Fan in tears: Days of Our Lives Has Finally Brought John Home — Which Means It’s Time to Say Farewell
After months of being off on a mission, John has finally come home to Salem on Days of Our Lives! And honestly, we’re kind of surprised.
Knowing that the show had written and filmed John’s death as his late portrayer Drake Hogestyn had battled pancreatic cancer, we didn’t see how he could come home alive.
We thought maybe his plane would go down and he’d vanish on the way home. And before that, we thought Paul and Andrew would rescue him from his mission, only for him to be dying and have to donate his organs to Bo.
But no, John’s made it home to Salem without a scratch, apparently, and ready for action. But we’re pretty sure that that action is going to be what kills him.
At the end of Thursday’s episode, John showed up outside the meth lab where the stolen Versavix is supposedly being held, ready to help Steve and Shawn get it back and save Bo’s life.
The clock is ticking down fast. Hope’s having a priest give Bo his Last Rites and his body’s just about given out. It’s now or never for the sepsis cure. And sure enough, John’s arrived to save the day!
Sadly, though, this is not Hogestyn making a final appearance, which is why we get the hoodie figure.
Days of Our Lives confirmed that Hogestyn’s final episode aired back in September and sadly, the actor wasn’t able to return before pancreatic cancer claimed him. Still, the show made the conscious choice to send John out a hero, rather than have him pass away offscreen.
And we’re pretty certain we know how he’ll die a hero. Between Dr. Russell fretting over how meth labs are prone to blow up, and the week’s Days of Our Lives preview showing a fire and explosion, it’s clear this operation is about to go up in smoke.
And with it, we’ve got a feeling John will go, too. Perhaps he’ll be caught in the explosion after getting Shawn and Steve out safely. Maybe he’ll die making sure the Versavix makes it out and Bo’s life can be saved.
But no matter how they do it, we can bet that John won’t survive this final mission — and that he’ll go out a hero. An explosion is a go-to soap opera method to kill a character while allowing for the possibility that they can return down the line, somehow surviving.
While we know that this won’t be the case for John, unfortunately, the writers did tell us that they left a way for him to return if Hogestyn had beaten the cancer.
The one thing we hope, though, is that Steve doesn’t take John’s death personally. He’s the one who called his old partner in to help. And if John dies because of it, the blow could send Steve spiraling.
