The hospital room is quiet, but the silence is deceptive.

Chanel is curled up beside Johnny, refusing to leave his side. He survived — barely. Sophia’s attack came out of nowhere, fire and fury and a girl who was supposed to be something else entirely. Johnny lies there trying to piece together the why of it all. Why did Sophia come after him? What did he do to deserve being her target?

But the audience already knows the truth, and it’s darker than Johnny could possibly imagine. There’s a DiMera shadow hanging over this entire nightmare, and its name is Kristen.

EJ is already connecting the dots, and the picture forming is ugly. He accuses Kristen of sending Sophia after Johnny — of using a troubled, vulnerable girl as a weapon against his son. But Kristen doesn’t just sit there and absorb an accusation. That’s not how DiMeras operate. She fires back, and she fires hard: she blames EJ. His choices around Trey. The adoption drama. The chaos he invited into Sophia’s life. She argues that EJ pushed Sophia over the edge, not her.

Classic DiMera strategy. When cornered, throw the blame across the room and hope it sticks somewhere. The question is whether anyone will catch it.

Meanwhile, Leo learns that Javi helped save Johnny — and that Javi ended up hospitalized from toxic fumes. Panic sets in. The firefighter who ran toward danger is now lying in a bed of his own, and Leo is not handling it well.

At the Salem PD, Jada questions Amy Choy as the evidence piles up. A backpack. Shoes. Blood. Every sign points in one direction: Sophia may not be coming home. Amy is devastated, the hope draining out of her in real time.

And then there’s Cat. She saw something between Kristen and Sophia. If she opens her mouth, if she tells what she knows, Kristen’s carefully constructed house of cards could collapse in an instant.

So the question hangs over Salem like a blade: is Kristen finally trapped by her own scheme? And will EJ expose her before she finds another way out?

Salem is not done exploding yet.