Jonesing For EJ

Hope sits in the Kiriakis den. She pulls the picture of Brady's tattoo out of an envelope and looks at it. "Gosh," she thinks, "This would make a great theme for a jewelry line." Ciara runs in. Hope wonders why she's not in bed, "You look so happy. Why is that?"

"You made me happy when we had our talk," says Ciara.

"What talk?"

"You don't remember?"

Baker sits on his couch and looks at his phone. The phone clicks as Baker folds it shut and sighs, "You give grace under pressure a whole new meaning, partner. You know Nicole knows I was in on the muggings yet you don't contact me. Are you sure I won't give you up? Nicole doesn't even care who you are because she wants someone named Arianna Hernandez to take the rap for both of us."

Arianna and Nicole are at the pub. Arianna has caught Nicole sneaking the glass into her purse and she says Nicole should ask for a raise if she's in such bad financial shape that she has to steal stemware.

Brady and Sami are together at the Java Café. Brady asks, "Are you jonesing for EJ again?"

"Me and about a gizillion other women," says Sami.

"You caused Will to move out," says Brady, "but now you are spending your nights with him at EJ's place."

EJ and Stefano are together in the rumpus room. EJ thinks Stefano may not have Anna under control, "She didn't check in. What are you going to to now, ground her?"

Stefano growls, "If she has double crossed me I'll do a lot worse than that. I'll take away her SoapNet privileges."

Rafe tells Anna the person she's protecting has to know she's there now and her best chance of getting out is to tell him everything.

Hope asks Ciara what it was she said, but Justin interrupts. He says he's there to drop off some things. Hope asks him to stick around until she comes back from putting Ciara down. I mean to bed.

Nicole says swiping the glass for a story on how easy it is to steal from a restaurant, "Kids are doing this and stocking their apartments and dorms with it and they don't even consider it stealing. That's my angle."

Arianna grabs the glass, "Find another angle."

EJ asks if Stefano knows where Anna is,

"Yes," says Stefano, "generally."

EJ explodes, "Generally? Generally?"

Stefano says, "We don't have to always know where she is because there are only certain places she can go and none of them are in this country." EJ thinks someone found her and that someone is Rafe.

Anna plays the "American Citizen" card. She says she wants a lawyer. Rafe says no lawyer will offer her a better deal — A clean slate.

Anna chuckles, "So you think if I have no rap sheet all my troubles are over. I'm worried about you. You're on a mission. The rules don't apply. Forgive me, but I'm afraid you'll kill the messenger."

Hope comes back and thanks Justin for waiting. She says she thinks she's failing Ciara because she's still making things up. Hope worries she's so wrapped up in her job Ciara is creating a fantasy mother.

"Let's face it," says Justin, "Any mother would be better than the one she has." Justin worries about what this is doing to Hope, "You don't seem like yourself any more."

"Then who am I?" Justin is afraid to answer for fear Hope will hit him with her broom.

Brady insists he's not lecturing Sami. He lectures, "I don't see how you can be in the same room with EJ and not throw up."

"Easy," says Sami, "Every once in a while he takes off his shirt." * She reminds Brady his ex stole her kid and he didn't cut her out of his life.

*Note: At first I forgot to italicize this response. It seems that caused a bit of a swooning frenzy amongst some of the Ejamis. Sorry about that.

"I'm not living with her," says Brady, "Arianna and I are engaged."

Sami asks, "You think I wouldn't want that with Rafe? I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Finally, the Safe's in the audience wake up.

Sami continues, "If he walked through that door and said he wanted to get back together I'd do it. But I don't even know where he is."

EJ says he talked to Sami and she said Rafe is on an assignment, "So Rafe is gone and Anna is gone, It doesn't take a bloody genius to connect the dots."

Stefano tells him not to worry, "Anna knows if she makes a deal with Rafe it will be the last deal she ever makes."

Anna tells Rafe it was Sami that put everything in motion, because she wasn't honest with EJ from the git-go. Rafe snorts, "Sami didn't make you take that baby, so don't you dare put this on her."

