2006–2007 EJ Wells, a famous European race car driver and entrepreneur, arrives in Salem and moves into the apartment across the hall from Sami Brady on 30 May 2006. The attraction between the handsome, charming Brit and Salem's resident bad girl is instantaneous and they quickly become good friends, despite her romantic relationship with
Austin Reed at the time. Over that summer, EJ and Sami share a number of flirtatious exchanges and romantic moments. Ultimately, Sami leaves Austin at the altar to satisfy the person blackmailing her. She's also forced to give up custody of her son,
Will, to her ex-fiancé,
Lucas Horton. EJ promises her that he will always be there for her, and they kiss. Shortly thereafter, Sami's secret is revealed when Lucas finds a blackmail note that was intended for Sami. Sami become estranged from her family. At the same time, EJ is revealed (to the audience) to be
Patrick Lockhart's boss and the mastermind behind the so-called "gloved hand" crimes that have rocked Salem over the previous few months. The authorities are onto EJ. When EJ discovers that someone has searched his apartment, he realizes that Sami was involved. He goes to Sami's apartment and kisses her. Sami pulls away, and EJ's suspicions are confirmed. Lucas walks in before the situation can escalate further and warns EJ to stay away from Sami. EJ calls Sami a "tease" and tells her that he's seen her "true colors". A few days later, Sami meets EJ in the hall, and he apologizes for his behavior. Sami forgives him. Sami later realizes that EJ is not who he says he is and that he is connected to her family's long-time enemy,
Stefano DiMera. Sami learns that EJ is Stefano's son and that the police believe that he is behind the "black glove" crimes, which have been perpetrated upon members of her family, the Bradys. She agrees to help the police set up a trap for EJ. She meets with EJ and makes plans to meet at an old boathouse outside of town on Boxing Day. EJ plays along with her, but when she leaves, it is clear that he is suspicious of her story and her motives." EJ goes to the boathouse on Boxing Day and shoots
John Black, as per his father's orders, and flees. In the meantime, Sami drives out of town with Lucas on a ski trip. After their car breaks down on a deserted mountain road, they seek shelter in a cabin. However, the roof caves in, and Lucas is trapped beneath a beam. Sami goes to the road and flags down an approaching car for help. The driver turns out be EJ, who agrees to help Lucas if Sami helps him get through the roadblock. Sami assists EJ, but he then declines to help Lucas and states that the only thing that would persuade him to delay his escape is if Sami has sex with him, explaining that one of his missions in Salem is to "plant the DiMera seed" in a Brady of his choosing. Sami agrees to EJ's bargain. EJ reciprocates by shifting the beam off Lucas before leaving. EJ later returns to Salem to clear his name and resume his former life. Sami visits him at the police station to assure him that she's kept their secret. EJ is cleared of all charges due to insufficient evidence and released. He hires Sami's then-boyfriend, Lucas, to work for his company. Sami realizes that she is pregnant and that she doesn't know who has fathered her baby - EJ or Lucas. EJ eventually figures out that Sami is pregnant and demands an amniocentesis to determine the paternity of the baby. Sami presents EJ with fake test results, which name Lucas as the father. EJ is disappointed, but he still feels that they have a connection. Familiar with Sami's history of tampering with paternity tests, he breaks into the hospital lab and finds out that the test was not performed. EJ apologizes on several occasions and refers to what he did as vile and inhuman. He uses the word "rape" in one of his apologies. He does everything he can to earn back Sami's trust and saves her life on several occasions. Meanwhile, Sami, Lucas, and EJ find out that she's carrying twins. Later, EJ and Sami scheme together, and it seems as though EJ is being redeemed. When the imposter is killed, both Stefano and EJ are released, but EJ feels dejected over losing his children's love. Realizing the extent of the damage he has caused, EJ tries to make amends by giving up his parental rights, and giving full custody to Sami. EJ decides to stay married to Nicole and fixes his relationship with his children and Sami. He decides to run for mayor against his brother-in-law,
