KerleyQ

The only time TN seems particularly strong as an actor, to me, is when he has an antagonist. He was really good in his scenes when Sheila was holding him captive, and he was good in his scenes when he was ripping Thomas a new one right after Douglas moved in with them.

With as often as people just barge right into that office, and with their own fairly recent experience of Sheila bursting in on them when they were getting it on in their living room, I certainly hope Steffy and Finn locked that door first. Her entire reaction since he proposed has been so weird. She just shifts from "he's trying to pull one over on me" to "he truly loves me!" and vice versa on a dime. Both in her scenes with Deacon about it last week and today's scenes with Bill. How is she this big bad evil mastermind when she keeps dropping the idea that she's being played so easily? I still remember when he first showed up in town and KM was playing Hope. Her Hope, at that time, always seemed so anxious about sex with Liam, but she was all in on her sexy times with Wyatt, without that anxiety.

The way they've had Hope go from not wanting Thomas back at all to "Oh, OK, for the line," to smiley "I'm so happy you're back," and agreeing with Thomas's "we make a great team," in a relatively short time is ridiculous. She should still be unsure around him, especially when they're one on one in an office like that, even while she can appreciate his design talents. I honestly can't tell what they were going with from both Sheila and Deacon today. It's like both of them kept edging right up to the "Bill is pulling a scam" line, and then they'd retreat back to "he must really be in love." Then Sheila gets back to Bill's, and she's 100 percent on the "what are you up to?" train. It was so weird. The Sheila/Deacon scenes today would have made more sense if Deacon was in on the sting, too. He indulged her paranoia, but ultimately pulled that all back and told her to go plan her future with Bill, acting like he was pulling back from her completely.

My guess is that she figures that, if Thomas actually finally gets Hope, he'll have what he wants, and he'll be less likely to keep doing stupid shit. And if Thomas is happy and not doing stupid shit, Steffy won't be collateral damage in his stupid shit. And, hey, if that breaks up Liam and Hope, she'll finally feel avenged when it comes to Liam picking Hope over her.

Since they had to accommodate TK's break, they could have explained that he's been out of town tracking down some of Sheila's other victims or something. That would make way more sense than him just hanging out in that building for the past few months or so while completely ignoring his family.

I really wish we'd get a reveal that Deacon is in on their plan, too.

I loved his Thomas so much more than this Thomas. I think MA is probably better at this menacing version of Thomas, but PF was so much better as a romantic leading man kind of Thomas. I honestly don't know if I can even see MA's Thomas as a true romantic pairing kind of guy. But, they need to try putting him in a real pairing with someone who isn't Hope. He's been playing Thomas for, what, 3 or 4 years? And he's never had any kind of real love story. He's been obsessed with Hope the whole time, and he had that brief thing with Zoe that was just him settling for her while he obsessed over Hope. The Forrester fans don't want him with Hope. The Logan fans don't want him with Hope. That's the vast majority of the audience. They need to figure out something else for him beyond this stupid endless loop of "obsess over Hope, do something to piss everyone off, beg for forgiveness, get back in everyone's good graces, lather, rinse, repeat."

I loved them so much.

This. It was a stupid one off moment after they both walked in on him shirtless, and Paris wouldn't let up until Hope gave in to end the conversation. (Also, Hope can acknowledge that Thomas is an attractive man without forgetting that he's also done some really horrendous shit to her and to the people she loves). I don't know why they don't just pair up Thomas and Paris. One of the best ways they can improve Thomas is to have him fully invested in a relationship with a woman who isn't Hope. How many years of his character have they tied up in him being obsessed with Hope?

I just realized something. I think the show reminded us about Hope admitting he's hot because Thomas also remembers that and is planning on using it. We saw him being all sinister when he was alone, talking about how he was going to get his son back, no matter what. So now he's snapped into being super nice to Steffy, being the good little patient in therapy, and saying all the right things to Hope to get her to take him back at HFTF, including telling her she can give him the boot again if it's going to cause too many problems with Liam. He's planning on seducing her. And, this time, not even because he's obsessed with being with her, but because he's obsessed with "winning" Douglas back. I bet we're going to see him "accidentally" being caught shirtless in the office, and getting physically right up in her space when they're going over things. But he's going to make it look strictly business.

Oh, I do not like next week's spoilers at all. Specifically, we have, on Tuesday: And, on Friday:

Oh, crap, I think I just gave myself a new fear. Instead of Li (or maybe in addition to Li), Bill and Ridge go to Finn and get him on board with the plan. Or, hell, maybe he is already on board with them, and that explains all the talk about the long hours he's been working lately - he's really been meeting with them and the FBI some of the times he says he's headed to work. But, Finn agrees to keep Steffy in the dark about the plan. Eventually, someone in their family is endangered by the plan. When Steffy finds out Finn was in on it, she kicks him out. Meanwhile, the damage she was predicting will occur to the Lope marriage does start to occur. And we end up with Steam again. Or, at minimum, we get Steffy's who's the daddy pregnancy number 3. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

