Everything That’s Wrong With Haley’s Story On Days Of Our Lives

Days Of Our Lives sure built up our expectations: What was Haley’s (Thia Megia) secret and why was it so terrible that it drove her to try and commit suicide on New Year’s Eve.

Luckily, it was JJ (Casey Moss) to the rescue! It made sense. JJ had gone through the same thing. The couple had a sweet chemistry, and fans settled in to see what would happen next.
What happened next is that we learned Haley was Melinda’s (Laura Kai Chen) sister. And while it was a little too pat that the only two Asian-American characters on the canvas were related, it did add another piece to the puzzle. Melinda wants to keep her relationship to Hayley a secret. Why?
Tell All
Haley finally confessed to JJ that she was in the country illegally. Her parents died back in Beijing, and Haley showed up on Melinda’s doorstep without warning.
Melinda was totally unhappy to see her and made Haley feel unwanted. She gave her a place to live, and paid Haley’s way through college and nursing school but she was not adequately thrilled about it.
Political Gain
Now that Melinda is running for Mayor, she wants Haley to move out and not to let anyone know they’re related.
Poor Haley, forced to support herself at the tender age of twenty-something. But, lucky for her, with a salary that happens to be from one of the best paying professions in America.
She sobbed to JJ that she can’t move back to China, so what option did she have but to kill herself? Guess moving out of town was out of the question?
(And, oh, one more thing, is there any reason why Melinda, a LAWYER, didn’t think to get her little sister a student visa during all the years she was paying for her schooling?)
Round of Applause
We suspect TPTB and we are feeling really good about them for introducing such a timely and socially-conscious story.

But repeating ‘illegal’ and ‘this political climate’ over and over again doesn’t change the fact that this story is anything but current.
They JUST played it with Abigail (then-Marci Miller) and Gabi’s (Camilla Banus) brother. The Bold and the Beautiful did it the year before that with Australian Ivy, and had done it a decade earlier with Thorne and a seamstress from Mexico.
And, back in the early 80s, one of General Hospital’s hottest couples, Robert (Tristan Rogers) and Holly (Emma Samms) initially wed so she could stay in the country.
Move along, there’s nothing new to see here….
Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.