This week’s Salem (December 22nd) is incredibly intense, especially for the DiMera family: the crypt has become a literal “holiday prison,” and the biggest twist is that the kidnapper has finally revealed themselves.

No more ambiguity; instead, it’s a feeling of being pulled into the spotlight, forced to confront the truth: the person behind this captivity doesn’t just want money or revenge, but wants to break DiMera’s family from the inside out.

While everyone is still reeling from EJ being thrown into the basement like a discarded object, Kristen’s health deteriorates rapidly, her fever so high that she stumbles and collapses, both weak and panicked because of Rachel, thinking, “If Mom dies here, who will take care of the kids?”

That scene instantly changed the mood in the crypt: instead of arguing about how to escape, everyone faced a life-or-death question: if they didn’t escape immediately, someone wouldn’t make it through Christmas.

And just when Kristen was at her weakest, the kidnapper appeared or sent a message along the lines of, “I know what you’re doing,” dropping a chilling condition: to get out, there was a price to pay, and that price wasn’t money, but a name. Either someone had to confess, or someone had to be used as bait, or someone had to sign some document that would strip DiMera of her power. Salem’s cleverness lay in this: there was always an escape route, but it presented a dirty choice.

While the group in the crypt panicked, outside, the news of the “kidnapper exposed” spread like wildfire: some were shocked to discover the kidnapper was closer than they imagined, others were furious at being manipulated all along, and some began a race against time to reach the scene before the kidnapper could finalize the deal with the victim.