I cannot imagine that any psychiatrist would be remotely happy with their patient's psychiatrist mother not only sitting in on his sessions, but also speaking up with "we" like the two of them are a team treating the patient. Sure, she can sit in for a session or two as his mother, if he's working through some issues specifically in his relationship with her. But Taylor was sitting there jumping the gun on his doctor. "Oh, no, we don't want you to feel ashamed." I was waiting for his doctor to ask "who is 'we'?" Of course Hope gave in. Because we all know that, in all of the fashion industry, the only available designers are Thomas, Eric, Zende, and Ridge. Ridge is off waiting for a new pinecone to fall on him and point him in a new direction in life. Zende and Eric apparently failed at HFTF's most recent line, so the she has no choice. There is nobody else she could possibly bring in to work on her line. And, look there, Thomas is wearing a Mr. Rodgers cardigan, so he must be a kinder, gentler Thomas now. It almost felt like the show was trying to make Liam the bad guy here, with Hope crying over her argument with him (where he was 100 percent freaking right), and then Thomas telling her everything she wants to hear, Douglas talking about how happy he is to see them working together, and her working with Thomas being the thing that gets Douglas to come home. I swear, if we're ending up with Sheila and Thomas becoming the poor put upon victims of the evil Spencers... Oh, and it was really shitty of Brooke and Taylor to tell Douglas that his parents might be working together again without knowing what Hope's decision was going to be. Sure, it worked out, and he's happy, but who knows how much farther that would have pushed him from being ready to return home if they got his hopes up and then he found out that Hope turned Thomas down.

Oh, FFS, Taylor, stop ambushing people with your psycho son. If Sheila is so worried about what big bad Bill will do to her if he finds out about Deacon, did she bother to shower between fucking Deacon and returning home to Bill? I saw a story today that they've recast RJ. I fear that means Ridge's return is imminent. Is he going to use RJ to try to manipulate Brooke into reuniting?

OK, wait, is the show trying to set Sheila up as some kind of victim of big, bad Bill? That was the vibe I was getting today while he menacingly spoke about what would happen if she betrayed him, while Sheila tried to play torn ingenue, worried about what would happen if Bill found out about her and her "true love." F Fuck all that noise. And Thomas. Ugh. Hope should have seen his "explanation" about what he did as a big old red flag. He just gets tunnel vision when he has a goal, and he doesn't realize what he's doing? Yeah, that's not encouraging if you're looking for him to not keep fucking up like that. Because what's going to happen the next time his tunnel vision narrows in on a goal? The same exact shit - he'll plot, manipulate, and hurt people, and then he'll cry his crocodile tears when he's eventually busted. Hope should have a MUCH longer list of requirements before she works with him. Yes, of course, he needs to apologize to Brooke. But, he also needs some fucking therapy. Real therapy not provided by his mommy. Therapy where he can accept that Hope is never, ever going to be his. And he should wander his ass on over to Steffy's house, since he feels free to pop in whenever he wants, and talk to Douglas about how, what's best for him now is to live with Mommy and Liam while daddy works on some things for himself. And she should lay out some rules to Steffy about Thomas's presence around her, including not being left alone in the office with him. If nobody else is available, Charlie can sit in the corner with a hot poker and jab Thomas every time he starts making moon eyes at Hope. (Which reminds me of another annoyance - Thomas all condescendingly saying he's happy Charlie is looking out for Hope. Yeah, fuckface, he wouldn't need to if you could ever be assed to be a decent human being who isn't a threat to her and her loved ones.)

What really cracked me up in all of this was Steffy saying how glad she was that Thomas had shown her he was better now. How in the blue dilly fuck did he show you that, Steffy? By hiding behind Mommy and getting her to pester you into taking him back? By showing up uninvited to your house demanding to be given 24/7 access and then tearing into you when you didn't immediately cave to his whim? The only thing anyone showed you was the falling sales numbers for HFTF. Yeah, the inappropriate chemistry is way off the charts there, and KA seems to be fully leaning into it. This whole Thomas getting back into FC and anyone's good graces storyline should have taken longer to make more sense and for it to be earned. It hasn't been all that long since it all blew up, and we haven't seen him do a damn thing to show he's improving. All he's done since then was defend himself, lash out at Steffy and then everyone else when he was booted from FC, demand to be reinstated, pushed for that ridiculous custody hearing, harass his sister over her setting some reasonable boundaries, and then keep popping up behind Mommy to let her do his fighting for him. He hasn't earned shit. Prior to mommy ambushing Steffy with him twice, the last time we saw Thomas, he was acting all sinister about getting Douglas back after ripping into Steffy for not letting him move in to her home. We haven't seen Thomas do shit to work on his relationships with anyone. We haven't seen him sacrifice anything for someone else. All we've seen is his whopping case of entitlement boosted by mommy's insistence that everyone must play happy family. And the timing. We've all been over how absurd it is that they have any sales figures for post-Thomas HFTF yet. Also, Ridge is gone, so there's no payoff for that relationship, which is one of the ones he's damaged the most. We just have Steffy saying she's sure he'll agree to bringing him back. Plus there was a chunk of time after his ouster from FC where we barely saw Thomas onscreen, so everything he's done still feels fresh to viewers. This should take a while, and it's not.

