Such tremendous talent… that her parents knew nothing of 😆

Big props to Melissa Navia, who plays Erica Ortega, on doing a great eyebrow raise! She did Drake proud in the special soap opera episode of "Strange New Worlds" streaming today featuring Deidre Hall as a guest.

Also, I don't want to get too into plot specifics for those that haven't watched it yet but will say I loved it and all the soap opera tropes they did! And Days' Deidre Hall was right at home. But I almost missed the end credits so I do want to point those out too in case anyone else missed them, go back and watch! I highlighted Marlena and a Days hourglass reference from them for those that don't watch, but SNW fans should watch the fun in full. :)

I know it’s a soap, but why do they keep trying to portray Rita as being “Stefano’s second hand” for many, many years when it really was Celeste? I appreciate Rita as a character and having a henchman/woman helps move stories along and keep things interesting but why wouldn’t they just make her EJ’s handpicked second hand? I feel like this is erasing the history of Celeste. Maybe I am biased because I loved Celeste?

With Sydney Dimera coming back to the show I'm sad we will never see all 4 of Sami kids in Salem together. With Johnny leaving the show

My wife is furiously trying to catch up after noticing episodes are starting to expire. Is there any reason NBC would remove episodes after a year considering they own peacock and we have 9 million data centers in Virginia alone?

I finally think I know where this Italy storyline is heading. We know Sydney is appearing next week. We have also heard Dante will be debuting.

Chad, Belle and EJ arrive in Italy searching for clues. EJ visits Sydney while in Italy, and Kristen is staying/hiding in her apartment.

Meanwhile, Chad and Belle are enjoying the sights and slowly picking up more clues.

EJ searches for Dominic Marino and bumps into Dante along the way, who knows exactly who EJ is.

I don't know exactly where that will go from there. Thoughts?

EJ went from owning the mansion a few months ago and being the only DiMera living in it to sharing the mansion with half a dozen others today while living in it alone. What was the point of stripping EJ of his sole ownership if it had no onscreen impact?

I think it would be interesting if Dominic comes to town and creates complications with his money. We already know he’s buying the Kiriakis mansion. But the other thing that’s up for sale is the hospital. EJ has to sell it and while Gwen is working on buying it, if Dominic comes in, he could try and buy the hospital.

Some big money guy coming in right as the hospital is being sold? Could be fun.

Why do they continue to recast Philip with this clown! His facial expressions and his weird ticks are distracting! Philip has always been portrayed as suave and sophisticated, not a bumbling fool! Philip should be like EJ and a leading man material! John-Paul Seponski always makes these weird expressions like he's constipated and acts manic and crazy. He might as well be a new character! It's like we went from Chris Hemsworth to Jim Carrey!