Anna asks, "If you're worried about her then why aren't you back in Salem keeping her out of EJ's clutches?"

Hope says she feels like her life went off course when Ciara was kidnapped, "Bo and I handled it differently. Forget the fact his way worked and we got her back safe and sound, that was the problem. Justin asks if the things Ciara is doing stem back to the kidnapping. Hope thinks they have to. She says when Justin was attacked she felt that same powerless feeling again. Justin says when he woke and found her next to him he knew things would be OK, "But, then again, I was hallucinating and in shock."

Kinzie comes up to Arianna and Nicole's table and tells Arianna she's driving away customers with the scene she is making. Kinzie says she thinks Nicole is right and Arianna should back off.

Arianna snaps back, "I haven't seen sucking up like that since my mother bought her first vacuum."

Nicole puts in her two-cents worth, "She tells it like it is and so will I." Question: if this is a story about how easy it is to steal from restaurants, doesn't the fact that Nicole got caught stealing the glass prove it's not easy and kill the premise of the story in the first place? Just askin'...

EJ is on the phone. He tells Stefano he has hired a contractor to fix the mess in Sami's apartment. Stefano says he engineered the toilet thing so Sami and the kids would live there. EJ says he is worried if Anna spills the beans he'll never get to see his kids again, "I told Anna to kidnap Sydney. I watched Samantha not know where her daughter was. I felt her suffering and I felt vindicated. Not even that was enough. I had to do the worst thing you could possibly do to a mother. And she fought. Because that girl was more important than Rafe or anything in the world. And I realized why she kept that child's existence from me. So if she doesn't find out what I have done, I won't trick her into staying in this house any more."

Stefano says he will never understand EJ. Will walks out in the foyer and overhears EJ say Sami is there because of Will and not him, "I'm OK if she wants to take her children and live in her own home."

Anna reminds Rafe she's a DiMera. She says she lived there when EJ was married to Nicole and it was obvious EJ never got over Sami. Rafe tells her they've gotten off the subject and it's not going to happen again, "Get comfortable, it's going to be a long night."

"The way this clunker of an episode is going," says Anna, "I've got to agree with that."

Arianna meets Brady at the Java Café. She rants about her job and the fact that Nicole stole a glass from the pub to prove how easy it is to rip the place off. Brady suggests she quit, but Arianna says she says she loves the job. Brady wonders if she's staying with the job to prove something.

Arianna asks, "To whom?"

"That's what I want to know," says Brady.

Hope takes Justin's hands and says she he's important to her, but she needs more time. She vows to figure out who is behind the muggings, by gum.

Stefano says hi to Will on the way out. EJ says he knows Will is mad at Sami because of hi, "But I have discovered anger eventually leaves you feeling empty and low."

"Just like watching DOOL," says Will.

"I have recently learned how powerful forgiveness can be," says EJ. Sami interrupts and EJ leaves to check on Johnny and Sydney.

Anna is on the phone asking about dinner. Since Anna isn't talking, Rafe decides he'll give her his version of how it happened, "You blame Stefano for Tony's death. So someone figured out how to use your anger at the DiMeras. Maybe he wanted to make it look like revenge... or maybe he had another motive entirely."

Dinner arrives. As Rafe tips the guy who brought it, Diego, Anna rushes around the other side of the room service cart and bolts. Rafe chases.

Nicole goes through the tedious process of transferring Arianna's fingerprints from the wine glass to a flashlight. The viewers go through the tedious process of watching. She calls Baker and says she has everything she needs to throw suspicion on Arianna, "We move tonight."

Arianna reminds Brady about her checkered past, "With this job, I'm turning my life around and I'm good at it." Brady says that may be but he doesn't know if he can live with her while she's doing it.

Hope thinks if she stays up all night she can figure things out. Justin suggests she go to bed now and get up early and she can think more clearly. He wants her to solve the case so she'll have more time for him. He says goodnight and leaves. Hope pops pills. If Justin wants to spend more time with Hope, maybe he's the one who needs the pills.

