KerleyQ

It's going to be a while before I stop being mad about this.

Complete with Mike and Taylor on the outside, trying to slip Sheila and Thomas weapons?

Did they just lift Thomas's scenes with Finn from old Sheila/Steffy scripts? The whole "we're family whether you like it or not," and "if you don't start trouble, there won't be any trouble" shit? Straight out of Sheila's lines to Steffy. The writing seems on the wall for where the romantic pairings are headed. Finn's being so worried about Hope and going against Thomas is going to end up splitting him and Steffy, which will free her up for her waffle. And then we'll get Finn/Hope. I'd still prefer Wyatt and that it was him worrying about Hope so much in this story now, but, honestly, I'll take whatever gets Hope away from both Liam and Thomas. At some point, this show needs to actually fix Thomas and, for the love of God, bring in a love interest who isn't Hope. He'll never be "all better" as long as he's obsessing over Hope. Let him get bowled over by some new woman in town and try to have a healthy relationship where they're equally into each other. Oh, and I'm kind of disgusted by how little remorse Thomas seems to have for Emma's death. Yes, she ran off the road because she was driving too fast. But, why was she driving too fast? And who was it that witnessed her accident and didn't call for help for her, because her being out of the way worked for his agenda? Even if they want to say he didn't directly drive her off the road, he was still chasing her at a high speed, in an aggressive and threatening manner. There was little difference between what happened then and what happened when Li went off the bridge trying to get away from Sheila. (Hey, maybe they should just go ahead and pair Thomas and Sheila up, they have a lot in common.) And he failed to report the crash. Him not giving a shit about that doesn't speak well of how much better he's supposed to be and how he supposedly feels bad for his past actions.

I think I said yesterday that it won't be long before he "accidentally" lets it slip to Douglas that he proposed to Hope, and she's wearing the ring "close to her heart." And then we'll be right back to where we were back in 2019(I think it was?). He'll be enlisting Douglas to put pressure on Hope for them to be a family.

Steffy and her whole "he's my brother, you have to support him." Um, not that I don't agree with wanting Sheila out of their lives, but if you get to not support his criminal birth mother, then he can be wary of your criminal brother. I do think that Steffy is struggling with this, and isn't as all in on Thomas's innocence as she claims. She just wants to push it back into the past and pretend it never happened. I've always liked Hope and Finn as a friendship/familial type relationship, I am not so sure I'm ready to see them as a romantic pairing, but I'll be shocked if that's not where this is headed. (Dammit, bring back Wyatt, show!) Thomas is slowly amping up the creepy now. All of the "change your mind? No, no, I'm not going to pressure you" stuff is icky. If you weren't going to pressure her, you wouldn't have bought a ring after a few months of hooking up, you wouldn't have insisted she wear the ring around her neck, and you wouldn't be "jokingly" asking her if she's changed her mind or insisting that you know the ring will be on her finger some day. That's all pressure, creeper. I'm just happy to have Bill in a storyline, but, again, I'd really rather he not be Luna's father. Let the father end up being some old rival of his, and he doesn't find out until he's fully in love with Poppy and adores Luna as a potential stepdaughter. Or it can just be some strange guy who maybe isn't good for Poppy and Luna, and he ends up defending them from the guy. Anything but him having his third surprise adult child. I've noticed that, ever since Eric's illness hit its peak, the show has been much tighter with spoilers. I used to be able to find a full week of spoilers the previous Wednesday afternoon. But, it's Thursday night, and I can't find a good full week of spoilers, only day to day spoilers and speculation framed as spoiler-ish.

Not to defend him, but he wasn't actually the one who kidnapped her. That was the doctor (who then sold her to Taylor for Steffy). He just found out about it and then took the lead on keeping it quiet so that he could dangle Douglas in front of her as a child she could be a mother to. But, yeah, Beth would be the main reason I just cannot deal with the concept of Hope marrying him. I hate Liam these days, but he'd have every right in the world to go scorched earth over the mere idea of Beth living under the same roof as Thomas.

