Have your past six weeks been bold and beautiful? Did you give "putting on my face in the morning" a new meaning? Did your kids give you a halo you didn't deserve? Did you disappear without a trace? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton-Finnegan clan as summer 2022 ended!
Hidey-ho, Scoopers! It's me! What do you mean, "Me who?" It's Mike, your Scooper Extraordinare, back after some very bold and beautiful European adventures. In the Netherlands, I met an uncle, and cousins I didn't know I had. In Paris, I saw the Eiffel Tower, where Hope waited for Liam in 2014 -- as well as the Seine that Quinn pushed Ivy into! Once I got home, it was riding out Hurricane Fiona up here in Atlantic Canada, and even now, my house doesn't have electricity. Plus, last night, my car got broken into!
So, yeah, full disclosure: my eyes were not on TV or computer monitors to catch B&B the past several weeks. However, since I am honor-bound to Scoop for you, I did read all our trusty B&B recaps here on Soap Central to get caught up, and instead of just focusing on this week's events, I'm going to step back and look at things through a wider lens.
Quite honestly, not much has changed since I left. Sheila's still running around with a different face, Thomas still wants custody of Douglas, Ridge still can't make up his mind about Brooke versus Taylor, and Steffy still won't stop running her mouth about Ridge dumping Brooke for Taylor. Did I get all that right? Oh, wait -- Quinn's gone! Sorta? How about we delve into the final dog days of summer and Scoop about it!
Why don't we start off slow and cover the fates of our miscellaneous characters who have been storyless since mid-August? I was glad to see Paris at least doing some kind of foundation work, because otherwise I would have assumed she had succumbed to Forrester Model Syndrome. You know, where you show up in a completely different line of work but end up strutting down an FC runway.
Zoey, the artist, did it. Xander was a graphic designer who soon showed off men's' lingerie. Ivy was a jewelry designer and still found time to sashay and shanté in Forrester clothes. Even lawyer Carter has soaked up the limelight on occasion. My guess is, with Paris being a rudderless character (no family, no romance, and no story), she had to be given something to do.
Eric made the comment during one of these recent, forced Forrester parties that things had been rough for Zende and Paris. How, exactly? Paris broke things off with Zende eons ago to get into Carter's legal briefs, and karma spanked Paris by having Carter ditch her for Quinn. If anything, Zende's the one who's gotten the raw deal. Poor Zende; his only duty lately has been nearly getting roped into Steffy's "parent-trapping."
Bill is somehow still pursuing Katie, albeit off-screen, after well over a year in real time since his previous attempt! Dollah, Dollah, Dollah, the Stella Maris has sailed! Katie clearly doesn't want Bill back, and she'd be a fool to give him yet another chance. How is it that Bill and Li have only had one scene together since I left, and they've made no progress? Li is far more Bill's equal than Katie is!
One thing I'm really thrilled about is that Eric finally got his own portrait! Now, how fitting was that? I didn't even know how much he needed one until Donna made it happen. I'd rather have seen Eric's patriarchal image over the mantel than the revolving door of Forrester matriarchs and wannabe matriarchs. It was getting so that even Maria, the '80s-'90s maid, might as well have had her own portrait.
Now, I know that, next to Stephanie's, Eric's likeness is the only one that belongs there. But what's the deal with Eric now that Donna is living with him? Are Eric and Quinn in the process of getting a divorce? This never came up as Quinn and Carter canoodled and talked about how happy they are. We didn't see Carter again until weeks later, when Thomas asked the attorney about legalities regarding Douglas.
And sure, there was no reason for Quinn to come up as Carter gave Thomas the 4-1-1. But we know that Rena Sofer's last airdate was August 29! So, seriously, that's it? Quinn had an ordinary conversation with Carter, and is now gone? No plausible reason for going out of town? No final scene with on-screen son Darin Brooks? No Quinn retrospective? No...goodbye? Weird!
B&B's gotten really sloppy with details the last few years (why did Maya and Rick get divorced? Are Zende and Nicole actually divorced? Why is everyone acting like Taylor never shot Bill?), but Quinn's non-exit is a new one on me. After nine years, Quinn should have at least gotten a worthy finale. I hope the show doesn't recast, because nuQuarter won't work. In the meantime, we do have Taylor constantly walking in on Finn and Steffy trying to get busy.
I can't believe Deacon let Sheila stay with him even one night. Okay, so the first night, he thought she was a random hook-up because she had a different face. But he signed his own arrest warrant the minute he didn't find a private place to call the cops and report his uneaten houseguest. Now Sheila won't leave, and Deacon can't purge himself of her without revealing that he harbored a fellow criminal.
