After Nearly Getting Caught, EJ Realizes How Useful Arnold Is — Plus Sarah Makes a Dangerous Decision

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On today’s Days of Our Lives, we pick up from yesterday, as Jada demands to know where Rafe is, as EJ stonewalls her. Just as he’s about to usher her out, though, Arnold pops up through the secret door. “What the hell is going on here?!” Jada demands. She starts peppering Rafe and EJ with questions, wanting to know what’s going on and what this supposed undercover mission is. Arnold just shrugs a bit, then decides to start spinning a yarn for Jada.

EJ jumps in to say “Rafe” has been working for him, tracking down Sloan Peterson to pay for what she’d done. Jada’s surprised that he doesn’t just let it die, since he wasn’t even the one truly hurt. EJ snaps that he’s got free time and Sloan made a fool of him, so she needs to pay — and he hired Rafe to find her.

RoboRafe says he wanted to tell her, but EJ made him promise not to say anything. Jada doesn’t buy it and turns to ask EJ if he was trying to make Rafe do something illegal. “No! No!” RoboRafe says he just needs to prove himself to Steve and John (even if they didn’t know anything about his job). Jada demands to know where he’s been searching for Sloan. He hasn’t been home since New Year’s, so why is he hiding out in the DiMera tunnels?

Nope. He’s been traveling in the search and just got back, coming in through the tunnels so no one saw him and they could keep the whole arrangement on the DL. He’s charging EJ a fortune to get Jada an incredible wedding gift. That makes Jada light up, though she’s still skeptical. In the end, she buys it. She knows he wanted to surprise her, but chastises him to not scare her next time.

Except he sent that XOXO, which wasn’t like him at all. RoboRafe says he was overcome with love for his future wife and Jada says it’s fine, but it just wasn’t like him. She has to get back to the station: “Don’t worry me like that again.” Arnold goes in for a kiss, but EJ yanks him away first. They both freak out over how close that was when she’s gone.

Philip admits to Kate on the phone that he’s not sure he got through to Sarah. He doesn’t know if Xander is going to show up and shoot him dead. And speak of the devil… Xander stalks in. “Gotta go mom. It was nice knowing you.”

Xander greets his brother, slowly pulling something out of his bag… then whips out a croissant from Sweet Bits. It’s a peace offering. Philip’s skeptical, so Xander explains his heart-to-heart with Maggie and deciding that if Victor wrote that letter and trusts Philip, Xander should, too. Except… he did hear Philip on the phone talking about Xander wanting to kill him.

Philip lies that he told Kate about spoiling Xander’s DiMera takeover… And Xander did try to kill him before. Xander reassures him that it’ll take more than a business disagreement to fly into a psychotic rage. They’ve got to make this partnership work — forever. He asks if Philip is onboard for a true 50/50 partnership, no backbiting, betrayal or plotting.

Philip says he’s got to come clean first… about an apology on behalf of their father for keeping the truth from Xander and treating him like crap. Philip points out that Victor wasn’t around for most of his growing up, then overcompensated by being an overbearing, control freak parent trying to mold Philip in his image. Philip insists Victor treated Xander horrible because he was the son most like him. And then Victor died before Philip could show he was getting his act together. They bond over both saying this is their chance to prove themselves to Victor.

Philip thanks Xander for being understanding and asks him to break bread with the croissant. They split it, and Xander tells Philip he gave him the bigger piece.

Stephanie fumes at the paper article about Philip and Xander being Titan co-CEOs. Abe calls to tell her about Leo’s plan to track down Lady Whistleblower, wondering why Paulina’s footing Rafe’s bill instead of Leo. Sarah pops up to tell Stephanie that she didn’t tell Xander a thing. Her talk with Philip and Kate convinced her it was in everyone’s best interest not to say anything.

Stephanie’s surprised that Sarah is going to lie (“actually, it’s a lie by omission”) to Xander, but Sarah tells her that she’s worried about Xander having unchecked power. He almost re-started the Kiriakis/DiMera war, but Philip talked him out of trying for DiMera. Neither of the brothers necessarily make great choices, but the two of them having to work with each other will slow them down and hopefully keep anything too horrible from happening. Plus, Xander already tried to murder Philip, and his reaction to this would not be good.

Sarah asks for Stephanie’s blessing — and for her to keep the secret, too. Steph’s furious at Philip for using her, but she doesn’t want to be responsible for sending Philip to prison, or Xander hurting his brother. So she’s going to defer to Xander’s wife’s wishes. Sarah sighs in relief, but Stephanie says she just hopes Sarah thought it through.

She did. She’s just got to gamble about Xander finding out down the line.

Javi informs Leo that Rafe isn’t home, and he doesn’t know where his cousin is. Leo asks Javi to let Rafe know when he stops by, because he needs the PI to track Lady Whistleblower down. They sit down at the kitchen table for Leo to fill his friend in on the search. Javi says he wants Lady Whistleblower to go down as much as Leo does. She’s just cruel, and Javi hopes someone murders her “in print” like she does to him.

Leo gets a text from Abe criticizing his exit story for Faith. Chanel quit out of the blue, what does Abe expect from him?? Javi then mentions Kerry spending the night, making Leo uncomfortable, though he insists he’s happy for Javi.

He gets up to leave, and as he does, Javi turns around and Leo sees the “I love Rochester” shirt. He looks shocked and slips out.

Gabi and Kerry share coffee in the square as they talk about Javi and his being more invested in wedding planning, then serving as her assistant. Kerry says they’re together, but Leo’s a problem. Gabi says no one’s a fan of him and is somewhat horrified that Javi’s decided to forgive Leo and become friends. Kerry’s sure Leo’s already trying to “snake his way back into Javi’s bed.”

Gabi fills Kerry in about Leo messing with Will and Sonny. “I will never forgive him.” And she doesn’t want him near her family again. Gabi tells Kerry that if he ever needs help keeping Leo from Javi, she’s all in. They toast to keeping Leo away and she heads into work.

In the show’s final moments, Sarah pops into the Titan office and tells Philip she decided to say nothing — but it’s a huge deal and it means he has to work with Xander and not be a thorn in his side. Xander comes back to overhear Philip saying he owes Sarah bigtime, and they tell him they’re talking about Sarah encouraging her husband to work with Philip. They all agree they’re hopeful the partnership will work.

Outside the Pub, Stephanie fills Jada in on her and Philip’s breakup and that she won’t bring a Plus One to the wedding. Jada tells her if she wants to bring anyone else, just let her know. Jada quickly mentions Rafe’s temporary disappearance, but he’s fine, he’s found, “the wedding is full steam ahead.”

EJ and Arnold are both relieved they pulled it off, and Arnold asks for that check. EJ tells him to slow down — he could be of use as “Rafe Hernandez.” But only if he keeps his hands off of Jada. And he’s got an idea how.

Javi gets a call from Kerry and tells him he loves the sweatshirt he gave him. Leo, meanwhile, gets back to his room, kicking himself because it was clearly Javi after all. Abe calls and Leo says he doesn’t need Rafe after all. He knows who Lady Whistleblower is.