Sophia lets herself into Melinda’s office, which is full of boxes, but no Trask. And that’s just when Tate calls to tell her Rachel bought a baby gift, so he needs the address for the adoptive parents. Sophia doesn’t have the address, but she’ll reach out to her lawyer.

Speaking of whom… Melinda finally shows up and Sophia tells her about Sarah’s snooping. Melinda didn’t think about Sophia’s own doctor figuring out that she’s lying (Of all people, Trask should be better prepared for this baby smuggling stuff), but that’s fine. HIPAA’s keeping Sarah’s lips sealed. Sophia spirals over the lie, but Melinda just tells her to breathe and she’ll handle it.

Tate Has a Revelation

Tate, meanwhile, jumps up from the bench to greet Aunt Belle, who’s staying away from Marlena’s since Sami’s visiting. Sigh. If only we could see her. Tate’s doesn’t get why Sami would be upset since Belle was forced into prosecuting Johnny, but his aunt points out that her sister doesn’t always react rationally. But hey, Belle just has to push through and get this all over with — for the greater good.

That hits Tate, who realizes maybe he’s been selfish about this baby stuff, and should be more worried about the greater good; I.e., how Sophia’s doing.

Paulina and Gabi Have Reason to Worry

At The Bistro, Paulina’s bouncing between stress starving and stress eating (At least it balances out?) over testifying. She doesn’t know how she can live with herself if Johnny gets wrongly convicted. Things go from bad to worse when the Attorney General calls. He’s watching the trial very closely. Well, someone from his office is. They’ll be in court today, and if Belle screws up, she’s disbarred. Over a case she tried to recuse herself from and was forced to take.

Leo’s reading through The Spectator’s coverage of Johnny’s trial and, naturally, hates it all. As he’s going off about it, Gabi stomps into the room and tells him to shut up. She’s in a bad mood since she’s testifying. Leo didn’t know that. But isn’t a juror chatting up a witness… problematic? Then again, as Leo does point out, everything about this trial is messed up.

Gabi snaps at Leo again, then dials it back and apologizes, saying she’s just nervous about today. Eventually, Rafe realizes how inappropriate this all is and tells them to stop talking about the trial. Common sense is nice.

EJ Prepares Johnny for Another Day

Before leaving the mansion, EJ prepares Johnny for another day of ruthlessness in court. Johnny’s not sure he likes this idea, but EJ knows what’s best, naturally. Still, Johnny wants him to go easy on Paulina. Things turn tender as they catch up a bit about John and Sami’s visit, so they two are in better spirits by the time they leave for the courthouse.

Paulina’s waiting outside the courtroom when EJ and Johnny walk by and she wishes her son-in-law luck. She wants to talk to EJ, but he tells her that’s inappropriate. She’s a witness for Belle. She’s also the mayor, she tells him. And he needs to back the hell off Belle. Sure, EJ shrugs, then goes inside — at which point Belle conveniently walks by and Paulina says she has something to tell her.

Witness Badgering: 101

Cut to inside, and Belle questions Paulina on the stand about Johnny’s anger towards EJ. Then Belle pushes her to admit Johnny refused to visit his father in the hospital and declared his dad, “got what he deserved.” Everyone in the courtroom looks upset. Including Leo. Is this the first time we’ve actually seen him in the jury?

Belle digs in some more, then turns Paulina over to EJ, who has her admit that she was also angry with him. Like everyone in town. Then: “Do you believe Johnny when he says he’s innocent?” Paulina does! With all her heart, she does! (Isn’t this where Belle is supposed to jump up and say: “Objection! Speculation!”?)

Next up, Belle asks Gabi about her visit to the mansion and hearing Johnny and EJ arguing the night of the shooting. When Gabi gets to EJ telling Johnny to put the gun down, the court erupts in gasps. Oh, and she also saw Ava Vitali leaving — which seems like something Belle wouldn’t want to get out there. You know, that another suspect was there that night?

EJ questions Gabi about the gun she had that night and gets her to admit the fact that she could have misidentified the speaker talking to EJ, and, as expected, has her admit Ava could have doubled back and shot him. He starts badgering Gabi, saying she could have even done it, until Belle finally tells the judge to make him stop. She does and they break!

Tate Is Obsessed

Tate runs into Sophia outside the pub and apologizes for not being kind to her since the birth. How is she doing? “I’m fine,” she tells him, then agrees to join him in the pub for lunch. Breakfast? What time is it?

It was, as you’d expect, a terrible idea because Tate has questions about the parents. Sophia just tells him they’ve got to live with what happened, but Tate can’t. He’s obsessing over it, so it’s time to meet the parents and their daughter! Sophia looks suitably horrified and tells him this will just make things worse for him. The baby’s not his anymore.

And honestly, Sophia may be lying, but she has a point in telling him he’s “fixating on a baby that we didn’t even mean to have.” But nothing in Salem is easy, so Tate refuses to let this go until he sees the baby. Sophia heads outside and calls Melinda to tell her Tate wants to write a letter to the parents asking to meet. That’s fine, Melinda shrugs. Let him write the letter, she’ll respond as the parents and tell him “No.”. Problem solved.

In the Show’s Final Moments

Tate runs into Leo in the square pushing Tesoro around. Leo asks about Tate’s baby and the teen, while staring at his own baby, gets all sad and morose. Leo offers to let Tate hold the baby, and the oblivious dad takes to it like a duck to water.

Gabi and Rafe get home where she goes off about EJ, panicking about getting blamed for something she didn’t do. Again.

Paulina apologizes to Johnny out in the court hall, and he reassures her it’s fine. She just hopes the jury finds him as innocent as she knows he is. Inside, EJ offers his own apology to Belle for how hard this is. He loves her so much. Belle folds fast and gives him a key card to her room at the Salem Inn, then walks out. EJ smirks as he picks it up — but something feels very off about this.