Abe Carver. However, he frames John Black for embezzlement and when Sami tries to help her step-father, she gets caught in a shootout aimed at John. Afterwards, Johnny disappears, and EJ and Sami try to find him. A report is broadcast, saying Johnny's body was found. In their grief and anger, EJ and Sami sleep together. However, the news report wasn't correct and Johnny is found alive by Rafe. EJ and Sami decide to keep their one-night stand a secret. However, Will saw them together and holds it over their heads for months. When he tries to blackmail EJ, he turns the tables on Will and reveals that he knows that Will, not Lucas, shot him at his wedding to Sami in 2007. Will ends up working for EJ, to Sami's disapproval. Meanwhile, Rafe finds out about Sami and EJ sleeping together, and also reveals this to Nicole. Both couples file for divorce, as a result. EJ tries to fix his relationship with Nicole, while Sami begins confiding in Lucas. Meanwhile, Rafe and Nicole grow close, to Sami and EJ's dismay. When Nicole finds out that she is pregnant, she decides not to tell EJ about the baby. However, EJ finds out and Rafe claims that he is the father to protect Nicole. Sami starts a relationship with Lucas when she finds out about the baby. She and Lucas also deal with the fact that Will is gay, and EJ also supports her and Will. However, that summer, Stefano is killed and EJ becomes the primary suspect. Will ends up trying to prove his innocence and Sami later joins in when she realizes EJ was framed. She and EJ go on the run as fugitives, and share a kiss while in hiding. EJ is later exonerated when it's revealed that Stefano is alive, and
Ian McAllister framed EJ. Tired of being strung along by her, Lucas dumps Sami when she returns to town. Sami and EJ grow close, but Sami also begins making amends with Rafe. As the year draws to an end, Sami realizes she needs to make a decision between Rafe and EJ, and she decides she wants to be with Rafe.
2013–2014 Sami keeps putting off telling EJ her decision, especially after EJ tells Sami he's fallen in love with her again. Meanwhile, Rafe's pregnant younger sister,
Gabi, marries her boyfriend,
Nick Fallon. Rafe and Sami are planning to have their wedding soon after. However, at the ceremony, it's revealed that Nick is not the father of Gabi's baby. Sami finds out that Will is actually the father, and thinks Gabi purposely tried to keep Will out of his child's life. Rafe defends his sister, while Sami defends Will, and the two break up. EJ finds out about this, and is waiting at Sami's home when she comes back, giving her a shoulder to lean on. Eventually, Sami comes clean to EJ about wanting to leave him for Rafe but explains that she wants him back and is willing to wait for him. EJ wants to still be with her, and they reunite in early February. Sami wants to make sure Will is part of his daughter's life and argues with Rafe and Gabi about this. Nick is furious with Sami. He demands Will sign away his rights to the baby or risk getting sent to jail along with his family. Will agrees, and Sami is heartbroken, as well as EJ, who has grown close to Will. The two decide to find a way to make the evidence disappear. Sami, desperate, decides to ask Stefano for help to make the evidence disappear. To this end, she and EJ move into the DiMera mansion with their children. EJ proposes to Sami, and in April, they get engaged. Soon after, Stefano agrees to get rid of the police evidence against Will, and Sami and EJ believe they are in the clear when they get rid of Nick's recording of Will's confession. However, Sami realizes that Stefano is double-crossing them, and she and EJ try to stop him. Meanwhile, Gabi gives birth to