AN is really doing a great job with this turn in the story. You can see her walking a tightrope between placating Thomas and her own fears and concerns. You can see exactly how freaked out she is without her having to say a single word. That scene at the end, when he hugged her and she put her hand to her forehead was so well done by her. If this was a soap where characters had friends, we could see her actually talk this out with someone. But, she has no one she can talk to about this. She told him that they should keep this between the two of them, but how long do you think it will be before he "accidentally" lets it slip to Douglas, so he can put some pressure on her? If he does, that should lead to Hope having flashbacks to the whole Beth storyline. I'll be genuinely surprised if Thomas losing his shit isn't where this is all headed. You've got Hope looking freaked out interspersed with Steffy talking about how Hope should just end things while Finn's freaked out about the possibility of Thomas being an actual murderer. And I don't think they would have bothered to revisit the Emma story if they were just going to whitewash Thomas's behavior (especially since they're using flashbacks of him threatening people). Yes, I cared that they just let that go. And I'm sure a handful of other viewers cared, but, by and large, it was not something the majority of the audience was complaining about, and there was nobody left on canvas who was connected to Emma (hence them having to bring back Xander, who was never a very important character). Thomas wasn't suffering anything for that whole thing, so I don't see the show thinking they needed to dig up a character who'd care and dragging that whole thing back into everyone's minds, just to say "never mind, it wasn't really anything." And to bring it up right when Thomas is suddenly pressuring Hope to move things further along? We're definitely revisiting crazy Thomas. And I'm here for that, because I've never bought his being reformed, and I was always pissed he didn't suffer any consequences for Emma. But, I also fear that this is being done now to lead to Hope/Finn and Steffy/Liam. I laughed when Bill said "you know her nephew. He's married to Steffy," and Liam got all bitch-faced. That's right, asshat, nobody wants you. I could get into Bill/Poppy, but he doesn't need to be made Luna's father for them to be a couple. Just leave her father as the doctor she had the affair with. He doesn't have to be on the canvas. And Bill doesn't need another kid he didn't get to raise. If they want to give him a daughter, Kelly is right there.

He's had the ring "for a while"?? Yikes. They have not been hooking up that long, just since, what, late summer? If he's had it for a while, he likely bought that thing after only a few months of hooking up, with Hope repeatedly telling him that she was not interested in anything else, and that she doesn't share his feelings. He is not anywhere near out of crazy town. And, yeah, he told her she didn't have to apologize, but right before that, you could see he was pissed. That jaw clench said it all. Hope seems like she's realizing that, too. She didn't look like she thought keeping the ring on a chain was romantic, she looked more troubled for Thomas, like she knows he's not as OK as everyone thought. very much got a vibe off of her like "OK, we need to placate him and get through this conversation, then I can regroup and figure out what the fuck to do." AN did a really good job this episode. You could really see in her eyes how unsettled she was in that opening scene. I cracked up at Xander just making that grand proclamation that Thomas was responsible for Emma's death, and walking out without elaborating. Dude, you've spilled this much, stay a few more minutes and get the whole story out. Even funnier that he ended their scenes last week with essentially the same accusation, and, somehow, through their scenes today, he never really got the whole story out there. He and Finn just kept talking in circles. "He was one of the ones who knew and didn't say anything." Yeah, you know who else was, Steffy? Your dumbass evil brother. Oh, and, side note: Your brother is the reason Xander didn't say anything. He was working overtime to intimidate everyone who found out into keeping quiet. And, you know, running them off the road to their death if they didn't fall in line... Ridge, listen to Brooke. She and Steffy don't ever agree on anything, and they're both sitting there telling you that the shit is going to hit the fan with Thomas and Hope.

Yeah, that one surprised me just kind of slid in there among all the other spoilers. I'm looking forward to it.

So, spoilers have Steffy and Finn at odds over Thomas. I'm going to guess that Finn believes Xander about Emma's death, and Steffy doesn't want to hear it. Hey, Steffy, even if you think he's all better now, you know exactly what kind of depraved, obsessed monster he was at that point in time. Also, I'm guessing that means it's going to be full Steam ahead, isn't it? Not even Finn saving her beloved grandpa's life is going to be enough to prevent that shitty ass "love story." We're likely also going to get Hope/Finn not too far down the road, aren't we? Thomas probably goes off the rails and Finn, being one of the only people who sees it coming, saves her?

It didn't air yesterday, and there's a repeat airing Monday. And, no, not even a good repeat. It's the episode from this summer with the flight home from Rome and Liam whining to Wyatt.

I agree. And, not for nothing, but Stephanie died over a decade ago. They were already aware that they were in the stage of life where your parents are more likely to die. I know that's morbid, but it's reality. And considering that Ridge was trying to shove him off into retirement, he was certainly well aware of how old his father is and how limited his time may be.

