EJ’s Dark Hypnosis Spirals Out of Control While Kristen Issues a TERRIFYING Request!

Days of Our Lives prepares for a dramatic week in Salem beginning May 18th, 2026, with shocking twists involving Lexi Carver, Kristen DiMera, and EJ DiMera. Lexi, who was believed to have died two years earlier from a brain tumor, suddenly awakens inside a morgue storage drawer beneath University Hospital. Her return is not a miracle but part of a horrifying conspiracy orchestrated by the mad scientist Dr. Wilhelm Rolf, who secretly kept her alive in an underground medical ward. Lexi wakes up frightened and disoriented, remembering her death and believing she was supposed to stay dead after surgery. Rolf used an experimental stem cell treatment connected to the orchid that once saved Stefano DiMera, but the process caused severe memory problems and temporal displacement. Lexi cannot remember the last five years of her life and has no knowledge of recent tragedies and changes in Salem. She still believes she is living in a time before several major deaths and before Abe Carver remarried. The emotional shock intensifies when Abe discovers Lexi alive and struggling to understand what happened to her. Abe is unable to tell Lexi the painful truth that she died, was buried, and that he eventually moved on with his life. The storyline transforms Lexi’s resurrection into a heartbreaking emotional crisis rather than a simple miraculous return.

Abe Carver finds himself trapped between his past love for Lexi and his present marriage to Paulina Price after Lexi’s shocking return. Lexi emotionally reaches for Abe while believing she has only just awakened from surgery and asking innocent questions about their family. Abe struggles to process the impossible situation because seeing Lexi alive threatens to erase the emotional healing he experienced over the last two years. Paulina initially reacts protectively toward her marriage but softens after witnessing Lexi’s emotional trauma and confusion. In a deeply emotional moment, Paulina encourages Abe to spend time helping Lexi recover her memories and adjust to reality. The storyline creates a painful love triangle centered not on romance but on loyalty, grief, and emotional responsibility. Abe must decide whether his renewed connection to Lexi will pull him away from the stable life he built with Paulina. Lexi’s return forces everyone involved to confront whether love can truly survive after death and whether grief can ever fully disappear. The emotional complexity of the storyline turns Lexi’s resurrection into a devastating exploration of identity, memory, and unfinished emotional bonds. Salem’s residents are left questioning whether the past can truly stay buried once the dead begin returning to life again.

At the DiMera mansion, Kristen DiMera descends into dangerous obsession after losing Brady Black and damaging her relationship with her daughter Rachel. Brady files a restraining order against Kristen after her latest manipulative scheme involving a fake pregnancy completely collapses. Desperate and emotionally unstable, Kristen secretly contacts the notorious villain Orpheus and requests that he eliminate Chloe Lane, Rachel’s new stepmother figure. Kristen believes that as long as Chloe remains alive and close to Rachel, she will never regain her daughter’s love and trust. Unlike her previous schemes, Kristen’s plan is cold and calculated because she personally arranges the murder-for-hire deal and provides detailed information about Chloe’s routine. However, Orpheus betrays Kristen’s expectations by kidnapping Chloe instead of killing her outright. He then blackmails Kristen using Chloe’s life as leverage, demanding permanent access to DiMera financial accounts and resources. Kristen quickly realizes she has trapped herself in an even more dangerous situation by trusting Orpheus with her revenge plan. The storyline reveals how obsession and desperation have pushed Kristen further into darkness than ever before. Her attempt to destroy Chloe ultimately backfires and places her under the control of a far more dangerous criminal mastermind.

Meanwhile, EJ DiMera experiences terrifying blackouts and memory lapses that convince him he may be hiding violent behavior connected to his family’s dark legacy. After discovering a bloody shirt in his car trunk with no memory of how it got there, EJ agrees to undergo deep hypnosis sessions with Marlena Evans. During the hypnosis, EJ uncovers a buried memory from 2023 involving a hidden compartment inside the DiMera crypt behind Stefano’s portrait. Inside the secret compartment lies a flash drive connected to a devastating truth about EJ’s identity and family history. While under hypnosis, EJ hears a warning from his own past self telling him not to watch the contents of the flash drive. The session becomes increasingly disturbing when EJ suddenly mutters the name Susan Banks and realizes his mother discovered a terrible secret before her death. EJ learns that he may not actually be a biological DiMera at all but instead the stolen child of a rival crime family. If the evidence on the flash drive becomes public, EJ could lose his inheritance, his position within the DiMera empire, and his entire sense of identity. The shocking revelation sends EJ racing toward the DiMera crypt in desperation while Marlena urgently contacts Rafe to stop him before he destroys himself emotionally. By the end of the week, Salem faces emotional devastation, dangerous conspiracies, and identity-shattering revelations that threaten to permanently alter the lives of everyone involved.