Arianna Grace after Will rescues her and Nick from a vicious attack. However, Will is shot while trying to rescue Nick but eventually recovers. Sami witnesses a man trying to kill a comatose Rafe at the hospital and shoots him to protect Rafe. The man is revealed to be a Salem PD officer, but EJ and Sami know the officer was Stefano's mole. The officer dies, and the weapon he was holding goes missing from the hospital room. With no evidence to back her claim, Sami is charged with the murder of an officer, and EJ tries to prove her innocence. Sami and EJ get married, but Sami only married him for revenge as she finds out about his affair with
Abigail Deveraux. She has known for weeks and has set EJ up to send him to prison for 10 years, denying bail for tax evasion. Sami is now co-CEO of DiMera Enterprises, teaming up with
Kate Roberts, to take out Stefano and EJ, while she makes Abigail's life miserable in revenge for her affair with EJ. After weeks of Sami plotting against EJ, EJ begins to make progress with reconciling with her. One of the major steps he takes is turning in additional evidence against his father, Stefano to Rafe, which would protect Sami and the children by preventing Stefano from returning to Salem. Sami confesses to EJ that she still loves him and they reconcile. Shortly thereafter, EJ tells Sami he is the luckiest man alive. EJ meets with new arrival and rival drug lord
Clyde Weston at a private business meeting in the woods. EJ and Clyde have an argument and EJ punches Clyde. EJ's bodyguard Miguel shoots EJ. Sami hears a gunshot while walking around in the woods looking for EJ. After Clyde and Miguel cover up what had happened, Sami stumbles upon EJ lying on the ground shot. When Rafe and the paramedics arrive, EJ is pronounced dead. Sami refuses to believe EJ is dead and follows his body to the hospital. At the hospital, Sami visits EJ in the morgue and remembers her life with EJ. She cries uncontrollably when she lays her head on EJ's chest and doesn't hear a heartbeat, finally realizing that EJ is dead. The last scene to show EJ showed his sister Kristen, under orders from Stefano, sneak into the morgue and inject an unknown substance into EJ's body. The purpose of this remains unknown other than Stefano telling Kristen "time is of the essence". In October 2015, Marlena gave Sami a letter that was sent to her in the event of EJ's death. Sami became overwhelmed with hope that EJ was alive. She went to Switzerland, and discovered a flash drive that could bring Stefano down. She stole all of Stefano's liquid assets and went on the run with her three surviving children; also hoping to find EJ alive.
2018–2019 In 2018 it is revealed EJ is alive after his sister Kristen held him captive for several years. Sami reveals that Kristen had EJ at her mother Marlena & step-father John's wedding, but Kristen demands that Sami shoot Marlena in a exchange for EJ's whereabouts. Sami gets into a fight with her twin brother, Eric, and misfires a shot at Marlena as a result. Marlena survives at the hospital with John by her side. Meanwhile, with Sami's whole family mad at what she did, her brother Eric decides to go with her to find EJ . They arrive there and discover Sami's enemy Nicole at the door and staying in the town where EJ was believed to be at. Nicole agrees to search for EJ when she is caught in a deadly plot by Kristen, unfortunately leaving Eric heartbroken over Nicole's "death". Sami was successful in finding EJ at an unknown clinic where Kristen stashed him, in Dr.Rolf's lab, but The lab was burnt down while Sami rescued EJ, leaving him covered in bandages due to the burns and in a coma due to the drugs in his system from being a lab rat for Dr.Rolf, which was by Kristen's orders. Sami was so happy to see EJ, he was in a wheelchair, as they had an emotional reunion. She brings him home, where he can be treated at the local hospital, and Sami agrees with his mother, Susan, that he needs to take a DNA test to make sure this was really EJ. Kayla performs the test and confirmed that it was in fact EJ. Sami celebrates with happy tears as she sits bedside by her husband. Then one day Susan comes in his hospital room and tries to pull the plug on him and Sami stops her. They agree to send him to Italy for treatment at a hospice center and Sami leaves town with EJ.
