KerleyQ

They could have just had her lip synch and dub in her lines from any of the past few episodes.

How much is Ridge loving, though, that he's fully back in the driver's seat with both women wanting him to pick them? Way to shit all over giving these women any kind of spine and self-respect when it comes to him, show. It was all a mirage.

I just realized that even Brooke and Taylor being friends was really fully and completely about Ridge. Here we got suckered thinking we were getting a real friendship, or even a potential love story between two mature women, but, no, it was never about the two of them. It was never intended to be anything. They needed story to cover TK's break, so with no Ridge to fight over, instead of giving either actress (or, Heaven forfend, both) a romantic storyline while TK was gone, they wrote this "we have no intention of taking this even a full year" friendship to keep them both in a holding pattern so they could go right back to fighting over Ridge when TK was back full time. They put two characters on ice for Ridge. Taylor certainly didn't want to admit to her kids everything she did, did she? And I don't know why she didn't just own it all. Neither one of her kids would do anything other than high-five her and then settle in for a good old-fashioned bitch session about Brooke. It would have been annoying, but at least it would have been honest. But, no, Saint Taylor will giggly admit that she's always wanted Ridge, but she won't admit that she shoved Deacon into heartbreak and sped over to FC to hit on Ridge and break her pact with her "best friend" ASAP. No, she was trying to help "cute" Brooke and Deacon, and, besides, she isn't so sure Brooke didn't already break the pact anyway, so help her polish that halo, kids! RIdge, do you remember telling Brooke you wish you had trusted her and talked to her? Well, time to put that into action if you meant it. Stop trying to minimize what Taylor just did. You know Brooke is telling the truth, because Taylor did come right to FC to beg you to take her back today. And she admits she encouraged Deacon. Where is Brooke exaggerating or overdramatizing a single thing? And it just occurred to me today - even Brooke's kids will call her on her shit (sometimes deserved, sometimes not so deserved). Taylor's kids never call her on her shit. And you know why? Because Brooke's kids know she's there. For life. Taylor's kids have no such security. They need to kiss mommy's ass and push for daddy to take her back because her presence in their lives is constantly tenuous. They can't, in their minds, afford to push back on her at all, because they have no history showing that she'll stick around through thick and thin. Not that that realization makes it any better that everyone gets to throw everything she's ever done in her face constantly, though. Maybe that's why my favorite pairing for her has been Bill. He may have judged her when he was newer in town (I'm not sure to what extent, because I didn't watch then), but once he fell for her, he fully and completely believed in her. And that's never stopped. And Liam's one consistently redeeming quality is that he doesn't throw her shit in her face, either. They, along with Eric, are the only people in her life who never pull that crap on her.

Of course they have Ridge show up at the end there, when it's not clear what's been going on. I was hoping he'd happen upon the partially open door and hear Brooke crying while Taylor smugged, smirked, and laughed all over her pain, and then see Taylor be the one to make it physical. I really want to see him show Taylor that same anger and contempt that he showed Brooke when he thought she made that call. And Taylor was all over the place. She couldn't even keep her story straight. First it was about trying to help Brooke and Hope have a family, then it was about Thomas, then it was about Brooke and Ridge not being right for each other, and then she'd just circle back to whatever excuse she wanted at any given time in the conversation. And how do you stand there and lecture Brooke about "transparency and honesty" while you went behind her back to push Deacon to make a play for her and then went running to Ridge to make a play for him, all without being "transparent" with Brooke about it? That certainly outweighs Brooke not giving Taylor daily "by the way, I still don't trust your son after he kept my granddaughter from her parents and faked a CPS call from me to break up my marriage" updates. Taylor knew damn well that Brooke didn't trust Thomas and that she had concerns about Hope working closely with him. She just, rightly, didn't feel the need to bring their kids' issues into their friendship. Turns out that, while Brooke had good intentions and, I think, really grew to love Taylor as a friend in that short time, Taylor clearly just wanted to keep an eye on Brooke and make sure she didn't get back together with Ridge more than she wanted to be friends.

This is why it's bugged every time Steffy brings up Brooke's "sins." Like what has Brooke done that you haven't, Steffy? Other than sleeping with your daughter's significant other, but, let's be real, that only hasn't happened because Kelly isn't old enough yet.

Taylor was giving me serious second hand embarrassment in those scenes with Ridge. It seemed to me like Ridge was well aware what she was trying to do, and he kept trying to play dumb and redirect her until she decided to make it so blatant he couldn't pretend he didn't know what she was doing any more. And it just occurred to me that Taylor may have really fucked Deacon over. Ridge and Bill agreed not to tell anyone about Deacon's relationship with Sheila, since he helped them catch her in the end. But, how fast do you think Ridge would go back on that if he hears Deacon made a play for Brooke again? He's going to go running to Brooke to warn her about Deacon and Sheila. I know Taylor doesn't know those details, but he'd still be collateral damage in her scheming, and despite the fact that she sat there blowing sunshine up Deacon's ass about how great it would be for Hope to have her family together, she won't give a single fuck that Deacon ends up with his relationship with Hope damaged.

