Next week on Days of Our Lives delivers one of the most chaotic, emotionally charged, and high-stakes stretches Salem has seen in years. From abductions to betrayals, from resurrected villains to secret tunnels humming with danger, the week of December 8–12, 2025 is a full-scale unraveling of the town’s shaky sense of safety.

This isn’t just another week of drama — it’s the moment Salem loses control.

The Calm Before the Storm: EJ & Cat’s Dangerous Chemistry

The preview opens deceptively softly, with a moment that masquerades as tender intimacy. EJ DiMera and Cat Green stand close — far too close — in one of those suspended, breath-held moments where time slows and everything feels wrong.

EJ leans in, searching Cat’s eyes.
Cat softens… but something flashes beneath her expression.
A secret.
A calculation.
A dangerous knowledge she’s concealing behind a disarming smile.

This isn’t romance.
This is manipulation disguised as seduction.

And then — footsteps. A creaking door. A shadow stretching across the floor.

Susan Banks walks in.

Her gasp is instant, sharp, instinctual. Susan has always had a supernatural gut for danger, for emotional shifts, for energy that doesn’t belong. And what she sees between EJ and Cat isn’t affection — it’s corruption. It’s EJ being pulled into a vortex he doesn’t understand.

Susan’s horrified interruption is more than awkward.
It’s a turning point.

Because the preview makes one thing unmistakably clear: Susan has witnessed something she was never supposed to see. And the fallout will echo through the entire week.

The Discovery: Susan Stumbles Into the Tunnels — and a Monster

Shaken, Susan wanders through the DiMera mansion. Everything feels heavier. Wrong. Like the house itself is holding its breath.

Then — a clang.
A metal scrape beneath the floors.
A sound that doesn’t belong.

The tunnels.

And out of the shadows emerges a figure Salem hoped was gone forever:

Dr. Wilhelm Rolf.

Rolf is not a villain.
He is a contagion.
A harbinger of twisted science, broken minds, stolen memories, and engineered chaos.

No one “runs into” Rolf by accident.
He appears only when something catastrophic is already in motion.

Susan freezes. Her voice quavers with fear and fury as she demands answers — but Rolf does not hide, does not run, does not even pretend surprise.

He wants her to see him.

Which means his presence is not a mistake.
It’s a warning.

A nightmare has already begun beneath the DiMera mansion… and Susan has just become the first unwilling witness.

A Father’s Fear: Abe Gets a Call That Shatters Him

The preview snaps violently from the tunnels’ horror to the emotional devastation inside the Carver home.

Abe Carver answers a call — and the look on his face tells the story before we hear a word. His breath stutters. His shoulders tense. His world fractures.

Someone is screaming on the other end.
Theo. Danger. Something went wrong.
And then the line cuts out.

A parent knows.
A parent feels.

Abe whispers the words that freeze the blood of longtime viewers:
“Theo’s in trouble.”

Paulina rushes to him, demanding answers. Abe tries, but the details are fragments — all he heard before the line died. But the panic behind the voice, the sudden disconnection, the urgency…

It’s not random.
It’s not confusion.
It’s a kidnapping.

Underground Terror: Theo Wakes Up in the DiMera Crypt

Theo slowly regains consciousness in the DiMera crypt — a place that should be sacred, silent, still.

Instead, it’s alive with danger.

The candlelight flickers. Shadows bend unnaturally. The walls feel too close, too damp, too heavy.

Then he sees them:

Kristen. Tony. Chad.

But they don’t look relieved.
They look hollow. Terrified. Defeated.

They’re not rescuers.
They’re prisoners.

Theo is the newest hostage… and the captor isn’t done.

The crypt is no longer a sanctum — it’s a prison.
Cold. Methodical. Designed.

And then the most chilling moment of the entire preview hits — a flash of:

EJ DiMera, unconscious, hooded, dumped like cargo.

A fourth DiMera.
Another piece in someone’s calculated collection.

This isn’t chaos.
This is a strategy.

Someone is targeting the DiMeras with surgical precision.

Jeremy’s Rage Explodes — and Maggie Fears the Worst

Meanwhile, far from the crypt’s shadows, tension erupts between Jeremy Horton and Maggie Kiriakis.

From the moment they stand face-to-face, something is horribly off. Jeremy’s posture is rigid, his voice cold, his anger simmering just below the surface. This is not the young man seeking redemption. This is someone spiraling.

When Maggie gently confronts him about troubling behavior, Jeremy snaps — accusing her of betrayal, judgment, hypocrisy.

It’s venomous.
Raw.
Uncontrolled.

And beneath the anger lies something darker… something unstable.

Maggie’s instincts are legendary in Salem. If she fears Jeremy could be linked to Stephanie’s stalker — viewers pay attention.

The threatening letters.
The obsessive tone.
The escalating aggression.

It all lines up just enough to be possible — but also just suspicious enough to be a misdirection.

Because the preview reveals a far more chilling truth…

He’s Back — Owen Kent Returns

The whispers are true. The clues align. The fear becomes real.

Owen Kent — Stephanie’s former kidnapper — is back.

And he has not moved on.

Owen’s obsession once tore Stephanie’s life apart. His fixation was not about power or money — it was about possession. She was the center of his delusional world.

And obsessions like that don’t die.

Steve Johnson senses it before anyone else. His posture shifts. His fear resurfaces. He remembers the signs — the creeping dread, the subtle clues, the coded threats.

If Owen is stalking Stephanie again…
this time, he intends to finish what he started.

The Master Plan: Salem’s Chaos Is Not Random

Now the full picture comes into view.

These aren’t isolated crises.
These aren’t coincidences.

They’re puzzle pieces.

• Multiple DiMeras kidnapped
• Rolf back in the tunnels
• A returning predator targeting Stephanie
• EJ being manipulated by Cat
• Susan stumbling onto secrets she wasn’t meant to see

The week of December 8–12 is not chaos —
it’s an orchestrated collapse.

Someone is tightening their grip around Salem.

And next week?
No one is safe.

Not the DiMeras.
Not the Johnsons.
Not the Carvers.
Not even the innocents caught in the crossfire.

Salem has entered its darkest chapter —
and the nightmare has only just begun.