#Days of Our Lives Spoilers Week of 10-19-20: An Early Halloween Surprise

Halloween seems to be Ron Carlivati’s favorite holiday.

Ever since he took over as head writer in 2017, a spooky fantasy story involving the evil Dr. Rolf has become a Days of Our Lives tradition.

And this year, Days of Our Lives appears to be going even further, as the spoiler video for the week of 10-19-20 teases several spooky pre-Halloween surprises.

Bad news first: at least one of these storylines is a nearly identical rerun of the past.

According to several of the video clips, Orpheus, Clyde, and Rolf break out of prison, and Orpheus immediately goes after Marlena.

Long time viewers may recall that in 2016, Orpheus, Clyde, and Xander pulled a similar stunt. In both cases, too, a power outage featured heavily in the trio’s attempt to wreak havoc.

This time, Rolf is taking Xander’s place in the crime ring, and Shawn is the lead cop instead of JJ, but otherwise, this looks like an identical story.

How disappointing.

Part of the reason for this nonsense is, undoubtedly, because Days of Our Lives needed to insert an extra storyline to get the show’s timeline back on track after COVID-related shutdowns over the summer.

Because of the international emergency, the Summer Olympics were canceled, forcing Days of Our Lives to air episodes during a planned two-week hiatus.

So Carlivati’s writing team had to come up with a new story that could be quickly added in when Days of Our Lives resumed taping in September to prevent the traditional Horton Christmas from airing prematurely.

That means that this silly story is likely short-lived. But still. It would have been nice to come up with something more original.

If Orpheus’ shenanigans aren’t your cup of tea either, don’t panic! There’s plenty more going on in Salem during the week of 10-19-20. Check out the full list of spoiler photos below.

Kayla and Steve keep a secret from Tripp.

This is most likely the aftermath of the pair agreeing to get a paternity test despite Tripp’s refusal. 

I wouldn’t put it past Days of Our Lives to have the DNA test come out a match for Tripp… even though he’s almost definitely innocent of raping Allie.

DNA tests never come out right the first time in Salem, and the writers seem determined to make viewers think Tripp is guilty.

If that’s the case, they’ll need to confront Tripp, not try to keep it secret that they ran the test at all.

Brady catches Philip, conspiring against Xander.

Well, there goes one theory about who Philip is working with.

Brady might have made sense as the co-saboteur. After all, he tried to run Titan into the ground before, and he still blames Victor for Kristen’s legal troubles.

But instead, he appears to be back in Victor’s good graces now, at least enough to be irked with Philip’s behavior.

Who else thinks this whole mess will end with Victor firing both of the idiots in charge of Titan and reinstating Brady?

Ben has a vision of Ciara.

According to the spoiler video, Ciara makes a “ghostly” appearance.

I’d rather she make a live appearance at her own memorial. We all know she’s not really dead. 

I can’t help wondering what viewers who lost someone in real life think about the way characters constantly struggle with grief only to discover their loved one is still alive.

Anyway, I’m sure Ciara is there to tell Ben not to kill Vincent, just like Paige appeared to Eve to tell her not to go down this ridiculous vengeance path. The only question is whether Ben will listen any better than Eve did.

Orpheus tells Marlena he needs her help. 

While Orpheus is one of my favorite villains, he needs new material.

The constant cycle of Orpheus “dying” or going to jail, only to reappear and torment Marlena some more, is exhausting.

And he shouldn’t be a random baddie, either. He had a strong reason for his original hatred of Roman/John.

Now he’s just evil for its own sake, and it’s not entertaining.

Eli struggles to keep the truth from Lani.

Eli just doesn’t learn, does he?

He already almost lost Lani once over his poor communication, and in Salem, attempting to keep secrets just results in an even bigger blowup when the truth eventually comes out.

He needs to level with her ASAP, if for no other reason than to save viewers his constant torment of worrying about her finding out, only for the big reveal to be put off for another day.

Clyde puts Ben in a tough position.

I wonder if they’re going for some sort of Clyde redemption arc here.

Clyde is generally as evil as they come and originally was a callous bastard who raped his stepdaughter and beat his son regularly. But lately, he’s been trying to be a good father to Ben, in his own twisted way.

And with Ben plotting to kill Vincent, Clyde risking his newfound freedom to stop him makes a lot of sense.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Clyde offers to have one of his goons do the deed instead so that it can’t be tied back to his son.

Rolf threatens to kill Chad.

These scenes are probably going to be a waste of time. Lately, the writers can’t find anything compelling for Chad and Abigail.

At least, Rolf is generally entertaining. His sardonic comments about the idiots he has to deal with always crack me up.

But these scenes, quite frankly, sound like filler. I’m not sure of their point unless Jake is going to “prove” himself to Chad by saving him from the evil intruder.

Clyde tries to save Ben from himself.

Yep, it definitely sounds as if Clyde broke out of jail to try to stop Ben from doing something stupid.

If Ciara’s ghost doesn’t get through to Ben, I don’t know that Clyde will.

Of course, if Ben gets caught harboring a fugitive, there’s a chance he’ll go back to jail himself, which would temporarily put a stop to his plans for vigilante justice.

Xander is irked to find Sarah and Philip together again.

Seriously? 

Philip’s big plan to sabotage Xander’s business success is to flirt with his girlfriend in front of him?

This excuse for a love triangle is ridiculous, or it would be, if Sarah wasn’t so flighty.

The chances are she’s eventually going to jump into bed with Philip and then Xander’ll go ballistic. 

Belle is fearful when she finds Jan in her house.

And with good reason.

Between trying to manipulate Claire and trying to steal Shawn back for herself, Jan has made it clear that she is still at war with Belle.

She’s shown up at Belle’s house twice before without permission, and now she’s graduating to break-ins.

While Jan needs to give up her eternal quest to get Shawn for herself, these scenes will be well worth watching.

Martha Madison and Heather Lindell have that fantastic enemy chemistry going on, making their confrontations some of the best scenes Days of Our Lives has to offer.

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics!

What are you looking forward to on Days of Our Lives during the week of 10-19-20? Hit the big, blue SHARE COMMENTS button and let us know!

Want to chat about already aired episodes of Days of Our Lives? Check out our Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.

Days of Our Lives continues to air on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.

Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.