A ripple of dread swept through Salem when Anna DeAra’s frantic call broke the afternoon calm: Tony had vanished from their cruise. Panic moved fast along the family lines — EJ’s heart clenched, Chad’s brow furrowed — yet the explanation that followed felt thin, as if someone had smoothed over a burn that still smoked beneath the bandage. They were told Tony had been tied up in a business meeting at a Greek port, that spotty cell service had left his wife terrified and the family for a moment convinced the worst. But anyone who’s sailed knows cruises don’t wait, and anyone who watches Salem knows when the script tosses in a disappearance, it rarely means nothing.

Anna’s alarm, though quickly soothed by Tony’s later call, left more questions than relief. Why would a man who prides himself on style and the comforts of a globe-trotting life risk missing the ship? Why would he deliberately stay in a meeting with a ticking departure? The neat little explanation — poor reception, longer-than-expected talks — sat oddly against Tony’s character and the show’s recent breadcrumbs. After all, the man who typically thinks in opera houses and luxury, not corporate warfare, had lately shown new, uncharacteristic appetites: a sudden fascination with DeAra Enterprises, sharp moves in the family business, and a streak of vindictiveness that looked suspiciously like a planted disguise.

Whispers in Salem had already been circling: could Andre — the notorious double, the master of impersonation and manipulation — be involved? Fans remembered that Andre had once masqueraded as Tony before. The thought of a switch, where the real man is sequestered while an impostor slips into his life, is the sort of melodrama Days of Our Lives relishes. It’s not inconceivable that Tony, stepping off the ship in Greece to meet a shadowy associate, could have been intercepted, replaced, or even temporarily stashed away while another took his place. Anna’s frantic call and swift calm after a later voice on the phone only deepened suspicions — how quickly could a genuine crisis resolve, and how long could an imposter mimic the finer touches of a husband and opulent socialite?

Then there’s the geography and the ghosts. Greece is not neutral ground in Salem’s map of alliances. It belongs more to the Kiriakis legacy — Victor’s bloodline and loyalties run deep in the Mediterranean — and the idea that Tony would be entangling himself in Kittyakis territory sounds like a deliberate provocation or a breadcrumb leading to a larger plot. Was he there to pry at Victor’s old networks? Or had he been lured into a meeting tied to the late patriarch’s interests? If Tony was indeed meeting someone connected to that powerful clan, the stakes are higher than a missed boat; they’re a map to a vendetta.

And then the darker, more delicious possibilities open. Andre has been “dead” before in Salem’s long history of resurrections. There are whispered hands — Dr. Rolf’s name still carries weight in the undercurrent of soap lore — that could drag a body back from the edge. Megan Hathaway’s shadow looms too. Her ties to Mediterranean lairs, secret burials, and theatrical villainy make her a plausible architect of abductions and body swaps. Could she, or some mad scientist in Stephano’s orbit, have engineered a swap — snatching the real Tony and planting Andre in his stead? Or maybe Tony’s delay was the moment Andre struck, taking advantage of logistics and disorientation to effect an easy replacement.

Soap Dirt’s host pointed to other oddities that make the “missed boat” story strain for credibility. Tony’s recent corporate choices — bringing in a fledgling CEO, showing an oddly mercantile interest — don’t sit right with the playboy-turned-opera-enthusiast viewers knew. Family members, from Chad to Maggie, even EJ, have muttered that Tony’s new behavior is out of character. Add to this the quiet absences of other players — Stefan DeAra and Dmitri von Lochner gone from the stage for too long — and the fabric of the DeAra household looks primed to be rewoven around some grander scheme. Rumors that someone could be stepping into Stephano’s mantle only thicken the plot: could these disappearances be a chess move in a broader resurrection arc tied to Salem’s storied past?

And then there’s the personal fallout. If Tony was stolen, hidden, or swapped, Anna might not even know the difference at first glance. A practiced impostor can replicate gestures and lull a spouse into complacency. There’s precedent in Salem’s history for spouses falling for false faces