KerleyQ

"I'm not a threat to you." Bitch, you shot her and her husband and left them for dead in an alley. She's always so damn delusional about the extent of what she's done and how she expects everyone to just get over it and embrace her. I was happy that, when Deacon and Finn came in, it was Sheila on the attack, strangling Steffy. Yeah, sure, Steffy sought her out and started shit, but I'm just so deeply tired of Sheila. She's not even a fun, campy, love to hate villain. She's just whiny and tiresome. And if I never hear her call Deacon "daddy" again, it will be too soon. Finn's duh face whenever confronted with Sheila is so ridiculous. Where is the Finn who had nothing but venom for her when he was stuck in that hospital bed at her mercy? That Finn was interesting, and TN did a really good job with those scenes. "But she's my mommy" confused Finn is terrible, and TN's acting is horrific in those kinds of scenes. Liam, shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Hayes is still going to be Sheila's grandson no matter who Steffy is married to. Even if Finn embraced her and said "but I'm giving Steffy full custody of Hayes," Sheila wouldn't be content with that. If anything, it would piss her off more and make her more obsessive, because Steffy hurt her son and took her grandson away. Let's have this fight, along with his conversation with Hope in yesterday's episode, be the nail in the coffin for Deacon's relationship with Sheila. And have Finn, tomorrow, reiterate that he wants her to stay the hell away from his family. Then, let Sheila lose her shit, do what she's going to do, and finally toss her into jail and send her off screen for a nice long time. She works best in small doses, and she has way outstayed her welcome this time. They should have had a much longer gap between when they thought she was mauled to death by a bear and when she reappeared. And, Lord, please don't let her mention of her other kids mean the show is thinking of adding some of her offspring to the canvas. We don't need that.

Yes. He found out when he was grabbing something for her out of her bag, and he saw the paternity test.

I just keep hoping that one of the times he barges into her house, he catches her and Finn going at it on the couch and realizes that she never enjoyed sex with him as much as she seems to be enjoying it with Finn. Zende is like the love child of Thomas and Liam. I'd put most of my chips on Zende, after convincing Luna to keep quiet, finds a way to make sure RJ learns the truth like a month or so down the line, because that would be a bigger stake to the heart than hearing the truth now. I'm sliding a couple of chips over to the Zende hooks up with Poppy bet, though. There's just something about their scenes that makes me think they've been getting a chem test. And, of course, Thomas is still trying to pressure Hope, with that talk about how Eric is teaching all of them to grab love and happiness when you can because you never know. He will never respect her wishes when her wishes don't line up with what he wants. I laughed when Sheila turned away from Deacon's kiss to punish him. Since the physical is what she has gone to in the past to keep him on the hook when he's tried to end things, I highly encourage her to punish him by withholding intimacy. Do it. Do it! Maybe he can get his head on straight again when he's not sex drunk.

I'll say that I think AN and MA used to have chemistry, before they started hooking up. Now, their only chemistry, to me, is that the two of them are both game to put on a show for their sex scenes. Fully clothed, though? They seem super awkward. Thomas seems like he's way too earnest about trying to be someone he isn't, and Hope veers from uncomfortable to trying too hard to make this more. The only conversations they have are "I love you and only you. I want you to put that ring on your finger, because that's where it belongs," and "I care so much about you, but I'm not ready yet. But this is so great." It's like Bell found a way to make the repetitive dialogue thing even worse by giving it to two characters instead of just one. No soap couple has ever been entertaining while having the same exact "we really want to be shmoopy" conversation about their feelings over and over and over and over and over. It's not quite to "cha cha cha" levels of embarrassingly repetitive, but it's going to get there soon. All their chemistry, to me, was in the tension before anything happened. The way AN looked at him sometimes really drove that chemistry (which, now that I think of it, the chemistry may all be Annika. I don't think I've seen MA's Thomas have chemistry with anyone other than his mother). But she's not looking at him like the forbidden fruit anymore, and it's really kind of killed off what I was seeing.

I was going with the "somehow ended up" thing presuming that she doesn't really remember all of those details. As for the water, she was already outside and saw the water through the window of the guest house. And, well, she was drugged and not thinking straight, so, in that state, all that registered was "I'm super thirsty, and there's some water." People who are drugged don't make rational decisions.

