Kate rushes to put her plan in motion
At the escaped convicts' hideout, Orpheus told Joey, who was tied to a chair, that Steve had deserved to die. When Joey didn't respond, Orpheus turned his attention to Xander, instructing him to keep an eye on Joey. As Orpheus left the hideout, Xander took a seat across from Joey, pointed a gun at him, and warned, "One false move, and you'll be as dead as dear. Old. Dad."
At the Evans-Black townhouse, John, Marlena, and Paul discussed what the escaped convicts had done to the Johnson family. John said he had devised a plan to keep his family safe until the criminals were apprehended. "Now, ideally, everybody would stay right here until [then] --" he started to add. Looking up from the tablet computer she'd had her eyes glued to, Claire interrupted, protesting that she couldn't stay cooped up indefinitely in a place without electricity because she needed to keep her electronic devices charged; otherwise, she would have to kiss her music career goodbye.
"Sweetheart, I love you so much, but if you don't do exactly as I say, you are gonna have to kiss your life goodbye," John countered. He proceeded to fill everyone in on his plan, but when he asked for confirmation that they each understood what to do, he was annoyed to learn that Claire had turned her attention back to her tablet and had tuned him out. Claire dismissively insisted that she wasn't in any danger because the escaped convicts didn't even know who she was. Marlena incredulously reminded Claire of everything the criminals had already done, including kidnapping Joey. "Yeah, he must be totally freaked," Claire conceded.
"You should be totally freaked!" Marlena insisted. John asked Marlena to repeat the plan for Claire's benefit then excused himself so he could go to the Johnson house to check on Steve and Kayla. Meanwhile, Marlena received a text message from someone at the hospital, summoning her there to help calm the nerves of some of the patients. John told Marlena he would get a bodyguard to accompany her. "And whatever you do, don't leave that one here alone," he added, referring to Claire, who was already glued to her tablet again.
As Kayla knelt to pick up the remains of the coffee cup that had been broken during Steve's struggle with Orpheus, someone entered the Johnson house. Kayla jumped then breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that it was Steve. "I thought you were Orpheus," she explained. Steve stressed that Orpheus was gone. Kayla insisted that she should have gone with Steve to look for Joey, but Steve disagreed, pointing out that she was still recovering from surgery. Steve assured Kayla that Orpheus wouldn't hurt Joey because hostages were only useful as bargaining chips if kept alive and well.
"I want to believe you, but I am so scared," Kayla admitted. Steve said he was scared, too. He promised, however, that he would make sure that Joey was back in Kayla's arms soon. Steve winced in pain as he removed his jacket and gun vest, prompting Kayla to point out that he might have suffered some internal damage from the impact of bullets hitting his bulletproof vest at close range. Kayla offered to take Steve to the hospital for an x-ray, but he maintained that she was in no condition to leave the house, especially with Orpheus on the loose. "I can't risk losing you again. I won't," Steve insisted.
When John arrived a short time later, he agreed with Steve's theory that Orpheus would keep Joey alive to use him as a bargaining chip. Kayla was still worried, guessing that Joey was terrified, but John pointed out that Joey had developed strong survival skills as a result of having her and Steve as his parents. John backed up Steve's assertion that Kayla needed to stay at the house until the escaped convicts were apprehended. He promised, however, to get Marlena to check with the hospital's acting chief of staff to see how things were going in Kayla's absence, just so Kayla would have one less thing to worry about.
While passing through the town square with Marlena, Claire fretted that her tablet's battery was about to die. Marlena asked Claire to put the device away, but Claire ignored the request, complaining that Marlena should have just let her stay at the townhouse. Claire wondered why Marlena had dismissed their bodyguard. "You saw that old woman. She was lost, she was terrified... She needed the escort. We're close to the hospital; we'll be just fine, okay?" Marlena replied. Claire perked up, recalling that Marlena had mentioned earlier that the hospital kept a generator running in cases of emergency. "That part you heard," Marlena grumbled.
Chloe was thrilled when Philip ended his phone conversation with Kate and reported that she was on her way over to Dr. Wright's office to convince him to falsify the paternity test. Philip explained that Wright owed Kate because her fundraising efforts had saved his clinic from being shut down years earlier. Chloe wondered what had prompted Kate's change of heart. "Who knows -- maybe she did it for me, or even the baby. My mother would not want any kid raised by the likes of Deimos," Philip guessed. Chloe voiced concerns about Kate's ability to convince Wright to do something unethical, but Philip promised that everything was going to work out.
At the Brady Pub, Nicole admonished Deimos for making Chloe's life even more stressful. "We're talking about a paternity test, not water torture," Deimos pointed out with a chuckle. Unamused, Nicole informed Deimos that Chloe had once battled leukemia, leaving her immune system severely compromised. "I swear to God, Deimos, if anything happens to that baby, I will never forgive you," Nicole warned.
Deimos assured Nicole that he would never do anything to harm Chloe's unborn child, adding that his hope was that once everything was out in the open, life would get a lot less stressful for everyone. Deimos promised to back off if the paternity test proved that Philip was indeed the child's father, but Nicole wasn't sure Deimos even knew how to back off. "Look, I know that you wish that I was the kind of guy that could take Chloe at her word and just move on --" Deimos started to respond.
"Why can't you? If not for Chloe, then do it for me. If I mean as much to you as you say I do, then prove it," Nicole challenged Deimos, who chuckled and observed that she seemed to really have a thing for grand, selfless gestures. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but don't expect one from me. I'm not Daniel," he continued. Deimos stressed that Nicole meant a great deal to him, but he warned her, "Unfortunately, I'm no hero, and I never will be."
Later, after Deimos left, Nicole arranged a meeting with Chloe, who wasn't as upset as Nicole had expected her to be. "You figured out a way to get those results changed so it looks like Philip is the father, didn't you?" Nicole quickly concluded. Chloe tried to deny the accusation at first but eventually admitted that Nicole was correct. Chloe insisted that Nicole, who had taken similarly drastic measures in the past, had no right to judge her.
Nicole clarified that she wasn't judging; she was simply worried about what could happen if Chloe got caught. "[And] the closer I get to Deimos, the harder it is to lie to him," Nicole added, regretfully acknowledging that Deimos had been going to great lengths to be honest with her about everything -- even things he knew she wouldn't like hearing about. Chloe assured Nicole that the whole ordeal would soon be over.
