THE PHOENIX RISES AGAIN — A NEW STEFANO DI MÈRA MAY TAKE SALON BY STORM!

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Stefano, Stefano, Stefano — that seems to be all anyone is talking about lately on Days of Our Lives! Susan’s convinced his “presence” is around — though she seems to waffle on if that means he’s alive or his spirit is there. Rafe admitted to Cat that while unlikely, if anyone would cheat death for the 1000th time, it would be Stefano. EJ’s clearly rattled at the idea that his dad’s not dead and even Marlena expressed hesitation to declare her nemesis gone for good.

Then there’s Tony, who seems intent on resurrecting him for real in the summer preview, but is that really Stefano or is something else going on? One thing we know is that Joseph Mascolo won’t be coming back in any shape, other than flashbacks, as we sadly lost him back in 2016. Stefano did pop up a couple times after that anyway, though. But not in an “in the flesh, the man is back” type of way.

And honestly? We here at Soaps are even having a hard time remembering how the Stefano saga ended. We know he survived Hope’s shooting, and Kristen and Rolf were working to bring him back for a time. That led into the “Stevano” saga, with Dr. Rolf implanting the AI chip/essence into Steve. But what happened to the real man himself? That’s a bit fuzzier. And far more ambiguous.

As Rita and EJ talked about on Friday’s episode, Stefano survived, then died years later in hiding. None of his family got to say real farewells and apparently his body has been MIA ever since. Stefano’s end has been something of a loose end, likely intentionally, in case the show ever decided to bring him back in some novel new way.

And that seems to be what’s happening right now. And fans, well… A lot of them aren’t having it! Over on Soaps’ Facebook page, the overwhelming reaction to Susan’s declaration was: Lord, let him stay dead!

“Let the man rest in peace for God’s sake,” Rosa Bavetta declared. “There is only one Stefano DiMera and the actor has passed away,” Karen Casso said, which is a sentiment many people echoed. Though not everyone!

“I think it’s just what is needed to revive this sleepy soap,” shared Robin Kaye. “No one will ever replace Mascolo but he’s been gone for many years and a recast would now be great!”

Like it or not, it seems inevitable that Stefano is coming back in some form — but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing for anyone. Because ultimately, this could be a chance to lay him to rest once for all. No more loose ends. No more ambiguity. We can find out what really happened to him and bury him in the DiMera family crypt. And it can be the writers’ way of saying, “Hey, we know there’s always been a chance for him to come back, but this is it. We tied it all up. That’s over now, time to move on.”