DOOL RUMOR – Deidre Hall Retires Due to Serious Health Crisis, Salem is about to lose one person

We’ll admit that we’ve been more than a little worried about Days of Our Lives’ Marlena ever since John died. First, it was just the pain of watching her work through her grief. Then it was what seemed to be the exhaustion that came with it, as she stopped sleeping and started getting light-headed. Now, though…

As Johnny’s trial began on Thursday, Marlena made it into the courtroom, headed for a seat with Abe and then promptly collapsed.

She passed out on his shoulder while a panicked Belle tried to wake her mom up. The trial, it looks like, will have to wait. Because something is definitely wrong with Marlena.

But what? Sarah gave her a full checkup and assured Marlena that physically, she was perfectly healthy. Unless someone’s using some sort of undetectable poison to weaken Marlena, this doesn’t seem like it would be a physical malady.

On the other hand, passing out as deeply as she seemed to on Abe seems like there has to be something more going on than emotional trauma and mental exhaustion. But that doesn’t mean it’s not mental.

We know from the big summer preview video that Days of Our Lives released that Marlena’s not only going to be sticking around (don’t worry, we’re pretty positive that whatever is going on isn’t fatal), but she’s going to start dreaming about being Stefano’s Queen of the Night.

And it certainly looks like Tony is (or is that… Andre?) bringing Stefano back from the dead!

And where The Phoenix comes in — whatever body he might take, since portrayer Joseph Mascolo passed away — there’s bound to be some sort of brainwashing or mind control at play. It was just kind of what he did. To everyone. For decades.

So our best guess is that Marlena’s collapse is a turning point of some kind, where we move beyond just the grief of losing John and into the next big story, which, one way or another, is bringing us right back to the one and only Stefano DiMera. Salem’s very own devil, who, if we’re being honest, made the actual Satan look downright tame in comparison.

We aren’t entirely sure where this is going, but our guess is, Marlena will be the key to it all.