Xander Promises Sarah and Rex a Fight For Victoria, While Susan Sends a Message Via Scone
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After a long shift, Tripp comes home to Wendy. She’s busy job searching since EJ fired her for going through his phone. She bemoans not even finding anything, while Tripp blames himself for sending Rafe and Jada after Ava and Harris. Wendy assumes Rafe threatened to arrest him if he didn’t give up their location. Tripp hedges. Wendy questions him until he admits Rafe threatened to send Trask after her if he didn’t talk. Wendy wonders why he would chose her over his mother. “Because I’m in love with you,” Tripp responds.
Tripp tells a stunned Wendy he’s been meaning to tell her that for a while, but experience has taught him she might not say it back. Wendy assures him that just because Allie didn’t say it back doesn’t mean the same will happen with her. In fact, she can guarantee him it won’t. “I love you too, Tripp,” Wendy says. “I’m in love with you.” She pulls him into a passionate kiss.
With guns drawn, Rafe and Jada open a London hotel room, but find it empty. As they search, Jada finds Ava and Harris’ fake passports. Rafe assumes they’ll be back for them eventually — and they’ll be waiting.
At a café, Harris tries to calm Ava, who fears someone will spot them. Ava also wonders why Susan hasn’t sent them another sign. As she calls out for Susan, Harris finds crumbs shaped into the letter E on his pastry plate. He thinks it’s Susan’s way of reaching out. A dubious Ava wonders what it means. Harris doesn’t know yet, but he thinks connecting the dots will be a piece of cake… or scone. Ava notes he’s enjoying himself. He enjoys solving a puzzle with a friend, he admits, locking eyes with her.
As a flirtatious Jada and Rafe muse over the reason for Ava and Harris coming to London, Rafe calls Tripp. He lies that Ava and Harris are in custody. Tripp blurts out that they ran to London to find Susan. After Tripp explains everything, Rafe happily admits he lied to him about Ava and hangs up. Jada expresses her doubts about Susan being alive, but Rafe points out that dead people turning out not to be dead is not all that unusual in Salem.
After Harris pays the check, he brings the waiter’s phone back to the table. He searches Susan’s name along with the letter E. Ava looks at him like he’s lost it. When the search proves fruitless, Ava flippantly suggests he add the word crumbs to the search. “Holy cow,” Harris exclaims as he studies the results. He shows her Susan and Edmund P. Crumb’s wedding announcement from decades ago.
Philip comes to Chloe’s apartment to check on her. She admits she’s not okay, but she will be. She learns Philip and Sarah did get married, but confirms her wedding to Xander is off. Philip is sincerely sorry. He knows she really cares about him. She cries as she says what they had was real, but she knew he had unresolved feelings for Sarah. She assumes Philip knows something about that. He asks how much of his conversation with Rex she overheard. She admits she heard enough to know he might still be in love with her.
Philip promises he didn’t want Chloe to know. After what happened with Brady, he knows there’s no way she could ever love him again. Chloe isn’t so sure about that. When she thought he was dead, a part of her died too. But she didn’t realize it until he returned. The part of her that loved him came alive again, and she can’t pretend it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been there since she was 16, and it’s not going away. The more time she spends with him, the stronger it gets. “Are you saying you still have feelings for me,” Philip asks.
He stops her from answering. He doesn’t want her to say something she’ll regret because she’s emotional. She promises this isn’t a knee-jerk reaction to Xander. She’s had these feelings for a while, and she sees how much Philip has changed. Philip tells her he’ll always be there for her and leaves.
Outside the Pub, Xander demands to know how Sarah could pass off his child as Rex’s. She reminds him they did the same thing to Eric. He calls that different because she didn’t want to complicate things between Eric and Nicole. But she lied to him about Victoria to punish him. Sarah counters she did it to prevent an innocent child from being raised by a killer.
As they rehash his misdeeds, Xander declares that not a day goes by that he doesn’t regret his role in Susan’s death. However, he did what he did because he couldn’t bear to fail Sarah as a husband and as a man. He did what he had to do. “So did I,” she whispers. “When I chose to make Rex the father of my baby instead of you.”
Xander calls Rex a liar and a serial adulterer. Sarah insists he’s changed. Unlike Xander, he learns from his mistakes and regrets hurting people. Xander reiterates that he regrets his part in Susan’s death every day. She asks if he regrets stealing The Spectator from his best friend or shooting Brady and Marlena or putting Nicole in a cage. Xander doesn’t think his litany of sins gives her the right to disqualify him as a father. She must know he’d never harm his own child. “You do know that, right,” he earnestly asks as Rex emerges from the Pub.
When Xander tells Rex this doesn’t concern him, Rex reminds him Sarah is his wife. Xander scoffs, but Sarah says what he thinks doesn’t matter. She and Rex are married. Xander tells her to go off on her honeymoon, then, while he gets acquainted with his daughter. Rex stops him from going into the Pub. Since Rex’s name is on the birth certificate and he’s married to Sarah, Xander has no legal claim to Victoria. Rex promises a long legal battle should he pursue it. Xander vows to fight harder for Victoria than he ever fought for anything in his life. He will be part of his daughter’s life, and there’s nothing either of them can do to stop him.