John Oliver’s three-day visit to Salem ended Friday the only way it could have: with mutual slapping, forced amnesia, a cryogenic chamber, and a door left wide open for Devlin St. John’s return.
The Last Week Tonight host wrapped his Days of Our Lives arc on Friday’s episode, returning as Salem chief water inspector Devlin St. John after Wednesday’s cliffhanger found him drugged by EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) and Rita Lesley (Maggie Carney).
Friday’s episode picked up with Devlin unconscious in EJ’s bedroom, where Rita prepared a dose of CRS-17 intended to wipe the last 24 hours from his memory. Before it could fully take, Devlin woke up confused, believing he had been “compromised” in EJ’s “den of high thread count inequity.”
That led to the soap showdown Oliver had been asking for since March: a face-to-face fight with EJ DiMera. Devlin refused to let EJ “gut” his brain, calling him a “budget Bond villain” and “bargain basement Machiavelli.” EJ fired back with “insignificant bureaucratic tick” and “sanctimonious little parasite,” before Devlin declared, “I thank the Lord for giving me hands so I can do this”—and slapped him. (See video at the top of this post.)
Oliver didn’t escape unslapped after engaging in fisticuffs with DiMera:
The rest of Devlin’s finale only got soapier. After the 24-hour amnesia took effect, Devlin managed to overhear yet more incriminating information inside the DiMera mansion, prompting Rita to decide he needed to be disposed of permanently—until her feelings for him got in the way.
“You remind me of that man on television who calls himself a comedian but mostly just shouts the news at a speed no human can understand it,” Rita told him. “I have something of a crush on you, I’ll admit, which is why I can’t bring myself to kill you.”
Instead, Rita placed Devlin inside one of EJ’s cryogenic chambers, kissed him goodnight, and left him with one last bit of hope: “All you need is faith that you’ll return one day.”
Oliver’s Days arc followed his July appearance on General Hospital as Z, the mysterious head of the World Security Bureau (WSB). Both roles grew out of a March Last Week Tonight segment in which Oliver invited any daytime soap to cast him, asking for a ridiculous name, a juicy storyline, a dramatic close-up, and ideally, some slapping.
By Friday, two soaps had delivered all of that and then some.
Oliver is expected to address both his Days of Our Lives and General Hospital appearances on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, putting a bow on the soap-opera journey that began on his HBO show months ago. Or, depending on the cryogenic chamber’s settings, maybe just putting it on ice.
Oliver’s complete three-day Days of Our Lives story arc can be viewed on Peacock.
Previously:
John Oliver’s Days of Our Lives Arc Takes a Dangerous Turn in Day 2
John Oliver Hits Salem in His Days of Our Lives Debut
