Gwen finally got what was coming to her, and it was glorious.

On Days of Our Lives during the week of 4-18-22, Abigail methodically unraveled all of Gwen’s secrets, step by loathsome step. The bride melted down in her beautiful wedding dress, lost everyone important to her, and was ultimately led away in handcuffs.

Unfortunately, Ava won’t pay for her crimes because she threw Gwen under the bus, but it was almost worth it.

Gwen is driven by selfishness and insecurity. She has little remorse for any of her actions, and switching the antidote with more of the mind-altering drug to keep Sarah incapacitated was so horrific that it even disgusted Ava.

You’ve gone badly off-track when your actions bring condemnation from Salem’s resident Mafia princess!

Gwen passed irredeemable about three schemes ago.

She could be forgiven for lying about Abigail causing her to fall down the stairs and lose her baby. Regardless of when the baby died, the fact was that Abigail was so out of her mind with anger that she confronted Gwen while Gwen was going down a steep flight of steps.

Abigail was far from blameless there, and Gwen lying about the exact moment of her baby’s death was far from her worst sin.

But instead of accepting the second chance she eventually got from Jack over that whole mess, Gwen decided to do even worse, uglier things, all in the name of insecurity.

Maybe Xander and Jack would have forgiven her if all she did was keep her mouth shut about Sarah being held on an island. After all, Sarah was eventually found.

But pretending to be Sarah to break Xander’s heart all over again was cruel, and Maggie got caught in the crossfire of this stupid scheme too.

Maggie didn’t even know Gwen, had done nothing to her, and wished her and Xander all the happiness in the world when she found out Xander intended to marry Gwen instead of waiting for Sarah.

But Gwen had broken her heart too, masquerading as Sarah and telling Maggie that she was leaving for Salem for good and didn’t want her mother to contact her again.

And that was only the tip of the iceberg of the things Gwen did to stop Xander and Sarah from reuniting. Gwen didn’t care who she hurt as long as she could hold onto Xander.

Did she even love him? Or was she just so grateful that someone loved HER that she held onto him with all her might?

It was beyond time for Gwen to lose everything.

Abby: This is not new territory. This is not a tragic mistake. You know in detail what that drug will do to a person’s brain and then you did it again to someone you barely know. A good person who has done you no harm at all. And you planned it in advance and you made sure not to be there when it happened. So, no, Gwen. That’s not ‘panic’. That’s premeditation.
Jack: IS THAT TRUE? IS IT THAT TRUE?
Abby: Dad –
Jack: It is, isn’t it?
Abby: All of it.
Gwen: Dad –
Jack: Don’t ever call me that again. I forgave and forgave and forgave and believed that you could be saved, that everything you ever did was my fault. But now, this? There are no words. I am done with you.
Gwen: Xander? Are you done with me too?
Xander: You knew how much I loved Sarah. You knew where she was. You knew what Kristen had done to her and then we finally got her back and I was this close to saving her, to Sarah being Sarah again, you might as well have just put a bullet through her brain. You are the worst person I have ever known.

As Jack said, he forgave her over and over, only for her behavior to get worse.

Hitting Abigail over the head so that she and Ava could get Abby out of their way was bad enough, but switching those drugs was so far beyond the pale that Gwen should be run out of town and banned from ever coming back.

In the end, Gwen didn’t even turn out to be that great a friend to Leo, the only person with whom she seemed to be anything but miserable.

Leo’s wedding imploded too because of a far sillier and less insidious scheme than Gwen’s, but Gwen didn’t seem to give her old friend much of a second thought after he took off.

She tried to defend him when Jackie/Darius accused him of plotting to marry Craig for his money, and she had a go at Chad for messing things up for Leo. But it wasn’t too long before she was eager to get on with her own wedding, not even bothering to check on Leo to see if he needed a shoulder to cry on.

As with all her relationships, even this fun friendship was one-sided in the end. Leo offered to share the altar with her to make her day as special as his, and what did he get in return from her? Nothing.

That said, Emily O’Brien gave a magnificent performance as Gwen became more and more desperate to hold onto her crumbling world. She shifted quickly from being grateful that Abigail and Jack wanted to share in her special day to pure hatred of Abigail as she tried to deflect blame and stop Xander from leaving her.

Abigail relished every moment of Gwen’s pain, too, reminding Gwen how she got Abby to publicly humiliate herself and her parents when she first came to town and taking pure joy in finally being able to return the favor.

This was painful for Xander, too. It wasn’t that long ago that he was blaming Abigail for Sarah’s condition, but now he was forced to listen to what she had to say, and the pain was written all over his face as he realized what a monster his bride-to-be was.

Jack and Jennifer had smaller roles to play in this, but I’m not sure which I liked better: Jack FINALLY deciding he was done with Gwen forever or Jennifer standing up to her.