"One can only hope," Nicole muttered. Eager to end the conversation, Chloe excused herself so she could head back over to Wright's office, inviting Nicole to accompany her for moral support. Nicole accepted the invitation, and when Chloe started to say something else, Nicole interrupted, realizing that Chloe had just referred to the baby as "him." Chloe admitted that she had a gut feeling that the baby was a boy. Chloe apologetically added that she was sorry that Nicole had never gotten to raise her own son. Nicole said she was sorry, too. She added, however, that she would love to be Chloe's unborn son's godmother, and Chloe happily agreed.
At the Kiriakis mansion, Deimos ran into Philip, who tried to rush off, joking that he didn't want to keep the guy Deimos had hired to follow him waiting. Deimos explained that he had only resorted to that underhanded tactic because there were things about Chloe's claim that Philip was the father of her unborn child that didn't really add up. Philip insisted that Deimos was grasping at straws. "As much as you might want a child to call your own, you won't have claims on this one. No way in hell," Philip added before leaving.
While passing through an alley, Kate contacted Wright and insisted on seeing him right away. After ending the call, she looked around and realized that she was alone in the alley, which she had been sharing with two cops just moments earlier. Before she could get to a safer area, she heard footsteps approaching her from behind. "Always in a hurry, aren't you?" Clyde observed.
Kate insisted that she didn't have time for Clyde's games because she had things to do, but he blocked her path and countered that she wasn't going anywhere until they finished their earlier conversation -- the one Chad had rudely interrupted. Kate tried to sidestep Clyde, but he grabbed her arm and reminded her that she hadn't always been afraid of him. As he was reminiscing, he noticed that she was trying to place a phone call to someone with her free hand. He angrily seized the cell phone and told her, "I was gonna let you go, but now I'm gonna have to kill you."
Kate tried to talk Clyde out of doing that, and he suggestively conceded that there was something else he could do to her first, since they were alone in the alley. She reminded him that the town was crawling with cops, and she quickly added, "There's one now!" As Clyde turned to look, Kate took advantage of the distraction to break free from him and retrieve her gun from her purse.
"Who's gonna kill who, huh?" Kate spat as she aimed the gun at Clyde. Before she could pull the trigger, Orpheus approached her from behind and seized the weapon. Holding her in place, he handed the gun to Clyde and said, "What are you waiting for? Do it." Kate tried to talk Clyde out of killing her, assuring him that she remembered the good times they had shared. She added that she had friends in high places and could help ensure that when he was apprehended, he would be shown leniency. "Caught? We're not getting caught! Would you take her out?" Orpheus impatiently urged Clyde.
"Oh, my God!" Marlena said with a gasp as she and Claire unwittingly stumbled upon the criminals and Kate while en route to the hospital. Marlena told Claire to run, but Orpheus quickly blocked her path and mused, "This is my lucky night." Kate tried to escape while Orpheus was distracted, but Clyde grabbed her arm to stop her from running. "Still think I should kill her?" Clyde asked Orpheus.
"I don't care what you do with her. I've got all the women I need right here," Orpheus replied as he backed Marlena and Claire into a corner. When he asked about Claire, Marlena claimed that she had met the girl just moments earlier and had offered to escort her to her destination because it wasn't safe for her to be on her own while escaped convicts were on the loose. Marlena added that she had her own escort -- a bodyguard who was never far behind her -- but Orpheus skeptically pointed out that no one had shown up to save her yet. He added that he had done his homework and knew exactly who Claire was.
"Come to think of it, forcing you to watch your precious granddaughter shot and killed might be the best revenge of all," Orpheus mused. Meanwhile, Kate tried to talk Clyde into letting her go, but he insisted that killing her was the only way to truly end what they'd once had together. "Let's finish this," Orpheus impatiently urged Clyde. As Clyde took aim at Kate with the gun he had seized from her earlier, John arrived and lunged toward him. Unable to wrench the gun out of Clyde's hands, John instead kept a firm grip on Clyde's arms and turned him toward Orpheus, who had just drawn his own gun. Claire screamed as a shot was fired.
At the escaped convicts' hideout, Joey stomped his foot a few times to confirm that Xander was in a deep sleep. Satisfied, he began trying to free himself from his bindings. Meanwhile, at the Johnson house, Steve assured Kayla that Joey would be fine because, as John had pointed out earlier, he had strong survival skills. Kayla credited Steve as the source of those skills, admitting that she saw a lot of him in Joey. "I have faith in our son, just like I have faith in you," she added.
Before Joey could free himself, Xander awoke with a start and wondered why Joey was staring at him. Meanwhile, Clyde returned with an injured Orpheus and asked Xander for something to stop the bleeding. As Clyde and Orpheus blamed each other for what had happened in the alley, Xander pressed a cloth firmly against Orpheus' abdomen. Orpheus gasped, and Clyde shouted at Xander, "He's in pain, you dolt!" Orpheus promised Clyde and Xander that their respective enemies would experience far more pain before all was said and done. Glaring at Joey, Orpheus added, "I started with your old man. What do you say we finish off the Johnson bloodline?"
After making sure that Marlena, Claire, and Kate were okay, John revealed that the woman who had taken Marlena's bodyguard away from her and Claire had been part of a setup. Kate questioned the good timing of John's arrival, and Marlena explained that she had discreetly pressed a panic button in her purse to alert John that she was in danger and give him her exact location.
"Can I get a spare one of those?" Kate requested. John promised to get Kate one of the devices as soon as possible. Kate tried to excuse herself, explaining that she had things to do, but John refused to let her leave on her own. John contacted Roman to let him know what had happened, and Marlena pulled Claire aside to ask if she was finally starting to grasp the severity of the situation. When John ended the call and turned his attention back to the women, he realized that Kate was gone. "She was right here!" Marlena insisted. John shook his head, wondering what Kate had been eager to get back to doing.
When John contacted Steve and Kayla to let them know what had happened, Steve concluded that Xander was likely guarding Joey. Steve went to search for Joey after making Kayla promise to stay inside the house. Meanwhile, at the hideout, Orpheus continued threatening Joey, who calmly pointed out that Orpheus couldn't kill his only form of leverage. "I thought you were the smart one," Joey added.
"Get this kid out of my sight before I shoot his eye out and leave him a half-blind fool like his old man," Orpheus told Clyde and Xander. Joey warned Orpheus not to say another word about Steve. Realizing that he had struck a nerve, Orpheus suggested that he could get Xander to retrieve the patch from Steve's cold, dead corpse so Joey could use it. Joey angrily spat in Orpheus' face, and Orpheus chuckled as he wiped away the mess and mused, "Guess you don't like people talking bad about the dead. Well, it's not really gonna matter, 'cause you're gonna join him soon enough."
