help him keep Theo out of DiMera — for his own good, of course. EJ promised he would, and now that Johnny’s running the company, he’s more determined than ever to keep that promise.

He has a plan in motion and Theo, EJ promised on Thursday, wouldn’t be harmed in the process. In fact, Abe would be “very happy” with the outcome, he insisted. But that plan has to get moving fast now that Theo’s healthy again. Johnny told Chanel that he’d be stepping down in the next week or so, which means EJ will likely have to strike before then and keep Theo from returning. How would he do that?

Our guess it’s with the help of whomever is in the green tube that EJ and Dr. Rolf are resurrecting. Unless EJ’s been doing other things completely in secret even from the viewers, that is just about literally the only plan that he’s working on. And for these two things to intersect, it has to be because of Lexie. If she is the one EJ’s been working on bringing back, as we suspect, than her return could throw Theo into a whole lot of turmoil and keep him off balance enough to let Johnny stay in the CEO position.

And if Lexie wakes up, then we’re sure she’ll just double down on Abe’s worries and tell her emotionally vulnerable and shocked son to stay the hell away from her evil family.

Now that’s not to say that EJ’s ready to wake Lexie up yet (or bring her back from death or whatever state she’s in), but he may decide it’s time to tip everyone off to what he’s doing. That could be as simple as showing Paulina (and us) who’s in the tube within the next week or so, just like we saw in the winter preview trailer.

Paulina would run to Abe and Theo would be thrown for such a loop that he wouldn’t be able to even think about returning to the CEO chair. Of course, if it’s not Lexie, all bets are off, but at this point, we’ll eat our hat if it turns out to be anyone else!