The Botox Bitch

Rafe comes to visit Nicole in her jail cell. She's disappointed it's not Brady. Rafe tells her Brady has given up on her, "I'm all you've got."

"I guess I really have hit rock bottom," says Nicole.

Phillip and Melanie trade stories at the Java Café. Phillip fills her in on the ghosts of office Christmas parties past, "Whatever you do, don't sit on the lap of the guy playing Santa." Nathan joins them and the festivities slow way down. Way down.

Vivian serves Victor homemade eggnog. Victor thinks it's a little heavy on the bourbon. Kate comes in, sees Vivian and rattles about Victor losing his mind.

EJ comes home to the DiMera mansion, walks into the rumpus room and finds Troy. Apparently at the well-guarded DiMera mansion with the mondo-boffo security system, any old drug dealer can come and go as he pleases. Troy tells EJ Arianna will be a problem.

Arianna and Brady are in her apartment. She decides she needs a new approach to find out who the main supplier is.

Rafe says he hopes Nicole does have Sydney.

Arianna calls Troy and asks if she can help with the delayed shipment to prove she is a team player. Troy says he can't make promises but will run it by Mr. Big-guy. Troy hangs up and asks EJ how he wants to handle things.

Rafe flat out asks where Sydney is. Nicole continues to deny that she knows, "Everything is my fault. I just wanna die because that is what I deserve."

Depressed Nicole has decided she just wants to die. To accommodate her, Roman will start having her meals sent in from the pub.

Sydney plays by the fire. Mystery Woman watches. Mystery Woman... at this point in time the only person left in the country who doesn't know who Mystery Woman is happens to be Tiger Woods. And the only reason he doesn't know is he's afraid she may be yet another of his former flings, so he's just avoiding the issue.

Phillip suggests he and Melanie go ice skating or caroling. Melanie is on a downer. "I'm just upset Nathan sucked the fun out of everything," says Phillip.

"He might have done that," says Melanie, "But he's not the only thing on this show that sucks."

Nathan meets Stephanie at the pub. He says he needs to vent about Melanie. Apparently, Nathan hasn't gotten to the chapter in the Guy Manual entitled, "SHE doesn't want to talk about YOUR potential girlfriend and HER ex boyfriend." Nathan decides he's an idiot for bringing that up and changes the subject. Then he changes it back and proves he's an even bigger idiot than we all thought. He wants to know what happened between Stephanie and Phillip. She gives her side of things, "I wanted Phillip to be something he wasn't. I realized I was deluding myself and no matter how much I loved him there were other guys out there for me. I wasn't known as the fastest girl on the racing circuit because of my racing ability."

Kate sees shade-clad Victor and wonders what happened. Vivian steps in, "He had a skating accident."

"What," asks Kate, "Was he run over with a Zamboni?"

Vivian tells her she and Phillip have reconnected. Kate blows up. Victor steps in and tries to referee, "Lets try not to be quite so bitchy." Once the girls blacken his other eye, Victor takes a hike. Kate and Vivian continue to argue about the embryo-gate episode from years ago.

Suddenly, Vivian thinks they should ease back a bit, "Tis the season, you know."

"Tis the season to kick your butt to the curb," says Kate. Victor comes back and makes another attempt. Kate decides she's had it and announces she's headed for home. Vivian takes that opportune moment to announce Kate's husband is behind bars.

Stefano stands in his cell and remembers his falling out with EJ. He calls the guard and asks for his phone call.

Rafe says he doesn't think Nicole deserves to die. She accuses him of being above it all and says if anything happens to Sydney it's as much his fault as hers.

Phillip brings up the ice skating again. Melanie declines. He decides he likes being around her even when she's grumpy and moody. In other words, he likes being around her all the time. He tries to invite her for a Kiriakis Christmas. Melanie declines and leaves.

Brady says he's concerned about Arianna's involvement in the drug-dealing caper. She reminds him if she weren't involved she would still be in jail and would never have met him. Brady backs off but says he doesn't want it to be like this much longer. Troy calls and says he talked to the boss and sends her to pier 37.

Brady figures the big guy wants to meet her. He decides to go with her.

Troy tells EJ he can't figure Arianna. He wonders if she's more trouble than she's worth.

Rafe insists all he cares about is to find Sydney. Nicole gets sarcastic, "Yeah, Sami's hero. The baby rescuer in shining armor. You know Sami and EJ will bond when she is found."

Rafe plays it cool, "Whatever."

Nicole keeps it up, "Tell me you haven't felt out of the loop when EJ is around her. You have, haven't you? And it's driving you nuts, isn't it?"

"Yes," says Rafe, "But that's a trip I take frequently."

Vivian is just delighted she got to break the news about Stefano's incarceration to Kate. Kate tells her if she messes with Phillip she'll deal with her, "And I don't play nice."

Vivian shoots back, "I will protect Phillip from his mommie dearest with my life.".

Phillip walks in, "What's going on here?"

Melanie finds Stephanie and Nathan giggling together in the pub. Nathan gets a call from the hospital and leaves. Melanie asks if she ruined the moment.

"There was no moment," says Stephanie. Melanie wonders if there was more too it. Stephanie tells her she's getting too personal, "And just so you know, Nathan and I will be spoiling each other's Christmas together."