Deacon, Jesus. Wake up and smell the crazy. Did you not see Sheila instantly go into crazy eyes mode when you started suggesting you put off announcing your engagement or getting married? You may as well have strapped a missile on her back and aimed her right at Hope. Speaking of Hope, I'm sorry, but I cannot sit here and watch her lecturing Sheila about how she hasn't changed, when she's busy fucking Thomas on almost as flimsy of a "changed" basis. And Thomas has actually abused Thomas, along with, of course, letting Hope believe Beth was dead, so he's specifically been a threat to her children before, which should be at least equal to having been a threat to her mother (oh, wait, he also framed her mother for a fake CPS call and knew that Sheila was the one who slipped her real booze to get her to fall off the wagon). Yes, she's right about Sheila, but she's likely wrong about Thomas, and since she's doing the same damn thing her father is - letting her hormones lead her to the crazy, she is not one to talk to Deacon. (It would be kind of cool if Beth was a tween or older and she was the one imploring both her grandpa and her mother to stop fucking the crazy.) Luna, if you do actually tell RJ, I'm guessing you're going to botch the telling. Here's how you do that - ask him to let you speak until you get it all out. Start by reminding him of how you weren't feeling well at the party, and then introduce the "mints" and that mix up. Then you progress to how you went into the guesthouse to get water and somehow ended up passing out in the bed. Then get to the part where you thought he came to you, and you were so happy to see him, and the two of you made love. Then the morning after and how you found out what happened with Zende and then found out from your mom what you had accidentally taken. Instead, I'm guessing you're just going to let the guilt flow over you and just lead with "I had sex with Zende!" Finally, was it me, or was that some kind of weird chem test of Zende and Poppy today?

And that she fucked over Brooke more recently with the champagne, which ended up including Deacon in the plot to fuck with Brooke's sobriety and relationships. I honestly can't remember if Deacon being a part of it was something Sheila planned, or if it was just a happy accident that he ended up being there when it went down, but, either way, it ended up involving him. And considering how hard he was working back then to be a part of Hope's and Brooke's lives, it really could have fucked him over and damaged those relationships.

Respectfully, consent isn't an opinion. There is a legal definition, and that legal definition does not include "thought she was with someone else." Just because Brad Bell wants to play fast and loose with it, so he can have his "misunderstanding nights" without permanently branding one of his characters a rapist, that doesn't change the fact that consent involves being aware of exactly what you're consenting to. Luna didn't know who she was with. She gave consent to sex with her boyfriend RJ. She did not give consent to sex with Zende. What happened between them fits the legal definition of sexual assault. And Bell would be doing better by Zende (now that the deed has been done) to have his angst be about realizing that fact and questioning what kind of man he is instead of him having a sad that Luna still doesn't want him.

This. Every single time he's made any kind of romantic overture, she's shot him down and reiterated that she loves RJ and is committed to him. He literally just gave it another shot earlier that night, and she was not receptive. There was no winking. No "maybe I'll see you later," nothing that indicated she was considering taking him up on that. And nothing in the way she's conducted herself the entire time he's known her would give him the idea that she was a cheater. When he found her in the guesthouse, she was out cold, she was very clearly drowsy when he woke her up. He didn't take two seconds to make sure she was fully awake and coherent. He didn't take a few seconds to say "did something happen to you and RJ?" His generation has a better understanding of consent than older generations used to have. He absolutely should have taken the time to make sure everything was OK. I know he's been pining over her for weeks and all, but that doesn't clear him from being responsible about the situation. Side note on that pining - when are we supposed to think he actually started having some level of romantic feelings for her? Because we all saw his interest in her start as a way to get one over on RJ. (That, BTW, makes this whole thing even ickier to me. He started pursuing this much younger woman strictly because he was pissy that his cousin was getting a better opportunity at work, and than that pursuit led to this.)

What happened does not fit the definition of consensual. Luna was incapable of giving consent in the state she was in, and she didn't even know who she was with. It's not remotely unusual for someone in her position to think it was consensual simply because there was no physical force, and she didn't scream "no! Stop!" There's also some element of not wanting to believe that you're a victim and not wanting to believe that this person you know and have been friends with would do anything like that to you. Not to mention that, in the immediate aftermath, Zende kept repeating to her that it was consensual, while she was more focused on her own guilt over what she views as cheating on RJ than she is on the realities of consent. So, sure, she can agree with Zende that it was consensual, but that doesn't make it true. Neither of them is using that term accurately. At the point in time when it happened, she thought she was having sex with her boyfriend. She did not want to or consent to having sex with Zende.

