Stefan Makes the Ultimate Threat Against EJ to Force Him to Play Ball — and Paulina Dives Headfirst Into the Search for Chanel

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In today’s Days of Our Lives, Paulina’s recovering in her hospital bed when Sarah enters, decked out in her protective suit. Paulina’s groggy and unable to focus and lonely. That’s all normal, Sarah says sympathetically, telling Paulina they’ll release her as soon as they can after monitoring her radiation levels.

“So no end in sight,” Paulina sighs. Sarah promises she’ll be back with her family in no time, including Chanel and Johnny after getting back from the cabin. Snowstorm notwithstanding. Paulina starts to worry, though, when Sarah jokes about losing power. Paulina then gets a transcript of EJ’s press conference from her office. She reads his “apology.” “Oh, so smug, so sleazy,” she exclaims. That’s not how you apologize to a teenage boy. Sarah tells her to relax, her heart rate is going up.

Off at the Horton cabin, Johnny comes back with wood. He had to go farther because the wood they had was wet. Julie asks where Chanel is. Not with him… Chanel left about 10 minutes ago, so Johnny tries calling her, only to find her phone is in the cabin. Johnny is about to head out to look again when Paulina calls Chanel’s phone. She’s shocked that Johnny answers, but he makes an excuse about her being in the shower. Paulina wants to know if everything’s OK and Johnny lies again. He says Chanel will call after the shower, hangs up, and leaves to find his wife. Paulina’s been through enough.

Julie prays to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost souls and lost things. She stokes the fire and thinks back to talking to Chanel about the time capsule just before she left. Paulina calls Chanel’s phone again and Julie surprises her by answering. She explains how she got stuck there, and Paulina asks where Chanel is again. Oops! Julie said the newlyweds went out to play in the snow, and must have forgotten Paulina. She’ll call soon, Julie says, bye!

Julie then gets on the phone with Doug saying she’s trying to stay calm, but as soon as Johnny and Chanel get back and the roads are cleared, she’s getting the hell out of there. Paulina calls again and Julie reluctantly answers, then puts her on mute and asks Doug for an excuse about Chanel — except she never actually put Paulina on mute!

“My daughter is missing?!” Paulina yells when Julie switches phones back. So Julie tells her what happened, just before Johnny comes back. Alone. “Where is Chanel??” Julie demands, then hands Paulina off to Johnny. He didn’t find Chanel, but she’s only been missing maybe 40 minutes. He’ll find her if he has to search the whole island. “You better!” Paulina yells and hangs up. She then calls her office and demands to be connected to the Salem Public Works.

Ava and Harris, meanwhile, are busy moving her out of Wendy and Tripp’s place and into Harris’. She’s glad to get out of there, especially with Clyde still around. She doesn’t want them in the line of fire. Harris has been trying to track Clyde, but no luck. But, he says, “He’s definitely underestimating who he’s dealing with.” Both of them. Neither of them will let Clyde hurt the other. Ava then wonders how she’ll find that book. Harris reassures her that they’re in it together. They’ll find the book, give it to Clyde and “take his ass down.”

In the Horton Square, Nicole takes EJ to task for his half-hearted apology to Tate and his family. Is EJ even sorry for what he did or just embarrassed? EJ said he’s too busy to worry about this, what with the Stefan hearing and all. He’s got to run and he has no time or interest in dealing with the press. Just then, Chad and Xander show up, announcing the press is there. “Hope you’re hungry, bro, because you’re about to eat some crow,” Chad tells him.

They lay into him for starting a press conference before the press showed up. Xander wants to know what they missed and if he apologized. EJ says he did all of that — just as Nicole walks away. Chad follows her to ask why EJ started the press conference early. Nicole doesn’t know, she didn’t show up until the end. But she doesn’t want to talk about it anyway. Chad asks how Holly’s doing and he hopes all is going well. He then asks about Nicole and she admits she’s at a crossroads and now she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She thought she’d be raising her little boy.

Xander, meanwhile, asks if Tate’s family was satisfied. EJ shrugs sure, then Xander asks if there’s been anything more on who shot Harris and who tried framing him. Harris and Ava walk by after EJ’s lackluster response and Xander asks him — only to be told any statement has to come through Rafe. So Xander turns back to ask EJ about Clyde Weston. At that point, Ava and Harris slip away uncomfortably to whisper about Clyde and Xander in front of the Salem Inn. Ava hates all the trouble she got Harris in.

Back with EJ, Chad asks about Stefan’s plea deal and notes that since they’re family, that might be a conflict of interest. Just like you questioning me, EJ asks? But since he asked, Stefan had a hearing this morning and EJ’s confident he’ll serve the time he needs once the outcome is decided.

“Actually,” Stefan says walking up. “I already have.”

EJ wants to know how the hell that happened, and Stefan says the judge agreed to time served. He’s free. EJ runs off, and Xander says he needs to be somewhere, leaving Chad to question his brother. Chad demands to know how Stefan wormed his way out of prison and Nicole jumps in: “You son of a bitch! Start talking now.” Stefan helped put the drugs on the street that almost killed Holly. They’re all family, how could he do that?

Stefan says he never meant for anyone to get hurt, he only let the drugs get picked up under threat of harm to Gabi. “I am so sorry.” But Nicole isn’t having it. He should apologize to Holly, but he won’t because she doesn’t want him anywhere near her daughter.

EJ, meanwhile, comes upon Harris and Ava and they confront him about letting Stefan go. They snipe at each other, then EJ heads back over to come between Nicole and Stefan. Nicole and Chad break off as she wonders how this could have happened. But when Chad apologizes on Stefan’s behalf, Nicole tells him he’s done nothing wrong. He runs the paper with integrity, even when that means exposing his family’s dirty dealings. Nicole recalls back when she was a TV reporter and Chad’s surprised to learn that she’d ever worked in journalism. She lights up as she talks about her time as a journalist.

Xander meets Sarah at the pub and tells her trying to confront EJ about his case went nowhere. “The whole thing was bizarre.” Especially once Stefan turned up. They can’t figure out how he got out of jail after what he did. Sarah laments the amount of ODs she’s seen in the hospital. They then ponder if EJ got Stefan out. Xander knows how much Stefan was in with Clyde, and he can’t help but wonder if Stefan had anything to do with his getting framed. “If Stefan was involved with throwing me under the bus, there’ll be hell to pay.”

In the show’s last few moments, Stefan and EJ go back and forth about Stefan living in the house and running DiMera as co-CEO with EJ. But EJ refuses to give up anything, so Stefan pulls out his trump card. If EJ doesn’t play ball, he’ll tell Nicole EJ knew drugs were being run through the bistro, Stefan asked him for help, and EJ didn’t do a damn thing. Nicole will never forgive him for his role in Holly’s OD.

Julie tells Johnny help is on the way, but he says he has to get back out to find her. Paulina, meanwhile, yells on the phone that the plow crew needs to clear the bridge now, not in hours. Snow or snow, “I am the mayor of Salem, and you will have the head of your plow crew call me immediately.” She thinks back to promising Chanel she’s not going anywhere, then leaves her hospital room. “Hang on, baby girl. Momma’s coming.”