While the DiMera household is engulfed in the disappearances, the emotions on the surface are equally intense.

Kristen DiMera and EJ’s encounter already had explosive undertones, but this time it was a no-holds-barred explosion: Kristen directly accuses EJ of being behind Rachel’s distress.

The brilliance of Days lies in not just Kristen’s anger, but in the instinctive anger of a mother: when her child is scared, a mother will bite anyone nearby, especially someone who has hurt her.

EJ, needless to say, has a history of suspicion. So Kristen’s accusation immediately shakes Salem.

If EJ reacts too strongly, he’ll seem more like a guilty conscience. If he remains too calm, Kristen will think he’s faking it. So this confrontation was bound to end in a stalemate, and that stalemate would fall entirely on Rachel. Rachel was a child who couldn’t handle the tense atmosphere; she panicked, she was scared, she felt like she was the reason the adults were fighting. And so Brady and Tate had to step in to comfort her. But comforting her wasn’t as simple as a hug. Because when a child is deeply frightened, they need a real sense of security, and Salem wasn’t safe at this moment.

Brady would try to keep his voice soft, trying to reassure Rachel that no one was blaming her, that the adults would handle it. Tate, meanwhile, was there, both sympathetic and clumsy, trying to say a few words to calm Rachel down, but sometimes the more he spoke, the more his helplessness became apparent. The pain of this situation lay in the fact that the adults were at war, and the children were bearing the brunt of the aftermath. The more Kristen yelled, the more Rachel recoiled.