Cat Brings Rafe Evidence to Take EJ Down and Joy Draws a Red Line With Alex

Joy and Alex get back to the Pub (her neck brace is off) and Ari greets them all cheery and friendly. Once Alex heads out, though, Ari slow claps at Joy for playing Alex so well. She very obviously came back to win him back, which Joy denies until she’s blue in the face. But… “It would be nice for my daughter to have two caring parents, without a psycho step mom in the picture?”

Ari warns Joy that Stephanie’s her cousin, so watch what she says. And she better not be trying to break Alex and Steph up!

Will Gabi Believe Philip?

Philip shows up at the Hernandez home and pushes past Gabi’s attempt to slam the door in his face. He barges in to say, nay, insist, he and Xander had nothing to do with the knockoffs — and it would be stupid to risk angering her when they need her money!

Philip lets slip that he still cares about Gabi, angry or not. He was in it for the long haul. And for the record, she’s doing the same thing to him as she did to Theo, and it hurts. Ari gets home as he’s leaving (she thought Gabi wouldn’t be there) and Gabi unburdens all her knock-off problems on her daughter. That gets to the bad news: Remember when Gabi gave Ari that prototype purse? Ari kinda misplaced it on day one.

Is Gwen Busted? (And Kidnapped)

Leo corners Marlena in the square to ramble on about Gwen and his attempt to get hold of Gwen’s confession letter. He thinks EJ’s behind the disappearance — and he could be next! He needs to plan his next move. Marlena, though, doesn’t think that’s a great idea. But Leo tried getting Cat involved and it didn’t work, so it’s up to him! Leo’s all set and ready to play the martyr and marches up to his room to pack.

Cat drops Gwen’s confession off with Rafe, and he pulls a face when she admits she stole it. But he doesn’t say anything (for once), so they talk over the likelihood that EJ made Gwen disappear. And then Rafe gets to telling Cat how much she screwed up. And worse, he doesn’t see much in the letter to take action with, so Cat did the wrong thing, as usual.

To her credit, Cat walks Rafe through the crimes Gwen admits to like he’s a two-year old, and Rafe finally acknowledges that this is the missing piece of the puzzle. Next, they find Dimitri. (Are you two gonna stop and think about the very real possibility that he kidnapped Gwen?)

Will Alex and Joy Share Custody?

Alex and Joy each get word that Justin has the documents for Kelsey all drawn up and head over to the mansion. (After Joy has a talk with Kelsey, saying she’s winning her daddy over. And even better, things aren’t looking good for daddy and his “nutso wife!”)

They all arrive, Justin says the birth certificate is officially amended, the custody papers are ready to sign and all that’s left is to sign off on the standard, if anything happens to one of them, Kelsey’s raised by the surviving parent. Easy, peas — nope! Joy freaks out. Stephanie’s not raising her baby!

In the Show’s Final Moments

Joy just goes off about Stephanie being dangerous to Kelsey and the custody agreement has to be amended to say that Alex’s access to his daughter is contingent on Stephanie staying away. And that’s the end of that! She won’t sign without it, Alex won’t sign with it!

Ari assures Gabi that she found the purse shortly later, and Gabi freaks out over letting the prototype out of her sight. Maybe it wasn’t Xander and Philip behind her theft!

Marlena tracks Cat down at the hospital to call her out for lying to Leo about being able to help him. No worries, Cat says, she’s on the case. But Marlena’s already put the pieces together: Cat disappeared Gwen’s letter. And Marlena will talk to Andrew if Cat’s feelings for EJ are getting in the way of the investigation. As it is, Leo’s already involving himself because of Cat turning him down. And at that moment, Leo runs into Gus, tells him about Gwen and tells him to let Javi know that he’ll always love him if anything happens to him!