Hey, Days of Our Lives fans. We have got Philip Kiriakis (John-Paul Lavoisier) talking this week about whether or not he wants kids, which is interesting, because he already had an unplanned pregnancy with somebody he wasn’t dating at the time, Mimi Lockhart (Farah Fath). And that baby was adopted out years ago, and we’re wondering if Mason Whitfield (Brandon Butler) might be that kid.
So, let’s talk about Philip’s potential blast from the past. We’re going to touch on some Days of Our Lives history that might be coming back full circle soon.
Days of Our Lives: Mason’s Recent Salem History
So, we met Mason when he came to Salem in early September and learned he’s a former Marine who attends Salem University on the GI Bill. He also volunteers for the mental health hotline overseen by Salem’s top shrink, Dr. Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall). But Mason also seems to have some baggage. It looks like he’s got PTSD issues from his time in the Marines, where he lost some friends.
Plus, as he shared with Holly Jonas (Ashley Puzemis) recently, he had a friend who took his own life. Suicide, by the way, if you don’t know, is prevalent among veterans. It’s a real-life crisis that Days of Our Lives is touching on, and it’s really sad.
And remember, when Mason first met Holly, he recognized her name and immediately gave her the cold shoulder. Mason walking away from Holly stunned both her and Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes). And then later, Mason showed up after Holly was mugged by a knife-wielding assailant. Mason didn’t seem to care, though, about Holly’s close call. Instead, Mason was focused more on Lani Price (Sal Stowers), who had rescued Holly from the bad guy.
Mason Goes from Jerk to Mentor on DOOL
And then it came out that Mason blamed Holly for Sophia Choi‘s (Rachel Boyd) apparent suicide, because Mason told Holly that she played a big part in her death. It turns out Sophia was a frequent caller at the suicide crisis hotline, and she told Mason a lot about Holly, and Sophia even confessed many of the bad things she had done to Holly. So Mason still feels really guilty that he wasn’t able to save Sophia, and he projected that anger onto Holly.
So, by the end of September, Mason told Tate Donovan Black (Leo Howard) that he knows he wasn’t fair to Holly, and now Mason and Tate are cool. And recently, Mason apologized to Holly and encouraged her to volunteer at the hotline with him. So Mason went from being a total jerk to Holly to being her mentor.
And since then, Mason and Holly have bonded during their training sessions, discovering they share similar interests, including the same taste in art. Plus, she told Mason that she’d put in a good word for him with Roman Brady (Josh Taylor) about the room for rent.
But it turns out Mason didn’t need it, because once Roman found out that Marlena was one of Mason’s references, he was ready to hand him the keys. And this is pretty interesting, because Mason being at the Brady Pub puts him close to Philip’s mom, Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow). So, let’s talk about the red flags about Mason and Philip.
Days of Our Lives: Clues Connecting Mason and Philip
Recently on Days of Our Lives, Mason struck up an instant connection with Philip. Mason was wearing a Marines T-shirt, and Philip noticed, because he was a Marine, too. If you know any Marines, they do that instant Semper Fi bonding when they meet other Marines. So, not only does Mason share a Marine connection with Philip, but there’s a chance they might share a DNA connection, too.
Mason recently told Roman that he was born in Salem and his family moved away when he was a baby. He told Roman he came to Salem for the university’s excellent social work program, but it might be more than that. Mason might be in town trying to find the identity of his biological father, or he might know who his bio dad is and came to Salem planning to introduce himself. So there is a chance that Mason could be Philip’s biological son that he gave up years ago.
DOOL: Reviewing the IVF Baby Swap
Now, let’s dip into that history. Back in, I think it was 2007, Shawn Brady (Brandon Beemer) was married to Mimi. That was a year after Belle Black (Martha Madison) got married to Philip. And both couples wound up with fertility issues, and they did IVF at the same time. So, Shawn and Mimi had a surrogate. They were ready to go. Belle was going to have hers implanted. But thanks to EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel), things went off the rails.
Philip’s sperm wound up fertilizing Mimi’s egg. And it wasn’t just an unfortunate lab mix-up. It was orchestrated by EJ. Their surrogate, Lauren Chaffee (Lisa Jay), was implanted with this Philip and Mimi embryo. And when the messy truth came out, Philip and Mimi decided the situation was terrible. They both agreed to terminate the pregnancy.
So, Philip and Mimi signed papers saying that the surrogate should end the pregnancy. But Lauren, the surrogate, wound up not doing it because of Mimi’s mom. Bonnie Lockhart (Judi Evans) bribed Lauren to continue with the pregnancy, and she carried to term and delivered a baby boy. Bonnie wanted to cash in on Mimi having a biological Kiriakis heir, which is kind of ironic, since Bonnie’s now commenting on Joy Wesley (AlexAnn Hopkins) cashing in on a Kiriakis heir with little Kelsey Kiriakis (Lena and Mira Chase).
Pocket’s Backstory on Days
So, Lauren later abandoned baby Tyler at Salem University Hospital when she couldn’t take care of him anymore. And then Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans) and Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) took in baby Tyler as a foster child. They called him Pocket, because Kayla said he was so tiny he could fit in your pocket.
And when Philip finally learned the truth that the child had been carried to term, he initially fought for custody of his son. Kayla and Steve also wanted to keep Tyler, but Pocket wound up adopted by Wayne and Ruth Wilkins after Philip decided he wasn’t ready to be a father, and he signed away his rights. So, he and Belle wound up divorced.
And here’s where Pocket’s backstory aligns with Mason’s. After the Wilkinses adopted Tyler, they left town with him while he was a baby. That’s the same history that Mason described to Roman. This was a really messy IVF baby swap story on Days of Our Lives back in the day. And on occasion, Philip mentions the son he gave up, as recently as a conversation this year, I recall.
Days of Our Lives: Does the Math Add Up?
So Pocket, aka Tyler, would be about eighteen or nineteen, and Mason is, what, early to mid-twenties? So, the math works, it’s pretty close. There are a few questions, though, like if he is Philip’s son, why isn’t his last name Wilkins, and why isn’t his first name Tyler?
But that could be easily explained. His parents might have changed his name to Mason Wilkins, and then later they divorced, or his adoptive dad died, his mom remarried, and Mason wound up with the stepdad’s last name. Or something happened to the Wilkinses after they took Tyler in, and he wound up adopted by another couple, and they changed his name.
Philip Opens Up About Kids on DOOL
So this week, Joy asked Philip if he wanted a kid, and he told Joy, “I’m not ruling it out.” Philip also said, “Don’t tell Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin), but I thought I might have had kids with her.” And then Philip said it just wasn’t in the cards. And since Gabi Hernandez (Cherie Jimenez) can’t have kids, Philip can’t make a baby with her.
So, it would be incredible if Philip wound up with a kid he didn’t know about coming back around to him. Obviously, he knows that Tyler exists. And while Philip was really awkward with Kelsey, and he kind of freaked out when Joy said to pick her up, maybe having a grown son like Mason would be more Philip’s speed.
And it would be really interesting if Mason turns out to be Philip’s son, since he’s going to be getting to know his grandma, Kate, while living above the Brady Pub. Also, it makes sense that Mason would have a plot twist like this ahead, because so far, I don’t see any reason why he’s in Salem to start with.
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