Days of Our Lives Bombshell: Legacy Family’s Return Sparks Salem Shake-Up – New Era Begins?

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Something’s up with Doug Williams III on Days of Our Lives, and it seems like just about everyone but poor Julie knows it. Yes, he does, legitimately seem to be Doug’s grandson, but there’s still a whole lot that isn’t clear about him. First and foremost, we’d like to know why he’d steal Alice’s necklace while ingratiating himself into Julie’s life and the Horton family!

At some point, we’re going to have to get into his motivations and his backstory more — and that’s exactly where his father, Charles, could come in! And we mean that quite literally, as Days of Our Lives just opened the door to us meeting him in person in a big way.

Because on today’s episode, Hope talked to her half-brother for the first time ever when she tracked his number down and called him to check out Doug’s story. Hope got the confirmation that Doug Williams III is, indeed, her nephew (though if we were her we might have asked for a photo to go along with the backstory), but on top of that, she tipped off his dad that he’s in Salem.

Hope could unwittingly bring the whole Williams family to Salem.

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

And then, as they got off the phone, Hope promised that they’d meet soon now that they’ve finally talked. And that’s got us hoping that we’ll finally meet not just Doug’s grandson, but his son as well. Maybe, even if he and Hope don’t explicitly get together, he’ll head to Salem to find out what Doug is up to.

And since Julie just pointed out to the younger Doug that most of the photos on the mantle are from her family because her husband didn’t have many blood relatives, it feels like such a waste if the show doesn’t fix that. Sadly, we won’t be seeing Doug’s best friend and Charles’ adoptive father, Robert LeClair, again as portrayer Robert Clary passed away back in 2022. Nor will we meet Doug’s grandmother, Rebecca North, as she passed away back in 1979. But this seems like the perfect opportunity meet Doug’s biological son and Hope’s half brother.

Doug’s late best friend Robert was Charles’ legal dad and Doug Williams III’s legal grandfather.

Credit: CBS/Getty Images, NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Yes, Julie and Steven are also her sister and brother since Addie Horton was mom to them all, with Ben Olson the elder siblings’ dad, while Doug was Hope’s father. But Julie was pretty much always Hope’s stepmom and Steven was, well, off running from the law her whole life. We’ve never really gotten to see Hope interact with siblings as siblings.

Plus, with Shawn sticking around, young Doug in town, Hope popping back in (with Bo, no less), all we need now is for Charles to show up. Heck, maybe even bring Claire back — not to mention Ciara and her and Ben’s kids! Just like that, we’d have not just Doug and Hortons, but the Williams family would finally have a very real, very lasting presence in town.

While it’s sad that Doug never got to see it, it would be a beautiful tribute to one of Days of Our Lives’ most iconic characters. Like the Hortons, the Williams family may not all share the same last name, but they’d still be family. (And Williams wasn’t even the last name Doug was born with anyway, so really, it’s not super important.)