Chloe, Philip, Deimos, and Nicole gathered in Wright's office, and he soon arrived and announced that he had the results of the paternity test.
Dr. Wright started to go into the technical details of the paternity test, but Deimos interrupted and impatiently urged him to get to the point. "Sir, you are not the father," Wright declared.
Refusing to believe that, Deimos demanded proof that the test results hadn't been falsified. Wright quickly produced a box, having anticipated Deimos' reaction. "The blood samples I used are in this refrigerated container. Have your own doctors or technicians review them as you wish, or they can even draw their own samples. I can assure you, though -- you are not the father," Wright reiterated as he handed the box to Deimos.
After Wright left the room, Philip wondered if Deimos was going to congratulate him. Fuming, Deimos insisted that Philip and Chloe weren't fooling him. Chloe innocently pointed out that there was no way to fake a blood test. Deimos still seemed skeptical, but Nicole pulled him aside and reminded him that he had promised her earlier that he would back off if the test results proved that he wasn't the unborn child's father. "I believed that you were telling the truth. Were you, or do I have to stop trusting you?" she asked. Without responding, Deimos gave Chloe and Philip one last glare then left the room. Nicole waved goodbye to Chloe then followed Deimos out.
When Deimos and Nicole returned to the Kiriakis mansion, a bottle of Champagne was chilling in the living room. "Obviously, I expected to have a celebration," Deimos bitterly explained. Deimos couldn't believe that Chloe had jumped into bed with Philip just a day or two after sleeping with him. "Well, I mean, Chloe was never a fan of monogamy," Nicole reported, describing Chloe as a wounded soul who'd had a tough childhood.
Deimos maintained that he wasn't going to accept the test results as gospel. "Deimos, I know what it's like to think that you're gonna get this beautiful baby soon, only to have it taken away from you. Every time I got pregnant -- every time... It's a pain that you can't describe, I know. You're not alone, okay? I went to the clinic to support Chloe, but I was also there for you, and I'm here now...for you," Nicole stressed.
Deimos said he needed Nicole to mean that -- in every way. "And please, please don't say something out of pity," he added. Nicole assured Deimos that she would never tell him something she didn't truly mean. She admitted, however, that while he meant a great deal to her, she couldn't help being a bit scared of him at times. "I've had my experience with dominant men, and it just didn't go so well for me," she continued.
Deimos said he couldn't change who he was. "All I have to offer you is my protection and my love. Do you have a place for me in your life? In your heart?" he asked Nicole, who confirmed that she did then gave him a kiss. Satisfied, Deimos closed the living room doors, led Nicole over to the couch, and started to undress her.
Later, while Nicole was lying in his arms, Deimos mused, "Now, that's crazy -- finding out I don't have a son somehow brought us together." Nicole was surprised to learn that Deimos was confident that the child would have been a boy. Deimos admitted that he had even imagined raising the boy with Nicole at the mansion, knowing that she would make an amazing mother because he had seen how she was with Parker.
"I fantasized about throwing him birthday parties, me taking him to the office to show him the ropes, and you cheering him on at soccer games," Deimos continued. Nicole said she was sorry that Deimos would never get to see those dreams realized. "Don't be. I love you, Nicole -- more than you know. And you're all I need," he replied. Later, while they were sipping Champagne, Nicole finally agreed to move in with Deimos.
While Chloe and Philip were celebrating in Wright's office, Kate rushed in and apologized to them. As Chloe and Philip exchanged looks of confusion, Kate launched into a recap of her earlier ordeal with Clyde and Orpheus. Philip was glad to see that Kate seemed to be all right. "Yes, I'm all right, but you're not all right, because by the time I did get to the lab, the tests had already been taken, Dr. Wright picked up the results, and I couldn't do the switch," Kate replied.
"What are you talking about, Mom? The tests weren't switched? They were legit?" Philip asked incredulously. When Kate confirmed Philip's suspicion, he turned to Chloe in confusion and demanded an explanation. Chloe said she didn't know what was going on. Kate wondered what Philip and Chloe were talking about. "The test said Deimos isn't the baby's father," Philip explained.
"Oh, God, I should have known! You deceitful little witch! You were setting us up the entire time!" Kate spat at Chloe, shaking her head in disbelief. Chloe insisted that she was just as shocked as Philip and Kate were, adding that Deimos was the only man who could possibly be the child's father. "Bull! You are trapping [Philip] into playing daddy because he has money," Kate guessed. Chloe assured Philip that she would never lie to him because he was her friend, but Kate countered that lying was Chloe's default setting.
Philip asked Kate to leave, insisting that he needed to handle things with Chloe privately. After Kate left the room, Chloe started to thank Philip for sticking up for her, but he clarified that he had only gotten rid of Kate so he wouldn't have to hear her yelling anymore. "So. Just us. What are you trying to pull?" he demanded to know.
Chloe maintained that Deimos had to be the child's father, but Philip wasn't convinced. "I just turned my life upside down to help you because we used to have something. I thought maybe we still could, but if you're not gonna tell me the truth..." he said before pausing to give Chloe a chance to respond. She tearfully admitted that she had no other explanation for him. "Unbelievable. Damn it, I hate when my mom's right. What a fool I've been," he bitterly muttered before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
When Philip arrived at the Martin mansion a short time later, Kate guessed that Chloe had slept around so much that she didn't even know who the real father was herself. "How many times do I have to tell you? The woman is a --" Kate continued, but Philip interrupted and told her not to act smug. "I'm hurting here," he added. Kate said she understood that Philip was feeling betrayed. "But at least [Chloe] doesn't have you eating out of her hands anymore. Now she's gonna have to deal with the mess on her own -- and believe me, when Deimos finds out that you're not the father, he's going to make her life hell," Kate predicted.
As Chloe paced Wright's office, she suddenly realized something. "Oh, my God. Could it be? Yeah, it has to be -- that's the only explanation," she muttered to herself.
At the escaped convicts' hideout, Orpheus patched himself up with some medical supplies Xander had stolen from a pharmacy. Xander reported that, thanks to the power outage, he'd had no trouble getting the items; in fact, other people had been in the midst of stealing things from the pharmacy at the time of his arrival.
