Just as Alex is wrapping up the press conference, Tony makes his grand entrance. Alex tries shooing him away, but Tony chuckles him off and tells the press he’s filed a lawsuit contesting the DiMera takeover — on fraud.

Just as Alex is wrapping up the press conference, Tony makes his grand entrance. Alex tries shooing him away, but Tony chuckles him off and tells the press he’s filed a lawsuit contesting the DiMera takeover — on fraud.

Alex calls his cousins with the news, then runs off after Tony warns him that they’d better settle — leaving Stephanie to field the questions! She multitasks admirably, noticing Tony and Gabi both slink off, while successfully shutting down the press conference.

Gabi chases Tony down outside the pub, annoyed he never gave her the heads up about his stunt. But she still enjoyed it because she’s delightfully petty like that. Tony insists this’ll all be over quickly, but plays coy about when Gabi’s going to be installed as CEO. “Before you know it, DiMera’s rightful CEO will be at the helm.” Yeah, she’s never getting the job.

Sarah pushes Philip to admit Xander attacked him, but no go. Xander overhears her — and Philip insisting Xander saved him from choking the other day — and waltzes into the room to play the wounded victim.

Sarah offers a heartfelt apology, but Alex calls and ruins Xander’s play with the news of the press conference. After they leave, Maggie finishes putting Victoria down, so Sarah tells her about Tony’s lawsuit. She figures this is why Xander and Philip were trying to legitimize the partnership.

Sarah laments how all that’s broken up her family stems from her believing that Xander beat Philip. But he didn’t, so this is all her fault! She’s been so wrong about Xander! (Yeah, no, you haven’t, Philip’s just joined in on gaslighting you, but continue.)

But Sarah doesn’t think this changes anything. Xander can’t forgive her for keeping Philip’s secret. Maggie encourages her to never give up hope. But seeing as how Xander did beat Philip and that’ll come out eventually, this all seems headed for more disaster.

Theo’s Clearly Gunning for DiMera
Theo surprises a delighted Chad in the pub, but still won’t commit to whether he’s sticking around or not. He’s still confused about how the family lost DiMera, though, demanding to know why Chad hasn’t fought for it.

Chad’s over the endless fighting — which annoys Theo because he’s given up on their birthright. But, wait, Theo’s never cared about that before. Oh, good: Chad points that out. Theo mentions Uncle Tony fighting for the company.

Great, but even if he does get it back, Chad’s still out. He thinks whoever runs the company next should be young with fresh ideas instead of the same rotating cast of DiMeras. Yeah,Tony’s one hundred percent installing Theo in the role.

Theo tries changing the subject to the kids, but when Chad pulls out his phone to show his nephew pictures, he sees Tony made his move. But he shrugs it off and gets back to kid photos, which leads into talking about all the loss in their families: Abigail, Lexie, Doug. They then move onto love, but Chad won’t even mention Cat and Theo’s still stinging from Claire’s affair. What a pair!

Xander Blames Alex
The Kiriakis boys meet at Titan/DiMera to talk war. They figure Tony planted the bug and Alex passes along Tony’s message to settle out of court. Then they all start fighting and Xander blames Alex for not coming through and dismisses him so the brothers can fix the mess.