Melinda patted herself on the back for coming up with a brilliant Days of our Lives plan. Sloan wants a baby boy to present to her new husband, Eric. Dimitri just delivered Nicole Walker DiMera’s newborn — who was fathered by Eric — literally into Sloan’s lap. So why not keep the tot for herself and get a doctor to claim Nicole’s bundle of joy didn’t make it? We can think of a couple of reasons.
Nicole Walker DiMera’s Tragedy
Like this is a horrible, disgusting, evil plan. Also, does Melinda (Tina Huang) happen to have a dead baby handy to present to Nicole and EJ (Dan Feuerriegel), or does she assume they won’t want to see their child or, you know, bury him? But the worst part is, this is a story that never, ever works.
History Lesson
The majority of soap opera viewers are women. Many of these women are mothers. Strangely, mothers do not enjoy stories of other mothers grieving their children. No matter how well-written the story is. No matter how many Daytime Emmys it wins.
When DAYS killed off Zack Brady (in a story so reminiscent of General Hospital’s BJ’s heart storyline, it was like watching a rerun), the emotions may have been real and even awards-worthy. But, ratings actually went down. Same as they did for BJ’s heart. Also as they did when All My Children killed off Baby Leora. This even happened all the way back to when Search for Tomorrow ran Jo’s son over with a car in front of her eyes. Because guess what: WOMEN DON’T LIKE DEAD BABY STORIES.
Wrong Road
Does DAYS really think their viewers want to spend weeks, months watching Nicole (Arianne Zucker) mourn her son, while Sloan (Jessica Serfaty) feels guilty every time she looks at “her” baby? Do we want close call after close call, with the added detail that Leo (Greg Rikaart) said — several times, in case you missed it — that he’ll never forget the little guy’s adorable face?
Not to mention, brilliant EJ is going to have NO suspicions about how he and Nicole lost a baby boy in the SAME WEEK when Sloan and Eric (Greg Vaughan) gained one. Assuming Melinda does drum up a little baby corpse, will EJ DiMera, of the suspicious DiMera clan, not demand a DNA test to confirm this is his child?
This DAYS storyline isn’t just terrible on the face of it. It’s also exactly the kind of story that turns viewers off. So why are they doing this?