Days of our Lives Next Week Comings and Goings: The devil and 2 stars return to Salem, July 13-17

Two questions are rattling through the minds of every Days of Our Lives fan right now, and neither of them has an easy answer.

First: Is Lexie Carver truly planning to spend her final breaths on this earth orchestrating the complete and total destruction of Kristen DiMera? Is the woman who has already endured so much preparing to use the last gift she has — the terrible clarity of a life coming to its end — as a weapon aimed directly at the heart of Salem’s most untouchable villain?

And second: Are the writers actually, actually turning Rachel Black into the ultimate legacy villain before our very eyes?

Because if the spoilers are right — and every indication says they are — then Salem is about to witness the birth of something terrifying. Something that has been lurking in the shadows since Rachel was old enough to understand the word revenge.

Let’s start with the news that has fans everywhere buzzing with a mixture of excitement and dread. Lorraine Olivia Mott is officially bringing Rachel Black back to the canvas on Thursday, July 16th. After months of absence, after the quiet stretches where her name was only whispered in passing, the daughter of Brady Black and Kristen DiMera is stepping back into the spotlight.

And she is not the same little girl who left.

The Raw Spoilers are already painting an alarming picture. Marlena Evans, the beloved matriarch who has seen more darkness than most people could imagine, is growing increasingly concerned about Rachel’s behavior. Something is wrong. Something has been wrong for a long time. And Marlena is only now beginning to see the full scope of the damage.

But here’s the question that fans are screaming at their screens: Where has Marlena been for the last five years?

Because Rachel Black did not become a problem overnight. She has been a ticking time bomb since she was old enough to speak in full sentences. This is a child who spent her formative years watching Kristen DiMera — her mother, her idol, her entire world — manipulate, scheme, and destroy anyone who stood in her way. Rachel didn’t just observe from the sidelines. She participated.

Think back. When Rachel was barely old enough to understand the stakes, she was already maneuvering. Already plotting. She helped Kristen ruin Brady Black and Chloe Lane’s relationship, pulling strings and whispering poison with a skill that should have been impossible for a child her age. She didn’t learn manipulation from school or from television. She learned it from the master herself, sitting at Kristen’s knee, absorbing every lesson like a sponge soaking up poison.

Kristen DiMera poisoned that child’s mind. Deliberately. Systematically. With the patience of someone who knew exactly what she was creating.

And now, with Rachel fresh out of Bayview — released, supposedly treated, and returned to the world that shaped her — Marlena is finally seeing what has been growing in the dark. Rachel is not simply troubled. She is not simply acting out. She is morphing into something that should terrify everyone who knows her.

She is becoming a miniature Stefano DiMera.

The cold precision. The ability to hide her true intentions behind a mask of innocence. The hunger for control that burns beneath the surface. It’s all there. Every gesture, every carefully chosen word, every flicker of calculation in her eyes. Rachel Black is her mother’s daughter in the worst possible way — but she may also be carrying the ghost of Stefano himself, passed down through blood and whispered lessons in the dark.

Marlena is finally paying attention. But has she waited too long to intervene?

Meanwhile, Lexie Carver faces a different kind of reckoning. Her time is running out. The decline she has been hiding from the people she loves can no longer be ignored. And in those final moments — when the world narrows to what truly matters — Lexie may choose to spend her last breath not on peace, not on forgiveness, but on one final act of war against the woman who has caused so much pain.

If Lexie turns her dying declaration into a weapon aimed at Kristen DiMera, the fallout could reshape Salem’s power structure forever. A deathbed confession carries weight. A deathbed accusation carries finality. And if Lexie has gathered enough evidence — if she has been watching, waiting, preparing for this moment — then Kristen may finally face a reckoning she cannot escape.

Two women. Two paths converging on a single, explosive moment. One rising from the ashes of a poisoned childhood. One descending into the final chapter of a life marked by courage and loss. And between them, the fate of Salem hangs in the balance.

Thursday, July 16th cannot come soon enough.