Orpheus asked Clyde to hand him a shirt. "Get it yourself. You deserved to get shot," Clyde replied. Xander handed Orpheus the shirt and wondered what Clyde's problem was. "We had guns on three women, [and] not one of 'em's dead 'cause our supreme leader here just couldn't stop talkin'," Clyde complained. Orpheus pointed out that he wasn't the only one who had shown hesitation in the alley, but Clyde refused to take the blame for what had happened there. "You've had your fun -- left Steve Johnson dead on the living room floor -- but it is our turn now. I know Xander's itching for some payback, and so am I," Clyde added.
Orpheus asked Xander to check on Joey, who was in another room. After Xander left, Clyde continued, "I say we use the Johnson kid as bait. We tell the new D.A., Mr. Aiden Jennings, to show up with a big, fat ransom. He walks in, we mow him down like high grass, and we take the money." Orpheus mockingly wondered if Clyde had learned such deep strategies in "hillbilly school."
As Xander returned and reported that everything was fine in the other room, Orpheus insisted, "Joey Johnson will not be used as bait. When we dispose of the people we came here to kill, we're gonna need a hostage -- a human shield." Orpheus continued that the next step was to acquire a sufficient amount of money and some suitable transportation. Clyde said the quickest way to do that would be to get another hostage. "Well, now, that is the most intelligent thing you've said all day, Clyde," Orpheus admitted.
Orpheus pointed out that new disguises would be needed, and Clyde confirmed that he could find some easily enough. Xander suggested using Theresa and Nicole as hostages. "We could have fun torturing them before we trade them in for cash," he added. Orpheus agreed that the women would certainly yield a lot of cash from the Kiriakis family. "We trade for money and transport, we use the lad in there as a hostage -- a human shield -- and then we vanish," Orpheus proposed. Xander said there was a Kiriakis compound in Mykonos that could serve as a suitable safe house. "It's not like any of my family will be using it -- they'll all be dead," he added with a grin.
Later, while Clyde was searching for new disguises, Xander fed Joey some food then rejoined Orpheus and reported with a laugh that the kid had tried to talk his way out of his bindings so he could feed himself. "Actually thought I'd fall for it," Xander added, shaking his head in disbelief.
Orpheus took great pleasure in imagining what Kayla was going through, knowing that her precious son was in the hands of the men who had killed her precious Patch. Meanwhile, Clyde returned with the new disguises and shoved a tablet computer in Orpheus' face, explaining that he had stolen it from some punk on the streets. "Guess you're not the criminal mastermind you thought you were, huh?" Clyde mused as Orpheus stared at a news article that explained how Steve had survived his encounter with the escaped convicts.
At the police station, Abe reported that Salem Electric, with the help of a crew from Chicago, might be able to restore power to at least a few parts of Salem within the next twenty-four hours. Roman told Abe about what had happened in the alley earlier. Abe hoped that the gunshot wound Orpheus had suffered would slow him and the other criminals down. "Or make them more desperate. They're still holding Joey hostage," Hope pointed out.
After donning their disguises, Orpheus and Clyde prepared to leave the hideout in search of more hostages. Xander, who had been told to stay behind to keep an eye on Joey, wondered who the unlucky victims would be. Orpheus clarified that there would only be one victim. "And I know exactly how to extract her," he added.
Theo got one of Chad's security guards to drive him to the police station so he could talk to Abe, but just as their conversation was beginning, Abe was forced to step aside to take an important phone call. While waiting for Abe to return, Theo greeted Roman, who guessed that Lexie would have been proud of Theo for getting into Salem University. "Maybe," Theo replied. Roman abruptly excused himself after he, too, received a phone call.
When Abe returned a few minutes later, he informed Roman that a curfew was officially in effect for all of Salem from sunset to sunrise. Roman said he had talked to Theo earlier and had gotten the impression that he needed to talk to Abe about something. "Oh, right," Abe said as he looked around the room in search of Theo, who was nowhere to be found. "Where the hell did he go?" Abe wondered.
At the hospital, Theo entered his old therapy classroom and greeted a young boy who was trying to tie a shoelace. "Did you have a good session?" Theo wondered. The boy assumed that Theo was a teacher, but Theo clarified that he was just someone who had spent a lot of time in occupational and speech therapy sessions when he had been the boy's age.
The boy admitted that he hated being in therapy. "I hear you. But you gotta try. My mom passed away -- she got sick -- and people would tell me [that] when you miss someone who's not here, you go to the graveyard, and you feel closer [to them]. But...I didn't. I'd come here. I mean, this is the place where my mom told me to work my hardest, and -- I mean, if she didn't do that, I don't... Um... You gotta hang in there, all right?" Theo stressed. The boy nodded then walked away.
Later, Abe tracked Theo down in the therapy classroom and said he was sorry that their earlier conversation had been interrupted. Theo wondered how Abe had known where to find him. "Well, I -- when things go wrong, you start missing your mom, and she was with you here almost every day, so... You wanted to talk to me?" Abe replied.
Nodding, Theo regretfully admitted that he hadn't done a good job of taking care of Arianna and Thomas during the blackout. "They were upset, and I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I should've been like a good dad. I should've hugged them and told them, 'Hey, it's okay. I'm here, okay?' But, Dad -- but, Dad, I didn't do anything!" Theo fretted. Abe assured Theo that his presence had helped the kids more than he knew.
"Are you sure you're not saying that so I don't feel like a loser?" Theo asked. Abe insisted that Theo wasn't a loser; he was simply a person with challenges who had worked hard for many years to learn how to handle them. "I am very, very proud of you, and I know that your mom -- she's looking down at you, and she is very proud of you, too," Abe added before embracing Theo, who broke down in his arms.
At the police station, Rafe pulled Hope into an unoccupied conference room, produced some food, and urged her to take a break. Aiden walked past the conference room in time to catch Hope giving Rafe a kiss to thank him for always looking out for her. Aiden waited around for Hope and Rafe to finish eating, and when they emerged from the conference room, he insisted on talking to them about Stefano's murder.
Hope and Rafe reluctantly followed Aiden back into the conference room. Aiden pointed out that there was no proof that Andre had stolen Bo's gun with the intention of using it to kill Stefano and frame Hope for the crime. He also noted that it was odd that Andre had dumped Stefano's body in an abandoned building afterward. "That sounds like the work of someone who's trying to improvise, all right? We're talking about Andre DiMera -- an experienced criminal. Doesn't sound like something he would do, right?" Aiden reasoned before excusing himself to take a phone call, promising Hope and Rafe that he would return shortly to finish the conversation.
