Days of Our Lives sees Leo Stark (Greg Rikaart) claims that he has changed his ways, but has he really? We’re going to dive into Greg Rikaart’s character and the sins of his past that are being dredged up right now.
The Evolution of Leo Stark: From Salem Schemer to Soul-Searching Citizen
So, love him or hate him, you got to admit Leo has left his mark on Salem since he first appeared back in 2018. If you didn’t know before that, Greg Rikaart was over on Young and the Restless off and on for a couple of decades playing Kevin Fiser where he was a dodgy schemer there as well. And he was great. I do like Leo better than Kevin. I’ll say I enjoy him more on days.
So back in 2018, Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel) had hired Leo to seduce Sonny Kiriakis (Zach Tinker) and cause some big scandal. So Leo’s shenanigans forced Sonny out of the CEO position at Titan Industries. And since then, Leo has done so many horrid things to the people of Salem. Yet at the same time, he’s always been witty and fun and likable and humorous. even when he was doing dastardly things to Sonny, to Will Horton (Chandler Massey), to so many others on Days of Our Lives.
Days of our Lives: Leo’s Awful Past
And I will say over the past, I don’t know, year and a half or so, we’ve seen Leo doing some soul-searching and trying to be a better person. What he did to Sonny and Will was pretty awful. And then what he did to his best friend Gwen Rizczech (Emily O’Brien) by banging her husband Dimitri von Leuschner DiMera (Peter Porte) was to me worse in many ways.
Because Leo and Gwen had been best friends for years. Where when Leo first was targeting Sonny and Will, he was hired to do it and they were strangers as opposed to, you know, doing horrible things and violating the trust of your best friend.
But Leo was really hot for her hot hubby Dimitri. And so Leo just threw that friendship away. He just crapped all over it. And Gwen’s return is bringing up a lot of his past sins right now. Javi Hernandez is finding out things about Leo he never knew and that he definitely doesn’t like to hear about his boyfriend.
Lady Whistleblower and a Seismic Shift: Has Leo Stark Really Changed?
With Lady Whistleblower in his rear view. You know, it was feeling like Leo had really changed his sneaky and conniving ways. But we got a question with Gwen back. Has he really? You know, there’s been a seismic shift in particular over the past, I don’t know, maybe 6 months or so. He convinced Chad DiMera (Billy Flynn) to let him swap from Gossip Girl to a serious investigative reporter at the Spectator. And for the most part, again, past six months plus, Leo has been an exemplary citizen of Salem.
I will say that him helping fence the Horton family necklace that Doug Williams (Bill Hayes) stole was the dodgiest thing that Leo’s done in a while. But when he did it, he didn’t have all the information. And recently, he wrote that very thoughtful article/obbituary about John Black (Drake Hogestyn) when he passed away. Not only that, but Leo’s done the work.
He has done a lot of self-reflection. He got into counseling with Dr. Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall). That came after he got that Dear John letter from Dimitri when he was in prison because Dimitri got himself a prison romance and dumped Leo.
But according to his therapist Marlena, she definitely feels that Leo has made significant progress in addressing his insecurities and traumas. But has he really changed for the better? Or is he just the same old Leo but maybe only slightly more self-aware in keeping the evil tucked away inside? That’s a good question.
Javi’s Influence and Gwen’s Warning: Unpacking Leo’s Emotional Baggage
I do think that cutie Javi has been a really good influence on Leo. And now those two along with Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) are fostering Sophia and Tate’s son who they named Tasto. But with Gwen’s recent arrival back to Salem, Leo of course is thinking about his wicked past. Gwen even warned Javi that he was making a mistake getting involved with somebody like Leo.
Now, we all saw Javi was a little shaken by what Mrs. Von Leuschner said about Leo. And there are things that he withheld from Javi, but he did share some of the sins of his past, but not all of them. Frankly, there’s a lot. And thanks to Gwen, we saw Leo being forced to come clean to Javi on even more stuff. He had to unpack more emotional baggage for his boyfriend, Javi. Fortunately, Javi still loves Leo.
Days of Our Lives: Javi Loves Leo
He just doesn’t like the things he’s done in his past. But Javi was particularly shocked to hear that Leo was so disloyal to the person who was once his best friend. If you can betray your best friend like that, you can probably betray your boyfriend like that, you know. So when Leo’s former bestie Gwen just laid into Leo in front of Javi, really all Leo could do was apologize and say that he learned his lesson.
But now this whole ordeal is making Leo second guesses whether he’s worthy to be foster baby’s gunk, gay uncle, by the way, if you didn’t know the word. But you know, we’ve seen Leo’s softer side. Is he and Javi are caring for the little baby boy? and his boyfriend even said he thought Leo would make a good father someday.
Redemption and Forgiveness: Can Leo Stark Convince Salem and the Viewers?
And when Will was in town for John funeral, Leo made an effort to clear the air with him. He can’t undo what he did, but he did acknowledge how wrong he’d been for what he did to Will and Sonny. And of course, we know a lot of Leo’s issues are down to his wicked mom, Diana Colville (Judith Chapman), his abusive father as well.
It’s hard to be a good partner and a dad when you don’t have a good example when you’re growing up, right? If you remember, Leo was so excited when Diana said John was his father. You know, Leo thought he finally had a positive male role model in his life. And John was ready to embrace the role of dad, but then Diana revealed she lied and she crushed her son yet again.
Days of Our Lives: Leo Stark’s Shady Move
And even though Leo helped fence Julie’s necklace, he was trying to help poor broke Doug. And now Leo is trying to help get the necklace back. So bottom line, I don’t think at this point that Leo wants to be bad. He just wasn’t raised right. He didn’t know better and he got wrapped up in bad schemes that were actually orchestrated by other people. But maybe now Javi’s love could help save Leo from his darker impulses.
He seems to be doing okay, but Gwen’s return could cause issues because it makes Leo think back on how truly awful he has been in the past the same way that Will’s return did. But Will came and went and Gwen’s going to be sticking around. So, she’s going to be a constant reminder of Leo’s poor past life choices and his betrayals. However, if Leo an get Gwen to forgive him, that would help everybody move forward.
Days of our Lives: Leo’s Big Turnaround Convinces Others
So, I mean, even Gabi Hernandez (Camila Banus) who has hated him for a long time because of the Will and Sonny stuff, told Ari that she initially didn’t want Leo to move in, but he’s been great. And she knows Javi really loves him, so she’s softening.
Chad has softened. He’s getting along with Leo, even though he stole Abigail Deveraux’s (AnnaLynne McCord) jewelry the day she was murdered. So, maybe Leo’s got a chance to stick to the right path in life and convince Gwen he’s really changed. and then, you know, maybe he’ll convince us viewers that he’s really changed as well.
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