The Elephant in the Room
If you’d asked me, “What does the Serena storyline need to be entertaining?”, my first response would not have been “a crappy elephant statue purchased at the Pier One in Downtown Africa.”
But here we are.
Serena having an ulterior motive could be a good twist — though I’m sure the next layer will be, like, “It has the cure for HIV inside it and I wanted to make sure it was safe!!!” — but even more than that, nothing gets people in Salem running around madly like an inanimate object with personal value. I anticipate many weeks and perhaps months of everyone huffing and puffing to themselves, “I have to get my hands on the statue!” And that would honestly be more entertaining than what we’re being given currently (especially once Ciara finds out about it!), so have at it, Days.
Something I do not understand:
a) Why is he wearing a shirt?
b) Why couldn’t JJ just tell Paige, “I hooked up with some girl named Kelsey who I met at a party. I don’t really know who she is aside from that and I never got her number”? But no, the easiest solution in Eve’s eyes is to force him to leave town, since that surely won’t be suspicious at all. Paige would certainly be like, “Oh, JJ isn’t in Salem? Well, then, I don’t care at all who he slept with or why he abruptly fled! Off to Stanford I go!” And why are he and Eve continually having meetings to talk about how they can’t talk about this anymore? (Because they’re idiots, I know, but still.) I am exhausted and care about absolutely nothing in this storyline except making it go away.
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What Happens in Salem... 
February 2, 2015 at 12:39 pm
For the Serena story to work, she has to be on equal footing with Nicole. It might be repetitive and outdated, but I secretly wish Serena had had Eric’s child and given it up. The father would arrive in town, now single after losing his wife tragically, and become involved with Nicole. Anyway, Nicole would eventually learn the truth and tell Eric the truth, probably on the eve of his wedding to Serena. Only Serena would turn the tables on Nicole and claim that Nicole had tracked down the child and blackmailed Serena into keeping silent. Of course, this would set Nicole in motion to make sure Serena suffered. And, because I’m a Nicole apologist, I would have the child reject Serena and only want to spend time with Nicole.
Also, I would be satisfied if Serena’s research was into the drug cocktails that Kristen Dimera has been developing over the past few years and she was using her connection to Eric to learn the truth. This would allow her John and Marlena’s orbit a bit more, and maybe allow Marlena and Nicole to unite for a common cause: learning what Serena is up to.
Or some combination of both.
The J.J./Paige/Eve story is bad, but I don’t want to lose Eve because of it. I think there is real potential there. I just would shift the focus from J.J./Paige to Eve/Jennifer, which is where the real dramatic material is. As time goes on, then you give some stronger material to J.J. and Paige.
The show has too many stories going on right now. They really should trim the ones that aren’t working and incorporate the characters into the existing stronger plotlines.
February 2, 2015 at 6:44 pm
Your Nicole/Eric/Serena story idea is great. I think I can see what they’re going for here, but the execution is incredibly one-dimensional and the pacing is odd.
Eve should be worthwhile. Send Paige to Stanford and let Eve build a life in Salem — maybe give her an actual job so she has a reason to stay. She’s totally salvageable away from this mess. I don’t think I will ever care for JJ/Paige as a couple. I want better for him.
The weird thing is that there are both too many stories and not enough, because so many of the smaller ones are intertwined (and yet too little is happening). They could actually be building more people into the Hope/Aiden story, and I hope they do.
February 3, 2015 at 5:06 pm
It’s difficult for me to be invested in this story line. It seems like this story is so slow to boil anf I could care less about the completion of this arc in about 3 years. The only advantage is Nicole is off the backburner and it’s fun to watch those two ladies spar…I agree Shrewena is a let down and a rather pointless character the TPTB concocted on the fly as they scrambled to replace Sami and EJ; Snorena was suddenly inserted into Eric’s decade off screen and we never heard a thing about her prior! Her T&A is shoved in our faces as she struts around in her too tight cocktail dresses that do her zero favors and make her look like a raw pasty white sausage. 😝
February 4, 2015 at 10:16 am
It’s awful. There’s nothing to root for — well, aside from Nicole telling them all to blow it out their asses and moving on to someone and something else. I can’t believe how badly they’ve fouled up the incredibly promising Eric/Nicole story.
February 2, 2015 at 3:13 pm
Yes – JUST what we needed, another random inanimate object for everyone to obsess about! Can’t wait for Ciara to get her hands on it and stare at it for weeks
February 2, 2015 at 5:09 pm
Also, you’ll never guess what thrilling piece of news was on the spoilers this week: “Serena gets close to that elephant!”
February 2, 2015 at 6:41 pm
OMG stoppppppp. Out of context, that actually sounds like the best storyline in years.
February 2, 2015 at 9:39 pm
lol. Sorry I couldn’t resist. Anyway I can’t stand the Serena storyline – I don’t see why we’re supposed to care about this pointless character, and this elephant certainly seems like it’s going to make things worse (although maybe so ridiculous that it may be entertaining).
Eve is salvageable, but the way they are using her is not working. She needs a completely new storyline
February 2, 2015 at 10:17 pm
Serena is borderline-unbearable to me, and I have sat through a LOT of shit on this show.
They need to let Eve play with the big kids and also be less batshit insane.
February 4, 2015 at 9:03 pm
I’m willing to bet that this plot point is just an excuse for the writers to have Nicole say the words, ‘Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Literally.’
I still think the payoff for the JJ/Eve stuff will be great to watch, it’s just the lead-up that’s been way to contrived. But I’ve accepted that this is all a means to an end. Paige’s character, however, needs either a reboot or a recast. To think she’s this wholesome girl while her mother and aunt are huge (fabulous) sluts isn’t working. She’s coming off as too much of wimp with zero personality. Hopefully, when she finds out about JJ, she’ll cut off all her hair, ditch the double backpacks and start being a woman.
But the real missing link in this story is Jack. I’m really hoping they’re planning his return for the 50th anniversary. I think Matthew Ashford and Kassie DePaiva would have great chemistry together, and it would give Jen a new lease on life now that she and Daniel are in the friend zone.
February 5, 2015 at 12:15 am
Now that Dannifer seem to be dead (or on hiatus?), a Jack return would be amazing. I want Eve to have something interesting to do, too. This is both boring AND ridiculous. I don’t even understand her day-to-day motivation, really. “I want Paige to love me… which she already does… so I want to make sure she doesn’t stop… so I’ll f*ck her boyfriend… and then I’ll keep going to talk to him about it…” It’s just Dumb Soap Character 101.
You are 100% right about Nicole, btw.