And that's really a shame, because since Deacon came back last year, he really has been trying to be a better person, no matter what Ridge and Bill have to say about him. It's funny how Ridge keeps trash-talking Deacon when, were it not for Deacon, daughter Steffy might have died in that alley. Even Steffy was grateful to Deacon; you'd think she would stick up for Deacon with Ridge.
I don't know where else this can go with Deacon, because once Sheila gets caught, it's curtains for our Mr. Sharpe. And then there's Sheila. It's official: the once naughty nurse Carter has turned into a DAYS villain. And that's not a slam on DAYS. Stefano implanting people with mind-control chips and opening souls to allow demonic possession is badass. But only on DAYS. It doesn't belong on B&B.
Now Sheila is going around with a plastic face, and the woman who could barely afford the hotel she was living in a year ago is waving money in Deacon's face and not saying how she came by this fortune. I'd buy it if, say, Sheila had wisely invested her settlement from Eric back in 1995. But Sheila has returned broke any number of times, and, as a fugitive who is also considered dead, Sheila wouldn't have access to her money even if she did have it.
So, I don't get what's happening with Sheila, either. Obviously, her endgame is somehow being in Finn and Hayes's lives again, but all she's done since I went to Europe is lurk around Il Giardino with her fake face. In her guise as "Lina" (for "Nicholina"? What kind of name is that?), Sheila ran into Hope, who experienced a glimmer of recognition, but that aspect of story has gone no further.
If Sheila wants to get close to Finn and Hayes, why doesn't "Lina" become a new nanny for the latter? Instead, Sheila merely sneaked into the house that Steffy and Finn never lock (even with Sheila "gone," L.A. is not the safest of burgs), leaving said door ajar on the way out and leaving one of Hayes's stuffies askew. This from the woman who managed to snip a lock of baby Thomas' hair, undetected, in 1998?
LOL this week, though, at Sheila "trying to watch [her] stories." Maybe Sheila's been getting inspo from DAYS. If Sheila's going to stick around, let's move this "story" along. Deacon, at least, is getting unexpected life via his connection to Genoa City, which took root this week and last through Y&R's Nikki Newman. It's appropriate, I assure you. Nikki is Deacon's ex-wife! (Yeah, okay, one of them.)
So, you weren't watching Y&R around 2010-2012. No problem! As I captured in < a href="https://www.soapcentral.com/bold-and-beautiful/whoswho/deacon.php">Deacon's character profile for you, Deacon got involved with Nikki, a fellow alcoholic, and eventually Nikki drunkenly smacked nemesis Diane Jenkins in the head with a rock. Several times. Deacon let Nikki believe she had killed Diane, but it turned out GC's über-crazy Patty Williams had offed Diane.
Now that Diane is back on Y&R, totally not dead, they've had to do a little retconning to justify her existence. But they wisely brought Deacon into that mix. Nikki, who is having an exposé written about Diane, demanded to meet with Deacon and extract information from him about Diane. Apparently, Diane had been living in L.A. as "Taylor Jensen" and met with Deacon several times.
Hmm, with or without seaweed adorning his neck from Quinn pushing him off a cliff? Anyway, the new leaf Deacon turned over on B&B seems to have consistently transferred to Y&R, as Deacon wanted to make things up to Nikki by helping her out. Deacon had an envelope to give Nikki and presumably did -- with Sheila/"Lina" watching -- but I don't think we found out what was in it or how it helps Nikki in her anti-Diane cause.
Still, this is how you do it. You honor history (Y&R showed Nikki/Deacon flashbacks galore) and then grow new story out of it. Nikki's brief time on B&B showed her at Forrester with Eric and Steffy, and Nikki remembered how felonious Sheila was. Can we only hope that Lauren Fenmore will finally find out through Nikki that Sheila had been alive and well in L.A. for years? And is now "dead"?
Talk about another major dropped ball. B&B had no business bringing Sheila back in 2017 and not giving Lauren even a cursory heads-up that her archest of enemies lived. Our soap can right it now. Lauren could hear it from Nikki and hightail it to Los Angeles; Eric could lunch with Lauren at Il Giardino and swear that the Forresters were only trying to protect her. And then Lauren could see "Lina." That would be the real test of whether or not Sheila's disguise works! But I won't lay odds on getting it.
Oh, soap gods, help me -- if I have to hear Steffy badger her parents about getting back together one more time! She was doing that when I went on my trip six weeks ago, and not only is she still at it, but she's also got Thomas doing it, and even poor Finn has been brainwashed into shipping Tridge. Steffy was far more interesting when she was mourning her husband.
And I know that's mean! But pretty much ever since Finn shocked Steffy with his aliveness in Monte Carlo, all she's been is laser-focused on reuniting her mommy and daddy. Ridge and Taylor were telling Steffy to knock it off before I left; they're still telling her to, and Steffy is not hearing it. And Steffy's just being a straight-up bitch to Hope, pretty much out of nowhere.
