Days of Our Lives Exclusive: Dan Feuerriegel Provides a Glimmer of Hope for an EJ and Nicole Future

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Soaps.com may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

The moment of truth has finally come for Days of Our Lives‘ EJ, but it could soon be gone — and Nicole with it! Because he didn’t go running to Nicole the second he learned her baby was alive. He was about to, but then Sloan stopped him dead in his tracks with the news that Jude was Eric’s baby and not his. Now, he’s racing against the clock to do a DNA test and find out if she’s lying or not (Spoiler alert, EJ: She’s not.), but it’s not quite clear yet what his plan is when he gets the results.

And that could decide everything with his future with Nicole. A little while back we spoke with Dan Feuerriegel and asked if he thought EJ and Nicole would have a prayer of making it when everything came out. And his answer was more hopeful than you may think!

“Obviously it all depends on how he handles it,” Feuerriegel pointed out. “And how it comes out. I think how it comes out is probably the most important. And then from there how he handled it.”

The how is right there for EJ to grab. He finally knows the truth — all of the truth. He may have whiffed on his first chance to tell Nicole, but there’s still time to be the selfless hero and tell her everything. And if that’s the most important thing, him not handling it the best at the moment could still be forgiven.

In other words, EJ’s portrayer explained, “If he handles it with maturity, with grace, then yes, I definitely think that Nicole and EJ can have a very fruitful future. It all depends on how he reacts and what he feels is the best option.”

Unfortunately, it seems that he may have listened a bit too closely to Sloan and be more worried about losing Nicole than doing the right thing. And that, sadly, may be the one thing he could do that’s almost guaranteed to lose her.

More: What does Peacock’s news mean for Days?

The clock is rapidly ticking. Yes, he could be holding off telling Nicole what happened until he knows for sure whose baby Jude is. That’s why he’s so desperate to get the results as fast as possible. He wants to be able to come to Nicole with all of the facts at once as soon as he can. But there’s more at stake than just the kid’s father.

No matter what, Jude is Nicole’s baby and the longer EJ delays, the longer he keeps her son from her. There is no real kindness in that. It’s hard to say it’s anything but selfish. But it’s still too early to call time of death on their marriage and their future.

Yes, we know that Arianne Zucker will be gone from Days of Our Lives after July, but it’s not clear yet if the show recast Nicole. No one but Zucker has ever played her and we can’t imagine her being recast, but then again, a few months back, we couldn’t have imagined any of this happening.

And even if Nicole does leave Salem, that doesn’t mean it will be because of EJ or the baby swap. There’s still two months left of story to tell, and she and EJ could still make things work up until then if he, as Feuerriegel points out, plays his cards right.

But let’s be honest. While there may still be hope, if there’s anything EJ’s good at, it’s getting in his own way… (And if ‘EJole’ does end, we’re pretty sure we know who EJ will end up with next!)

Look through our photo gallery of Nicole’s life to see how she’s handled heartbreak and disappointment in the past.