Days Of Our Lives Episodes That Feel Like Deja Vu
It's often been said that soaps repeat the same storylines over and over again and that you can stop watching for months and years and feel like you picked up right where you left off. However, these cliches aren't necessarily a bad thing if you look at what the genre is about. Soap operas tell love stories and life lessons often in an overly dramatic and over-the-top way, but at the heart of everything is family. With a soap, the audience can be following the lives of core family members for decades, so everything seems familiar when a fan returns after a viewing break.
Fans who never take a break know a soap's history and it can often be thrilling to see the same scenario played out today that also played out in a similar way decades ago or even a few years prior. In recent years and in 2021, "Days of Our Lives" has been hearkening back to its history, reminding viewers why they fell in love with the soap in the first place. And that's why there have been several recent episodes that have given viewers an uncanny sense of déjà vu.
Marlena levitates and glows like it's 1995
If there's anything that has given "Days of Our Lives" fans a sense of déjà vu in 2021, it's the MarDevil possession story. A hit back in 1994 and 1995 that lured in new a audience, current fans never thought they would see it again. Even characters in the fictional town of Salem thought it could never happen again. As Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney) put it several weeks ago, she thought demonic possession was something that could only happen once — like chicken pox, according to Soaps. But that's just what happened as her mother, Marlena Evans, is possessed by the devil for the second time.
Just as in 1995, we have seen Marlena's (Deidre Hall) eyes glow that terrifyingly creepy shade of yellow and watched her levitate above her bed (via TV Insider). Those 2021 episodes took us right back to where we were nearly three decades ago, shocked that a soap would take on such a story. But just as in 1995, the story is really about John (Drake Hogestyn) and Marlena's love and how as before, that's what saves Marlena's soul.
Nicole and Rafe's illicit night on a conference room table
While Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) and Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) might not have the chemistry or fan following that John Black and Marlena Evans had and have, fans definitely got a sense of déjà vu in November of 2021 when Nicole and Rafe gave in to passion and made love atop a conference room table at Basic Black (via Soap Hub). They are trying to forget about that ill-fated night as of this writing, but it's easier said than done.
Longtime viewers can never forget the night a very-married Marlena surrendered to passion with John back in 1993 on the DOOL primetime special "Days of Our Lives: Night Sins" — right on the Titan conference room table. Marlena's teenage daughter, Sami, witnessed that moment and it changed her life forever (via Soap Hub). It also changed John and Marlena's lives forever as they conceived their daughter, Belle, that night — leading them to a lifetime of happiness and Salem drama together.
Ben kidnaps Ciara from her wedding
In one of the most iconic episodes in "Days of Our Lives" history that aired in 1983, Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) kidnapped Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso) from the church just before she was about to walk down the aisle to marry Larry Welch (Andrew Massett). He sent his friend, Howie Hoffsteader (Stanley Brock), down the aisle in a wedding gown as a decoy and took off with Hope on the back of a stolen police motorcycle, eventually making her realize she loved him and only him.
In 2021, Bo and Hope's daughter, Ciara Brady (Victoria Konefal), got the same treatment from Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson). He wanted to stop her from marrying Theo Carver (Cameron Johnson) while she had amnesia and forgot the love she felt for him, so Ben took a page out of Bo Brady's playbook and kidnapped Ciara from the chapel. Rather than putting in a male decoy, he used the maid of honor, Claire (Isabel Durant), as a faux Ciara dressed in her gown to throw Theo off (via Soaps). And, of course, he managed to jog Ciara's memory so she'd realize it was Ben she loved all along.