Taylor has some issues. She hasn't let herself get really pissed off about her big grand dream reunion with Ridge being blown to pieces, because she'd have had to be mad at Thomas, Steffy, and Ridge. And the four of them can't be the superior Forrester family if she were to let loose on any of them. Instead, she threw herself into this friendship with Brooke so she could keep her eye on her and Ridge. And Thomas has to be reformed, or she might have to be mad at him or let it affect their relationship, and then she might not be the sainted mother figure she imagines she is (despite how much she's contributed to them being messed up all their lives). Now that Steffy has planted the idea in her head that Hope has feelings for Thomas, Taylor has somewhere to direct her anger - those evil Logan women. That harlot, Hope, is going to lead her sweet little boy down a bad path with her Logan feminine wiles, and that's Brooke's fault for being Hope's mother. Anything but examining her own family's shit.

Yep. This show is making us spite-ship.

Taylor is coming off a bit deranged. Maybe time to see a therapist there, Taylor. But not the one your son is seeing. The jury is still out on that one. Brooke sadly overestimates Taylor's maturity and integrity. While she's telling Ridge how they both are prioritizing their friendship, Taylor is over there manipulating Deacon into pursuing Brooke so she can go shoot her shot with Ridge and talking about how their friendship isn't really working out like they'd hoped. I hope both Deacon and Ridge bust her to Brooke. Since we're clearly going to get Bridge again, I hope it happens before JMW's maternity leave. I want to see the turnabout is fair play version of that smug conversation Steffy sought out Brooke for back in Aspen. I also think the Bridge reunion will expose the first crack in the St. Thomas the Neuter facade. We all know how Thomas acts when he doesn't get what he wants.

I agree They've had good chemistry in every interaction they've had since KA took on the role.

If she is being drugged, I do think they'll have it be someone doing it on Sheila's behalf. First, somehow, it will be discovered that she's being drugged. Everyone will think it's Thomas, even Taylor and Steffy, who will act like they're the biggest victims in all of it. But it will turn out to be someone else doing it for some convoluted plan of hers to break up Finn and Steffy by making Liam single and on the rebound. We haven't seen Paris for a while, maybe she somehow ended up sucked in by Sheila (for some ridiculous reason) and is doing her bidding. Once the truth eventually comes out, everyone will have to kiss Thomas's ass, again, for daring to think that the guy who has done exactly this sort of shit before was doing it again.

I really don't want Brooke back with Ridge, but, at the same time, after today's show, I totally want Brooke to just go crook her finger and have him come running, just so Taylor can see that she's always going to be second choice. And I did want to see a story where Taylor and Deacon try to scheme to get Ridge and Brooke, but then fall for each other, but I think Deacon may be too good for her. I think Brooke went into this friendship with the best of intentions, and she truly intended to honor it. But, I think Taylor went into it because she knew Ridge would pick Brooke after the whole CPS call truth came to light, so she figured that this friendship pact would keep Brooke and Ridge apart, and then she could slowly work her way back to Ridge over time while pretending she tried super hard to resist. Trying to set Brooke up with other men was part of that. "I was trying to do what was best for everyone." Yeah, and, in your mind, pairing Brooke up with someone else so you had a free path to Ridge was what you thought was best for everyone. As long as she was happy with Deacon, she wouldn't mind you going to Ridge. What Taylor fails to realize is that the split second Deacon tries to pursue anything with Brooke, Ridge will break land speed records running to her side and playing the "destiny" card. Aren't they still?

"You know how Thomas is always accused of being infatuated with Hope?" Um, bitch, that's because he is. That's established fact. And it's not the infatuation that's the issue. You can't help having feelings for someone. Someone needs to explain the difference to Steffy - yeah, Hope has a crush or whatever, but she's not boiling your brother's bunny. She's not gaslighting her son into some bullshit plan. She's not murdering anyone to keep her plan in place. And, sure, Steffy can be tired of Liam bitching about her brother, but that's not Hope's fault. Hope could have absolutely zero feelings for Thomas, and Thomas could be the most reformed saint in all of history, and Liam is still always going to not trust him around Hope. And he has more than earned the right to not trust him. Her problem is with Liam, and, instead of just telling him "we can't do this anymore. I'm not going to keep reassuring you or fighting with you about my brother. If you still have an issue with him, that's fine, but it's your issue, not mine." Instead, she took a flame thrower to his marriage, because, just like her brother, she's never going to get over the fact that Liam and Hope chose each other instead of the two of them. Funny how Taylor can get her undies in a wad over Brooke not repeatedly updating her with "still don't trust your son!" but Taylor can sit around with Steffy and Ridge and gossip about Brooke's daughter without having shared her thoughts with Brooke. And, Taylor, defending Thomas requires throwing someone else under the bus? Defending Thomas can't just be contained to speaking of Thomas? This just shows that Steffy and her mommy both know that this situation is a powder keg waiting to go off, and they'd rather focus the blame on Hope preemptively instead of acknowledging that, hey, maybe these two really shouldn't be working in such a close capacity. But, yeesh, Hope's mommy going to confront Steffy's mommy is just cringeworthy. If these two can't keep their children, who are pretty much perpetually in some level of conflict, out of their friendship, then time to call it. Of course, now Taylor is using those disagreements over their kids as permission to pursue Ridge without being upfront about it. She is her daughter's mother.

