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‘Days Of Our Lives’ Spoilers: Ben’s Return Allows Abby To Confront Painful Memories, Pathway To Total Healing?

Published on: September 20, 2017 at 9:40 AM
By JohnThomas Didymus

Days of Our Lives ( DOOL ) spoilers for the week of September 25 tease the return of the psychotic Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson) to Salem. Ben’s return will have unpleasant consequences for many residents of Salem, especially Abby (Marci Miller), but it could provide an opportunity for her to confront painful memories from her past for the last time as a therapeutic means of closure.

Rumors about Ben’s return to Salem first emerged in July after some fans began speculating — after analyzing statements made by head writer Ron Carlivati in an interview with Soap Opera Digest — that Abigail might have killed Deimos Kiriakis (Vincent Irizarry) during a PTSD flare-up.

Fans speculated that she might have killed Deimos during a confrontation in which she hallucinated — under the influence of halo — that she was defending herself against Ben Weston, the “necktie killer.”

Some fans claimed that Carlivati’s words suggested that he and his team were looking at a plot twist that would revisit Abigail’s past mental health issues. The major DOOL mystery at the time was the question of who killed Deimos. So some fans suggested that Carlivati and his team were considering a plot twist that would implicate Abby in the killing of Deimos, yet exonerate her.

Ben had kidnapped and tortured Abby in the past. She ended up with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result. Her PTSD persisted after the painful ordeal and she developed serious mental health complications, including delusions and hallucinations. The condition led her to flee Salem and fake her own death.

Although Abigail now appears to have fully recovered from her PTSD issues and its complications, Ben’s return would prove very challenging.

Days of Our Lives ( DOOL ) spoilers for Thursday, September 27 hint that Ben escapes from Bayview sanatorium as “Chabby” and “Paulson” are preparing for their wedding.

This is not the first time that Ben has escaped from Bayview. Ben’s previous escape also happened around the first time that Abby got married to Chad DiMera (Billy Flynn). The news that Ben had escaped upset Abby so much that it threatened her mental health. She suffered mind-bending hallucinations centered on Ben.

Things might not be much different when Ben escapes again. He’s returning with a vendetta against Abby and her family. News that Ben has escaped again could threaten Abby’s mental stability once more. Although she is supposed to have recovered from her mental ill-health issues, she remains vulnerable, and any traumatic event or threat related to Ben could trigger her mental symptoms once again.

However, despite speculation that Ben might return to kidnap Abby or torture her with “mind games” that make her think she’s going crazy, Carlivatti might have hinted the real reason why Ben (Robert Scott Wilson) is returning to Salem.

Carlivati hinted that Abby’s past traumatic experiences that led to mental health issues were being revisited to allow writers to focus on her total healing. She will be taken through experiences that allow her to attain to full closure with regard to her past suffering.

Although Abby appears to have fully recovered, one last confrontation with Ben, the source of her past mental health problems, will provide her with the opportunity to assert her independence of the “baggage” from her past.

Regardless of the appearance that she has recovered from PTSD, her past experiences would still have lingering emotional consequences. Ben’s brief return allows her to complete the “unfinished business” of that period of her life.

[Featured Image by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images]

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