Days of our Lives: Stephanie Plots to Unmask Joy as Alex Wins Full Custody!

Days of Our Lives presents Stephanie Johnson (Abigail Klein) really ticked off at Joy Wesley (AlexAnn Hopkins) and may soon start plotting to help Alex Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson) get full custody, maybe even sole custody of little Kelsey rather than having to deal with Joy’s increasing demands about the child that they share.

Days of our Lives: Alex’s Emotions Run Amok

So, this week, Alex was so excited when his dad called and said that baby Kelsey’s birth certificate had been amended and was ready. So, now it has her new name, and Alex is officially listed as the dad, and she is now Kelsey Kiriakis. But when Joy and Alex discuss the custody arrangement with Justin, we saw Joy put her foot down about Stephanie because Joy doesn’t want Alex’s wife around Kelsey ever. And Alex was angry.

Then he stormed out and he went home to vent his frustration to Stephanie. And Alex had to explain why there’s no custody deal yet. So, Stephanie told Alex this is all her fault because if she hadn’t shot at Joy, there wouldn’t even be this topic of discussion and this leverage. Stephanie was double dosing medication with a loaded gun not locked up properly, and she knew that Joy had a key to their apartment. But then Stephanie woke up groggy and panicked and shot at Joy.

It was extremely irresponsible. But on the flip, Stephanie had PTSD because of a past trauma. She’s not just going around taking pot shots at people across town. So, it is understandable that Stephanie made a bad choice that day and Joy is understandably shaken. And this didn’t happen that long ago.

Stephanie Makes Things Worse for Herself on DOOL

But then after a conversation with Belle Black (Martha Madison), it looked like Joy was legit ready to cave on the custody thing and let Stephanie around her baby. But after Alex left for work, then Stephanie decided to go confront Joy about what she sees as her latest stunt.

Things were looking better until Stephanie got upset and intervened. And then she outright accused Joy of wanting her husband all to herself and accusing her of outrageous plots. And to be clear, Joy definitely wants Alex. But to be fair, I don’t think Joy has been inappropriate with him. Alex didn’t wait to hear what Joy’s issue was when she called about the insurance card.

He assumed the worst and he ran out. And now Stephanie assumes the worst of Joy in that situation. I actually think it was fine for her to call Alex for help since she and his baby daughter were on the side of the freeway. But despite that, Stephanie is not wrong about Joy having ulterior motives. And Stephanie likely does not believe Joy when she said she was about to change her mind on the custody until Stephanie ruined it.

Days of Our Lives: Stephanie’s Custody Plot Against Joy

So what’s going to happen now? Well, I think Alex might be a little annoyed that Stephanie confronted Joy, which Alex had to know wasn’t going to make anything better. But I also think Stephanie will convince Alex that Joy’s up to no good where he’s concerned. And from there, I don’t think Alex is going to be on board to plot against Joy no matter what Stephanie’s saying because I’m sure that Alex knows that will make things worse. However, I don’t expect Stephanie to back down. I think she’s going to start plotting on her own. I think she might do all she can to make sure Alex doesn’t just get 50/50 custody, but gets sole custody.

Because at this point, I expect that Stephanie wants Joy out of their lives and wouldn’t mind taking her baby away from her to make it happen. Because that’s how ticked off she is. And if Stephanie’s plotting against Joy, there’s a chance that she could find out that Kelsey’s mom is a gold digger. And maybe that’s not even Alex’s baby. Because think about it. When Joy was talking to Belle at the pub after Alex left the signing, Belle tried to convince Joy Stephanie would never hurt Kelsey.

Days of our Lives: Alex Not the Daddy?

And then something interesting happened that could foreshadow what’s coming. Rachel Black (Lorelei Olivia Mote) and Tate Black (Leo Howard) came over to look at little Kelsey and Rachel said Tate thought he had a baby too, but it turned out the kid wasn’t his after all. It was awkward and Belle called her out, but honestly that’s just Rachel being Rachel. And then Tate was listening in on Joy and Belle and we saw that Tate got snippy with Joy saying it’s bad to use a child for leverage to get what you want and Tate said it never works out in the end.

So, the Days of our Lives writers could be hinting at what’s next for Joy, Alex, and Stephanie. Stephanie could try and expose Joy as a liar while investigating for this custody case. You know, Stephanie could find irrefutable proof from maybe a secretly run DNA test that Joy somehow falsified the results. It would be easy enough for Stephanie to do a test like that. And it would be wild to come down to a moment of Alex learning he is not the biological father. And of course, that would break his heart because he adores Kelsey. Of course, Joy was very proud that her daughter would have the Kiriakis name because of its prestige.

Digging Up the Truth on Days

And since Jeremy Horton (Michael Roark) brought Joy to town, he might have made some contacts in the lab that could help her. Every soap paternity test can potentially be faked. Hospital staff have done that before and might be open to taking a bribe to swap the test results. So yeah, that test might have been faked.

But if Stephanie’s scheming ends up with Alex losing the daughter that he’s come to love, that could actually be problematic for him and Stephanie. But then again, Alex deserves to know if he’s really the dad or not. And we could also see Stephanie talking Alex into plotting with her. Some kind of honeypot thing where they pretend to break up so that they can find out Joy’s real motives.

Because I’m sure if she thought Alex was single, then Joy might admit to all kinds of things to Alex. They could turn around and use those against her in custody court. And finally, Stephanie could convince Papa Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) to use his investigative skills to help her dig up some dirt on Joy. We don’t know a lot about her. Her origin story, of course, is that she’s a savior sibling.

Her parents basically made Joy so that she could donate to save her sister’s life. And she’s been offscreen most of her life until her mother brought her to Salem to audition for a TV show. At the time, her mother made comments to Joy about her loose habits of sleeping around. And that’s enough right there to make you wonder if Alex really is Kelsey’s dad.

Joy’s Bad Choices on DOOL

Plus, Joy doesn’t even have a job. She lives above a bar with the baby. Those are not exactly positive parenting choices. And all of that could be used as ammunition to help Alex in the courtroom. And Stephanie could testify that she’s been in counseling, got rid of the gun, she’s stable, she’s safe. But in the end, unless Stephanie gets some major dirt on Joy, what Stephanie did by shooting at her makes her a huge liability in any custody case. And Alex has to know that. I’m sure his father does, too.

So, Stephanie scheming to expose Joy and getting some leverage against her is a good idea. But if it ends up costing Alex access to his daughter, then Stephanie might live to regret it. Already, Joy may tell Alex she was going to relent on the custody until Stephanie went psycho on her.

And Alex might believe Joy, at least for a minute, and she can always simply threaten to take Kelsey and go back to New York. I do think Stephanie can be over the top at times, but also what woman is going to sit by and let Joy get away with all of this? Certainly not Stephanie Johnson. We’ll see what scheme she starts soon to deal with Joy.