Once the coast was clear, Hope worriedly guessed that Aiden was going to keep digging until he figured out that she had killed Stefano. Rafe assured Hope that Aiden couldn't prove anything. Rafe and Hope pulled Roman into the room and told him about Aiden's suspicions. "Well, last time I looked, suspicion doesn't trump evidence. Our cover-up is solid," Roman confidently replied.
Aiden soon returned and conceded that he had nothing to take to a grand jury to justify his desire to reopen the investigation into Stefano's murder. "Case closed," he grudgingly added, forcing a smile. Satisfied, Roman, Hope, and Rafe quickly excused themselves so they could get back to work. Aiden waited until they were gone then retrieved an extra cell phone from a briefcase he had left behind when he had stepped out of the conference room to take a phone call. The device had recorded everything that had been said during his absence.
J.J. was sent home from work for a few hours so he could get some rest before starting an all-nighter, but he was too wired to sleep, so he instead filled Jennifer in on all the criminal activity that had occurred in Salem since the blackout. He urged her to stay inside and keep the doors and windows locked, and he assured her that he would be careful while on duty.
When Jennifer asked about Gabi and Arianna, J.J. told her about what had happened to them during the blackout. He admitted that he wished Gabi wasn't Chad's employee, especially given what had happened to Abigail after she had gotten involved with Chad. Jennifer reminded J.J. that Ben, not Chad, was responsible for what had happened to Abigail.
"And how did she end up with Ben in the first place? Who was she trying to get away from then?" J.J. countered. Guessing that J.J. was referring to E.J., Jennifer argued that it was a bit of a stretch to blame him for Abigail's involvement with Ben. "DiMera men are poison, Mom!" J.J. maintained. Jennifer reminded him that they had lost other family members, including his father, and the DiMeras definitely hadn't been responsible for those deaths. "Life is too short. You can't waste all this time trying to find someone to blame," she continued, advising him to instead focus on enjoying each precious moment with his remaining loved ones, like Gabi.
Gabi entered the Brady Pub as a rattled businessman was rushing out. "Something you said?" Gabi asked Chad, who jokingly explained that the businessman had cut their meeting short to get away from Salem's impending apocalypse. Chad wondered why Gabi had braved the dangerous streets to visit the pub. She admitted that she had needed some air because she hated feeling trapped. She stressed, though, that she was armed with mace and could handle a few escaped convicts if she happened to stumble upon them. Chad confessed that it had never occurred to him that being locked in the panic room might have made her feel like she was back in prison.
As Gabi started to change the subject, she received a phone call from J.J., who wondered if she would like to spend some time with him at the Salem Inn before he had to return to work. She accepted the invitation and rushed off after saying goodbye to Chad, but when she arrived at the Salem Inn, she found J.J. sleeping soundly in the room he had booked for them. Smiling, she joined him on the bed and rested her head on his chest for a few minutes then gave him a kiss on the cheek before starting to slide off the bed. He awoke with a start and apologized after realizing that he had dozed off while waiting for her to arrive.
Gabi assured J.J. that she understood, and she thanked him for filling the room with flowers to make her feel special. He admitted that the power outage had enabled him to get a great deal from the florist, who had been happy to get rid of the flowers before they wilted as a result of inadequate cooling, but he added that he would have paid any price for them. "Well, you put out a good spread, but usually, when a guy talks about protection, they don't mean..." Gabi joked as she eyed J.J.'s gun, which was next to him on the bed. He conceded that it didn't really set the most romantic mood for the evening.
Turning his attention to his cell phone, J.J. started a song and asked Gabi to dance with him. After the song ended, he said he was glad to have her in his life, and he apologized for the way he had made her feel when he had rushed off to Florida after Abigail's death without first saying goodbye. Gabi said she understood. "I see what you do for the people that you care about, and I'm really glad I'm one of them," she added before giving J.J. a kiss. As they made their way over to the bed, his phone chimed, summoning him back to work. He promised Gabi that he would return as soon as possible, and she assured him that she would be waiting.
At the Horton house, Jennifer received a visit from Chad, who wanted to task a couple of his security guards with the responsibility of keeping an eye on her. She didn't think she was in any real danger, but he insisted, so she thanked him for the offer and promised to make the guards feel right at home.
Admitting that there was another reason for his visit, Chad presented Jennifer with a watch he had found while going through the difficult process of putting Abigail's belongings in storage. "It has two faces," Jennifer curiously observed. Chad explained that he had gotten it the day after he had proposed to Abigail, and the top face was frozen at the exact moment she had said yes. He had planned to give it to her on their wedding anniversary, but since that was no longer a possibility, he thought maybe Jennifer would like to have it instead.
Jennifer encouraged Chad to keep the watch and give it to Thomas one day. "Or you could take it and give it to him," Chad suggested, his eyes practically begging her to agree. Nodding, she thanked him then asked him to explain what the second face on the watch represented. "I don't --" Chad stammered in confusion, struggling to understand why Jennifer couldn't see that it was just an ordinary timepiece. "That's right now," she clarified, reminding him that time marched on after the loss of a loved one -- and they needed to do the same.
As Jennifer walked Chad out a few minutes later, he stressed that she could feel free to wear the watch if she wanted to. She confirmed that she might from time to time -- but only if he promised that every time he saw it on her, he would take a minute to be really happy about the moments in time that both of its faces represented. "That's what Abigail would want. She would want us to keep moving and just keep living," Jennifer stressed. "I am. Finally," Chad assured her with a smile.
Claire tried to leave the Evans-Black townhouse while her grandparents were gone, but Paul stopped her and insisted that she wasn't going anywhere. "The Wi-Fi here is dead," Claire protested. "But you're not, so let's keep it that way," Paul countered. She tried to sidestep him, dismissively pointing out that he wasn't her father, but he continued to block her path. "Okay, so I'm in jail?" she asked incredulously.
Paul couldn't believe that Claire still wasn't taking the situation seriously, even after her earlier encounter with Orpheus and Clyde. Claire said she understood that the escaped convicts were dangerous. "But if we hide inside, then we're just letting the terrorists win, right? Isn't that a thing? You know, I will not let these psycho losers blow up my life just because they want to blow up other stuff. They belong in jail, not me!" she added. Paul agreed but maintained that it would be best to stay inside until the criminals were apprehended. "I will be inside -- at the pub!" Claire countered, insisting that she needed to at least recharge her tablet computer.
