5

From Darkness to Light

Following last night’s blackout,
the light of day raises more questions than answers.

Bronco takes his breakfast in Minos Park again. Due to the previous night’s blackout, he sleeps through his alarm and wakes up hungry and angry. Facilities management cleans up the area around the bench, repeatedly interrupting Bronco’s vocal diary entry. The Value Vision Receptionist happens upon Bronco and stops to chat. He confuses Bronco with Ian from Craft Services, forcing Bronco to reveal that Ian is actually his twin brother. Bronco is concerned to hear about Ian’s sudden disappearance during the blackout. After the Receptionist leaves for work, Bronco returns to his vocal diary. He transitions into a vocal memo to remind himself to research the symptoms of acid reflux disease. Already late for work, Bronco decides to skip out for the day, and instead heads to Value Vision to further investigate what happened to Ian from Craft Services. He litters profusely despite an earlier warning from the facilities management worker to put his waste in the can sitting right next to him.

Late for work, the Receptionist finds that he’s already missed half of today’s Days. Philip decides to take Belle up on her offer to fund his new record label, under the condition that he signs Claire as the first artist. The Receptionist unboxes a package for Dr. Charles that says to open immediately. The package contains a new piece of optical equipment. Bronco arrives at Value Vision and finds Ian from Craft Service’s standard two-egg omelette setup untouched. After finishing Days together, the Receptionist rushes out in order to make an important meeting, and allows Bronco to stay on the condition that he clean up the omelette station before leaving. With the Receptionist gone, Bronco uses the office computer and finds extensive research into a Brazilian mining company, as well as several travel itineraries. On his way out Bronco steals the new piece of optical equipment.

At Minos Park, Bronco calls Hope. He leaves a very long voicemail asking if she knows anything about Ian from Craft Services’s whereabouts. He admits to feeling trapped in Laredo, and tries to pitch her on the tiny-house movement that Gideon talked about a day earlier. Bronco also recommends that she watch Days, although he admits that the show has become a little stale since Stefano and André left.

Back at Value Vision, the Receptionist finds that Bronco didn’t clean up the mess left by Ian from Craft Services. He also notices that the new piece of optical equipment is missing. Seeing Bronco’s coffee mug sitting on the new coffee table, he puts two and two together. The Receptionist plays Dr. Charles’s Days of Our Lives original soundtrack CD, loses himself in the music, and puts up more wallpaper. He researches Hope Brady: she was born “on screen” January 10, 1974, and for 12 years she’s worked in the ISA. The Receptionist receives a text from Dr. Charles about a scene he’d like to shoot later that night for a new soap opera project. The Receptionist reads it aloud: It involves a man named Ernest Turrell, a pharmaceutical rep from ICareEyeCare, who incoherently pitches new products to the Value Vision Receptionist. Ernest arrives soaking wet, his clothes ripped and dirty. Eventually the Receptionist kicks him out. In the margins of the script, the Receptionist finds written the names of Bronco and Ian from Craft Services as potential casting choices. The Receptionist is confused and concerned over the fact that Dr. Charles apparently knows Bronco and Ian from Craft Services. He makes a note to research the connections between Dr. Charles’s absence from the grand opening, Ian from Craft Services’s disappearance during the blackout, the business with the Brazilian mining company, Bronco’s alleged theft of the new optical equipment, and Hope’s connection to the ISA. He admits Dr. Charles’s scriptwriting skills are improving. When the Receptionist leaves for break, Dr. Charles sneaks into the office and moves the excess wallpaper down to the basement where his “guest” continues to remain.

At Value Vision later that afternoon, the Receptionist drinks from Bronco’s coffee mug. He wonders if the DNA test he ordered will be able to distinguish between the two of them. Suddenly, a man bursts into the office carrying an overhead projector. The man is soaking wet, his clothes ripped and dirty. He signs in as Ernest Turrell, a pharmaceutical rep from ICareEyeCare, and incoherently pitches new products to the Value Vision Receptionist. He also discusses his troubled marriage, recent infidelities, and a heartbreaking account of helping a stranger move a couch. Eventually the Receptionist kicks him out.

Aiden waits in Minos Park for a message from one of Stefano’s people, afraid of what might happen at the meeting. He laments over the choices that drove him into massive debt, putting him under the thumb of the DiMera’s. Aiden insists that life is more than money: it’s family, and also some other things he can’t think of at the moment. A masked man drops an envelope in Aiden’s lap, telling him it’s his “lucky day.” Inside the envelope is a photo of Dr. Charles paper-clipped to a few government documents. Aiden knows it’s the only way. Minutes later, Hope walks through the park and gets a phone call from John. There’s a new lead on the gold coin in Brazil.

Back at home, Hope gets a phone call from Rafe. He’s staking out the Berkeley Plaza after numerous reports of suspicious activity, and he convinces her to play partner.

The next morning, Hope meets the reporter at Minos Park. He assures her that Ciara's name will not be mentioned in his forthcoming exposé on a series of underground teenage parties at the warehouses down by the docks. Changing the subject, Hope tells the reporter about her history with Stefano DiMera: brainwashing, Princess Gina, marriage to John Black, divorce-trap in Alamania, being hypnotized to find the egg with half a gold coin it. She tells the reporter John just got a tip through the ISA that leads them to believe the other half is in Brazil, and Hope wants the reporter’s help - seeing as how last year he wrote a story on the sale of a large portion of the DiMera coin collection. She shows him a photo of half a gold coin with elaborate engravings, but the reporter does not recognize it. However, he recalls one safe that they were never allowed access to in the DiMera mansion. He tells Hope that it’s not a good idea to talk about it out in the open and that he’ll be in touch soon.