Days of Our Lives Spoilers: Marlena finds John but is shocked to find him 𝖽𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗁

The pieces of John’s disappearance on Days of Our Lives are all falling into place. Marlena, Steve, Andrew and Paul figured out that John was on a secret ISA mission to take down his old nemesis,

Orpheus, as he tried building a nuclear device to sell to the highest bidder. Who better to stop the foul plot than the super spy who’s tangled with him more than anyone else?

John, we learned on Monday’s episode, infiltrated Orpheus’ nuclear facility as a scientist and had been working undercover to stop it.

And that’s exactly what Orpheus confirmed when he told Marlena that he’d discovered John had gotten access to his operation. Marlena tried getting more answers as Orpheus held her at gunpoint, but about all he let slip was that John wasn’t yet dead.

As he said to Marlena, he couldn’t wait to kill them both. Luckily, he failed spectacularly with Marlena, thanks to some quick suitcase action, and she rushed off to join Steve as he searched Orpheus’ facility to find John.

And they may have done just that. Steve found a locked room, heard a gunshot and burst in, only to see an assassin with a gun standing over a man with white hair, slumped over a desk.

Marlena showed up at just the right (or maybe wrong) moment to see the figure at the desk and ask in horror, “Is it John?”

That’s what we were all asking, especially as we know that this will have to end with John’s death, since Drake Hogestyn passed away. But are we really there already?

We’re going to go ahead and say pretty confidently that no, we aren’t. There’s no way this is John. For one thing, it’s too early in the story which, we were told, would be playing out for little while

. For another, this was all filmed before Hogestyn’s death — with his blessing — to explain John’s absence. If Hogestyn pulled through, as everyone desperately hoped, they wrote the story in a way that John’s return could be explained.

And if John’s portrayer, as sadly happened, didn’t survive, it was set to be a fitting farewell. Steve and Marlena finding John’s body, shot to death, makes the possibility of a return a lot less likely. (But not, admittedly, impossible in Salem.)

Instead, there has to be much more to this. The most likely reason for this red herring is that Orpheus, clearly knowing they’re closing in on him, was just tidying up loose ends, shutting up folks who helped him create the nuclear device. It’s just Villainy 101. Don’t leave minions behind who can talk.

If this were the end already, Orpheus wouldn’t have vanished. He’s surely just the first blast from John’s past and his slipping out of Andrew’s hands means this story is far from over. (But also: Seriously, Andrew?! You should have left Marlena to guard Orpheus.)

John tangled with a lot of bad guys over the years. And he made a lot of friends and allies.

Shane, Andrew, Paul and Orpheus are surely just the start, so don’t be surprised if there aren’t a whole lot more twists and turns in the coming weeks.

This is, after all, a farewell story, and while we’ve already gotten some flashbacks, we’ve got a feeling there are many more to come. So our best advice? Buckle up, because this ride isn’t anywhere near over yet.