KerleyQ

When I first saw her today, I wondered when they SORASed Hope to a middle age divorcee from the 80's.

This bugs me so much. We're told how wildly successful Hope and Thomas are as a duo behind HFTF. If that's the case, shouldn't HFTF be not only self-sustaining, but also making a profit? How could it possibly be in the company's best interest to back away from that line? If nothing else, you'd think the profit from that line could help fund Eric's "grand farewell" line.

I don't know. First, we'll have to ask Ridge if Thorne counts as family.

Through all those scenes in Eric's office, all I could keep thinking was "RJ, you can end this whole charade right now. Just send a quick text to your father telling him to come to Eric's office, pretending he has a work question for him."

How has Eric not noticed how sentimental Ridge is being with him. How convenient for Eric, though, that he only has his coughing fits around the few people he knows know about his condition. And I totally get the whole not wanting it to be all anyone focuses on and not wanting pity, but I will say that I would be so hurt if one of my parents knew they were dying and they hid it from me and just left their death to be a surprise to me. And I'd be angry if they told my son and told him not to tell me, so I wasn't even able to be there to support my son while he dealt with it. On a related note, I think it would be hilarious if Eric somehow just keeps hanging in there, outliving his doctor's expectations, and all he can think to do is to keep designing "one last collection" over and over again. While I was watching the Deacon/Hope scenes from yesterday, with all of Hope's insistences that Thomas isn't like Sheila, all I could think was how much I hope this is all actually leading to it finally coming out that Thomas ran Emma off the road. Why have him go that far back then if they never intended for it to be addressed? And, come on, how can we have Deacon basically parroting Hope with his "Sheila isn't that person anymore" shit, and have Hope not have one single moment of "wait, is that how I sound?" reflection? The fact that Deacon's arguments to her were essentially the same arguments Hope has been giving to Brooke and Liam, has to be intentional, right? At some point that has to hit home for Hope, right? It can't be accidental that the two of them are saying all the same lines, can it?

We'll know he's the new Liam if some other woman, maybe a couple years older than Luna, shows up in town, and it turns out, she's Poppy's daughter with the doctor, who she gave up for adoption (or she has some other kind of connection to Luna and Poppy), and she is also instantly smitten with RJ.

I can't believe the show isn't taking their chance to have Eric preside over his last Thanksgiving, while he pretends he isn't dying, and the people who know pretend they don't know. And every time he coughs, half the table reacts like they just heard a gunshot.

Is Zende going to be the new creepy Thomas? Personally, I wasn't seeing chemistry there, I was just seeing creepy. I keep thinking there has to be a decent age difference going on here if she's an intern, and he's been back a few years after already being married and divorced. So, add the age difference to him preying on her to get revenge on his cousin, and, well, ick. This entire storyline with Zende sucks. I hate that this is the reason they've decided to remember he exists. And Ridge is just such an asshole. "Welp, my kids all know, so it's time to lock it down and start respecting dad's desire to keep it private again." Fuck right off with that.

On one hand, Zende was wrong that Ridge had anything to do with RJ being Eric's sidekick. On the other hand, though, Ridge ended up proving Zende right when it comes to the idea that he thinks his kids are the more important grandchildren, when he nixed the idea of telling Zende about Eric. All of Ridge's kids know, including his stepdaughter. But telling one more person, who is also Eric's grandchild, would somehow be the straw that broke the camel's back in not adhering to Eric's wishes? Fuck that, Ridge. Maybe I just don't understand how a fashion house works and all, but I'm doubting FC is the big important player in the industry we're supposed to believe it is when they can only sustain one line at a time. I thought HFTF was this hugely successful line, thanks to the unbeatable team of Hope and Thomas. But now it's just back burnered because they can't do both it and Eric's line, despite having more than enough designers in the company to handle both (and then some, since it seems like two is the absolute max they have working with any one line)? Also, if I understand things correctly, since Eric "won" the showdown, they're only producing his line, and not both his and Ridge's lines, right? So, even though the company is apparently in bad financial situation (despite all the raves about how insanely well the most recent HFTF line performed), they're not going to be producing the line that actually won the challenge (i.e. went over better with buyers)? How is this company still in business?? Please, show, do not make Bill Luna's father. We don't need that. It's perfectly fine to have a few characters on the canvas who aren't related to everyone else. She's related to Finn, so that already makes her Forrester adjacent. She doesn't need to be a Spencer, and Bill doesn't need one more kid he didn't get to raise. I mean, I think Bill as a girl dad would be kind of adorable and all, but Kelly is right there. (And I would full on cackle for fucking days if they retconned her away from Liam.) Oh, and count me in on thinking RJ and Luna are kind of cute. No, they're not the best actors, but they're not terrible, and if they don't get better, the show can always sideline them away.