I very much do not want Thomas/Hope to happen, but yeah, I'd take them just fucking and getting it over with at this point over more weeks and weeks of everyone talking about Thomas and Hope.

I'll say I don't think that they should absolutely, no exceptions, never get it. But, I don't think it should be part of the redemption story itself, which this absolutely is. We're being told, he's different, he's putting in the work, etc. But, how much is him actually being better, and how much is him just not having to do anything right now, because he's been given everything he wants (to varying degrees)? He got his job back after a pretty brief ouster. He's working directly with Hope again. She's acting like he's her BFF. He's got access to Douglas. Steffy, Ridge, and Taylor have all forgiven him. And everyone (except Liam and Brooke) is pounding sunshine up his ass 24/7 about how proud they are of him. Even RJ, who seemed poised to be an adversary when he got back to town, was fawning over him this week, telling him how proud he is of him. And, yeah, he's not fucking Hope, yet, but she's making heart eyes at him and initiating contact every day. If they had not regressed him after the storyline where he helped get Liam and Bill freed, I think it would be far less distasteful for him to start looking like he's going to get the things he used to try to scheme for by just being a good guy. But they did have him regress. And, especially since his regression involved coming onto Hope, framing her mother to break up her marriage, and emotionally abusing her son, it's just so gross that not even six months played out after that before Hope was fantasizing about him. The reformed villain eventually getting happiness is a good soapy story, when it feels earned. They didn't put in the work for Thomas to earn it at this point. We literally went from him monologuing about getting vengeance for everyone taking Douglas away from him to Taylor trotting him into Steffy's living room demanding she forgive him and see he's changed. (Which is why I think he's doing something now, somehow. Why have the evil villain monologue if you never intended to do a single damn thing with it? Him somehow making Hope fall for him, whether it's by drugging her or some kind of soap opera mind control, and then using that to blow up her marriage and get custody of Douglas would be the ultimate vengeance on her and Liam. And maybe even on Steffy, if that led to Liam fucking up her marriage.)

I don't think Thomas isn't a viable romantic prospect, period. I just think he's not a viable one for the person who has been the victim/target of most of his crimes. I'm all for them bringing in a new woman for him, or even trying him and Paris. Quinn didn't get a romance with her victim, Liam. (Thank God, because I had a brief fear, at the time, that they might go there.) Flo, well, she was trash who shouldn't have stuck around, period, let alone be given a love story that booted Sally off canvas. Personally, a "redemption" story shouldn't include the person being given everything they were plotting and scheming for when they committed all of their transgressions.

It would be a new twist for a soap if that argument with Liam actually shook Hope up enough that it snapped her out of this Thomas obsession. The way they're hitting us over the head with "Thomas is changed. He's so much better now," they have to be setting us up for the reveal that, no, he has not changed, right? Today was RJ's turn to fluff Thomas, telling him how proud he is of him. Did Finn actually even think about disagreeing with Steffy? Is he allowed to do that?

Steffy is probably so turned on from getting to drive a wedge in Liam and Hope's marriage that she's going to jump Finn's bones the second he walks in the door tonight. If Thomas was really not fixating on Hope anymore, he wouldn't be standing there in the office fantasizing about Hope. Hope, you forgot to mention, when Liam defended himself with "Steffy has a happy marriage," that she had a happy relationship with Finn when she and Liam got drunk and fucked when he was upset over Thomas before.

I don't know about anyone else, but I caught Steffy looking at Liam multiple times today in a way that she would have called out Hope for looking at Thomas. And she's been dying for Liam to drag that out of her ever since she saw Hope and Thomas holding hands, but he just was not playing ball and getting what she was hinting at, so she had to just go and volunteer that information now.

