Days of Our Lives: Worst News of 2025 – Horror Fans HATED and Couldn’t Stop!
Days of Our Lives it’s been a roller coaster this year, but let’s be real, there’s been some not-so-happy news. Bo Brady (Peter Reckell), Stephanie Johnson (Abigail Klein), and Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) remember being part of these evil plans.
Stephanie’s Dirty Novel of Days of Our Lives
So, number one, the first bad plot I want to talk about is Stephanie Johnson’s (Abigail Klein) smutty book. I have no problem with Alex Kiriakis’ (Robert Scott Wilson) girlfriend writing a nice book. Not at all. That’s as good as a bar of soap. What they did with Stephanie’s book is the opposite. If you have a Kindle tablet or app, you know that there are tens of thousands of romance novels out there, many of them as outrageous as you can imagine.
A plot like this might have been relevant back when there weren’t a lot of pornographic books on the internet, back like 50 Shades of Grey it first came out years and years ago and it was a unicorn. It was rare. These days, it’s normal. You can buy smutty ebooks for a bundle or two or pay $12 a month to read all the hot romance novels you want on Kindle Unlimited. No, I don’t advertise them, but I have Kindle Unlimited, so I know how cheap it is because I’m a voracious reader.
A Foolish Plan to Save a Titan in Days of Our Lives
Alex Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson) says that Stephanie’s book is a smutfest, “One Stomy Night,” can save The Titan you are crazy. Like literally crazy. Yet somehow that is what happened. Xander Cook (Paul Telfer), Philip Kiriakis (John-Paul Lavoisier), and Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow) were all on board. The book was a huge success. And Stephanie introduced herself as Anastasia Sands. And it was this big event.
Stephanie then changed genres and wrote a mysterious letter that The Titan he hoped to keep them afloat. So we have a billion dollar empire collapsing. And based on one dirty romance novel. I mean, come on. Even Alex, as cute as he is, isn’t dumb enough to believe that, is he?
Honestly, it was even worse that Stephanie’s parents, Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans), were reading her dirty book out loud together and trying to make fun of it. I have to tell you, that’s a very nice thought, especially since Stephanie was writing about her sex life. It’s bad. And that’s another reason it was a bad plot.
Abe Carver’s Controversial Mentorship of His Son’s Bull on DOOL
Second, another really problematic plot from 2025 was Abe Carver (James Reynolds) mentoring his son Theo Carver’s (Tyler Joseph Andrews) high school bully, Liam Selejko (Hank Northrop). We saw that Theo was very upset when he found out that Abe was going to devote his time to his abuser, Liam. But Abe assured his son that he just wanted to help Liam with his studies in the hope that he would reform the young man who was in trouble with crime.
Abe was tutoring Liam as part of a plea deal after Liam was arrested for stealing a car. After that, Abe has a one-on-one session with Liam and then leaves the park to try and steal Cat Greene’s (AnnaLynne McCord) purse because she’s broke and has a baby. The story seems to introduce Liam, who is related to a minor character from the past, as part of Abe’s story. I guess I don’t know if they were trying to do some kind of soapy PSA on the issues of adult literacy and how it relates to crime.
If that’s what they wanted, I don’t think it’s overly clear. The bottom line is that when Abe found out that Liam was abusing and abusing his son Theo, he should have asked someone else to teach the boy. Or Abe could swap out Liam and work with another pastor’s person and give his person. He betrays Theo by doing this. I didn’t like it. I found it unpleasant.
Marlena’s Baffling Lyme Diagnosis Vs. The Queen of the Night Mystery in dates
Number three on our worst 2025 list of all Marlena’s weirdest moments. The writers came back with Queen of the Night story this year with many plans. Rachel Black (Alice Halsey) and Marlena were studying “One thousand and one Arabian Nights,” the book that Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) used to control Marlena’s mind long ago.
If you remember, he had dreams about Stefano and everything Queen of the Night obsession. They did those flashback clips with Marlena. And then there were all the plans that fell through Stefano. And they had Susan Banks (Stacy Haiduk) say that something was off about Marlena mentally.