Nicole arrives at Baker's dive. Baker says he has to clear things with his partner before they frame Arianna.

Sami tells Will Johnny asked her when she was going to teach him to play poker. She wants to do it tonight and asks Will if he'll help. "I have to check on how much homework I have to do," says Will, "We'll see." He leaves and EJ comes back in and announces neither of the kids are asleep. He notices Sami looks distracted.

Sami says she is happy because Will didn't say no when she asked about teaching Johnny to play poker, "What did you say to him."

"I told him if he didn't stop treating you like dirt I'd break every bone in his body."

Rafe drags Anna back into the room. Diego wonders what's going on and says he thinks he should call the cops. Rafe flashes his FBI card and gives Diego a big tip. Diego leaves. Rafe tells Anna that won't happen again.

EJ says Will loves Sami and couldn't keep his animosity up forever. Will brings Johnny in. Sami asks, "Anybody up for poker?"

Johnny screams, "ME!"

Nicole asks Baker to call Arianna and send her on a wild goose chase. Baker says he doesn't even know if his partner will show up, "Say we do manage to frame this Arianna chick, do you really think that will get you Brady black?"

Brady reminds Arianna she wants Nicole out of her life but talks about her all day. Thank God somebody besides the viewers finally noticed that. Arianna wonders if there is anything Nicole can do to them any more since they are engaged and so much in love. Apparently Arianna forgot to pay her brain bill.

Card shark EJ chomps his cigar as the gang plays poker. Sami throws her money into the pot and Will contemplates his cards. Sami thinks he is stalling. She taps the table, "Decorate the mahogany, buddy."

Will is backed into a corner, "I don't have any elephants so I'll have to fold."

EJ says, "I'll see your elephant and raise you a giraffe."

Rafe says he knows Anna is terrified. He thinks she's afraid of the person she's protecting. He offers to put her in the witless protection program.

Anna caves in, "OK, I'll tell for real this time. Now can I eat?"

Sami holds Sydney and sits on the couch with EJ. They talk about the poker game. EJ says he thinks things seem better between her and Will. She thanks him for whatever he said to Will to make him change. "I have a confession," says EJ.

Hope has morphed into Hopeless. She leaves the DiMera mansion.

EJ says he did something behind Sami's back, and tells her about arranging for contractors, "I got a bid."

"A DiMera sized bit," says Sami.

"I will take care of the cost," says EJ.

"Why would you do that," asks Sami, "You want me to stay here, right?"

"What I want is for you to be happy."

Sami says she thought what he had to say was going to be really serious but the contractor situation is fine.

Johnny comes up behind EJ and points his fingers at him like a gun, "HANDS UP! FBI!" EJ jumps out of his skin.

"It's just a game," says Sami, "Just a kid's game."

Anna talks about the case and we go nowhere. She thinks Rafe is on the case so hard because it was EJ who turned out to be Sami's hero instead of him.

Arianna thinks Brady can't handle her working with Nicole, "You're addicted to her."

Brady snorts, "That's a bad choice of words." Arianna says she can't talk to him and rushes past Gabi as she leaves.

Dick tells Nicole his partner has issues. "You have weird taste," says Nicole, "And I can't wait to meet this mental case you've buddied up with." Hope walks up and hears them talking through the door.

Will announces Johnny is hyper, "He arrested the stuffed bunny and now he's after EJ and me." They decide it's time for Johnny to hit the sack. Sami tells him goodnight.

Rafe wants a name. Anna wants to talk terms. Anna says she's heard about witless protection and wants to make sure she doesn't wind up in some shack out in the sticks.

CRASH-SLAM-BANG!

Macho Rafe hurls the room service cart across the room, "If you want to talk terms we'll talk terms but rest assured I'm going to get that name!"

Anna cowers, "OK ill tell you. It was..."

"CHOKE! ACK! GZORPFFT! HACK!"

Monday on DOOL: The Vivics vs. the Magtors — It's all out war!

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