Days of our Lives: Holly’s Life in Danger – Nicole’s Explosive Return or Huge Twist?

Days of Our Lives hint that Holly Jonas’ (Ashley Puzemis) health issues could prove fatal as her arsenic poisoning worsens and Tate Black (Leo Howard) just said that Holly’s mom, Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), was back in the US and had landed in Chicago.

However, it seems like a long shot that we are getting Arianne Zucker back. We’re seeing Holly’s health go from bad to worse with EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel), the only one who knows that it’s arsenic killing her. And with Nicole in town and EJ in deep trouble, this is getting good.

Days of Our Lives: Holly’s Arsenic Crisis and the Nicole Question

So, Holly said she was feeling better, but that was a blatant lie that she told to Tate so that he would leave and go do what he needed to. She didn’t want him to worry about her. But then when he left, Holly curled up in a ball in agonizing pain. We know that Sarah Horton (Linsey Godfrey) told Brady Black (Eric Martsolf) that it would be three to five days to get the test results back, but EJ already has test results.

His guy George said that their water sample came back fast because they knew what to test for: arsenic. As of now, Sarah has no idea what is causing the symptoms or how to treat Holly. And Sarah’s scared that Holly might die like her patient Destiny did. And when EJ asked George, “Won’t Holly recover from the arsenic?” George gave EJ very bad news. So, George said Holly’s doctors may not be able to save her because they don’t know that they need to be treating arsenic poisoning. So, it’s getting worse and she may die. And that leaves EJ in a real pickle.

Days of our Lives: Brady Suspects a Relapse

Right now all Brady and Sarah know is that Holly had Coriseal in her system and was drinking a lot of water. So, Brady wonders if Holly might be using illegal drugs again, just that she might have relapsed because of all this stress, including Sophia’s death and Amy Choi’s (Shi Ne Neilson) lawsuit. And EJ’s doubly stressed because George saw Brady on Smith Island, and George said Brady was taking a water sample.

Bottom line is Nicole’s back in Illinois. Holly’s dying and EJ’s family company is to blame for at least two deaths and possibly three if Holly doesn’t pull out of this. And Tate told Holly to expect Nicole to come see her soon, but unless they’ve done a temporary recast, I doubt we’re actually going to see Holly’s mom.

Arianne Zucker was suing Days and Sony and Albert Allar and Ken Corde and I think some others. They settled out of court with Arianne, but networks usually don’t rehire people that sue them. I’m team Arianne on this. However, I really doubt that she’s back. I mean, fingers crossed, but it seems a slim chance.

Days of our Lives: Nicole May Not Be Seen

And it seems crazy to think about, but they could have written this so Nicole’s stuff is all off-screen. We could hear Holly got a visit from her mom, but then she left to take a shower. Or EJ comes in and says, “Oh, I just talked to Nicole and she’s really mad about Holly’s illness.” Crazy stuff like that. A recast would make a lot more sense because Holly needs to be able to feel her mom’s arms around her comforting her because she’s scared. She’s in pain. And right now, Nicole, Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan), and their son Jude all live in Paris.

They did an off-screen Nicole return when Holly had her high school graduation. If you remember, we only saw Greg Vaughan as Eric, and they mentioned that Nicole’s mad at him and didn’t sit near him at the ceremony and then left.

Days of our Lives Lawsuit

Again, if you don’t recall the whole backstory to this, Arianne Zucker sued them, alleging sexual harassment, discrimination, and I think hostile work environment as well. And this was after Albert Allar was accused of some pretty icky stuff behind the scenes. And there was that bloodbath when he reportedly fired so many actresses. Nicole was written off mid 2023 after about 25 years on Days of Our Lives.

And Arianne alleged that her firing was in retaliation for her complaint. She claimed there was a toxic work environment for women on the set of Days. Nicole Walker’s last air date was July 29, 2024, almost two years ago now. The court case settled in October of 2025, but the terms were never made public. But Albert Allar’s side claims that he only settled to get it over with.

Days of our Lives: Perfect Timing to Bring the Real Nicole Back

Usually settlements like that come with a gag order. So, Arianne Zucker wouldn’t be able to talk about the terms of the settlement. And longtime Days of Our Lives fans obviously would love to have the real Nicole back to Salem. And this storyline would be the perfect time for it to happen.

But there’s no way of knowing if Arianna Zucker would even be open to coming back to Days. Although Albert Allar was fired, Ken Corde, the guy who should have been preventing these alleged bad things from happening, is still very much in place. But since it is July sweeps, if they were going to bring back Arianne’s Nicole, now would be the time to do it.

Days of Our Lives: Holly’s Survival and EJ’s Cover-Up

We know, however, that Holly’s not sticking around. Her portrayer Ashley Puzemis and scene partner Leo Howard, who plays Tate, were both fired from Days when they came back from Christmas break at the beginning of this year. But that should put their exit dates closer to September than right now.

So, I tend to think Holly survives. I’m expecting Tate and Holly to maybe exit together in the fall. We could see her deciding that she’s had enough of Salem after the Sophia Choi (Rachel Boyd) and Amy drama. So, Holly may enroll in the Sorbonne since she was accepted there, and Tate follows along to teach self-defense to the French or something.

I think it would be great to see Arianne Zucker return as Nicole Walker, even if it was just for a handful of episodes, but again, I doubt it. I also expect we’re about to get some scenes from that big summer promo like the ones with EJ screaming at Sarah that she doesn’t need his help and EJ’s firing Sarah. The likely situation is Holly being the catalyst, and we know that by the end of this week EJ enlists Johnny DiMera’s (Carson Boatman) help with the DiMera drug mess and he is soon breaking into and searching Sarah’s office.

Days of our Lives: More Drama Ahead for Holly

So, I doubt that EJ fires her this week, or else Johnny wouldn’t have to sneak into Sarah’s office to look around. Plus, we know that Holly’s going to survive this arsenic crisis, but faces more drama soon. Another scene from the big promo has Tate and Holly back up at the hospital.

And she’s insisting that those pills aren’t mine. And in front of Sarah, we’re going to see Holly raging at Tate. Holly screams at Tate to get out when he asks Holly if they can just talk about it, knowing she’s not going to die. That points to Nicole’s return maybe being an off-screen thing.

Plus, I think Days fans would probably rant and riot if they recast Nicole, especially after how the actress was allegedly treated. Fans raged when Arianna was fired. So, EJ probably is going to find a way to get word that Sarah needs to be treating Holly for arsenic poisoning. You know, maybe EJ can speed up the lab test results so Sarah will know what to do for Holly.

Days of our Lives: Holly Survives the Poisoning

And if you look at the current storyline, it certainly seems dire and it points to Holly really needing her mom Nicole. But when you look at the timeline for Ashley Puzemis’s exit and the spoiler scenes from the summer promo, it’s pretty easy to figure out that Holly recovers.

So, Nicole isn’t needed for a deathbed scene and then needs to be there when her daughter dies or anything. It almost feels like Days writers are trying to score more July Sweeps attention by even bringing up Nicole’s name, but never put it past them that they wouldn’t do a recast for a couple of days, even if it would tick off fans with a whole new Nicole. I mean, heck, Ken Corday might even do it as a slap at Arianne Zucker for suing him.