KerleyQ

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.

I don't get how she hasn't changed clothes completely. That's like the working mom's first step when getting home - go change into the comfy clothes. And then we have Liam who didn't have any time, after spending the entire day traveling all over L.A. to ask everyone who has ever met Thomas and/or Hope what they think about this trip to San Francisco, to change out of his work clothes.

Yeah, if Thomas was actually "all better" and not after Hope, he wouldn't be staring just as intently. He wouldn't be hugging her or massaging her. I'm usually a fan of AN's acting choices, but the facial expressions she's been making lately kind of support that "she's being drugged" theory. What kind of direction is she getting that those are the faces she's making? Steffy wants to tell Liam about the scandalous hand holding so badly. "Thomas isn't the one you have to worry about." How pissed do you think she is that Liam didn't take that bait and ask her what she means by that?

It's traffic barrel chic.

I saw speculation (and I'm not tagging it, because it is not based on any existing spoilers) that Hope is being drugged. It was based almost entirely on that scene between Hope and Steffy where Hope dropped her water bottle. This person thought that there had to be some reason for that. Now, the obvious culprit would be Thomas - faking his reformation while reviving his plan to drug her to get her into bed. But, if the show did this, I could also see it being a convoluted Sheila plot (that she's somehow still carrying out despite being locked up). If she breaks up Hope and Liam's marriage, that makes Liam available to Steffy. And if Sheila did any research, she may have discovered the Hayes WTD situation, so she may figure if Steffy hooked up with heartbroken Liam once, she'd do it again. And going at it indirectly like this, she figures nobody would suspect her doing anything, since it isn't a direct attack on Steffy. Of course, the obvious question there would be who is doing the drugging for her? Mike is locked up, too, and Deacon may be in love with her, but he's not going to drug his daughter for her. There are a ton of reasons this couldn't be the story, but I did think that water bottle bit was odd. In the end, though, while it would explain Hope's behavior, if that is the direction they're going, they really need to not have her actually sleep with Thomas, because we all know the show wouldn't acknowledge it as rape. They've got a pretty shitty track record on that front. It's be just another misunderstanding.

I ordinarily would call out a show for forgetting a character exists, but if Wyatt and the Logan family all get collective amnesia on that one, I'd be eternally grateful.

"I want to talk to you about what I saw between you and my brother." A-fucking-gain? Did you not just talk to her about it yesterday? Is there some kind of HR at FC that Hope can go to about the CEO harassing her? I think Steffy can't stand that their mothers are BFFs now and that her mother isn't competing for her father anymore, and she's decided to start shit with Hope to compensate for it. And, oh, look, more inappropriate chemistry between Taylor and Thomas. Neither one of them has more chemistry with anyone else on the show than they do with each other. Maybe they should have cast KA as someone else and found a different actress to play Taylor. KA playing the head of a rival fashion empire who seduces Thomas away from FC when he's on the outs with his family would have been a way better story than anything either one has been involved in. So, today was a Liam talks to Wyatt about Hope and Thomas day, so tomorrow must be him seeking out Ridge to talk about it? Then back to Wyatt the next day. Maybe Liam should just talk it out with Douglas. He's the smartest person on the show.

Yeah, Finn has fully bought into the idea that Steffy is the single best, most pure woman in all the land, and if she's sticking her nose in someone else's business, it's because she's being her usual selfless, loving self. Hell, he probably thinks she fucked Liam because she's just that giving, and it was the only way to heal his deep emotional pain.

And as soon as the fantasies started back up, he'd be on the phone with his therapist (the real one, not his mother), afraid he might be backsliding.

I still don't even get what the truth is supposed to be about Thomas. If he really is "all better," that is the fastest, least earned redemption ever. How much time passed between him barging into Steffy's house, demanding 24/7 access to Douglas, and verbally attacking Steffy when she wouldn't agree and him being welcomed back to FC because he's "not that Thomas anymore"? A day? Two days? If they really wanted to tell the story where Thomas is over it all but now Hope is obsessed with him, why did they have to rush right into it? Why not actually redeem Thomas on screen over some time? And Taylor, you being so invested in Thomas being better is exactly why you can't be impartial. You want it too much. Does Liam have a planner full of meetings about Thomas? Is lunch with Ridge up next? Than Eric, and maybe Charlie? With lunches with Wyatt and/or Bill in between those meetings, of course, so he can review with them everything he learned from each one. Miss Two Paternity Tests throwing "you're turning into your mother" stones was pretty hilarious.

I would definitely like Wyatt being around more...as long as that doesn't involve Flo being back on our screens ever again.

So, if Hope is convinced she needs to hop on board a "bad boy," wouldn't Thomas's current super earnest "gosh, gee" persona be one huge boner killer? I snorted at his "even if Hope threw herself at me, I'd turn her down." I mean, we all know that's complete bullshit, but, also, wouldn't it be fucking hilarious if that's actually how this storyline went down? Her throwing herself at him, and him backing away and running? How bored must all the actors be that they just keep repeating the exact same dialogue every single day? Thomas/Hope and Liam/Wyatt have had these exact same conversations a dozen or so times.

And the circumstances around that whole marriage. One minute, she was married to Liam and very pregnant. The next, she's lost the baby, she and Liam are over, he's shacking up with his probably equally famous ex, and she's married to Thomas. Then, what probably feels like just as quickly to the public (but was interminable if you were watching), she's back with Liam and they have their "lost" baby. And now she's worked with Thomas, off and on. It should be a huge scandal and curiosity among the fashion world of LA and among Hope's followers.

Oh, God, that dress. When I was a kid in the 80's, we were on a family vacation in Nashville and saw Dottie West perform at the Grand Ole Opry. She wore something very similar to that dress. The restaurant scenes have been weird for a while now. I'd almost think the show was getting ready to open a real life version of the restaurant, and this was all build up for that. Otherwise, it's kind of inexplicable. It's like "OK, we have Sean on contract, but with Sheila in prison, we really don't have anything to do with Deacon. So, let's just sit him in the restaurant dealing with weird cameo appearances and constant talk about his menu until we think of something else or his contract runs out." My main takeaway from every Hope scene lately is that she needs some therapy. And she is becoming so unlikeable that a part of me is just like "yeah, yeah, whatever, go ahead and jump his bones. Who cares that he let you keep believing your baby was dead so he could manipulate you into a marriage, that he planned to rape you, that he killed a woman to keep you from finding out your daughter was alive, and that he has abused and manipulated your son as part of his various scheme over the past few years. Go on, get your prince, girl." I can't wait until she finds out about Deacon and Sheila so she can consider that confirmation that she is genetically destined to bang Thomas.

Then the show would probably capitalize on that inappropriate chemistry between Taylor and Thomas.🤢

There was a part of me that feared, during her conversation with Jack, that she'd reveal they had another child together after Finn that she didn't tell him about (or that Finn had a twin she didn't tell him about), as a means of manipulating him into helping her.

I laughed at Sheila saying that Jack wouldn't have come to see her if he didn't want to help her. Ma'am, the entire fucking town has been coming to see you to tell you exactly what kind of trash you are. Clearly, wanting to help you isn't the only reason someone would pop in.