Today seemed, to me, like confirmation that Thomas is still scheming. He had no reason to think Brooke had told Taylor about him overhearing her conversation with Hope. She wasn't in the room when Hope first asked Thomas if he heard them. He may suspect Hope told her mother after their conversation, but he should have been able to figure out that, even if she did, she was doing it right then, while he was talking to his mother. So, there was no chance for Brooke to have told Taylor yet. He wanted to stir up conflict in their friendship. You could tell by the way he said "oh, your BFF didn't tell you?" And, as @Waldo13 already mentioned, he stands right up in Hope's space when they're talking. Did I hear right? Bill babysat Beth and Douglas? Why did we not get some of that? They could have cut out one of the dozen daily conversations about Thomas and Hope everyone on the canvas is obligated to have to show us Bill spending time with the kids.

I hate how somehow all of Steffy's crimes have been about everyone but Steffy. Steffy spent months becoming closer and closer to Bill as he plotted against Liam. Then, Liam exchanged one kiss with a friend when they thought they were dying, and he confessed it to Steffy, and she runs off and bangs his father, resulting in a WTD storyline that she most certainly does not confess to Liam. That somehow turned into damn near everyone in town acting like Bill raped Steffy, and then Steffy was the victim again when Liam hooked up with Hope. And Liam was still going to get back together with her, for the sake of the baby, until he found out Hope was also pregnant and had a decision to make. So, once again, it was all Hope's fault that Steffy lost Liam. Liam and Steffy have sex while he's married to Hope and she's committed to Finn, resulting in another WTD pregnancy. Liam, at least, had the shaky excuse that he just saw what he thought was Hope kissing Thomas. What was Steffy's excuse? Finn had the gall to not be there that night to stop her from fucking her ex? But Liam was the only one who was portrayed as doing anything wrong, and he spent at least some time dealing with his guilt and then spent some time working to get Hope back. Steffy got a proposal from Finn pretty much immediately, with him not caring whose baby she was pregnant with. The show never writes Steffy as being the one at fault, even when she does blatantly shitty things, so it makes sense that Hope never gets to call her out on how much of a hypocrite she is when she rails on about Brooke doing the exact same shit that Steffy and her sainted mommy have done. Steffy reminds me very much of how GH has, for decades now, portrayed Carly as "brave and strong and loves with her whole heart." I'd probably pass out from shock if Hope finally snapped one day and said "enough about my mother. Haven't both you and your mother scored a father and two sons trifecta, too? And didn't your mother hook up with my brother when your sister was in love with him?" Because we're clearly not supposed to remember that kind of stuff about them.

If they want to reform Thomas, and I do think they can, then they need to do something not involving Hope. Hope was never a great love of his life. She's always been a sick obsession, someone he wanted to possess. If he "gets" her, he's not going to be reformed, he's just going to be satisfied for the moment. The only real healthy romantic relationship he's had was Sally. Obviously, from what I've seen, Y&R is way more interested in using Sally than this show ever was, so that's probably out. So, the show needs to find a new actress and create a new character. Spend some significant time screen testing actresses against MA. Wait until you find someone where the chemistry just jumps off the screen at you, and cast her. Then write him a real long term story where he gets over his obsession and actually falls into real, selfless love. And he doesn't even have to become some white hat good guy. He can be gray. He can be a schemer. I don't think any of us would really buy him as a complete goody two shoes at this point, anyway. But, his scheming has to stop being so creepy and skeevy. Let him scheme to take the CEO slot away from his sister or father. Anything that isn't trying to manipulate a woman into bed or trying to seduce a woman who is already with someone else. This just made something that I'm sure is not happening occur to me. Maybe Hope took a page out of Bill's book and is pretending to be into Thomas so she can get him to confess to his crimes (including murder). She can lay it on thick "it's so hot how far you would go to be with me. Tell me everything."

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Thomas is somehow manipulating Hope. It's the only thing that really makes sense. We went pretty much directly from the scene of him alone and monologuing about how he was going to do whatever it takes to get Douglas back to, the next time we saw him, him being all better and all "gosh, gee, golly" earnest about how he no longer has feelings for Hope and just wants to prove himself to everyone. There was zero development or explanation of that shift. Maybe he is drugging her, or maybe he's just figured out exactly how to play her, or maybe he's doing something else, but he is not reformed. And, I think this time it isn't about her being this pure angel he has up on a pedestal who he wants to be with. I think he is looking at her as "just as bad as Brooke," because he blames her for him losing his son. I think he's worming his way in to blow up her life so he can take Douglas away from her and leave her alone and miserable, because he thinks that's what she's done to him more than once. There's just something calculating and evil in the way he looks at her in those scenes when they're up close like that.

I think I could get behind a story where Taylor and Deacon are working together, trying to get him together with Brooke, but they fall for each other. Not to clear the decks for Brooke/Ridge, because, no. But, because I really feel like KA and SK have had a nice chemistry when they've shared screen time.

Especially Finn. He has to know by now that she takes any bit of attention from him, even when he's saying "you need to stay away from me and my family," as a sign that he loves her and wants her to be a part of his family.