I swear, if they go back to Finn being wishy-washy about Sheila after she stalks his stepdaughter and then gets into a physical fight with his wife... Eww.

Ah, thank you. I didn't have my glasses on, and it looked like a thin hair tie to me.

"You're going to question me about someone's romantic intentions when you're divorcing one of my sisters so you can go try to wreck my other sister's marriage?"

Zende is just super creepy. He knows Luna did not intend to sleep with him. He knows she's devastated by what happened with them. And there he is getting all weird over her hair tie and keeping it like a souvenir. He's going to be the new Thomas. And after Eric asked him to mentor Luna, you just know he was thinking "hey, working with Hope eventually worked for Thomas!" Luna, don't listen to your mother. She doesn't want you to tell RJ what happened because, if it does lead to your breakup, she would feel guilty over her role in it. So she's urging you to keep quiet so she doesn't have to face that. Luna was drugged. Her actions occurred because she was drugged and disoriented. If she had been in her right mind and did all the things she did, she would, of course, bear the blame. But that's not what happened. And Poppy is partially responsible here. She was walking around with her "mints" apparently in exactly the same kind of container her daughter keeps her own real mints in. She surely must have known how heavily her daughter pops those mints. She had choices she could have made to ensure that her daughter didn't inadvertently and unknowingly end up taking her drugs. She could have kept them in an entirely different container (say a pill bottle). She could have made sure her daughter knew that she had "mints" she used to treat her anxiety that could be confused for normal mints. I take narcotic pain meds regularly. I've always made sure to keep them stored safely, but also, from the time my son could understand, I made sure he knew what medicine looks like and how important it was to not ever put it in his mouth. (And it took. When he was like 3, someone had dropped a pill on the floor in the lobby of the physical therapy clinic I went to. He spotted it and was right on telling all of us "medicine! There's medicine on the floor!") If I could get a toddler up to speed on what I was taking and how to avoid it, Poppy could certainly make sure her adult daughter knew to avoid her "mints." Luna's a bit over the top today with the "OMG, my mom is a druggie," but she's still reeling. Toned down, her points stand. It was too easy for her to end up with Poppy's drugs in her bag, and without any knowledge of what Poppy was taking, she was defenseless when it happened.

I'm assuming that, once Luna finishes explaining what happened, Poppy will figure it out and tell her. I assume that was the whole point of Li mentioning the drugs this week for the first time, and hammering away at how dangerous it could be for Luna, so that Poppy is already in that mindset and figures it out right away. (And if she doesn't tell her and lets her carry on thinking she just flat out cheated on RJ, she's made a serious bid for Shitty Parent of the Year.) Also, she was referring to them as mints (when she was alone and looking for them), so apparently, whatever drug she's taking, she was able to get in the form of a mint, which explains why Luna didn't notice that they weren't her mints when popping them. Although I'm still side-eyeing the idea that they would have had to look like her mints and that Poppy keeps them in the exact same kind of container, so that Luna wouldn't notice anything was off.

Agreed. And, under the circumstances, Zende should have had some level of "are you sure? What happened with you and RJ?" when Luna has always been very direct with him that she is in love with RJ and not interested in him that way. He walks in and she's basically passed out in his bed, that should have been the first red flag. And I was creeped out by his "you know this was consensual, right?" Dude, it clearly was not, because she can barely remember anything that happened last night, and she's already told you she thought you were RJ. That isn't consensual. Someone can actively participate in sex and it still not be consensual, when they lack the ability to consent. That's the situation here. Since this was someone Zende did not have a pre-existing sexual/romantic relationship, the onus was on him to take a pause and ensure everything was OK. He didn't do it. He heard her dreamily slur "I was waiting for you," when she was half-asleep, and he just went for it.

And I can't even figure out what the point of this all is. With Thomas/Caroline, it was obviously the plot they wanted to use to end things between her and Ridge. I don't think they're looking to end Luna/RJ, since they've spent so much time blowing smoke up our asses about how they're just the greatest young couple ever. And I don't think that the actor playing Zende has the same level of talent and charm that Pierson Fode had as Thomas. Part of me suspects that, the wrap up of this storyline is just going to be Zende shipping back off to an FC office in Europe or completely fading into the background at this FC office, like Paris has. Either that or Thomas and Ridge can hold a ceremony to welcome him into their club, declaring that now he is a true Forrester man. I'm envisioning something like SNL's Five Timers Club. They can get Rena Sofer back for a day so Quinn can tend bar at the club meeting.