I'm surprised he hasn't gotten on top of creating a male Forrester baby who isn't biologically related to Beth or Kelly. Because we all know he's only interested in writing for the Forresters, Logans, and (sometimes) Spencers. And among those three families, the only shot of a boy who isn't genetically related to Beth and Kelly is a Forrester who isn't descended from Ridge, Rick, or Bridget. It's going to kill Brad to have to make the linchpin of his next generation eternal triangle someone from some other family. (Please don't be related to Sheila. Please don't be related to Sheila. Please don't be related to Sheila.) When they SORAS the girls, they're going to need Thorne to pop back in with some teenage son he never told anyone about.

I was not watching at that point, but damn, how badly must that bridge (no pun intended) have been burned, if RM wouldn't even make a cameo for Stephanie's death/SF's sendoff? Or if the show was so done with him that they didn't make the attempt, despite how shitty it makes the character look? Because, even though I wasn't watching then, I knew Ridge hadn't been there at all when his mother died, and it has been lingering in my mind while watching Ridge deal with Eric's impending death. Like I just can't fully buy how devastated Ridge is supposed to be about his father dying when he couldn't be assed to pop home to spend even an hour with his mother when she was dying. Maybe they could give us a scene where he confides in Brooke about how much regret he has about letting his own shit keep him away back then, and that going through this with his father now is almost like a double whammy, because he wasn't there then.

Why don't Liam and Sheila just hook up, and they can wander around town peering into people's windows? Thomas getting mad at Liam for stopping by when Beth isn't even there was basically game recognizing game. Thomas pulled that exact same shit all the time, using Douglas living there as his pretext. When Thomas showed up outside the door and heard Hope saying she'd always love Liam, I was hoping we'd get a completely unexpected twist, and that Thomas would be affected by the combination of just hearing Brooke predict Hope would break his heart and now hearing Hope telling Liam she'd always love him, and he would just up and walk away without even making his presence known. I might have more trust in his "reformation" if he was able to truly walk away, without plotting anything, when he believed Hope would never be over Liam enough to love him the way he wants her to. Also, I agree that Hope didn't mean that "love" the way he took it. She loves that he is devoted to her. But, now she's opened that door for him, and he thinks they're on the same page, which is only going to lead to psycho Thomas emerging at some point, when he realizes she doesn't feel the same way. Given that Steffy and Thomas have turned Ridge and Brooke's relationship into this huge tortured history that traumatized their very existence, I think it's really kind of sweet how much Steffy seems to adore RJ. Hating him for simply existing as a result of that union would be on brand for how they write her when it comes to Brooke, so I like that the show didn't go that way.

Brooke, I love you, but stop meddling in your grown daughter's love life. And Liam. I don't even know where to start with this asshole. Did he go over there with a thin pretense just to sniff around Hope and try to get an ego boost because Steffy hasn't kicked Finn to the curb and fallen into his arms yet? And, I mean, he's right about Thomas - if it wasn't for Douglas blowing that shit up, if Thomas had his way, Hope still wouldn't have Beth. And, in Hope's shoes, Thomas is the one guy who I would forever consider a no-go. But, Liam is such a dick that I'm tired of hearing him say it. The hair team was not on their A-game for this episode, with the biggest offense being whatever the fuck they did to RJ's hair.

