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.

At the hospital in Los Angeles, Sharon tells Nick that Mariah needs her, but how can she leave Noah?! “How do I help her, Nick? She can’t be alone!” Nick gently points out that Noah won’t know if she leaves, but Sharon protests that he can hear her voice. Both of her babies are in pain and she can’t fix it!

Sharon gets on a call with Mariah’s therapist to let her know what’s going on. Nick applauds her for looking out for her girl. Sharon goes back in with Noah, and Nick calls his mother, asking her to put Victor on. Nikki says he’s gone up to bed. Nick explains there are questions about Noah’s accident and fills her in on the detective and Sienna.

Nick wants his father to look into the woman. Nikki will see that he gets on it in the morning. Things turn emotional as Nick talks about a tragedy happening to one of his kids again.

Is Ian Real?

At the clinic, Mariah looks around the room, trying to figure out how Ian got there. Ward counsels her to open her eyes and see what’s right in front of her. Mariah tells him he’s not real… he’s in hell where he belongs. Ian smirks.

As they go back and forth, Mariah points out he is connected to every painful memory she has in life. Victor shot him… he’s dead. Ian pontificates about miracles. “Would you like to feel my heartbeat?” Cringing, Mariah tells him not to touch her and grits, “Leave! Now!” He replies, “Like Tessa did?” He embraces her dark side, that’s why he’s the only one in this world she can count on.

Ward questions if she’s shutting herself off from the world to protect herself or protect others from her. He wonders if he plays some small part in her current troubles and, turning sinister, declares, “I am the entire guiding force behind your entire existence.” Mariah tells him he’s not even real and hides her eyes. When she looks again, she chirps, “Peek-a-boo!”

As Ian pulls out the Queen of Hearts card, intact, Mariah gawps that Tessa had torn that in half. Ward insists he can help put her back together. She can’t shut him out like he can everyone else… not when he’s a part of her.

Ian keeps probing if he’s the reason Mariah checked in there. Mariah pacing, exclaims, “I can’t rid of you no matter what I do!” He needles that she keeps him close in heart and mind. She tells him he’s disgusting and evil. He mocks, “And you’re not?” He reminds her she haunted Sharon. “You’re evil.” Mariah shouts, “No, no, no! I’m not!” She’ll never believe that. He thinks she already does.

Ian needles relentlessly and brings up her cutting out her wife and kid to live the life she wants. Mariah’s sick of hearing his voice, but asks what he thinks she should do with her darkness. Ward urges her to let the boring mortals see her in all of her glory. How will she unleash the fire inside her on the world? Cackling, he realizes she’s already taken action. “Share with me.”

Mariah keeps telling Ian he doesn’t exist, but admits it’s about him… it’s all about him. He’s delighted. His return with Jordan messed with her head. She drank to get rid of him, but it never worked. The sickness he instilled in her squeezed everything else out. She couldn’t be a wife and mother. “And then there he was…”

She talks about the man in the hotel bar. He was an echo of Ian. There was the answer to erasing him from her brain and her life. Ian asks, “What was your method.” Mariah says she smiled back, laughed at his jokes, and even let him kiss her. When he invited her back to his room, she went… this was the solution. By erasing Ian’s life, she could regain hers and get rid of the horror he’d instilled in her.

How to Deal?

At the Club, Tessa and Daniel make out on the stairway. Tessa pulls back, looks at him, and then kisses him some more. Eventually, she stammers, “Oh God, oh God… I’m sorry.” Daniel apologizes for letting that happen. She feels she’s been drunk and stupid. He knows she needed a distraction. Tessa says it wasn’t an accident… she’s thought about kissing him before. It wasn’t an accident. Daniel admits he’s thought about kissing her too.

Sitting, Daniel tells Tessa he never would have acted on it. Tessa questions if she made things weird by doing it. They laugh and admit they won’t be able to put it out of their mind like it never happened. Nor will they be able to go to sleep. They’ll clear their heads with a walk.

At Crimson Lights, Tessa worries she’s thrown things off kilter, but Daniel is calm and kind. She’s grateful. He admits his mind is doing backflips right now, so she urges him to trust her and to open up. Daniel nixes the idea. Tessa declares, “Then I’ll talk.” She has feelings for him she can’t explain… comfort, but also excitement. The feeling makes her float but also grounds her. She continues for a while and declares that he’s truly her best friend. He gasps, “Tessa, I’m falling in love with you.”

Regretting it instantly, Daniel jumps up to apologize and leave. Tessa tells him that in another timeline, she could fall in love with him too.

Tessa asks if it helps Daniel, knowing she could love him too. He tells her this is the only timeline he has. Tessa doesn’t know what will happen with Mariah, but she will fight for her marriage and her family. He’s still important to her. Daniel wants to put the kiss aside, as well as what he said. “Can we please just leave it in another timeline?” Tessa strokes his face.

The Final Scenes

At Noah’s bedside, Sharon and Nick reminisce over a funny memory of their son. Sharon suddenly tells Nick, “I’ve decided about Mariah.” She has to stay there in case something happens. Sharon has faith that Mariah will get the help she needs. She’s safe and protected.

Back in the clinic, Ian asks how taking some man’s life made her feel. Mariah says she covered his face with a pillow… and stopped before the life left his body. She realized that by killing him she would be giving Ian more power. “I would be giving you control.” Ian mocks, “The devil made me do it.” He declares she couldn’t kill that man because she can’t kill him. “The darkness that I’ve awakened in you lives on.”

Mariah insists she’s not like Ward. She didn’t take a life because she has human decency, compassion and logic. She’s in there because she has remorse. He tried to make her like him, but it didn’t work. She will never be like him. Ian chuckles. If there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s never say never. Mariah informs Ward that he won’t break her. “You are nothing and no one, and I want you gone.” She closes her eyes and opens them… and he’s not there. But, alarmingly, the intact Queen of Hearts remains.