DAYS Secret Weapon: Susan Banks Is Headed to Salem to Give Her Beloved EJ a Piece of Her Mind and We Have Never Been More Ready

SUSAN BANKS IS COMING FOR HER SON AND SALEM CAN’T WAIT FOR THE ENERGY SHE IS BRINGING

TL;DR: On Days of Our Lives, Susan Banks is on her way back to Salem and she has things to say to her son EJ DiMera. EJ is drowning in enemies, bad decisions, and a Kristen situation he does not yet know the full scope of. His mother has never once needed an invitation to show up with a premonition and an opinion. Salem, brace yourselves.

EJ DiMera Has Needed His Mother for a While Now

Let’s take a breath and assess the current state of EJ DiMera on Days of Our Lives. He is trying to maneuver his sister-in-law, Gabi DiMera, into accepting a buyout so she doesn’t get an equal share of DiMera money. He is running a pharmaceutical operation and has brought his own sister back from the dead. His sister Kristen DiMera is sleeping with Xander Kiriakis in a hotel room and actively scheming against him. Rolf is under pressure. Cat Greene is lying to his face and has been for months.

EJ has been in full Stefano mode for so long now that Salem has started to go a little numb to it. The threatening. The absolute confidence that he is the smartest person in every room, until events prove otherwise. He has been playing the Phoenix so relentlessly that the show has started to feel the strain of it. The pharmaceutical operation. The divorce dispute. The Cat Greene situation. The Kristen betrayal he does not yet know about. More people than ever are lined up against him and the walls are closing from every direction at once.

And what this particular moment calls for is not another enemy, another legal maneuver, or another scheme designed to consolidate DiMera power. It is Susan Banks.

Which Susan Banks moment is your all-time favorite? Sound off at amber@soapoperamagazine.com and we may print your answer right here.

A Brief Appreciation of the Most Chaotic Woman in Salem History

Susan Banks is, without question, one of the greatest characters Days of Our Lives has ever produced. She showed up in Salem in 1996 as Kristen DiMera’s doppelganger, got herself mixed up in a baby swap that involved EJ’s actual parentage, raised Will Horton for years believing he was her son Elvis, turned up at John and Marlena’s wedding bearing a doll that looked exactly like the bride, and got kidnapped by Xander Kiriakis on Ava Vitali’s orders because even her enemies have dramatic taste.

She once came back to Salem with a premonition that EJ was in grave danger, told Sami Brady she was the Spawn of Satan to her face, and then watched EJ get shot anyway. She is never wrong about the danger. She simply has no ability to stop it.

She returned when he was in a coma and sensed from across the country that Belle Black had fallen in love with him, which contributed to him waking up. She was turned into a cat by the Devil. She invited herself to weddings. She has never once in her life shown up at a convenient moment and she has never once failed to make the scene more interesting for it.

Stacy Haiduk plays her with a specific unhinged warmth that is completely irreplaceable. Susan Banks is a force of nature in reading glasses who loves her son with a ferocity that has no regard whatsoever for appropriate timing.

Why Right Now Is the Perfect Moment

Salem needs a shakeup. Sophia Choi is threatening Holly Jonas over Tate. Stephanie Johnson is navigating trauma, a loaded gun, and a husband who gave her baby mama a key to their apartment. The ISA operation is teetering. EJ has been circling the same power plays for months.

Susan Banks does not fix any of these problems. She is not a fixer. She does not arrive with a legal team or leverage. What she does is walk into the DiMera mansion, announce she has had a premonition, say something completely unfiltered about every situation currently unfolding around her son, and remind everyone watching that Days of Our Lives at its best is gloriously, wonderfully unhinged.

EJ DiMera has been playing Stefano for too long. His mother is coming to remind him that underneath all of it, underneath the Phoenix ring and the pharmaceutical empire and the Stefano playbook, he is still her Elvis Junior. That woman is getting on a plane and she has things to say. And honestly? That is exactly what this show needs right now.

Is Susan Banks the shot of pure chaos Salem needs right now? And what do you think she is going to say to EJ when she gets there? Sound off below.