Days of Our Lives (DOOL) spoilers recap for Thursday, December 23, reveals that EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) was handcuffed as Sami Brady DiMera (Alison Sweeney) watched in horror. Marlena Evans’ (Deidre Hall) tree burning chaos also made waves, so here’s how all the DOOL drama played out.
At the DiMera mansion, Sami hesitated once EJ finally gave her the reunion she wanted. Sami admitted she was scared and needed to make sure this was real.
Sami pushed EJ to say he forgave her for what happened with Lucas Horton (Bryan Dattilo), which was tough for him due to his pride.
However, EJ ultimately did forgive Sami and assured her that Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) wasn’t the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
EJ thought they should focus on the fact that they’d found each other again and thought this was a Christmas miracle, so Sami kissed her husband and asked him to make love to her.
At the Salem Inn, DOOL backed up a bit to show fans how Marlena transformed Jan Spears (Heather Lindell) into a Belle Brady (Martha Madison) lookalike.
Marlena hid in the closet while “Belle” opened the door to Shawn and suggested they should get down to the business of lovemaking.
Once Marlena was satisfied that Jan had everything under control, she slipped out and crossed paths with Santa while wearing sunglasses in the town square.
Marlena gave a $100 donation to St. Luke’s since she thought God needed all the help he could get these days.
Back in their hotel room, Shawn pumped the brakes with “Belle.” With all the craziness that had been going on, Shawn wanted to be sure this was really his wife. “Belle” said of course she was and asked who else she would be.
Even so, Shawn was concerned and thought it was best to keep his pants on tonight – just in case. “Belle” suggested that if Shawn was so worried, he could just call Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) and make sure she wasn’t still at the station.
Shawn then called Rafe and confirmed that Belle was gone after meeting with DA Melinda Trask (Tina Huang).
Rafe urged Shawn to enjoy Christmas Eve with his wife, so Shawn hung up satisfied. Days viewers then saw it was Marlena who had changed her voice to mimic Rafe’s.
Shawn believed “Belle” was the real deal, but he still felt guilty about enjoying themselves due to everything that had been happening with Philip Kiriakis (Jay Kenneth Johnson) and Marlena.
“Belle” suggested there was no better way to “stick it to Satan” than for Shawn to have his way with her. She revealed some Santa-themed lingerie as things began to heat up between them.
At the Horton house, Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes) fussed over the Christmas tree and told Doug Williams (Bill Hayes) she wanted everything to be perfect.
Julie got a message about Hope Brady’s (Kristian Alfonso) plane being grounded due to bad weather and mentioned that she couldn’t make it for Christmas.
Fortunately, Doug and Julie still got a chance to hang out with Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson) and Ciara Brady Weston (Victoria Konefal), who convinced Rafe that she couldn’t miss Christmas.
Rafe let Ciara and Ben take a break from the safehouse to celebrate with Julie and Doug.
After Ben had his fill of Christmas cookies, he got up to hang his ornament on the tree along with Ciara. Ben thought back to last year when everyone believed Ciara was dead.
Ben remembered feeling Ciara’s hand help him hang her ornament back then and insisted he knew they’d be together again.
Ciara pointed out that they’d be hanging their baby’s ornament on the tree next year – and soon after, Ben placed the angel tree topper up at Julie’s request.
Meanwhile, Lucas was nervous at the police station, but Belle was hopeful that the kidnapper’s accomplice would rat out his boss.
Once Jason (Noel Gugliemi) was hauled in, Belle revealed she was Sami’s sister and got in his face about being an animal for what he did.
Since Rafe suggested Jason could cut a deal if he divulged who hired him, Belle advised him to take advantage of the offer.
In a moment alone with Lucas, Jason said was going to take that offer unless Lucas could come up with a better one. When Rafe returned, Jason was willing to cut a deal and reveal who his boss was.
Jason told Rafe offscreen before sharing another private moment with Lucas, who thanked him for going along with his plan.
Jason thought it was “genius” since now neither one of them would be ringing in the new year with a prison toilet. Lucas smirked as he replied that someone else would instead.
Back at the DiMera mansion on Thursday’s Days episode, Rafe showed up and placed EJ under arrest for Sami’s kidnapping.
Both EJ and Sami looked floored as Rafe slapped the cuffs on him.
Over with Marlena again, she called Belle using Shawn’s voice and urged her to head to room 514 at the Salem Inn.
Belle was eager to get her Christmas and anniversary present, but she got a horrifying shock instead when she walked in on Shawn in bed with “Belle” aka transformed Jan.
Finally, Doug led Julie, Ciara and Ben in singing Angels We Have Heard on High at the Horton house.
After the angel on the tree burst into flames and set the Christmas tree on fire, possessed Marlena blew in the nearby doors with a gust of wind.
Days of Our Lives spoilers say Marlena has quite a showdown ahead of her, so stay tuned.
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