If Kristen DiMera were in peace, Days of Our Lives wouldn’t be Salem anymore, and this week proves it.

Having just escaped the kidnapping in the DiMera mausoleum, Kristen immediately switches to “resurrection mode” with a crazy four-move combo: saving her brother Peter, snatching her daughter Rachel from Bayview, interfering in Brady-Sarah’s relationship, and aiming for DiMera’s CEO position.

She single-handedly brings the entire family back into a state of emergency, while the audience simply watches Salem slowly burn down.

Her first move is returning to Peter Blake.

Peter is in the hospital, furious, disappointed, and determined to turn his back on the brother who has betrayed him countless times. Instead of letting her pride fade away, Kristen chooses the hardest way: going to his bedside, bowing her head low, and tearfully begging for his forgiveness. It wasn’t the first time Kristen had cried, but this time the feeling was different, as if she understood that if she lost Peter, she would officially have no one left in her family to rely on. The hospital was eerily cold, the machines beeping, but the atmosphere between the two siblings was intensely hot, filled with guilt, resentment, and a glimmer of remaining familial affection. If Peter showed even a hint of weakness, Kristen would immediately pull him into her new group, turning him into an ally instead of an accuser.

Just after leaving the hospital, Kristen received a second shock: Rachel was being held at Bayview after nearly harming Sarah and shooting EJ. Even worse, Rachel had remembered everything; there was no longer any excuse of “losing control” or “not knowing what she was doing.” Kristen’s maternal instincts kicked in; she was furious to learn her daughter was tied up there instead of being taken home.