Paul wondered why Claire found her tablet so important that she was willing to risk her life for it. "Whoa -- way over the top," Claire protested, adding that her tablet was her life. "[And you think] I'm over the top?" Paul countered. Claire explained that she would lose all her followers if she didn't provide them with enough updates to keep them satisfied. "Salem may be shut down, but the rest of the world is definitely still spinning," she continued as she tried to sidestep Paul again. He refused to budge, and when Claire hinted that her grandparents wouldn't be happy with the way he was treating her, he invited her to call them and ask.
Meanwhile, someone knocked on the townhouse door. "Ah, good -- jailbreak!" Claire exclaimed. Unamused, Paul opened the door and found Sonny standing in the hallway. Claire greeted Sonny and asked him to give her a ride to the Brady Pub, but he informed her that a curfew would soon be in effect for the entire town. Groaning, Claire stormed off to her bedroom to see if she had any backup battery packs that still had juice left. "Babysitting?" Sonny asked. "Never say that in front of her," Paul advised. Sonny shook his head in amusement when Paul told him about Claire's fear that her fans would forget about her before the power was restored.
Paul wondered why Sonny wasn't holed up at the Kiriakis mansion. Sonny explained that he had wanted to check in with Paul and make sure that he was okay. "Is that really why you came?" Paul asked, reminding Sonny of a moment they had shared after the hostage situation. "You almost got shot. It scared me. Friends don't want friends to get shot," Sonny replied with a shrug. Paul agreed but guessed that Sonny knew what he was really asking about. "I do. The history -- chemistry -- it's probably always gonna be there. But we both know we can't go there again," Sonny stressed. "Makes sense," Paul conceded.
Changing the subject, Sonny urged Paul to be careful, pointing out that being a private investigator was dangerous enough without the added element of the bad blood between Paul's family and Orpheus. Paul countered that Sonny's line of work was just as dangerous as his, if not more so. Sonny protested that the Kiriakis family business was completely safe, but Paul expressed doubts.
"What are you saying?" Sonny asked. Paul explained that he didn't want Sonny to get hurt -- and he also didn't want to ever find himself at odds with Sonny. Confused, Sonny wondered why Paul was worried that they might one day find themselves on opposite sides, pointing out that private investigators weren't exactly white knights who never bent the rules to get things done.
"We choose our cases," Paul replied. "And they're always black and white? No gray area?" Sonny countered. Paul wondered if that was what Sonny told himself when he needed to justify bending the rules. "I'm a Kiriakis. And I'm very proud of my family, so I don't tell myself stories about who we are to be loyal to them. I will not make an excuse for that," Sonny stressed with a hint of venom behind each word. Nodding, Paul dropped the subject, and Sonny softened slightly and told him to take care of himself. Paul returned the sentiment as Sonny showed himself out of the townhouse.
At the police station, Abe filled John, Marlena, and Brady in on what was being done to find the escaped convicts. Brady didn't think it was enough, and Marlena agreed that the police needed to be able to take a more active approach to locating the criminals. Marlena handed over Clyde's psychological profile so Abe could use it to help the police learn more about her former patient, and when Abe wondered if she could actually do such a thing without risking the loss of her license, she replied, "Clyde crossed a line when he kidnapped a child. I will do anything that I can to see him behind bars."
After going over the file with Marlena, Abe thanked her and started to excuse himself. Brady chased after Abe, insisting, "I know everyone [at the Salem Police Department] is doing their best, but it's not good enough!" Brady started to offer the help of the Kiriakis family's security team, but Abe interrupted and warned him not to go there, stressing that vigilante justice would only make things worse.
Later, at the Kiriakis mansion, Brady received a phone call from someone. "You have descriptions of all three -- Clyde, Xander, Orpheus? Then it's a green light. Take the fugitives out any way you can," Brady instructed the caller before hanging up. "Did you just order a hit?" Sonny asked, having arrived home in time to overhear Brady's end of the conversation. Brady unapologetically explained that the Kiriakis security team had eyes on the escaped convicts, and getting the police involved would be a waste of time because they would insist on doing everything by the book. He added, however, that the team would try to resolve the matter peacefully.
"So you ordered a hit 'if necessary,'" Sonny concluded. Brady reminded Sonny of Xander's hatred for the entire Kiriakis clan as well as the fact that Clyde had already tried to kill Sonny once before. "[Aren't] you tired of taking chances? Because I am. Our family's security is threatened here. It's life or death, Sonny. I need to know something -- are you on board or not?" Brady asked. Realizing that Brady was right, Sonny followed him to the docks so they could watch as the security team stormed the escaped convicts' hideout.
Paul tracked John and Marlena down at the police station. After assuring them that Claire was with a guard, he reported that one of John's informants had called a few minutes earlier and had revealed that the Kiriakis security team was at the docks and was armed to the teeth. "You don't think Victor would do this?" Marlena asked John. "Probably isn't Vic. You saw Brady earlier," John replied. Abe soon interrupted and announced that someone had just called to report that automatic gunfire had been heard at the docks.
Brady groaned in frustration as he ended a phone conversation with one of the men on the Kiriakis security team. "Nobody was inside. It was bad intel," Brady told Sonny. Confused, Sonny wondered why shots had been fired in an empty building. Brady explained that someone had reacted to the movement of a shadow, setting off a chain reaction. He regretfully added that nearby longshoremen might have been hit.
Abe excused himself after telling John, Marlena, and Paul that a tactical team was on its way over to the docks to see what was going on there. Meanwhile, John received a phone call from Claire. He greeted her warmly and assured her that Paul would be back at the townhouse shortly. "Hey, Grandpa?" she replied with a hint of fear in her voice. Concerned, John wondered where she was. "She's with me," Orpheus answered.
At the Evans-Black townhouse, Marlena told John that she had not yet been able to reach Belle and Shawn to let them know what was going on. John tried to assure Marlena that Claire was smart and would know how to handle the situation, but Marlena wasn't convinced. "She was barely listening when you had the family talk," Marlena pointed out. "That's why I reviewed everything with her again [afterward]," John revealed.
John and Marlena headed over to the Johnson house to fill Steve and Kayla in on the plan. Steve was relieved to know that John had possessed the foresight to equip Claire with a panic button she could use in cases of emergency, but Kayla was worried because Claire hadn't activated it yet. Marlena suggested that Claire might just be waiting for the right opportunity. "Or maybe Orpheus has discovered [the device]," she conceded. John shook his head, confident that it was discreet enough to go undetected.