That was de rigeur in the Leffy/Lope days, but Steffy had long since championed, admired, and advocated for the blended family she had with Hope and Liam. Those days appear to be over, because Steffy has decided that Ridge and Taylor had their future stolen from them by the evil Brooke! Brooke, who cheated on Ridge with both Eric and Thorne!
Holy history rewrites, Scoopers! And before some of you call me a Logan lover, all I'll say is this -- let's condemn Brooke for what she has done, not for what she hasn't. Did Brooke ardently pursue Ridge when he was married to Taylor? Yes. Did Brooke start up a whole lingerie line in the hopes of titillating Ridge? Yes. Did Brooke cheat on Ridge with Eric and Thorne? No.
If anything, Brooke cheated on Eric with Ridge, though Bridge was under the impression Beric's marriage was over when they boinked. And when Brooke got with Thorne, Ridge had been remarried to Taylor for years. This is not difficult. B&B can't look at their own episodes they're posting on YouTube and get the facts straight? I can see the Taytots skewing the facts, but the show shouldn't be.
Steffy and Thomas -- and, by default, B&B -- are also getting it wrong when they portray Taylor as "a saint compared to Brooke." Correct me if need be, but Brooke did not shoot Bill in the back and then go back a second time to finish the job. Why are we pretending Taylor didn't do exactly that? Only Liam, Steffy, Hope, and Brooke know; you'd think Brooke would throw it in Steffy's face as Steffy deems Taylor the better choice for Ridge.
Taylor's children also have made a lot of noise about how Taylor would never cheat on Ridge. Perhaps they were never told that Taylor gave James what they thought was his dying wish once and devirginized him, because Thomas and Steffy weren't born then. But they were around when Taylor kissed Hector because Ridge had to work on New Year's (sound familiar?), and Ridge left Taylor when that kiss revealed what she'd done with James.
That's right! Taylor's marriage to Ridge didn't end because of Brooke. It ended because Taylor had cast Brooke as a demon for years while harboring her own secret, and Ridge couldn't bear the hypocrisy. And if you want to ignore that, Tridge ended before that because of Sheila's bullet. Yes, Brooke threw herself at Ridge, but Ridge stayed true to Taylor. Brooke had nothing to do with the dissolution of Tridge.
So, I'm having a hard enough time with Steffy and Thomas taking up the Forrester crest (especially considering they're Marones), but it's more nauseating with the show's revisionist history. And frankly, what we didn't need was yet another Brooke/Ridge/Taylor go-round. Even Taylor's starting to realize she's stuck in a rut, though she had the same realization before I left and backpedaled right back into Ridgeland.
Taylor does have it right that Ridge is in love with two women. Ridge has admitted that before, but when he did back in the day, his heart was split between Brooke and the O.G. Caroline. Ridge is not helping matters by sending mixed signals so strong they can pick up on them in neighboring galaxies. He hugs on Taylor, then goes home to Brooke; he devotes himself to Brooke, then gets all goofy-eyed at Taylor.
My God, man! You were doing that six weeks ago and absolutely nothing has changed. Oh, except on the heels of seeing Brooke in a social media post with Deacon, Ridge walked in on Brooke hugging Bill. Now we've gotta bring Bill into this. Amazingly, Ridge let that slide, but how long are we doing this dance? Ridge made his choice earlier this summer, and that choice was Brooke. It should have been final.
Not to mention, Taylor had a get-out-of-Ridge free card with the burgeoning connection with Deacon that the show suddenly squashed for no reason. I'm not enjoying this, and I don't see even the beauty of Aspen, where B&B is heading next week, infusing me with enthusiasm. Don't even get me started on Steffy answering Ridge's phone and hanging up on Brooke, or Thomas saying that was a step too far.
Because Thomas did the same thing a few months ago when Brooke wanted to plead her case to Ridge about Deacon! Weird that Steffy caught heat for it, but Thomas didn't. Why don't we just come full circle and have Steffy and Thomas send Brooke misleading texts saying that Ridge wants to break up? That's what they did in 2009, but they were teens then; as grownups, I have no sympathy for them.
Finally, there's Thomas deciding he wants full-time custody of Douglas again. And that was one thing several weeks ago when I last Scooped for you, because Thomas really did seem to have a legitimate claim to his healthier mental state and improvement as a parent. How did Thomas prove to Douglas' adoptive mother, Hope, that Thomas was ready to tackle fatherhood 24/7?
