Stephanie Johnson Surprises Alex Kiriakis With a Real Wedding Ceremony As Her Stalker Plans To Strike on DAYS

STEPHANIE JOHNSON AND ALEX KIRIAKIS TIE THE KNOT BUT THE STALKER ALREADY KNOWS THE PLAN

TL;DR: Stephanie Johnson surprises Alex Kiriakis with a real wedding on Days of Our Lives, but her stalker has been listening through a bugged picture frame the entire time. This trap is about to backfire in the worst possible way.

A Surprise Wedding With a Very Unsurprising Problem

On Thursday’s Days of Our Lives, Stephanie Johnson pulls off something nobody saw coming — including her own fiancé. Jada Hunter helps Stephanie set up a surprise ceremony, complete with an officiant, a white dress, and zero heads-up for the groom. When Alex Kiriakis walks in, Stephanie tells him she can’t wait to be his wife. A ring slides onto her finger. Vows are exchanged. It’s romantic, it’s spontaneous, and it’s also the most dangerous thing anyone in Salem has done recently. That is really saying something for a town where people get buried alive on a semi-regular basis.

Here’s the problem. Stephanie and Alex were supposed to be FAKING an elopement to draw out her stalker. Steve Johnson, Jada, and Alex hatched this plan where Alex would head to the courthouse with a Stephanie decoy, hoping the obsessed fan would make his move. Solid idea in theory. But Stephanie apparently decided she’s done pretending and wants to actually marry the man she loves. Which would be incredibly sweet if her stalker wasn’t listening to every word through a bugged picture frame sitting in their apartment.

Have a theory about who’s really pulling the strings behind Stephanie’s stalker? Write to our editor at [email protected] with your wildest predictions!

That Engagement Gift From EJ Is the Real Villain Here

Remember that picture frame that arrived on Stephanie and Alex’s doorstep with a card from EJ DiMera? Steve opened the box, read the card, and everyone just shrugged and put it on the shelf. Nobody questioned why EJ would send an engagement present when he wasn’t even in the country and didn’t know Alex had proposed. Nobody thought to scan the gift for surveillance equipment. Classic Salem logic.

That frame has a hidden listening device, and the stalker has been eavesdropping on every strategy session since it arrived. Every trap they’ve discussed. Every detail about when Stephanie will be alone. Every argument about whether Jeremy Horton is the guilty party. The stalker knows the elopement was supposed to be bait. He knows they’re expecting him to target Alex. And he knows exactly when and where Stephanie will be completely unprotected.

When Stephanie eventually thanks EJ for that generous gift, his genuine confusion should set off every alarm bell in Salem. EJ wasn’t even aware Alex proposed. But by then, Owen Kent may have already made his move.

Poor Jeremy Horton Is Taking the Fall While Owen Kent Plots in the Shadows

The most maddening part of this entire situation is that Steve, Alex, and Jada remain absolutely convinced that Jeremy is the stalker. They’ve blamed him for outing Stephanie as her pen name Anastasia Sands, even though EJ was actually responsible for that leak. They accused Jeremy of hacking a dating app to get close to Jada. They’ve essentially decided that this elementary school teacher moonlights as a dark web criminal mastermind who writes unhinged fan letters in his spare time. The evidence? Vibes, apparently.

Julie Williams is the only person in Salem who believes Jeremy is innocent. And she’s completely right.

Meanwhile, Owen Kent is the real threat lurking in the shadows. For anyone who needs a refresher, Owen kidnapped Stephanie Johnson back in 2009 on Stefano DiMera’s orders. He locked her in a drawer in his father’s morgue and became so obsessed that he tried to flee the country with her. After his prison transport was hijacked, Owen disappeared for seventeen years. Now he’s resurfaced, still fixated on Stephanie, sending creepy fan letters, lurking on dark web forums under the handle Sansfan69, and deliberately dressing in outfits identical to Jeremy’s to frame him.

Owen has been two steps ahead this entire time. And while Steve and Alex waste their energy chasing Jeremy around Salem in a hoodie, Owen is free to walk right into University Hospital where Stephanie works and grab her.

This Wedding Could Be the Trigger for Something Much Worse

Spoilers suggest that Stephanie’s wedding may be exactly what pushes the stalker to finally act. Owen has been biding his time, listening through that bugged frame, and a surprise ceremony probably isn’t sitting well with a man who has spent seventeen years fantasizing about making Stephanie his own.

Detective Shawn Brady is also investigating the stalker case, and early hints suggest he might take a bullet in the line of duty before this is all over. If Shawn gets shot trying to save his cousin, this stalker storyline just went from creepy to full-blown catastrophic.

Stephanie Johnson wanted her dream wedding. Instead, she may have just handed her stalker the exact information he needed to take her. Again.

Do you think Stephanie and Alex actually got married, or is this still part of the trap? Sound off in the comments below!

WATCH THIS: What is going on with EJ?

@soapoperamag Could the rumors be true… Is EJ turning into his father…mind, body, and soul?!?! #DaysofOurLives ♬ original sound – Soap Opera Magazine