Arianna tells Brady Troy didn't say the boss wants to meet with her, "It was about the late shipment. With this new development, Brady decides he doesn't have to go with her. He leaves. Arianna scoots off to the pier.

Rafe says he's not threatened about any post-Sydnapping bonding between EJ and Sami. Nicole says she has something to say to him.

Vivian asks if Phillip's ears were burning, "We were talking about you." Phillip says he doesn't want to hear anything from either Kate or Vivian. He starts to go but Victor says Kate is the one who should leave. Kate gets upset about Victor shacking up with Vivian.

Phillip thinks she's being disgusting. Someone just told me I'm lucky to have a family. Humpf... I'm lucky they haven't killed each other or buried someone alive... Recently, that is."

Melanie says she's just there for takeout and leaves as Nathan comes back. Stephanie fesses up that she told Melanie they would be spending Christmas together.

Kate runs up to Stefano's cell. He tells her he didn't call her because they won't let him. "Why were you arrested," asks Kate.

"Samantha and that pimp of a boyfriend and even Elvis are behind this," says Stefano, "You are the only one I can trust now. There is something I want you to do for me."

Nicole says she wants Rafe to know for the record that even though she's not Sydney's real mom all she has ever wanted is the best for her. Rafe says he believes her. "Then I'll tell you what I know," says Nicole, "but it's not where Sydney is. I wish I knew. But I do remember there was a woman's voice. Roman and Chloe didn't believe me when I told them. I'm telling you because maybe you will. And maybe you'll do something about it."

Mystery Woman reads the newspaper story about the search for Sydney.

Vivian decides that little incident with Kate and Phillip was fun. Victor pouts. She tells him it will all blow over. Victor doesn't think so. "Some good came of it," says Vivian, "Kate thinks we're a couple."

"Kate thinks I've lost my mind," says Victor.

"You're a poster boy for sanity compared to the Botox bitch," says Vivian, "Actually I'm looking forward to us smoking out Carly and watching her squirm."

Brady arrives. Vivian takes off. "I haven't seen you for a while," says Victor.

"I've been in Cleveland."

"Was Arianna there, too," asks Victor.

Arianna arrives at the dock, finds Troy and gets upset that the boss isn't there. EJ steps up as they argue.

Rafe says he believes Nicole. Nicole is grateful and says she knows Sydney deserves to be where she belongs. She thanks Rafe for trusting her. Rafe says he needs more info, "Do you remember anything else?"

"I remember everyone telling me how horrible my hair looks," says Nicole.

Nathan stammers. Stephanie puts her spin on the issue. She says she assumed they would all go to mass together on Christmas Eve, so that kind of means they would be together. She thinks perhaps she overstepped her bounds and apologizes for embellishing the truth. Nathan suggests they get together in spite of her shortcomings.

Melanie is back in Maggie's kitchen baking cookies. Like the proverbial lost puppy, poor, pitiful, pathetic Phillip shows up. He says he's never bakes cookies before. Well, Melanie isn't done so he can join right in. It seems everything about this plot is half-baked. Phillip just doesn't give up. He asks what she's doing for Christmas. "I'll probably be doing a whole lot of nothing," says Melanie.

"In other words," asks Phillip, "You'll be watching DOOL?"

"Right, especially the parts that have you and me in them," says Melanie.

Phillip isn't too excited about his Christmas either, "How about if we NOT celebrate Christmas together."

Stefano gives Kate her instructions, "Get to my idiot son and tell him he has gone way too far and he will pay for this. Drill that into him."

Nicole comes up blank. Rafe does some heavy math and figures if a woman took Sydney they have cut the number of suspects in half. He leaves.

As he goes, Nicole hears Mystery Woman's voice. She flashes back to the kidnapping, "Rafe, wait!"

Phillip figures he and Melanie could get together and NOT celebrate Christmas, "We could watch un-Christmasy movies like The Exorcist."

The whole scene degrades into terminal cutseyness. Melanie discovers frosting on his face and rubs it off. Phillip counters with a squirt of frosting on her face and somehow figures a way to get it off. We'll leave his methods to your imagination. Then suddenly, he backs off and says he figures he may be pushing too hard. Somehow that suits Melanie and she agrees, "Yes! I will NOT celebrate Christmas with you." I wonder if the Titanic has a NOT Christmas voyage.

Rafe comes back and Nicole tells him the woman was wearing expensive designer boots. She describes them, "They had shiny gold rivets and there were three panels... leopardskin."

Brady reminds Victor he made it clear he and Arianna are together. Victor ain't happy about that.

EJ walks up to Arianna and Troy. He asks what Troy is doing to this woman, "Was he hurting you?" Arianna insists everything is fine. Troy leaves. EJ asks if she's sure she's OK. Arianna tells him Troy is her friend. "He didn't look friendly to me," says EJ, "So tell me what's really going on."

Nicole paces. She sits and flashes back to the boots. We pan back and contemplate her lonely desolation.

Sydney sits by the fire. Mystery Woman hands her a bottle and walks away. As she does, she passes the leopardskin boots. Once she's out of the picture, Sydney picks up the boots and looks them over, "Ugliest things I ever saw." She tosses them in the fire.

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