Amy, seeing Leo’s DiMera article about EJ’s supposed crimes in The Spectator, put a stop to the adoption. That broke Chanel’s heart, while enraging both Johnny and Paulina even further. They both agree that EJ is at fault for this and if he wasn’t around, everything would be better.

Johnny acknowledged that while eying up a knife, while Paulina simply told EJ that anyone who messes with Chanel, pays a serious price. And you know what? They might be right. Their lives — heck, almost everyone’s life in Salem — might be easier if EJ was dead.

We don’t mean that literally, though. We just need the EJ that we know — the calculating, selfish, vindictive version — to die, so to speak, so he can reborn as someone better. And that, we can’t help but think after today’s episode, may actually be where this story is going.

EJ practically begged Johnny and Paulina to tell him what he could do to fix the mess he’s caused. That means he finally seems to understand how much his actions destroy the lives of everyone around him. Unfortunately for him, both Johnny and Paulina essentially told him to go to hell.

EJ’s going to be shot. That’s a given. But we don’t see him leaving the show. Instead, we have a feeling that he’s going to survive to be reborn, in a sense, as a new man.

Sometimes, you have to hit rock bottom to pull yourself out of the hole you’ve dug. EJ’s been digging his hole almost his entire life. Whether or not Johnny’s the one who shoots his dad, the fact is, right now he’d rather EJ was dead than be in his life. It doesn’t get much lower than that.

That contempt, combined with the shooting, may be just the wakeup call he needs to let the old, selfish EJ die once and for all. And it may be the only chance he has to repair the relationship with Johnny and really, his entire family.

If EJ doesn’t take it, the next time someone comes after him, he may die for real; alone, unloved and with no one left to mourn his passing.