DAYS Horrific Decision Award: Alex Kiriakis Knew Stephanie Johnson Had A Loaded Gun But He Gave Joy Wesley a Key to Their Apartment Anyway!?

STEPHANIE JOHNSON WILL TAKE THE HEAT BUT ALEX KIRIAKIS SET THE TABLE FOR ALL OF IT

TL;DR: On Days of Our Lives, Alex Kiriakis left Stephanie Johnson alone in their apartment. She fell asleep and woke from a dead sleep on her own couch, saw someone entering her apartment, and fired her gun in a groggy panic. She will face real consequences for that. But the reason Joy Wesley had a key to walk through that door in the first place sits entirely with Alex Kiriakis. Let’s talk about that.

What Alex Kiriakis Actually Did Here

Let’s be precise about the sequence of events on Days of Our Lives, because the conversation Salem will have is going to focus almost entirely on Stephanie Johnson and her gun. That conversation is not wrong. A loaded firearm discharged in the direction of an unarmed woman is serious, and Jada Hunter is absolutely right to call Stephanie out for it.

But before that gun was fired, Alex Kiriakis gave Joy Wesley a key to the apartment he shares with his wife.

Not a supervised visit. Not a scheduled drop-off with Alex present. A key. Carte blanche access to a space that belongs to Stephanie as much as it belongs to him, given to the woman who carried his child in secret for a year, returned to Salem with an agenda of her own, and has made no secret of her belief that Stephanie is not cut out to be Kelsey’s stepmother. That is the decision that made everything else possible.

And Alex made this decision without appearing to think through what it would mean for the woman he married. He is a man who has been caught between these two women since Joy arrived back in Salem with Kelsey, and his solution to that tension has been to try to keep both of them comfortable. Giving Joy a key was almost certainly framed to himself as the practical, co-parenting thing to do. It was not. It was a catastrophic failure of judgment.

Do you think Alex deserves as much blame as Stephanie here? Sound off at amber@soapoperamagazine.com and we may print your take right here.

The Key Was Only Part of the Problem

Stephanie Johnson has PTSD. She was kidnapped by Owen Kent, held captive, and came home a different person than the one who left. She has been keeping a loaded gun accessible rather than locked in a safe, which her own training tells her is wrong. Her parents Kayla Johnson and Steve Johnson have watched this with growing concern. She has been told. She has nodded. And then she has gone home and kept the loaded gun within reach because the alternative, being unarmed and alone in that apartment, feels like something she cannot survive.

So when Joy used that key and walked through the door while Stephanie was asleep on the couch, what followed was not a rational decision. It was a trauma response. Stephanie jolted awake, saw movement, grabbed the gun and fired before her brain had caught up to what her eyes were seeing. Joy was not carrying baby Kelsey. Leo was babysitting. Joy arrived alone. The bullet went in Joy’s direction and Joy survived – we’ve seen the spoilers – which is the mercy in this story. But the aftermath is going to be considerable.

Jada will confront Stephanie about firing on an unarmed person. Alex will rush to the hospital asking where Kelsey is. Joy will fall into Alex’s arms. And Kayla and Steve will try to hold their daughter together while she processes what she has done.

The Marriage Question Nobody Is Asking Yet

Here is what is going to get lost in the immediate noise. Alex Kiriakis gave Joy a key in front of Stephanie. He asked her if she minded but she really didn’t have an opportunity to respond. The scene was more than awkward. Stephanie returned home from China to an apartment where her husband’s baby mother had standing access. That is not a co-parenting arrangement. That is Alex making unilateral decisions about shared space that Stephanie Johnson calls home.

Joy walking in did not come from nowhere. Joy using that key was a decision, and it was a questionable one. She knew Stephanie had PTSD. She has heard that from Alex. She knew Stephanie was in the apartment. She had just seen her there. She went to their apartment anyway, without the baby, without Alex, and let herself into someone else’s home.

Bad decision.

Stephanie Johnson will get the grief. She deserves some of it. But this situation has two architects, and only one of them is going to be standing at that hospital looking sympathetic while the other one falls apart.

Who carries more blame here, Stephanie for the gun or Alex for the key? Sound off below because Salem is going to have this argument and we want your take first.