Bill's obsession with Luna is kind of weird in general. He's met her a couple times and had one or two brief conversations with her. But he's spent damn near half the time he's with Poppy going on about what an exceptional young woman Luna is. My only guess is that we're going to end up with Bill and Poppy pretending he is Luna's father, to keep the real truth from coming out.

I have to say, if I was dating someone, and anytime our faces got within a foot of each other, they were yanking themselves out of the moment to pop a mint, I'd find it odd and off putting. I mean, I can see needing to pop a mint right after eating, but the way they've had Luna going at those mints, just to set this up, has been bizarre and unnecessary. We could have just seen Poppy popping her pills regularly and then the mix up when Luna was switching purses. A lot of people carry mints in their bags. Luna could have gone for a mint after eating some hors d'oeuvres or something, and it would have been enough. Also, the fact that she pops them a million times a day makes her mistaking her mom's pills for her mints even more absurd. She didn't notice that they didn't look exactly the same? She didn't notice a difference in taste?

Why is this show so rape-y? Err... Misunderstand-y?

I'm with you on this. This is my hill to die on with this show. Not only should the history there make it a "never gonna happen," but the way MA plays the character, I just don't see how I can ever see him as anything but, at minimum, evil-adjacent. He has resting villain face. And I really want to know what the point was of bringing Xander back to bring Emma's death back up if the result was going to be Hope putting Thomas off for a few hours before being fine with it and everyone but Finn helping Thomas sweep it under the rug. I mean, I know I kept bringing that shit up, but I didn't see a huge swell of "Justice for Emma" out among the general audience that necessitated revisiting it if they weren't going to actually, you know, do something with it.

Things that stuck out over the past week: 1) Zende is insufferable. Dude, it sounds like your beef is more with your parents, your grandfather, and Ridge than it is with RJ. Is RJ a nepo baby? Absolutely. But so are you. Your parents could easily get you a cool beach house. If you're pissed that they haven't, that's not on RJ. You're also working at the family business, and you've also designed a line with your grandfather (and that line apparently tanked, but you're still working there). Also, you're a grown ass adult who has already been married and divorced. Your desire to go play in he kiddie pool is disturbing. 2) Thomas is still creepy. The way he keeps talking slow and low while repeating all the "I love only you. We're going to be together." stuff makes it seem like he's trying to program Hope or something. And he keeps saying he's respecting her request for some time, but he's not really. He brings up her putting the ring on her finger every time they talk. And this most recent time, it was almost like he was trying to instruct her to do it, after another round of the repetitive "I love only you, we're meant to be together," programming. 3) Yeah, Luna is definitely Jack's daughter. I did have a brief moment of "holy shit, is she Finn's daughter?" when Finn was talking about how both of his parents were gone a lot, and he and Aunt Poppy had so much fun together, but then I don't think he'd refer to it like that if he had been banging his aunt. He'd seem a lot more secretive, I'd think. Since both his parents were gone a lot, I'm guessing that they were at least sometimes gone at different times, which would lead to Jack and Poppy having some time when Li wasn't around. And this would explain Li's insanely over the top hatred of both Poppy and Luna much more than an affair with a doctor ever did.

Speaking of Wyatt, it sounds like he's not fully 100 percent gone. I saw an interview yesterday where he made it sound like it's basically an open ended recurring situation now, because they just haven't had any plans for him. So, he may get called in periodically, like he was for his scenes this past week, and he's happy to do it if he is free when they need him. Hopefully, that means we'll see him here and there, especially if Luna is Bill's. Wyatt should be there for that reveal. And then, maybe someone in writing gets their head out of their ass and realizes that Hope/Wyatt is the way to go at some point in the future. (I admittedly have a fever right now, so I may be a bit delusional in that optimism).

While I was watching yesterday, I was thinking "God, you're such a pill, it's no wonder Jack strayed."

So, is there some kind of cost-cutting move at B&B where they pick one character each month and give the actor just one script that they use any time they're called onto set that month? And this month is Li's turn? I'm just cracking up at her saying Bill is off limits. Good luck trying to enforce that, Li. I hope Poppy hops on the Stallion right in front of her bitchass sister. All through the Bill/Liam scenes, when Liam was talking about how it's fate that Bill and Poppy found each other again, I was expecting Liam to launch into something like "just like Steffy and I are fated to be together." Because you know he was thinking it. I was cracking up at RJ being the one to finally do the math.