At the escaped convicts' hideout, Xander complained that Joey and Claire weren't worth keeping as hostages because they could slow things down. "Xander, when I ask for your opinion, you'll know I've completely lost my mind," Orpheus tiredly replied. He added that he wasn't planning to adopt the teens; he was simply planning to use them until they were no longer of value then deal with them accordingly.
While Orpheus and Xander were arguing, Claire quietly assured Joey that she had a plan. "If I could just get my hands free..." she added as she struggled to escape her bindings. She soon started taunting Orpheus, warning that he was no match for John, who would stop at nothing to put him and the other criminals back behind bars. Orpheus wasn't worried, suspecting that getting Claire back was more important to John. "[He'll] play right into my hand. So, you see, it's a win-win for [us]; you and little Joey here are our get-out-of-town-free cards," Orpheus continued.
"You really think our parents and the cops are just gonna let you walk away? Not after you killed my dad," Joey countered. Realizing that Joey hadn't heard the good news, Claire assured him that Steve had survived with the help of a bulletproof vest. Orpheus grudgingly conceded that Steve was resourceful but insisted that his resources would soon run out. "But he's alive! He's alive, which means you're going down!" Joey replied with a laugh.
"Oh, spare me the melodrama, kid. Salem is in a state of chaos because of me and my crew," Orpheus bragged. He added that the final strike would occur soon enough. "And then you -- well, most of you, anyway -- can get back to your boring, mundane lives," he continued. Xander interjected that the teens would have to get used to a simpler lifestyle after the impending ransom demand was met.
"You talk too much," Orpheus snapped at Xander before excusing himself so he could prepare for the press conference that Abe was holding later that day. Unhappy about being saddled with the responsibility of babysitting yet again, Xander wondered where Clyde was. "Clyde has his own errand to attend to," Orpheus replied. Xander followed Orpheus out of the room, wondering if he was sure the plan would work.
Once the coast was clear, Joey quietly asked Claire to tell him more about her plan. She started to tell him something about her necklace, but when he pointed out that she wasn't wearing a necklace, she realized that it had fallen to the floor. When Xander heard her groaning in frustration, he returned and gagged her and Joey, complaining that he was sick of hearing them whining.
At the police station, Hope and Rafe tried to convince Abe to change the venue of his press conference for safety reasons. "Absolutely not! The day Orpheus, Clyde, and Xander have me cowering is the day I'm no longer fit for office. And frankly, I resent your challenging [of] my authority. We wouldn't even need a press conference if you and the rest of the Salem P.D. had done [your] jobs and brought these bastards in!" Abe snapped.
Rafe insisted that everyone was working tirelessly to locate and apprehend the escaped convicts. "They're not working hard enough. This city is slipping into anarchy! The citizens are looting, brandishing firearms -- if we don't get this under control, this is not going to end well for anyone, especially the hostages!" Abe countered. He quickly softened and apologized to Hope, realizing that what he had just said had been terribly insensitive.
"Look, at the risk of losing one of my best detectives, I would understand if you want to step back from this investigation and be with your family," Abe added. Hope declined, insisting on doing what she could to help find the missing members of her family. After Abe left the room, Rafe comforted Hope with a hug and assured her that Claire and Joey would be found before any harm was done to them. Nearby, Aiden observed the embrace.
Later, Aiden found Hope alone in a conference room and insisted that they needed to talk about something. She refused and tried to sidestep him, but he blocked her path. Meanwhile, Rafe entered the room and wondered what was going on. Hope explained that Aiden wanted to talk to her about something. After pointing out that it wasn't exactly the best time for a chat, she exited the room, leaving Rafe alone with Aiden. Rafe wondered what it was going to take for Aiden to finally accept that Hope wanted nothing to do with him. "Back the hell off," Rafe added before walking away.
Elsewhere, Ciara and Theo tried to assure themselves that Joey and Claire were going to be okay. Ciara observed that Theo seemed to really care about Claire. He confirmed that he did, but he stressed that he was just as concerned about Joey's safety. "I just can't imagine how scared they must be," Theo added. "I can. Unfortunately, I know how terrifying it is [to be held captive]," Ciara replied.
While Xander was talking to someone on the phone, getting an offshore bank account ready for the ransom payment, Joey seized the opportunity to tip his chair over, sending himself crashing to the floor with it. Xander rushed back into the room, picked up the chair, and shoved Joey back onto it, threatening to kill him if he tried another stunt like that at any point.
Meanwhile, Orpheus returned with a box. "Kiddies misbehaving?" he guessed as he opened the box and began removing various items from it, including a tablet computer and a stand to hold it upright. As Xander tried to get Orpheus to explain the significance of the items, Joey subtly directed Claire's attention to his hands, which were clenching her necklace tightly.
John, Marlena, Steve, and Kayla gathered at the Horton Town Square to wait for Abe to begin his press conference. John soon noticed that his cell phone wasn't picking up a signal there, prompting Marlena to fret that Claire could be activating the panic button at that very moment, and they'd have no way of receiving her coordinates. "Let's just hope that's not the case, okay?" John advised.
Hope, Rafe, Aiden, Ciara, and Theo also arrived before Abe began his press conference. Orpheus and Xander watched it from their hideout, finding it amusing that the words "Salem Under Siege" were scrawled across the bottom of the tablet's screen. After Abe explained to the public that a limited amount of the town's electricity had been restored to allow the press conference to reach as many homes as possible, he stressed that the Salem Police Department and the FBI were doing everything they could to apprehend the escaped convicts and safely free the hostages.
Abe sternly added that the looting, vandalism, and vigilante activity that had swept through Salem in the wake of the blackout needed to stop immediately. "This kind of behavior will not be condoned and tolerated, and anyone engaging in this activity will be arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law," he warned. He asked everyone to adhere to the curfew and report any sightings of the escaped convicts to the police instead of trying to engage them. "I've had enough of this windbag," Orpheus muttered before seizing control of the broadcast with the push of a button.
"Sorry to interrupt your speech, Mayor Carver -- good as it is -- but it occurred to me that you and your fellow Salemites might like to see us in the flesh. Mug shots can be so unflattering, don't you think? I am Orpheus, part of the trio of terror that has, as your own broadcast suggests, Salem under siege. And you're right, Mr. Mayor: the good people of Salem should be afraid -- very afraid -- because we're not going to stop until we get exactly what we want," Orpheus warned as those gathered in the town square watched the hijacked press conference on a monitor.
