KerleyQ

Doesn't he know already? I can't remember for sure now, but when Bill started blackmailing Steffy did she tell Finn why Taylor shot Bill? One thing that stood out as an "oh, shit, they're definitely going to do Thope, aren't they?" red flag yesterday was that, while Liam and Hope were arguing, Liam didn't clearly state the obvious - that Hope has, multiple times, told Liam that she was sure Thomas wasn't that man anymore, and every single time, Thomas has eventually shown he's exactly that man. Liam can trust Hope as a general rule, but how is he honestly supposed to trust her judgement about Thomas when it's so obviously clouded by the combination of her optimism, her desire to keep her line, and him being Douglas's father? I would have loved a comment like "did you think he was a changed man last year, right up until the moments he tried to kiss you and then you finding out he faked that call?" And, Hope, get a grip. You're not somehow destined to cheat on Liam with Thomas just because you're Brooke's daughter. You're not magically becoming her or some such shit. You're a grown ass woman who is in full control of her own decisions. If you want to bone the guy who's done some of the worst shit imaginable to you and the people most important to you, then that's your own dysfunction. Go ahead and end your marriage and own that. Don't blame it on your mother. It would be refreshing if that dream sequence got her to get a hold of herself and realize she's playing with fire and doesn't want to be that woman. But, no, we can't have nice things. Instead, I'm going to have to stop watching any scenes involving Hope, who I generally liked before this crap.

I much preferred when Wyatt first came to town, and Liam had to deal with Hope/Wyatt, including her marrying Wyatt over a misunderstanding. That all was Liam getting a taste of his own medicine. But this shit? Hard pass. If it was literally any other man in the world, yeah, Liam's got to suck it up. But this asshole? Nope. He gets to be as angry as he wants, especially now that Hope is acting like he's anything other than the sociopath who would throw Hope's children into a burning building if it advanced his own agenda. But, then, he'd like totally feel a smidgen of bad and make some puppy dog eyes to make it all better.

Show isn't even being subtle with this crap. Brooke's talk about how happy she is that Hope doesn't go for "bad boys" was the biggest anvil possible. Then Hope was acting like she was trying to get Thomas to admit he's still horny for her. I will never understand how "let you think your baby was dead and used that to try to get you into bed" isn't the dealbreaker to end all dealbreakers. Especially when you add in how he just fucking showed everyone, less than 6 months ago, that he hasn't learned, and he's still a manipulative gaslighting douchebag whenever he isn't handed what he wants on a silver platter. And don't even get me started on that dress. When it was on the hanger and Brooke and Hope were gushing over it, I was thinking "OK, maybe it will look better on a human than just hanging there." It did not. It's boring and looked cheaply made in the closeup shots. I don't get how it fits that "young" vibe HFTF is supposed to have. Everyone acting like Thomas has done some major penance is just fucking ridiculous. He only apologized because he figured out apologies would get him what he wants. The second something doesn't go his way, he's going to manipulate and gaslight everyone who stands in his way.

Wasn't Steffy in the room? Or did she leave before Finn actually got around to saving Sheila? (I admit, I was not paying full attention during those scenes, so Steffy could have shuffled out without me noticing.)

I wonder if maybe she didn't actually call for him. From what I remember, the nurse came into Finn's office and told him that his mother had just gotten an emergency patient who she knows, and then said it was Sheila Carter. But, I don't remember the nurse saying Li had asked for Finn. Maybe the nurse thought she was doing something nice by getting Finn to offer her support while she dealt with having a patient she knew? (Although, of course, a better option would have been to go get an entirely unrelated doctor and tell them that the assigned doctor had some kind of connection to the patient, but, soaps.) Damn, Katie. Don't waste any time there. Carter just can't win, can he? Katie wouldn't look so bad if they had just had the two of them agree they were just friends when they had that conversation a couple weeks ago.

Even for a soap, that was an annoying level of "oh my God, would you just spit it out already?!?" And Ridge had to stop and do his hair before going over there? JMW's telenovela reaction faces are hysterically bad. Why wouldn't they also have texted Steffy, Hope, Liam, and Wyatt? I know Finn needs to be at the hospital for the Sheila/Li stuff, but it really makes no sense that none of that generation was pulled in for the big reveal. The three most important people Bill wants to find out are Katie, Liam, and Wyatt, and only one of them is there? And, of course, we're going to have Finn save Sheila's life, because he's a good doctor who won't violate his oath. Especially with the nurse there to witness things, he's not going to let Li get busted for letting a patient die in front of someone. But it's going to be really fucking annoying to get another round of Sheila's delusional "he saved me because he loves me! He wants me in his life!"

They all may have rolled their eyes when Sheila took off running, but they didn't roll them as hard as I rolled mine when they all stood around not cuffing her. You told her she was under arrest, slap the damn cuffs on her, don't sit there and have a bunch of conversations with her. I hope we find out when, exactly, Deacon got on board. Him being involved makes that whole conversation where he urged her to go to Bill after the proposal make more sense than it did at the time. I love that it was all Bill's plan and Ridge actually gave him credit for it. Ridge must really be at loose ends now. Deacon saved Steffy and Finn, and he helped them catch up to Sheila. Bill saved Finn and brought him to Steffy and then came up with a plan that involved huge personal sacrifices, to get Sheila and protect their families. Pretty soon he's going to find out that Brooke and Taylor are BFF's and living together (I think?) while not pining away for him. And his dumbass sociopath son is back at FC.

It looks like exactly the same outfit, except the boots are a little different Caroline's were low cut, and Sheila's appear to go up over the ankle. Same heel, though.

Did the FBI guys stop for a snack on the way or something? And, yeah, why wouldn't they already be close by if they were expecting this to all go down imminently? I just remembered today, when Sheila reminded Bill that they'd had sex, that she told Deacon a while ago (before we knew Bill was setting her up) that the sex wasn't very good. Now we know why - it was because he could barely stomach it. So, the Stallion doesn't really suck in the sack after all. Carter and Katie would be a good friendship, but they're a lame romantic pairing. They come across as liking each other well enough, but there is zero spark.

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.