Mind you, no one wanted that plot. They didn’t want to see Marlena like her Queen of the Night. They did not want to see him possessed by a demon. And suddenly, Marlena was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I mean, pretty bad, yes, but not as dramatic as the previous trauma with Phoenix.
Days of Our Lives: Red Flags in every way
And that means that all of that gathering and all of those red flags and failed plots would have been for naught and Marlena is not in danger of a new version of Stefano, even if Lyme disease is some kind of way to get to that plot.
If so, then Days of Our Lives you are taking it too far, especially a story that no one wanted. The problem is they worked ten months before this play. So that means whatever the fans hate, too bad. There is no chance to wander at all because everything is filmed, which can be the equivalent of a year.
Stefano 2.0 Tease: The DiMera Story That Went Nowhere
Speaking of Marlena, that brings us to the dreaded number four 2025. And that’s Stefano (Joseph Mascolo) 2.0. There’s been a lot of hints dropped that they’re bringing back some sort of Stefano, someone with his memories, maybe like they did with Steve-ano when they put in the Patch with his memory and the bionic eyeball and all that. Thus, it was noted that EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) and Dr. Wilhelm Rolf (Richard Wharton) was working on a new version of EJ’s (Dan Feuerriegel) evil father.
There were Stefano’s ideas. They are strong around summer, July and August 2025. They are like reaching this high point. Like I said before, Marlena had it Queen of the Night dreams. we had The Arabian Nights things. Also, there was a ton of talk about Stefano in his family and Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) filling Cat in about Phoenix. Then there were Susan’s things where she was in the house saying that she felt Stefano’s presence there.
Then they suddenly changed course. And we have what appears to be a woman in that mystery tube. Now I don’t know if Ron Carlivati was planning a new Stefano and then he was fired and the new writers continued for a long time because the scripts were finished and they changed gears. I’m fine if they don’t bring back any version of Stefano. But what I don’t agree with is that they waste our time pretending it’s possible.
The Return of Bo and Hope in Days of Our Lives: A Depressing Plot Device for John Black’s Tragic Exit
For me, the worst plot of the year was bringing back Bo and Hope Brady (Kristian Alfonso) as a tool to kill John without giving us any meaningful payback. The writers were presented, I understand, with a great challenge because of the real life of Drake Hogestyn’s illness and death. He died of pancreatic cancer in September of 2024. But thanks to the show’s advanced filming system, they actually filmed John Black’s death Days Of Our Lives when Drake was seriously ill but still alive, but he flashed the green light. And of course, the character’s death aired on June 2, 2025, after the character’s death.
In keeping with John’s loyal character, he was killed by an explosion in a drug lab when he went in to get the Versix drug to save Bo’s life. Themba was there with John to help find the medicine, but he was the one who was seriously injured. They had Bo in a coma since 2023 with no urgency or interest in getting him out. Then suddenly, they gave him severe sepsis.
Bo Walks in the Dark
That was frustrating because if you remember when Bo came back after being resurrected in the spin-off “Out of Salem,” we were promised a reunion between Hope and Bo. They do PR for it. They do promos about it. And then we never met again because Bo had lost his mind about Kiriakis. Then Shawn Brady (Brandon Beemer) shot Bo when he threatened Hope with a gun. And then we finally got that meeting but as a plot device for John’s death, and Bo and Hope didn’t stick around.
Bo and Hope remarried in a private ceremony in June 2025. That was a few weeks after John’s death. It was kind of a shock to me to tie Bo and Hope’s romantic reunion to John’s death. And of course it was a concern for long-time fans to leave the city after that. But at the same time, many fans were okay with it. So, it’s kind of different from it. I didn’t like it because the meeting seemed like it was once seen to make John Black’s death happen.
We’ll see what happens in 2026 as now all of Ron Carlivati’s plots should be dead and gone and can’t be resurrected like other characters. I will say that I really enjoyed his writing General Hospital, and I did so Days of our lives for a long time, but then it started to get worse very quickly. Then he left.