Oh, hey, look, Thomas is still using Douglas to try to manipulate Hope into marriage. What a shock. Ridge, yes, we all know what happened the last time Thomas was all in on Hope, but that was not Hope's fault for not returning his feelings, just like it won't be her fault if it happens again. If your son is not well-adjusted enough to handle not having his feelings returned, then you need to be insisting that he get more therapy, not dumping it on Hope. All signs point to another trip to crazy town for Thomas. All of a sudden he's pushing for marriage, right as Steffy and Ridge are worrying about how he'll react if Hope doesn't return his feelings, and Xander is back in town ready to tell everyone what happened to Emma? And that would lead to the perfect opportunity for Hope to move on (eventually) to Wyatt except, of course, this damn show dumped him. So we'll probably end up with either Liam or Finn saving her and becoming the repeat or new "love of her life." What in the hell is on Steffy's head? Surely a television production can find better wigs than what they keep haphazardly slapping on JMW's head.

Her hair was really cute and more age appropriate when she first got it cut, right around the time of Beth's birthday party, and it was just above shoulder length. Her hair now is objectively a nice haircut that looks healthy (which is practically a miracle for hair on this show), but it is really aging her, just from a style point of view. Far be it from me to ever defend Thomas, but Finn stormed in there like Thomas going all ragey on Steffy. He seemed to listen outside the door long enough that he should have gotten the gist of the situation - that his wife was being aggressively intrusive into her brother's personal life, and he finally had to raise his voice a hair when she would not take "mind your business" for an answer. And where does Steffy get off saying Hope hasn't been honest with Thomas? She's been nothing but honest with him, repeatedly telling him that this wasn't a grand romance, and they're just fucking around for now. Thomas holding out hope that it will be more, because his feelings are stronger, is not on Hope.

I'm trying to remember now, did Xander know that Emma had found out about Beth? And he somehow got intimidated into keeping quiet?

Oh my God, Steffy, shut the hell up. Your brother is a grown ass man who can have his own define the relationship talks without you trying to force one onto him and Hope. And, spoiler alert, if losing Hope or finding out Hope will never love him could send him careening off the rails again, then brother dear is not nearly as "all better" as you and mommy insist he is.

I'm just glad they're finally addressing it. It's insane to have a legacy character do something like that and then just ignore that it ever happened, and never have him suffer a single consequence for it. I swear, though, if this is all so they can rewrite it the way the Thomas stans have, saying that it was all on Emma, because she was the one in the front car, driving recklessly, I will lose it.

Well, well, well, Merry Christmas to me. I've been waiting for Emma's death to be revisited for who knows how long. Xander Avant Returns To Avenge Emma's Death?

That is my favorite part of all of this. They had better give us the scene of Steffy gushing to Liam about how Finn saved her beloved grandfather. It's too bad Wyatt's gone, because I'd love to see his reaction to Liam trying to whine to him about that.

I was not watching back then, just keeping up via SOD recaps. It's bizarre to me that the show was so Marone heavy back then, and now they just like to pretend they'd never heard the name Marone.

The show is awfully consistent at writing Taylor out in the worst possible ways. It's either fake deaths where she stays away from her children for years or she just randomly disappears one night in her nightgown. What even was her last scene this time?

Was it me, or was there some hint of them laying groundwork between Bridget and Finn? I'd love to have Bridget back full time, but not as the off ramp they use to get to the "twu wuv" of Steam. I was legitimately shocked to see Stephanie, and a soap hasn't legitimately shocked me in quite some time. So, good on them for that. And now they've got me questioning my certainty that Eric isn't dying. SF coming back makes me think it is JMc's exit, but at the same time, it would be really shitty if they didn't also manage to get the rest of his kids back in town for it, too. I'd think most of the actors involved would be willing to come back even just for one day out of respect for him, even if they weren't thrilled with the show when they left. I agree that this has been dragging and ridiculous at times, but I'm going to miss it when we get Liam back on screen four out of five days a week, being a gigantic asshole.

I didn't think she had chemistry with TK, but I put that on him, because she had chemistry with everyone on the canvas but him. The only people TK has had chemistry with are DD, JMW (you could have had an inappropriate chemistry faceoff between Ridge/Steffy and Taylor/Thomas), and the actress who played Caroline (until the show decided they were bored with that pairing). I could have been all in on Taylor with Bill, Deacon, or Brooke.

I'm no Taylor fan, but I would have much rather had them keep her around for Deacon and send Sheila off to jail.

I was hoping they'd have her run into Thorne in the hall or something, and actually keep Winsor around for a while. And wouldn't Li's head just explode if her sister started dating one of the Forresters?