2020 Sami comes back to town to find Nicole alive and married to her twin brother, Eric. She is revealed to be a grandmother after her daughter Allie becomes pregnant. She later claims Nicole tried to hide her grandson from her, which wasn't true. During this time Sami revealed her life with EJ after she left town and revealed that Johnny and Sydney are with him, along with his mother, Susan, who is looking after him for his hospice care. Sami is addressed as Mrs. Sami DiMera in her custody battle over her grandson with Eric and Nicole, whom she had been fighting with as well. Sami even got restraining orders against them which were eventually lifted when Sami won custody of her grandson and wanted to allow them to say goodbye to him. Sami moved back into the DiMera mansion where her and EJ stayed to raise her grandson. She apologizes to John about causing his heart attack but John doesn't accept her apology and she just walks out. She went back to the DiMera mansion and saw Lucas and Nicole there, with Nicole holding her grandson, and she was not happy. Fortunately, Allie arrived at the home and stopped Sami from reacting any further. It was then revealed on September 21 that EJ is out of the hospice center and is at home in Rome with Sydney and Johnny looking after him. They have servants there to take care of the home. Allie dislikes the idea of her son being there around EJ and his kids because she thinks her mother, Sami, would spend more time taking care of EJ than with her son. It was revealed that Allie was raped by Steve Johnson's son, Tripp Dalton, which resulted in her pregnancy. Later, after the rape scandal, we learn that Tripp was not Allie's rapist, but it was in fact his brother, Charlie Dale (son of
Ava Vitali). Sami is very mad at Allie for returning without a care for her son, and Allie even tried to take her grandson away and have the custody thrown out. Later that day Sami's twin brother, Eric, announces he’s leaving town for missionary work. He ends up getting angry at Sami before he leaves ends up slamming the door on her as he says goodbye to Nicole. Kate wasn’t okay with Sami taking her great grandson to Italy and tries to stop her. On September 25, Sami left town without her grandson and feels heartbroken but has to get back to EJ and take care of him.
2021 Sami returns to Salem in 1Q21 (without EJ) after having been gone for a few months. One night, Sami confides in ex-husband
Lucas Roberts that she is unhappy in her relationship with EJ, claiming he has been distant and thinks that he has fallen out of love with her. The two end up in bed together after their heart-to-heart. Meanwhile,
Kristen DiMera has been masquerading as
Susan Banks after convincing her to switch places with her in Statesville so that she can keep tabs on then-boyfriend
Brady Black's friendship with past lover
Chloe Lane. While pretending to be Susan, Kristen learns of Sami and Lucas' affair. After Sami discovers Kristen's true identity, Kristen first blackmails her into keeping her identity a secret by threatening to tell EJ that Sami cheated on him. She instructs Sami to help her come between Brady and Chloe in any way possible, to which Sami suggests trying to set Chloe up with Lucas by telling Chloe that Lucas has cancer and "wants to spend the last of his days with her." Eventually, after their plan fails, Kristen decides that it would be easier just to kidnap Sami and Lucas. While being held captive in the tunnels underneath the DiMera mansion, Sami and Lucas fear for their lives and again turn to one another for comfort. After they are rescued Sami stresses over having cheated on EJ twice now with Lucas, who professes his love for her and asks her to leave EJ to try and give their past marriage another chance. Just as this is happening, EJ arrives in Salem (now played by
Dan Feuerriegel) and knocks on Sami's door, interrupting their conversation and leaving Sami confused. Sami ultimately rejects Lucas and moves back into the DiMera mansion with EJ, who becomes co-CEO of DiMera Enterprises alongside his brother,
Chad DiMera. However, Sami’s long-time enemy
Nicole Walker spills the beans to EJ about Sami's affair with Lucas. After confronting the pair, EJ kicks Sami out of the mansion and says he cannot forgive her. Sami vows to try to repair her marriage even as Lucas plots to win her back, so she heads to the Hernandez residence to convince
Gabi Hernandez to let her stay in the mansion (at the time, Gabi was in control of the DiMera estate but was not living there). As she was knocking on their door, Sami was sedated by chloroform by an unknown attacker and kidnapped. At the scene, her necklace was left and found by Gabi, who unknowingly started wearing it. Shortly after Thanksgiving several months later, EJ recognizes the necklace on Gabi while out on a date with ex-wife Nicole (having gifted it to Sami) and tries to piece together why Sami would leave town after going to such desperate lengths to attempt to stay in the mansion. Gabi recalls that Sami never actually made it inside to see her, leaving the group even more puzzled. Meanwhile, Sami manages to knock out one of the guards keeping her prisoner, tie him up, and steal his cell phone. She calls EJ while he was out with Nicole in the same scenario above, but the connection was bad and he could not hear her but says that he could have sworn it was Sami on the line. Sami then decides to first try calling her mother,
Marlena Evans (possessed again by the Devil) and eventually gets ahold of Lucas and sends him her GPS location from the phone. He arrives to her rescue and the two drill the guard, Jason, demanding to know the name of the person behind her kidnapping. Unfortunately, Jason manages to escape their clutches before revealing any information. Lucas then brings Sami back to Salem, reuniting her with her loved ones. Upon her return Sami and EJ reconcile their relationship; however, it is short-lived. After it is revealed that Lucas was the one who was behind Sami’s kidnapping (a so-called “act of love”), he successfully frames EJ for the crime with the help of Chad by forging a paper trail of funds that had been sent to Jason through an account from DiMera Enterprises. After Lucas shows the evidence to Sami, the two leave town together while EJ is arrested for her kidnapping.
