Get your tissues ready, Days of Our Lives fanatics.
We knew this day would come since the heartbreaking news that John Aniston had passed away in November of 2023.
According to Days of Our Lives spoilers for the week of 9-04-23, the funeral is coming up on Thursday—and it promises to be equal parts drama and tears.
Victor Kiriakis wasn’t only a beloved character but one of the most iconic and influential in the series’ history. He touched almost every Salemite’s life, and characters will likely continue to remember him for years.
Unlike Alice and Tom Horton, who everyone remembers fondly, Victor made as many enemies as he did friends, and some Salemites loved to hate him. The flashbacks have offered a balanced look at the former mob boss, with his family devastated and others more shocked than sad.
Victor’s funeral will undoubtedly offer us more of the same. Even his nearest and dearest had conflicted feelings about him; as Brady said, Victor was a hard person to be related to even though you know he loved you.
It’ll also offer both fans and characters a sense of closure. After this, there probably won’t be much talk of Victor. That’s bittersweet news because the flashbacks and conversations about him have been fantastic.
But his family will never forget him, and from time to time, they’ll probably mention missing him or imagine how he would have responded to current events.
The funeral is also an opportunity to catch up with some characters who have been off-screen. Days of Our Lives doesn’t always do a great job of bringing people back for funerals, but almost everyone is there this time.
Theresa, Philip, Sonny, and Chelsea will all return to town to say goodbye to Victor, though only Theresa and Philip will stay around a little longer.
Of course, there are also people missing who should be there. Hope, Ciara, and Claire were close to Victor, and Hope and Ciara could also help support Shawn during this difficult time.
Someone should arrange for Parker to be there too—un-SORASed, he’s almost thirteen and can certainly handle a funeral, and he was close to his Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Victor even though Philip turned out not to be his father. Melanie should also come on her late father’s behalf since Daniel was Victor’s godson.
We can’t have everything, though, and a far better crowd is attending this funeral than we usually get. The guest list shows Victor’s importance to Days of Our Lives; he’s getting a richly deserved big send-off that is richly deserved.
Please scroll down for the complete spoiler list for Days of Our Lives during the week of 9-04-23.
Xander receives a job offer.
Xander already works for the Spectator but has a bad habit of allowing criminal masterminds to entice him into bad behavior. All they have to do is offer him a large sum of money.
Since spoilers say that EJ wants revenge on Ava again, he’s likely to ask Xander to attack her.
Taking this job is a bad idea. Sarah rejected Xander because he allowed Ava to hire him to kidnap Bonnie and Susan, leading to Susan’s death. Now Chloe believes Xander’s changed, and Sarah’s fighting renewed feelings for him.
If Xander screws this up, he’ll lose both women. No amount of money is worth it.
Theresa surprises Brady.
Theresa arrives for Victor’s funeral, but her first stop is Brady’s doorstep.
It’s odd how people visiting for such a sad occasion keep making detours to reconnect with ex-lovers. Philip did the same thing, making a beeline for Chloe as soon as he got into Salem.
Only in Salem would people put aside their grief to try to rekindle an old relationship! But maybe Brady and Theresa can reboot their relationship, leaving Chloe free to try again with Philip if Xander leaves her for Sarah.
Chloe and Nicole have a tense exchange.
Chloe’s about the only person who accepted Nicole’s interest in EJ, and Nicole agreed to back off Chloe about Xander. So what are they fighting about?
Does Nicole suspect that Chloe secretly still holds a torch for Philip? Chloe might counter that by accusing Nicole of still loving Eric.
If the wrong person overhears THAT argument, it could lead to disaster!
Rafe learns of trouble at Bayview.
It’s not hard to put together what’s happening here.
Spoilers say that EJ wants to kill Ava and that Harris’ attempt to help her blows up in both their faces.
Could this lead to a hostage situation? And will the random woman who Ava thought was Susan turn out to have a more prominent role in what goes down?
Victor’s funeral brings his family together.
These promise to be among the saddest scenes Days of Our Lives has ever had.
Victor’s death left a large hole in Salem, and many of the actors were close to John Aniston in real life so these grief scenes will be doubly authentic.
Although Victor’s family is deeply mourning, what’s a soap funeral without extra drama? Spoilers say Xander and Sonny will come to blows, and there may be other tension in the air.
Maggie again pushes Sarah to tell Xander the truth.
Maggie’s grief will push her to urge Sarah again to tell Xander the truth. She sees Xander as a younger Victor and doesn’t understand why Sarah would try to hide her baby from him.
And if Sarah helps break up the fight between Xander and Sonny or tends to Xander’s war wounds, Maggie’ll feel even more strongly that Sarah is in denial about her feelings for the Scottish semi-scoundrel.
But she needs to stop bothering Sarah. Not only is Sarah an adult, but one day, Xander will walk in on one of these conversations and want to know what Sarah’s keeping from him!
Plus, this time around, Sarah’s supposed to go into labor for real—could that be accelerated because of the stress Maggie’s causing her?
John learns a secret about the mystery man.
After thoroughly investigating John Doe’s background, John Black will learn something significant about the memoryless man.
Many viewers have speculated that John D is John B’s father. John Black learning that the people he thought he belonged to aren’t his parents has become a silly trope in Salem; it happens at least once a decade!
So, this might be a red herring. But if not, it’s just as well.
John’s latest alleged biological father was a hot mess of ugly stereotypes about Asians that many viewers would rather forget, so who needs them to stay related?
Vivian makes a surprise visit.
Vivian crashes a wake at the Kiriakis mansion to announce that she’s paying tribute to the love of her life.
If Caroline were alive, Maggie might accept sharing the spotlight with her—she was Victor’s first love, and they shared a child.
But Vivian is nothing but a troublemaker. She thinks she’s Philip’s mother because she stole Kate’s eggs, more or less turning herself into a surrogate, and she’s supposed to be in jail.
What kind of trouble will she get up to before Victor’s family rid themselves of her?
Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button, and let us know what you think about these spoilers.
If you’d like to chat about already-aired episodes of Days of Our Lives, check out the latest Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.
Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekday mornings at 6/5c.
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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.
