KerleyQ

Thomas, it's really not a coincidence that you and Steffy were each talking to a parent about them getting back together at the same time. It's literally all Steffy talks about. You'd think she'd be too focused on her back from the dead husband, her two children, or her career, but, nope. It's all mommy and daddy all the time. She's so far up their asses, she's started dressing just like mommy. It's kind of sad that, having both dealt with major waffling for years, neither Taylor nor Steffy seems to want better for each other. Sure, Taylor is currently happy that Finn keeps Steffy happy, but, as we've already witnessed, the moment Finn is out of the picture, Taylor jumps right past letting her daughter grieve to pushing her back at a waffle. Thomas and Steffy trying to act like mommy is not doing exactly what she's doing - going after another woman's husband - is absurd. "You would never steal another woman's husband, but Brooke would." Asshole, you're sitting there trying to encourage your mother to go after Brooke's husband (which, spoiler alert, mommy is already working overtime at). And, Thomas, your father doesn't live very far from your grandpa's house. He could be over for breakfast with Douglas any day of the week. You know, if you ever spend that much time with Douglas instead of swimming and plotting.

Taylor talking about how Brooke doesn't have any say over "my grandson." Bitch, guess who else's grandson he is. And "Douglas is a Forrester." Yeah, so is Brooke. You know who isn't a Forrester, Taylor? You. So, Taylor is a "world renown psychiatrist," and Steffy is the co-CEO of an international fashion house, along with very recently being reunited with her believed dead husband. So, what do the two of them do with their days? Taylor moons around FC, hoping to run into Ridge so she can glom onto him like he's the quarterback and she's the head cheerleader. And Steffy is spending the day pulling her shift in their family's conspiracy to keep Douglas away from his mother. The best part was, after Thomas saying Douglas was out with Steffy and Kelly, Taylor beaming and saying how happy she is that Thomas is getting to spend so much time with his son. Amelia and Steffy are spending time with him, Taylor. The only person I'm really going to feel that bad for when Sheila inevitably kidnaps Hayes is Li. The rest of them can kick rocks. I hope the kidnapping leads Liam and Hope to swoop in and take Douglas and Kelly to protect them from whatever Forrester enemy is popping up this time. But, did I hear Finn say he was so content with Li and Jack that he never gave much thought to his birth mother? Because that was not the tune he was singing when Sheila first showed up. He was just so torn, because, on the one hand, she's a psychopath who has tried to kill numerous members of his wife's family. But, on the other hand, he'd always wanted to know his birth mother.

I wish Hope would grab a backbone. Tell Thomas "that's fine, Douglas and Kelly can work on an art project at our house. Liam would love to spend some time with his daughter, and all three of us miss Douglas." Than tell Douglas it's time to come home, and he can visit dad another time. Or, just say "how about we alternate? He can do a week here, then a week back home, and then back and forth as long as it keeps going well." I wanted to scream when Ridge and Taylor were talking about Douglas being good motivation for Thomas to be good, and then added "so is Hope." 1) It is not on Douglas to keep his creepy ass criminal father from going off the rails yet again. 2) If you think Thomas is using Hope as some kind of motivation, that should set off every single alarm bell possible. Him focusing on Hope has never been healthy. But those two dumbasses are probably thinking "hey, if he gets Hope back, it will be her responsibility to keep him on an even keel. And, as a bonus, Liam will be there as Steffy's backup man, just in case she ever needs to be without Finn again." And, let's face it, that second part is probably a bigger motivation to the two of them. Steffy is their favorite little princess. I need Finn to get really fucking tired of his wife's shit. First, Finn has always liked Hope. Second, and a bigger deal, Steffy's complete disregard of Hope as Douglas's adoptive mother. I'm starting to get nervous about how much time they're throwing Brooke and Liam together. I know I've seen an article from earlier this year about how the actors absolutely do not want to go there and like the two of them solely as friends, but just the fact that it even needed to be said... If Ridge goes back to Dr. Halter Top (love that!), and Thomas manages to break up Hope and Liam, who else is on the canvas for either of them? I know Deacon is there, but with how tied up he is with Sheila, he's not a realistic option for Brooke. And there is nobody for Liam, unless they kill Finn off again.