2022 Due to lack of evidence, EJ gets released from prison and cleared of all charges. While most of Salem still believed that EJ was guilty of kidnapping Sami, only two people knew the truth:
Kate Roberts and
Chad DiMera. While EJ was getting hot and heavy with Sami’s sister
Belle Brady, Lucas proposes to Sami and the two get engaged. Prior to their engagement, Lucas fell off the wagon one night after discovering that
Abigail DiMera found out his secret and woke up the next day with a wounded hand and no recollection of his adventures from the night before. When news breaks town that Abigail was murdered in the DiMera mansion the same night that Lucas got wasted, he fears that he did it and that that was how he ended up with his injury. At Sami and Lucas’s wedding the next week, Chad interrupts just before they were about to say ‘I do’ and accuses Lucas of murdering Abigail in front of everyone. Lucas denies at first, then admits that he framed EJ for the kidnapping, and eventually admits to the kidnapping as well. Devastated, Sami storms out of the church and rushes to the DiMera mansion to tell EJ that she was wrong about him while Lucas is escorted to the police station. Sami ends up at EJ’s bedroom door (because no one locks their front doors apparently) while he is in bed with Belle. Belles hides and EJ lets Sami in, who discovers Belle’s bra and immediately concludes that Nicole is the one hiding in the bathroom. EJ holds Sami back as she tries to get to the bathroom while shouting insults, which strikes a nerve with Belle, who bursts out of the bathroom and reveals herself to spite Sami. Disgusted, Sami warns Belle that EJ is only sleeping with her to get back at her and struts out of the room, followed closely by EJ. After catching up to Sami, EJ demands Sami tell him why she came to the mansion on the night of her wedding, and Sami gets emotional admits to him that he was right and that Lucas was the one who kidnapped her.
2025 In April, Sami returns to Salem to comfort her and EJ’s son, Johnny, who just learned the truth about his conception from Kate DiMera after her husband, Roman, let it slip that EJ is a “rapist”. Devastated to learn that he is a product of rape, Johnny confronts his father by punching him in the face and vowing to never speak to him again. Shortly after, EJ gets shot and put into a medically induced coma. At the time, EJ was in a back-and-forth love affair with Sami’s sister, Belle. Belle visits EJ in his hospital room and confesses her love for him, and of course Sami enters at that exact moment and tells Belle that she can have her leftovers. Belle leaves Sami to have a moment alone with EJ, and Sami starts talking to herself out loud asking EJ how she’s going to tell Johnny the truth when, of course, Johnny enters. The two have a long heart-to-heart in EJ’s hospital room while he is unconscious, but nevertheless it does not change Johnny’s mind about never talking to his father again. While in Salem, Sami stops by ex-husband Rafe Hernandez’s house to thank him for talking to Johnny and ask him if he thinks Johnny could have been the one who shot EJ, to which he responds no. The two end up in bed together, effectively ruining Rafe’s relationship with then-fiance, Jada Hunter. Sami leaves town the next day, with rumors pointing toward her return once more later this year. ==Reception==