This type of high drama is why I watch soaps. Kudos to all the actors involved!

Gwen’s world falling apart was made even more painful by the silliness at Leo and Craig’s aborted wedding the day before.

That ceremony, and the reveal of Leo’s secret, were played chiefly for laughs, and it worked.

Leo’s attire and the way he treated the wedding aisle like the runway of a fashion show were hilarious, and even the reveal that Leo was married to Jackie Cox and looking to scam Craig was more campy than serious.

Leo: I hope that I didn’t show you up too much.
Gwen: I expected nothing less from you.

Leo’s sin wasn’t as irredeemable as Brady and his smug look think, either. There have been plenty of marriages in Salem that started out with one person intending to scam the other. Doug and Julie is probably the best-known example, but Gabi and Stefan started that way too, and so did Brady and Eve.

Brady and Chloe had no business being so self-righteous. Neither of them is a saint, but they now think all of their childish interference in Craig and Leo’s relationship was justified because it turned out Leo had a scheme in mind.

The ironic thing here is that they didn’t need to do anything before the marriage could take place because Leo was already married, so their union wouldn’t be legal anyway.

I’d have rather Craig discovered on his own that Leo was already married so that Chloe and Brady wouldn’t win here. Their interference had me rooting for Leo and Craig to get back together, and I don’t even like Leo or this relationship!

What will happen next with this mess of a story? Leo doesn’t seem the type to go slinking off into the night because he didn’t get his way, and I doubt he will listen to Brady ordering him to stay away from Craig.

I’m not convinced that Leo was lying about having fallen for Craig for real, and if that’s the case, he’s going to be desperate to prove it to him. And knowing Leo, he’s going to go super big.

For sure, Nancy and Craig are destined to remain friends and nothing more. It would be a copout for Craig to give up on being himself and return to a marriage that’s a lie because his first gay relationship didn’t work out.

Besides, Nancy has already moved on with Clyde. Chloe had better put equal energy into convincing her mother to stay away from ex-convicts with a record of extreme violence as she did into convincing Craig that Leo was no good, lest she be a hypocrite.

I’m surprised Chloe doesn’t have a problem with Nancy and Bonnie’s friendship, considering that Mimi’s name still leaves a sour taste in Chloe’s mouth 30 years later, and teenage Chloe didn’t want Bonnie and Mimi living with her family.

I’d be disappointed that Ava got off scot-free for framing Rafe, except that’s par for the course on Days of Our Lives.

I hope there are no plans for Gwen to similarly weasel out of the charges against her. Ultimately, the case boils down to Ava’s claims. Abby, Jack, and Jennifer can testify to Gwen admitting it was all true, but there’s no physical evidence, so will a jury buy any of it?

Anyway, I don’t understand why Trask made the deal when she was upset about it. Trask isn’t an ADA; she’s the district attorney. Nobody forced her to make a deal she didn’t want to make.

She wanted to get Gwen, but someone as calculating as Trask could have found a way to throw both of these women in jail.

Now Ava probably has it out for Gabi, while Gabi has it out for Trask for letting Ava go, and Trask hates herself for not pursuing justice. What a mess!

Ava and Jake’s relationship is quickly headed toward romance. While these two have chemistry, I don’t enjoy them gloating together about not being good people anymore.

Meanwhile, Clyde showed his true colors, suggesting to EJ that they go into the drug business together. TR probably would have been a better bet, assuming he could stay sober long enough to take care of business.

It didn’t make sense that TR was able to totally sober up by the time he got to Paulina’s after being so out of it on heroin five minutes earlier.

Hopefully, Paulina will see through TR’s nonsense, or Chanel will come home and kick him out. I wouldn’t bet on the latter since Chanel is busy getting drunk with Tripp.

Once the truth comes out and the Devil is driven out of both Johnny and Allie (and hopefully out of Salem!), Chanel will have to decide who she wants to be with. Let’s hope that the Devil doesn’t jump into Tripp to break her heart for a third time before this is all over.

Seriously, though, this Devil stuff is getting old. I’m ready for Johnny to get out of that crypt already, but instead, it looks like he’ll have a new roommate.

I don’t understand why the Devil thinks it can make Ben disappear with no consequences.

Regardless, this is yet another story about someone kidnapping either Ben or Ciara to keep the two of them apart. Can’t the writers find something else to do with them?

Your turn, Days of Our Lives fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts on the double wedding disaster, the Devil’s latest tricks, and whether Paulina is falling into TR’s trap.

Hungry for more DAYS chat? Check out the latest Days of Our Lives Round Table discussion on Sunday.

Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes or watch on Peacock TV on weeknights after 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST.

Edit Delete