It's like there are two different Taylor characters on this show. You have Brooke's BFF Taylor, who I genuinely enjoy. Then you have Thomas's mother Taylor, who just sucks. Hope should be furious with Steffy. She was the one who told her to stand firm against Thomas coming back to work on her line. She's led Hope to believe that she will stand firm on Thomas's demand for 24/7 access to Douglas. Two ambushes from Taylor and Thomas, and Steffy does a 180 on Thomas. She should tell Steffy that, if she is going to tie Thomas's return to her line remaining active, then he needs to work remotely, because she will not be put into that proximity with him again. She can inform Steffy about him trying to make a move on her after the fashion show as evidence that it's not in the company's best interests for her to be forced to work closely with him again. They can hire a courier to bring Thomas's designs into the office, and the two of them can communicate via emails. Also, Hope needs to talk to a lawyer about the custody issue, because if Steffy is already weakening towards Thomas on the work front, it won't be long before she weakens about Douglas, too.

I admittedly don't know a ton about the life cycle of a fashion line, but there doesn't seem to have been nearly enough time between the show with Thomas's designs and now for there to be an ongoing downturn in HFTF sales that wasn't due to his designs. If what they're saying is true, then Thomas's designs are the reason for the poor performance. I can't imagine that Zende and Eric's designs would have been in stores long enough for there to be an ongoing drop in sales. At most, the most recent figures could, maybe, be the first numbers from their designs, but I'd think they'd still largely be from Thomas's. I would have forgiven Steffy for a lot if, yesterday, when Thomas walked in, she told her mother "if you can't come over without springing Thomas on me when you know I don't want him dropping in unexpectedly, then you can't come over." Also, Steffy, you were just talking about how Finn worries about you being home without him with Sheila on the loose, and a few minutes later, Thomas barges in. Do you not lock the doors when a psychopath who is obsessed with your family is on the loose? That seems like the bare minimum effort on that score.

I think a lot of us have been in that situation - the guy is perfectly nice, he's attractive, he's attentive, and our friends think we should go for it, but you just feel this uncomfortableness right beneath your skin, because that "it" just isn't there for you. I felt second hand relief when she put an end to things. And, yes, the anvils were flying. Hmm... who is in Brooke's life who already knows and cares about her, who will show her affection? The show was not subtle, which gives me hope that they truly are going to go there. I just really hope it doesn't end up being some kind of placeholder storyline until TK's return. Let him come back with a new woman he's met while he's been away "finding himself."

At this point, Braylor is the only pairing I feel emotionally invested in on this show. I'm going to be so let down if it doesn't happen.

Why are they treating Deacon and Sheila like some great star-crossed pair? Hard pass, show. Hard pass.

Bill's doctor friend (played by Vincent Irizarry) was right there, show. Liam and Wyatt could call him because they're worried about Bill, and that ends up with him interacting with Taylor and Brooke.

Even if they don't want to go for a full blown relationship thing, Brooke can have a fun one or two night stand with the guy, just to remember that she can be with a guy and just have fun, without all the 24/7 drama that comes with Ridge.

I caught that bullshit, too. Apparently, since Paris is so fucking thirsty for Thomas, she's just going to be a mindless Thomas stan. Hope and Liam have never kept him from Douglas. Even after his most recent bullshit, he was just over at their house spending time with Douglas the night before the "I want to live with Aunt Steffy" hearing. Hope has always talked about wanting to make sure Douglas has a good relationship with Thomas. It's one of the million reasons she's been a far better parent to Douglas than Thomas has ever even considered being. I like Taylor a lot more when she's not involved in her kids' lives. When Thomas went into his whole "poor persecuted me" spiel, Taylor looked at Steffy and said "do you hear this?" like she was in complete agreement with him and expected Steffy to drop to her knees, apologize to Thomas, and send Finn out to buy bunkbeds for Douglas's room, so Thomas can move right in there with him. Taylor, your son sucks as a human being. He needs therapy (not from you), and he needs to make amends to a lot of people, including his sister and his son. You can't just expect that Steffy is going to roll over for him just because she's your more reasonable child and she wants to make you happy. She's doing the right thing right now for herself and for Douglas. If you want to lean on someone to fix things, lean on your dumbass son who keeps fucking up because he has no impulse control and can't stand being told "no." I still can't believe nobody has brought her up with the whole Douglas custody thing. Hope has mentioned that cliff twice, but it hasn't occurred to her to worry about the psychopath who is obsessed with Finn, Steffy, and Hayes? Sheila's name would have been the first damn thing out of my mouth when Douglas said he wants to live there. Also, we all know something is going to happen with that cliff, right? I mean, it would be nice if that was simply a mother worrying about her son's safety when he's moving into a house on a cliff, but this is a soap. She mentioned it twice, so someone is going over that cliff soon. Maybe Douglas can push Sheila over it?

Today's last scene of Thomas was no different than any scene where Sheila is monologuing to herself about Finn and Hayes. Also, was it me, or were those happy memory scenes Thomas was flashing back over all from the time period where he was gaslighting, manipulating, and abusing Douglas to try to get into Hope's pants?