Days of our Lives: Bo & Hope’s Salem Return – When Will It Happen?

Days of Our Lives sees it has been a bittersweet past couple of weeks with Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and Hope Brady (Kristian Alfonso), and they left so soon. I mean, too soon, I think. We’re going to talk about when Bo and Hope may be coming back to Salem since they did promise they would return.

Bo and Hope’s Recent Departure: A Bittersweet Return to Days of Our Lives

So, of course, most fans were rejoicing when Bo woke up from his 2-year coma after Shawn Brady (Brandon Beemer) shot him. But this has all been bittersweet because getting the life-saving medicine to save Bo (Peter Reckell), John Black’s (Drake Hogestyn) life.

Plus, Bo and Hope were barely back in Salem before they up and decided to leave again. And team Bope fans are seriously disappointed by this brief visit to Salem, especially since we were promised a big reunion 2 years ago for them. And instead, Bo fell into a coma and there was no romance at all between him and Hope. Far from it. It was terrible.

And now, of course, it is thrilling that Bo finally came out of his coma, surrounded by Hope and Shawn Douglas (Brandon Beemer) and Sierra Brady (Vivian Jovanni.) And he got to meet his newest grandkids, Little Bo and Addie Weston. Obviously, you know, it was nice that Bo and Hope came home for John’s funeral. Plus, who can forget all those great flashbacks about their love story.

But Wednesday, June 18th episode appeared to be the last of Bo and Hope. Although they did promise to return to Salem someday and Bo reiterated Salem will always be their home. But the question is when will they be back? Of course, people want to know. And the big concern is whether it’s going to take another tragedy to bring the fan favorites back to the show. A death, something like that on Days of our Lives.

Fan Disappointment and Unfulfilled Promises: Analyzing Bo and Hope’s Storyline

For many Days of Our Lives fans, Bo and Hope’s departure came shockingly too soon. You know, after only a couple of weeks back on the soap, they decided to leave Salem. And to me, it sort of feels like another ripoff like what happened with the last reunion, you know, on Beyond Salem chapter 2, we saw Bo in Heaven when Hope was shot by Thomas Banks and then at the last minute we see he’s in the big test tube and he’s alive and his eyes open, you know, and then they brought Bo over to the flagship show and they gave us this big old promo promising a Bo and Hope reunion. That was a couple years ago.

And if you recall, Bo didn’t want anything to do with Hope. Thanks to Megan Hathaway (Miranda Wilson) messing with his mind, he had gotten all adult and then Kiriakis fixated. That was when Shawn shot him, thinking his dad, Bo, was going to shoot his mom, Hope. That was an absolutely infuriating exit for fans that had been promised to see Bo reunited with Hope in all those promos and interviews for their comeback. It was just a huge bait and switch.

A Happier Reunion and Future Appearances: What’s Next for Bo and Hope?

So, I will definitely say that Bo and Hope’s  return this time was a thousand % better than last time. And I absolutely give the new writers props for how they pulled it off. I did like that at the very least Bo and Hope got their happily ever after.

And not only did the new co-headwriters finally give us a real Bo and Hope reunion, but we also got to see Bo visit with family and friends. Although the multitude of incredible flashbacks to the best boat memories, you know, was very enjoyable, it felt way too fast for them to go. And the flashbacks ate up so much of their scene time, so they didn’t actually have a lot of fresh new material.

Days of Our Lives: NBC Teases Fans?

Plus, I feel like they were kind of teasing us with this whole thing about Bo and Hope working for Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) rather than him just retiring altogether from being a PI now that his partner from Black Patch, John, has died.

So, Bo  and Hope were talking about that and Steve mentioned it. And then we had Bo and Hope planning to sail away on the fancy phase. They also talked about going to South Africa and other far-flung places to see family and start their next adventure.

So maybe the thing with Patch will turn into Bo and Hope coming back to Salem now and then for, you know, short return arcs every so often. I mean, Bo and Hope are endgame happily ever after, and you usually need couples to break up and cheat and do stuff to create drama, and obviously they’re not going to do that. So, I don’t think they’re going to be back for good at any point. Peter Reckell lives in Alaska. He’s not looking to relocate to LA, but he is happy to visit.

Megan Hathaway’s Potential Return: Will She Threaten Bo and Hope’s Happiness?

So, our leaker mentioned that Days of Our Lives could do an umbrella storyline with Bo and some sort of Kiriakis family plot. Perhaps that’ll manifest for the 60th anniversary episodes coming November 2025. If not, maybe 2026, cuz that is what we’re filming now. And don’t forget that Megan is still out there somewhere. She would love to get her conniving hands on Bo again.

The last time we saw her was 2023 when Dr. Rolf (Richard Wharton) helped her leave Salem on a submarine after being shot as one does. So, is she alive and well and plotting to get her high school sweetheart Bo back under her control again? That would be pretty cool to see.

You know, if she does, Megan of course, would have to fight Hope for him. Megan already had Hope gunned down by a sniper at her wedding to Harris Michaels (Steve Burton). So yeah, I’d like to see Hope get some revenge for that.

Fan Reactions and Future Expectations: What Do Viewers Want from Days of Our Lives?

So while I feel like we got a happily ever after type of exit for Bo and Hope that was satisfying to some extent, it was so rapid. They woke up both from that coma on June 2nd, and he and Hope exited this week, June 18th, and that seemed kind of unsatisfyingly fast.

I’m guessing that what we’re going to get now are offscreen mentions where Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans) or Steve say they’ve heard that Bo and Hope are visiting Claire Brady (Isabel Durant) and Theo, stuff like that. I mean, them going makes sense because Bo hasn’t seen his granddaughter Claire a long time. I mean, it’s a miracle her granddad is awake at all.

We’ve not seen Claire in a hot minute either. So, I don’t know if the writers are teasing more adventures onscreen or just explaining why Bo and Hope are leaving so soon and it’s going to be just off screen from here on out. I suspect it’s the latter.

Days of Our Lives: Fans Not Happy

We’ve also got some fan critics of Bo and Hope’s exit that are not upset that they’re gone so soon. They’re glad. I will say it’s a small but you know passionate faction of complainers on soap social media that have this attitude of good riddance to Bo and Hope.

Some viewers are upset that the last episode with them was boring. I saw it called a snoozefest because people didn’t want to see all the flashbacks of their relationship. I personally enjoyed them. Some complain that the Bo and Hope exit took time away from front burner storylines they wanted to see that are going to move the entire show forward like the Philip Kiriakis (John-Paul Lavoisier) and Xander Cook (Paul Telfer) feud.

We also saw the investigation into who shot EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) tabled while we focused on Bo and Hope the last couple of weeks and others fussed that bringing Bo and Hope even briefly took away from John’s funeral.

Although I’ve also seen a lot of people saying they were glad to see that Bo made it to the funeral to express his thanks and condolences and gratitude to Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) for John’s sacrifice that saved his life. So one thing we know from watching soaps is you can’t make everybody happy.

So if you can make most fans happy, you’re probably going to call it a good day. If you are a super fan of Bo and Hope, keep your fingers crossed that they will be back for the Milestone 60th anniversary episodes later this fall or maybe into 2026.

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