While DiMera is the center of the storm and other storylines are filled with cold blood, Days takes a drastic genre shift with the Stephanie-Alex storyline: starting with a sweet Christmas vibe, ending with a heart-stopping white powder scare.

December 12th begins with the two happily setting up a Christmas tree, decorating, and subtly flirting—the vibe of a couple believing their love is strong enough to overcome all the Salem drama.

Stephanie helps Alex hang decorations, and they even manage a few sweet romantic moments before everything turns gray.

Then Alex opens an envelope, and inside is an unknown powder.

Just one small action instantly changes the atmosphere: from warmth to panic, from a private home to a crime scene, from a romantic affair to a town-wide crisis. The spoiler also explicitly suggests that Alex’s exposure to the mysterious powder will throw Salem into chaos, no longer just a personal scare, but potentially triggering a chain reaction: who touched it, who inhaled it, is it poison, is someone trying to kill someone in a “clean” way?

And this is the cruel part: Stephanie, already stressed by recent troubles, just wanting some peace, is thrown into a situation she can’t control. Adding fuel to the fire is Maggie’s disbelief as she looks at Jeremy, as if she knows something fishy is going on that others haven’t seen, and Jeremy is the type who gets more emotionally volatile the more he’s suspected.