Are you talking about his sleeves? That seems to be the style among guys in his age range who have muscles like that. It's an intentional choice to show them off. I can kind of get Steffy initially being patient (again) with Liam and explaining to him (again) that she is committed to Finn and not leaving him, but once he responded to all of that with "I'm not going to stop, though," she should have gone off on him. How extremely disrespectful can you get to have her stand there and tell you "I don't want you. Our time is over. I love my husband and won't leave him for you or anyone else," and that's your response? He is definitely starting to sink into Thomas's territory. He's not there yet, with no body count to his name, but he's headed in that direction. Thomas had his mannequin, Liam has his framed photo. This storyline is already shitty, but it's going to suffer even more for the absence of Wyatt attempting to be some kind of voice of reason to his idiot brother. I really became done with Li when she said that she loves Finn, but it's not the same as having a bio child. Talk about voicing every adopted kid's worst fear. And, for fuck's sake, why is anyone, Luna, Poppy, RJ, even giving Li's "Luna can't work here" ranting the time of day? She has no say in that. At this point, they've all indulged her enough. The only response to her declarations that Luna needs to stop working there right this second should be laughter. If Luna is really concerned Li might have any kind of pull, she should just talk directly to Eric. He clearly likes and trusts her. And I'd love to see Eric put Li in her place over this. And Poppy needs to be done with this. Just tell her "I love you, but I will not spend the rest of my life apologizing to you over this," and walk away. I also want to see Finn and Steffy start welcoming Luna and Poppy into their lives, just because I know it will eat away at Li, and she deserves it.

I don't think that would have worked. Even when he talked to the later Sylvie, who knew everything that her killing HWR caused, she still felt like it was the right thing to do. And that was a version of Sylvie who had lightened up on the TVA as a concept. If she wouldn't agree that he shouldn't die, then there was no way that old Sylvie was going to listen to reason.

Didn't HWR say something to Loki about reincarnation when he was explaining why he'd just let Sylvie kill him without fighting back?

What gets me is how much every character buys fully into it. The main thing that pissed me off about this most recent Bridge reunion was Ridge allowing Taylor to spew her lies about Brooke, while hiding her own culpability in nuking their friendship, without calling her out on it or standing up for Brooke. Ridge knew damn well that, before Brooke even thought about going after him, Taylor had already thrown herself at him without even an ounce of subtlety. I get that Taylor is always going to be a big part of his life, and he's always going to have some level of affection for her, but if he's truly choosing Brooke, and only Brooke now, then he needs to have her back. I may hate everything about Hope letting Thomas into her life, but I really loved when Steffy, thinking she was playing some trump card to shame Hope, said "I guess you're turning into your mother after all," and Hope had zero fucks to give about that and said she realizes there's nothing wrong with that after all. After who knows how long of Hope always thinking she had to do some kind of karmic good girl routine to atone for her birth, and Brooke thinking that Hope is better than her, with Steffy/Taylor happily helping that bullshit along, it's nice to see Hope take that bullet out of their guns. You could see how much at a loss Steffy was when it happened. Liam: "Um, who?" Related, if Liam ever tells Steffy how much he loved living with her and raising Kelly and "Phoebe," I'm going to have a rage blackout. Sadly, I feel like that's not something that is out of the question for who Liam is now.

I think it would stand to reason, then, that if he wanted to see her, she'd be able to get through.

He really is. "I can keep you safe" is the new "you're the only woman I love." I'm kind of dying for someone to point out to him that he's acting just like Thomas.

