'Days' builds up to Paris climax
By COLLEEN WEIGEL
Scene Writer
The past week of "Days of Our Lives" has been based on two days of real time as it has centered mainly on the Hope/Gina/Bo storyline in Paris. Hope is currently alternating between her Princess Gina persona and her true self, as she has done for the last year, by "becoming" Princess Gina with Princess Gina's memories and emotions.
But after her parents Doug and Julie arrived in Paris, Hope began to remember her own past. Now it is up to her to keep up her charade as Princess Gina to keep Stefano from getting suspicious about her intentions.
In a meeting with Stefano, they talk about their plan of stealing the last Renet again. Stefano says this will prove her loyalty to him. But really, how many times does she need to prove her loyalty?
After she gets the last Renet, Stefano has promised her the freedom to live her life as Princess Gina. She leaves Stefano to get back to Bo, meanwhile continuing to have intertwining memories of Hope's and Gina's past. Upon her return, Bo, like Stefano, promises to protect her.
They then all get ready for the party in Princess Gina's honor. What none of them know is that the real Princess Gina is lurking, planning to attend the party. The real princess plans to go as Kurt's mother. Clearly, there will be some kind of run-in between Princess Gina and Hope at the party. What will happen?
The real Gina repeatedly says that she will get her revenge against Stefano for stealing so many years from her, so a heated confrontation is inevitable.
Elsewhere in Paris, Eric and Greta also prepare to go to the party, while trying to convince John to attend the party. Unlike John of yesteryear, though, he does not want to interfere in bringing Stefano down.
Greta, in an ironic but typical soap opera twist, continues to whine about how she can't believe that her mother is dead. What everyone knows, though, is that the real Princess Gina is really in the same house in a secret room.
Eric and Greta leave for the party, and Greta expresses her concern about being able to go along with the charade of pretending that Hope is her mother. They arrive at the party and are welcomed by the Duchess and the Duke. Unknown to Greta and Eric, Princess Gina arrives with Kurt in a not-so-convincing disguise. Most likely, "Kurt's mother" will attract more attention with the veil that is covering her whole face.
As the real Princess Gina approaches Stefano, one must wonder why he does not recognize Princess Gina's voice, considering that Hope and Gina supposedly have the same voice. But perhaps the veil is more of a disguise than a smart person would have thought.
Meanwhile, Hope is dressed for the party, ready for Bo to introduce Hope as Princess Gina Von Ambert to her parents.
Is it really Hope or Gina? It is hard to tell. Julie asks her if she is all right, and Hope says, "Of course." Bo then looks into Hope's eyes and reminds her that he loves her and that she should always remember Hope Williams.
Back in Salem, nothing important is going on. Sami and Lucas, Salem's parents-of-the-year, battle it out when Lucas confronts Sami about a letter Nicole found, revealing Sami's deliberate attempt to keep him from attending Will's first day of school. Sami basically denies the truth until she confesses — something that occurs often in the soap opera world.
This of course makes her look like a liar to Austin, and everyone knows how Austin feels about liars. Thus, he leaves to go box at the gym, which makes Sami fear that she has lost her chance with Austin. But when did she ever have one?
At the gym, Austin runs into — surprise — Carrie. She wants to talk about the charity-boxing match and who his opponent should be. He discards the majority of the candidates saying they will be too easy, but one must ask when the last time it was when he boxed in a professional boxing match. It is simply illogical.
Just before this confrontation, by the way, Carrie had been talking to Marlena about the fact that she misses Austin.
Can she ever make up her mind about who she loves? Mike or Austin? She refuses to allow Austin to move on with his life with Sami, but realistically, Carrie doesn't have a choice. She is the one who cheated on him. The choice twist would be for Sami and Austin to finally be together, mainly because Austin is stupid to believe that Sami can turn over a new leaf.
Sami also has a similar conversation with Marlena, in which she expresses concern that Carrie will convince Austin that she has returned to her evil ways. Is anyone else sick of these two sisters fighting over Austin? It has been at least three years!
Elsewhere in Salem, John returns home to Marlena, and they celebrate. What do they have to celebrate about? This is all they do.
The big Friday cliffhanger was Hope arriving at the party. Let the party begin.
All Scene Stories for Wednesday, September 29, 1999