Days Don't Know Jack

“Ask anyone in this town!  Ask them who I am!  They’ll say I’m Jack Deveraux – Harper’s son!”

"You are not –!"

"Jack Deveraux – Harper’s son!  One wields a pen, the other wields a sword, but deep down it's all the same!”

“You’re wrong!”

“No, I’m not wrong!”

“I don’t believe what anybody says!  I don’t even believe you!  I believe in you.  And I believe what I feel…with my whole heart.”

Before there was EJ DiMera, there was Jack Deveraux – a character that got his real start as a villain but slowly became one of the most beloved Days characters of all time.  Like EJ, whether you loved Jack or you hated Jack, the show just wouldn’t be the same without him, and right now Days really isn’t.  It hadn’t been so glaringly obvious until Jennifer returned to Salem without him.

 Jack kidnaps Jen on her wedding day.

If you aren’t familiar with Jack’s history (both familial and personal), it’s sordid to say the least.  Again, like EJ, his past misdeeds and those of his family followed him around like deadheads followed Garcia. Among his sins is the rape of Kayla. But through a combination of amazing, well-paced storytelling, and the incredible talent of Matt Ashford, Jack was not only redeemed, he also became one half of one of the greatest Days supercouples of all-time.

 Jennifer asks a nervous Jack to help her with the buttons of her wedding dress

Jack and Jennifer weren’t your average supercouple (although “average supercouple” is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it?).  Jennifer was adorable, and feisty, and – and I say this without even a drop of sarcasm or trace of irony – spunky.  Yes.  Jennifer was spunky – Paperbag Princess spunky.  Jack was this fantastic combination of Jack Tripper from Three’s Company and Peter Warne from It Happened One Night.  But as funny as Jack was, he was also his own worst enemy and his own harshest critic, which led to many a  psychological  wedge between our heroine and anti-hero.  And Matt Ashford could do drama and romantic angst just as well as he could do comedy, sometimes juggling all three within the same scene.

 "I can't believe I had to fall off a cliff to hear you say you care about me!"

Because of Jack’s rather severe case of perpetual self-loathing, he’s pushed Jennifer away several times, always believing she was deserving of someone much better than him.  Jennifer had a hell of a time finally convincing him otherwise.  Days decided that with his penchant for giving in to his inferiority complex and leaving Jennifer in the lurch, it would be an easy way to explain why Jennifer returned to Salem without him.

So if Jack has left Jennifer so often in the past, why shouldn’t we consider this just business as usual?  Well, a few reasons.

  Jack makes a surprise appearance at Jennifer and Frankie Brady's wedding.

“What are you doing standing here?  My God, you’re dead!  Your car slid off that bridge!  The divers searched and searched, and there was no body!  They said there was no way that anyone could survive that cold water!”

 “Well…I guess I’m not just anyone.”

In any good story on Days, the event was always the backdrop for the real story, which was how the characters interacted with each other to overcome obstacles and win or lose the desired conclusion.  The characters were what drove the story forward.

 Jack, Jennifer and Abby

I’ve mentioned in the past that one of Days’ huge problems where writing is concerned is that when you’re playing connect-the-plot-points without taking the character and his/her development over the years into consideration, you get what amounts to a series of comedy sketches (in Days’ current state, the comedy is almost always unintentional).  Yes, the actors are all there, but they’re playing completely different characters each time you see them.  

 Jennifer tries to seduce Jack in an effort to get him to admit he has feelings for her.

Okay, yes.  Jack would leave.  But it always made sense.  He was always running from the ghosts of his past.  As misguided as his methods were, his intentions were pure - he was doing what he thought was best for his wife and children.  Jack running off to Australia makes no bloody sense unless there’s a backstory, and in this case the writers couldn’t be bothered to come up with one.  Jack doesn’t just leave town “to find himself” like some kid who wants to spend his year before starting college bumming around Europe.  He always had motivation, and that motivation usually centred on his undying love for his family and his often wavering feelings of self-worth.  Viewers understand Jack well enough to know that he’d find a way to return to Salem the moment he found out that Jennifer had been clumsily butterflied like a tiger shrimp by a prison inmate if he had to build the plane to get him there himself.  

 Lawrence forces Jennifer/Katarina to break things off with Jack.  Jack ain't havin' it.

By the time Jack and the Deveraux clan had said their final goodbyes to Salem, Jack had come full circle.  He was a devoted husband and father without losing his spark – the thing that made Jack who he was.  He maintained his shades of grey, his wicked sense of humour, and his habit of sometimes saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but occasionally stumbling on just the perfect words at just the right time.  Married life and fatherhood never made Jack dull.

 "I hope this isn't a bad time."

But in one fell swoop, without even needing access to the character on screen, Days wiped out years of character development, cutting Jack’s personal growth at the knees.  They reduced his years of running from his demons to “Haha!  Oh, that crazy Jack!  Will he never learn?”

 While kissing Jack, Jennifer flashes back to being raped by Lawrence. Without meaning to,
Jennifer slaps Jack and calls him a rapist. Jack, knowing nothing about Jennifer's rape,
thinks she is referring to his past with Kayla. 

Matthew and Melissa kill these scenes.

To further the damage, Abigail – the daughter who adored Jack through thick and thin and was always up in her mother’s business about giving up on her father – is suddenly going to be championing a possible love connection between Jennifer and Daniel.

 Jack and Abby

What the what?

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I can’t really enjoy Jennifer’s return to Salem unless Jack is right behind her.  Don’t get me wrong – I love Jennifer.  And it’s because I love the character so much that I want what’s best for her, and for Melissa Reeves.  Jack/Matt Ashford brings out the best in them.

  After Firefighter Jack kidnaps Jennifer from her wedding, she sees his "little snake". 
Days comedic chemistry at its best.

TPTB haven’t yet learned that you can’t fabricate chemistry between characters.  It has to be a natural occurrence.  This is evidenced by the sloppily patched together “budding romance” between Jennifer and Ben (which ended before it even began), and now early, not-so-subtle hints that the light-hearted bickering between Jennifer and Dr. Daniel “Making a Housecall” Jonas will lead to some sweet, sweet lovin’.  You can already see that the writers are trying to recreate the same dynamic between Jen and Dan that she had with Jack.  But why recreate it when you can have the real thing?  That’s like boiling up some water for a package of Mr. Noodle when you’re living in an apartment above the best Chinese restaurant in the city.

Double Nosebleeds 

"You know, this could be a really lovely memory one day."

There are campaigns out there to bring Matt Ashford back, and I encourage you to join the fight, as it were.  Whether or not you’re a fan of Jack and Jennifer (and how could you not be?), another crime against good soap is being committed and viewers should all be banding together.  Bad writing, character-decimation, and overall bad decision-making are sinking this show.  If Days can bring back people from the dead and hatch Hernandezes out of eggs laid by invisible chickens, then Days can bring back Matt Ashford and other much-loved characters.  

Jennifer Horton isn’t officially back until there’s Jack.