Bold & Beautiful’s Sheila May Already Have Her Next Murder Victim in Her Sights — Plus, the Many, Many Faces of Steffy Forrester

Bold & Beautiful’s Sheila May Already Have Her Next Murder Victim in Her Sights — Plus, the Many, Many Faces of Steffy Forrester

Credit: Howard Wise/JPI (3)

Anyone who knows me knows I complain a lot about Young & Restless’ business-oriented storylines. So this week’s episodes of Bold & Beautiful — much of which centered on big changes at Forrester Creations — got me thinking about the difference between the L.A.-based sudser’s corporate tales and those being told in Genoa City. Meanwhile, both Sheila and Brooke gave us new phrases to use in our ongoing Soap Opera Drinking Game. Read on, and we’ll discuss it all. 

Forrester vs. Logan

Let’s just get this inconvenient truth out of the way before we move on: Ridge asking Brooke and Steffy to work together is downright moronic on his part. He’s not just trying mixing oil and water, he’s throwing a lit match into a city-sized pool of gasoline. To quote Steffy, “How could you think that’s a good idea?”

The scenes in which this all went down were wildly amusing on several levels. First, there was Ridge insisting he didn’t make this move “to have a fight with everybody” despite the fact that he had to know that’s exactly what would happen. Then there was Carter, clearly the perfect person to hold this role, stuck saying, “Brooke is the perfect person to fill this role, and without one trace of irony.

And then there was Steffy. Or more specifically, there was Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, who is 100 percent the Queen of the Reaction Shot. Whether you want a full-body eye roll, a bit of side eye or the kind of look that should be licensed as a deadly weapon, Wood’s got it in her repertoire. I feel as if Steffy’s been massively over-reactive to things of late, but damned if her portrayer doesn’t make me love every minute of it.

Here Comes Thomas…

Regular readers know that for weeks, I’ve ended this column by asking, “I wonder what Paris is up to?” Well now, we know — thanks to the episode-ending preview on Friday — that Thomas came home engaged to Paris.

This is the kind of delicious (if slightly ludicrous) twist that I’ve come to expect from the show of late. Thomas left town licking his wounds over Hope, so it makes sense that he would have thrown himself into a new romance with an old flame. What I don’t get is why the show has decided to have Hope suddenly fantasizing about Finn. If she’s moved on — even in her mind — doesn’t that diminish the impact of Thomas’ return? Shouldn’t Hope have spent the past few weeks reflecting on things with Thomas and regretting having let him go, so that when he came home with a new lady on his arm, she’d be wounded to the core?

Lately, it’s felt a little bit as if the writers are simply making things up as they go along, throwing pieces in the air and letting them fall where they may. That can be fun, but it’s also confusing as heck for viewers. Especially those of us who expect things like, you know, logic or continuity.

It Was Nice Knowing Ya, Tom!

I’m not sure which we got more of this week… Sheila saying “I’ve changed!” or Brooke talking about “Steffy’s husband.” Both, however, were uttered enough that I’m entering them into our aforementioned Soap Opera Drinking Game. My favorite moment had to come when Brooke said to Deacon, “Steffy is having feelings for an inapprpriate man.” It sounded like something right out of Bridgerton. Better still, there was Lady Whistledown Sheila, lurking in the shadows taking notes.

Thanks to the Malleable Laws of Soap Opera Sound Transmission, Sheila was able to hear everything they said. Immediately, she realized that Hope would be a far better match for Finn than Steffy, if based only on the fact that Brooke’s daughter believes pigs can fly and psychopaths can change. What annoyed me was that when Sheila walked up to Deacon five minutes later and started talking about how much more awesome everything would be if Finn was with someone willing to give her a chance, he didn’t immediately say, “Stop! I know where you’re going with this!”

Then, because something that works once is definitely worth repeating, Sheila got to overhear another conversation, this time with Tom admitting he’d done something few others on the show seem capable of: He Googled Sheila and found out about her many past sin. This, of course, led to Sheila warning that he needed to keep his lips zipped… or else. Wonder how Deacon will feel when Tom becomes the latest victim of Sheila’s murderous rage? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I see an “accident” in his future…

People… People Who Know People

Poppy’s storyline was all over the place this week. She went from being unnecessarily (and uncharacteristically) haughty with Katie to sharing a downright tender moment with Li. But the real surprise came at the very end of the week, when it became clear that Poppy and Tom share some kind of connection. I’d bet my next cruise it has something to do with Luna’s paternity, but what?

Staff writer Candace Young — who recaps Bold & Beautiful each day — suggested that perhaps Tom is the actual father of Luna, and that perhaps Poppy somehow set in motion the chain of events which led to him being homeless. I’ll admit, that feels like a stretch to me, but it’s certainly an intriguing possibility, no?

Random Thoughts

• I love that Li insists on calling her sister Penelope. That’s so relatable. I mean, everyone I know calls me Richard except my mom and dad, who’ve always called me Rick and aren’t about to change just because I prefer Richard. (Hey, at least it’s not Dick, although I’ve been called that too, sometimes by some of you gentle readers!)

• I loved the stuff with Katie and Bill in which she admitted that when it came to his new family situation, “I have a lot of mixed feelings, and most of them I don’t feel are justified.” And then we got Bill admitting, “This was really nice, just sitting on the couch, talking with you. It reminds me of old times. You know how I feel, how I will always feel. You’re my Katie.” And then they topped it off with those wonderful flashbacks. Do I want to see Katie/Bill reunite? No. Been there, done that way too many times. But that doesn’t mean they can’t still have complicated feelings for one another.