Orpheus turned his tablet's camera toward Joey and Claire, and Xander removed Claire's gag so she could say a few words for dramatic effect. "Oh, dear God -- she's not wearing the necklace," Marlena told John as Claire asked for their help. Orpheus soon reappeared on the monitor and demanded twenty million dollars, promising to provide the necessary details for the transfer of the funds at a later time. He stressed that the whereabouts of the hostages would not be revealed until the transfer was completed and he and his associates were safely out of the country.
"If our demands are not met, chaos and terror will continue to spread across Salem like a plague," Orpheus warned before abruptly ending the transmission. Pleased with the way things had gone, he and Xander began to celebrate with a bottle of whiskey. As Abe regained control of the press conference and tried to offer words of reassurance to the citizens of Salem, Aiden watched Rafe put a comforting hand on Hope's shoulder then step aside to see if his contact at the FBI had been able to trace the signal of Orpheus' broadcast. Aiden seized the opportunity to inch closer to Hope and whisper in her ear, "I know you killed Stefano DiMera."
Meanwhile, Clyde, who was holed up in a room at the nearby Salem Inn, fired a shot from a sniper rifle he had obtained with the help of his old friend Jeremiah. The bullet had been meant for Aiden as payback for his role in Clyde's arrest the previous year, but Abe unwittingly stepped in front of him at the worst possible moment. Theo rushed to his fallen father's side as the town square erupted in chaos. John's cell phone fell to the ground while he and Steve were scanning nearby buildings in search of the sniper. The device suddenly found a signal again, just as Claire quietly instructed Joey to press the button on her necklace.
In the town square, Abe, Aiden, Hope, Rafe, Marlena, John, Ciara, Theo, Kayla, and Steve watched with other townspeople as Orpheus addressed Salem on a pirated television feed. Orpheus demanded a hefty ransom in exchange for his hostages, Claire and Joey. After Orpheus cut the feed, Abe addressed the crowd in an attempt to reassure them. Aiden leaned over to Hope and told her that he knew she had murdered Stefano. From a window at the Salem Inn, Clyde leveled a rifle and aimed a laser target at Aiden's chest. As Clyde squeezed the trigger, Abe stepped in front of Aiden.
Abe fell and everyone dove to the ground to avoid any more gunfire. While John, Steve, Hope, and Rafe pointed their guns at the window, Kayla and Marlena rushed to stanch the bleeding from Abe's wound. A terrified Theo cried out to his father, and Ciara held Theo tightly as he rocked back and forth in despair. After Kayla confirmed there was no exit wound, she announced that Abe needed surgery immediately. Hope called emergency services, and Rafe and J.J. rushed into the inn to confront the shooter.
When Rafe and J.J. arrived at the room that the shooter had occupied, they found it empty. Rafe found a shell casing. With a furrowed brow, Rafe theorized aloud that the shooter was likely Clyde, since he was an expert marksman. Rafe admitted that he was confused about the motive to shoot Abe.
In the square, John found the phone he had dropped. John was elated to see that the GPS tracker in Claire's necklace had been activated. John and Steve ran off to follow the signal. The signal led the two men to an alley near the docks. Worried about Joey and Claire, John and Steve devised a plan to draw the men out from the warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, Joey clutched Claire's necklace in his hand, hoping that the GPS had been activated. While Orpheus complained to Xander that Clyde had shot the wrong man, Claire feverishly scraped the rope around her wrists against a metal shelf. The metal slowly cut through the rope. Just as Xander noted that they should kill the hostages once they received the ransom, he noticed something in Joey's hand. Xander grabbed the necklace and showed it to Orpheus. Upon inspection, Orpheus realized that there was a GPS tracker inside, and he destroyed the necklace by stomping on it.
Outside the warehouse, John noticed that the signal had stopped transmitting. Worried, John told Steve that they needed to hurry inside. Shots rang out. Xander and Orpheus fired their weapons at Steve and John, pinning them down. While Orpheus kept Steve and John at bay, Xander returned inside the warehouse to attend to the hostages. Claire had cut through her rope and untied Joey, just as Xander walked down the hall. Claire and Joey pretended they were still tied up.
As Xander started to pack up supplies, Joey and Claire made a run for the exit. Joey shoved Claire into the hallway, but Xander closed the door before Joey could escape. Claire ran outside into Steve's arms. Claire told Steve and John about Joey. Steve wanted to rush into the warehouse, but John warned Steve that they needed to get Claire to safety and get backup. Reluctantly, Steve agreed.
At the police station, Rafe and Hope reviewed footage from the hotel with Aiden. J.J. informed the group that news footage had shown that the intended target had been Aiden because the laser sight had been focused on Aiden's chest. Hope and Rafe went into the interrogation room to talk. Rafe asked Hope what Aiden had said to her before the shooting, but Hope said she did not remember. Rafe pushed Hope to tell him the truth, and Hope grew angry.
After Rafe left the station, Hope urged Aiden to leave town for his safety. With a lopsided grin, Aiden said no. Aiden told Hope that he knew she had murdered Stefano. As Hope shifted her eyes away nervously, Claire ran into he station. Claire told Hope what had happened at the warehouse.
At the hospital, Kayla tended to Abe and prepared an OR for him. Marlena waited with Theo while Kayla supervised the surgery. When Ciara arrived, she attempted to calm Theo, but she only angered him. After Theo stormed off down the hallway, Marlena and Ciara talked about how worried they were for Theo. When Theo returned, he explained that he had left voicemail messages for his siblings, Brandon and Lani.
Ciara apologized for upsetting Theo, but he shook his head dismissively. Theo said he knew that Ciara had meant well. Theo confided that he was scared to be alone. Ciara assured Theo that he would always have her, and she slipped her hand into his. Theo squeezed her hand in thanks.
After the surgery, Kayla informed Theo, Ciara, and Marlena that Abe had survived the surgery and was in recovery. Kayla continued that the bullet had exploded and that a specialist would be needed to make sure that all the fragments near Abe's heart had been removed. Worried, Theo asked Kayla if his father could still die. Kayla squeezed Theo's shoulder and escorted him to see Abe.
Once Theo sat next to Abe, he thought about when Abe had told Theo that he was a man. Theo remembered telling Abe that Ciara had made him happy. Outside Abe's room, Ciara watched Theo through the window.
At the warehouse, Steve, John, and several police officers stormed into the convicts' hideout. The place was empty. Steve found droplets of blood on the floor. Furious, Steve growled, "I'm gonna kill every last one of them."
