Marlena’s wandering around the nurses station and Sarah tells her she’s good to head home. They awkwardly get to talking about Rachel

and who knows what, but they both know everything! Sarah gets back to work, so Marlena calls Belle to bring her home.

Over at the hospital, Belle gets her mom all ready to go, then breaks the news about Brady moving in with Maggie. Marlena’s not sure she

 

 

can forgive herself. She’s done with seeing patients. (Maybe just stop treating your own family members, people you know, and brainwashed Salemites?)

Xander’s Not Welcome
Xander drops by the mansion, arms laden with gifts (why am I suddenly feeling like going all Dr. Seuss?) and Brady demands to know what he’s doing there. Dropping presents off, obviously. But Xander definitely doesn’t like learning Brady moved in. Temporarily.

 

 

Brady sees him out after a quick exchange on how none of them are behind the DiMera disappearances. Xander hurries back in with an extra present (after Brady leaves) when Sarah gets home, annoyed to see him. Well, he’s annoyed Brady moved in with her, so there.

 

 

Rachel happily greets her brother, followed soon by Brady. He’s so proud of the progress she’s making in therapy. But guess what? She made a new friend! Sophia Choi! That’s… odd. She can’t talk, Rachel assures them, but they play board games! Tate and Brady clearly don’t think it’s as “cool” as they say, exchanging looks.

 

 

But they shrug it off and give Rachel some Christmas decorations to hang up — which is when she realizes she won’t be home for Christmas. Way to break the news, fellas. That’s all she wants. That and to see her mom. Brady promises they’ll do Christmas there, all three of them. Well…

Is Rachel’s Break EJ’s Fault?
Kristen wakes up from her fever dream to see EJ. “Am I hallucinating?” In Salem, who knows, but not this time. She still thinks he’s behind this, though. He, in turn, tells Kristen that Rachel remembered what happened and is at Bayview now. (After almost killing Sarah.)

He plays the remorseful uncle as Kristen crumbles in heartbreak and Chad tries catching up with the whole Rachel shot EJ thing. He breaks the news to them that Leo told him Johnny was about to be found not guilty and Kristen flips out and attacks him. If they’d waited in making her confess, she wouldn’t have gone to prison and Rachel would be out of Bayview!

In the Show’s Final Moments
The guys head out to talk over things at the Pub and Tate tries breaking the news to Brady that he won’t be around for Christmas, but Brady bulldozes over it, going on about how much he’s struggling and Rachel’s struggling, and Tate just looks at his plane ticket, sets his phone down and says nothing.

Xander says Sarah obviously has feelings for Brady. That’s none of his business, she says. So Xander mopes out after telling her he’ll never have feelings for anyone else.

Belle brings her mom home and Marlena’s happy to know Tate stayed. They get back to Rachel and Belle realizes Kristen acted without Marlena’s input and demanded she keep quiet. She has to tell Brady. This wasn’t her fault! But Marlena insists she still went along with the plan.