By treating Douglas to a six-week sleepover. For real! Thomas brought his kid home but never gave him back. In a joint custody situation, I believe that's called kidnapping, and Hope could get Thomas' guardianship of Douglas stripped completely on that basis alone if she pursued legal avenues. It's not just that Douglas is having a good time at Great-Grandpa Eric's, it's that Thomas is hanging up on Hope when she rightly asks for Thomas to return Douglas.
I'm sorry, but that's not being a parent in my book. If Thomas wants full-time custody of Douglas, then he needs to convince Hope it's a good idea, and Thomas and Hope need to go to court to have the arrangement changed legally. Refusing to let Douglas go home to his other parent is not only unhealthy for Douglas, but Thomas is also putting himself in jeopardy he doesn't even realize.
Bill had it right when he said that all of Thomas' misdeeds would come out if any custody case went to court. It would be a slam-dunk for Hope. Too bad Hope is so busy playing pacifist that she isn't using that fact to put her foot down. Thomas would back off instantly if faced with a judge finding out how he kept Hope in the dark about Beth being alive and tried to kidnap Hope as "courtship."
I know how many of you hate Brooke. I know. And I know how many of you will take the slightest defense of Brooke as being a fan of the "HO-gans." But Brooke is not wrong here. She may be being a little too black-and-white in casting Taylor as the ringleader (which Taylor isn't) and coming to Stephanie-like conclusions, but Thomas isn't well just because he had a few video calls with his mother.
Ordinarily, I would say Taylor should know that her son's mental health is precarious at best, but considering Taylor herself hasn't gotten help for hers...well, there you go. And unfortunately, Liam may be onto something with his suspicion that Thomas is obsessing on Hope again. After all, Thomas did go to Hope and outright say that she is the only woman for him.
More than that, Thomas told Liam that there would be hell to pay if Liam interfered in the Douglas situation. Flashbacks of Thomas saying he was Liam's executioner, anyone? No wonder Brooke and Liam are on alert. But then again, so am I. Any time Brooke bonds with a man this much, Brooke's Bedroom ensues. Hey, Deacon...Oliver...why not Liam? If we're going to keep painting Brooke with the Slut from the Valley brush, let's make it interesting!
It's a shame that Thomas really does seem to be regressing. Because it means all that stuff we were fed about bleeding in his brain causing his sociopathic behavior was just a red herring. Thomas seemed to betray his mindset even further when he decided he had to protect his family from Brooke. Ironic, considering Thomas once fantasized about having Brooke for himself; we still don't know for sure if they slept together under the psychedelic influence of Berry Island or not.
Thomas made it sound like Brooke was responsible for his bad behavior, a contention that was extended this week by the claim that Brooke has always had issues with Steffy and Thomas. Not true. Things went fine between Thomas and his sisters when Brooke was their stepmother, something Brooke reminded Thomas about. So, how did the I'm-healthy-enough-to-parent-Douglas-solo respond?
By pointing his apple-carving knife at Brooke, vowing he wouldn't let Brooke intercede. Many of you labeled Brooke a crybaby over that, but it's not about Thomas saying he was just cutting apple slices. He did brandish the knife at Brooke. And though Brooke doesn't know it, it gibes with Thomas threatening Liam similarly. Yep. Thomas is back to his old ways. It sucks.
Brooke told Ridge she would call Child Protective Services on Thomas if she needed to but stopped short of doing it. Lo, CPS officers arrived at the Forrester compound...and questioned Douglas? Did that strike any of you as odd? And then, Thomas just happened to have a friend who worked at CPS, whom Thomas entreated to play a recording of the accusing phone call.
It was Brooke's voice! Ridge was pissed! Logan had told him she hadn't made the call! We already know she didn't, don't we? Remember, a few weeks back, Douglas showed off an app on which one could capture a vocal sample and get it to play text-to-speech back in that very voice. I hope an app like that was just a B&B invention. It would be scary as hell to think that actually existed, along with being able to deep fake videos.
Another clue is that Brooke left her purse behind briefly at Forrester, something that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't supposed to factor in somewhere. It seems that once again, Brooke is being framed. There's been a lot of that this year, hasn't there? Thomas certainly knows about Douglas' app, and it wouldn't be beyond Thomas to call CPS on himself, using Brooke's voice. Did you hear how robotic and monotone it was? Or, heaven forfend -- maybe Douglas has been influenced enough by Thomas that Douglas called CPS himself?
Those are my opinions of September and the last half of August on B&B, and I'm stickin' to 'em. What opinions are you stickin' to? Make your point in the Comments section below or the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback. Your comments could end up in a future column!
Next up it's "Aspen you shall receive" with Tridge, so keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. See you in two weeks, soap fans!
AMJ
We've got a B&B double play this week -- there is a second Two Scoops column. Click or tap here to read the week's regular column from Dan J Kroll.
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