It was so good, but I feel so sad. I'm hoping we've got one more season coming (at least). For one thing, I need my Loki/Thor reunion. I need Thor to see how truly good and heroic Loki was. That relationship is such a big part of both characters, that it would be a shame to not have that moment. It wasn't until a while after we finished watching that I realized they left some threads dangling. I think they have some groundwork laid for a third season. We've got the return of Miss Minutes. Ravonna is at the end of time and could potentially have a conversation with HWR, where she finds out that Miss Minutes's version of events does not match up with his version. (That part is just my theory. I think that Miss Minutes was threatened by the Ravonna/HWR relationship, and she erased her memory of her own accord, not on his orders). Oh, and while this reset appears to have left young Victor Timely alone, his name is still in the TVA manual, which makes me think that he could still end up getting dragged back into things somehow, if someone were to go looking for him. But, like I said, I feel sad. Loki wanted his friends back. He wanted to hang out with Mobius and the rest of the gang. And he gave it all up. And, as someone who has never liked Sylvie very much, it irks me that she got to go out to a world of endless possibilities, getting exactly the happy ending she wanted, and that was on the back of Loki making such a huge sacrifice and not getting his happy ending. Oh, and I wonder why the new TVA didn't find some way to allow people to go back to their own timelines and lives while still working. Like, just make it a normal job (with travel, obviously). I'm thinking a situation where Mobius can still work there, but he can also still go home to his boys. It wouldn't be quite a routine 9-5 situation, but with the abilities TVA agents have, couldn't they kind of straddle both their TVA existence and their "real" lives? God, Tom Hiddleston was incredible, in every episode, really, but especially in this one. Give him all the awards. I was a little bummed we didn't get some post credits outtakes of Loki's science lessons with OB.

Since Liam found out about Sheila/Deacon, has he expressed a single ounce of concern about Hope and Beth being dragged into Sheila's life? Or is it solely just another vehicle for him to try to break up Steffy's marriage because, dammit, it's been too long since he got laid? This is one of the main reasons I wanted to punch Taylor when she was whining about Hope having custody of Douglas. I don't know if it was directed, or if it was how KA chose to play it, but those scenes really had an undercurrent of Taylor being angry with Steffy for spilling the beans before they got married. I've never been able to understand the whole "Saint Taylor" thing. I wasn't around for much of her early years, but everything I've seen since I started watching the show flies right in the face of the idea that she's some pure and good character. It's just that all of her sins get swept under the rug, with nobody ever allowed to bring them up or call her on them. And if anybody dares to try, she just gets all condescending and projects her own bullshit onto them.

I'm half-expecting some future scene where the two of them are going at it in the living room, and we see Liam and Sheila angrily looking in from two different windows.

Today's Bill/Liam scenes suffered the absence of Wyatt. He would have been the one to point out to Liam that Steffy didn't let him know she was home, because she went right to her husband. And Liam trying to pretend he wasn't trying to steal Steffy from Finn until he started calling Sheila "mom" was all kinds of bullshit. He started sniffing around her the second he saw Hope kissing Thomas. Sheila is just the excuse he tells himself so he can pretend to be a good guy.

"But nobody's heart is breaking more than Ridge's." Oh, for fuck's sake. Is that really what we're going to do here? Eric is dying, but everyone must prioritize Ridge? Brooke won't be able to deal with her own grief over someone who is one of her best friends because she has to focus on soothing Ridge? Her son is standing right next to her, obviously in anguish over his grandfather, but it's got to be all about Ridge? Her sister is going to be devastated by losing the love of her life, but it's got to be all about Ridge? Two of her children are going to lose their father, but Ridge's stoic man pain is going to be the only pain that counts? I can't hate on Steffy for decking Sheila. That's the least of what she owes her for shooting the two of them and leaving them to die in an alley. Also, Deacon should have to keep dealing with and witnessing everyone in town telling her off, asking him what the fuck is wrong with him, and reminding him that he cannot, in fact, keep her in check with his love. Maybe it will finally rattle something loose in his brain to get him to wonder what in the everloving fuck he's doing. He's a successful restaurant owner, he's attractive and charming. He can find someone without all of Sheila's baggage to rock his world in bed and call him "daddy." (Gag.)