He's hoping. I take back all of my encouragement to Deacon to turn Sheila in. Nope, let her stay free until she kills Steffy. Bonus points if she gets Taylor, too. I wish Hope was bitchy enough to have responded to "he warned us" with "Liam and Beth were going to come with me, but then Liam thought it might be safer for him to keep Beth home. He didn't want your mother to try to steal her for you again." Seriously, though, Liam should have gone with her. He knows damn well what Thomas is, and he sounds like he's coming around to realizing what a trifling bitch his ex is. I want tomorrow's episode to start with Liam and Brooke walking in and saying "we decided we'd join you for dessert." And then when they're ready to leave, Liam can say "I'm going to go grab Kelly and Douglas, so Kelly can come have a sleepover with her cousin and sister." Since I know that's not likely to happen, since we're probably going to be stuck for some time with Hope inexplicably being afraid to tell Thomas she's taking her son home now, I'll settle for Hope giving Brooke a complete rundown of that bullshit she witnessed. Then Brooke can show up at Eric's with Ridge's bags and tell her waffling husband to lose her number. Is there even a tiny chance that Thomas isn't going to end up using that voice imitator app to try to get between Hope and Liam? Maybe a recording of Hope telling Thomas she wants him? It would be a nice twist, though, if Liam has learned a lesson and says "I still remember the mannequin. I'm not buying this bullshit."

Thomas is definitely using Douglas to fuck with Hope's head. "Are you alone? I want to talk about us." Then "us parenting Douglas. Tee Hee! Why, what did you think?" I hope Brooke is finally getting a clue about Ridge. At least she was saying exactly what kind of bullshit his whole moving out to help Thomas plan is. He's moving out to be with his "other family," including Taylor. Just like Thomas is using Douglas to get to Hope, Taylor is using Thomas and Douglas to get to Ridge. And Ridge is going right along with it. And as Ridge was going on about how "Hope knows" what a great guy Thomas is now, all I could think was that Hope needs to tell everyone, Liam, Brooke, Ridge, Taylor, and Eric (fuck Steffy, she's too neck deep in her evil Logans phase again) all about how he's telling Hope she's the only one for him, and he's showing up at her cabin looking to get her alone to "talk about us." Come on, Hope, do not let him fuck with your mind and convince you that you're just imagining his overt come ons. He's clearly trying to throw you off kilter to make his moves.

It's one thing for Thomas to walk in when Hope is expecting him to pick up or spend time with Douglas (since that seems to be behavior Hope has condoned, or at least let pass without telling him to knock first). But he knows damn well Douglas isn't there, and he's not there for a scheduled visit, so he has zero business walking in. And, good Lord, "let's get him a puppy!" Are you also going to set up a 24/7 candy and ice cream buffet in the living room? Open a poolside snack bar with all of his favorite foods on demand? Taylor "oh, I'm so sad this is turning into a Logans vs. Forresters thing. Odd, I don't hear you saying that to your daughter every time she shrieks about all the Logans have "stolen" from your family. And, let's see, who has stolen more from your family? Brooke, who stepped in and helped raise you ungrateful brats? Or Taylor, who stayed fake dead for years leaving that raising to Brooke? Or Hope, who is married to the man who was hers first, and who is raising the child that Thomas forced on her? Or Steffy, who when she had Liam, fucked his father and wasn't sure which of them was her baby's father, leaving him to reunite with Hope? Or Thomas, who went so off the rails that he had no choice but to give Hope custody of the child he was hellbent on making hers? And now let's look in the other direction - Steffy, who spent years hellbent on taking Liam from Hope. Who fucked Liam while he was married to Hope and Steffy was in a relationship with Finn, leading to another paternity test. Or Thomas, who knew Hope's baby was alive and living with his sister and went so far as to kill someone to keep that secret because he was obsessed with Hope. Who abused his son in his efforts to con Hope into marrying him. Who still, despite being "all better" has been trying to manipulate Hope into leaving Liam for him. Or Taylor, who abandons her family for years at a time, who illegally bought Hope's baby for Steffy, who is throwing herself at Brooke's husband every chance she gets. But, sure, Brooke is turning this into a Logans vs. Forresters thing. Bitch, Brooke wasn't even thinking of you while you spent years out of town obsessing over her. And how does Brooke hate the Forresters when she's married to one, another is her best friend and involved with her sister, she has three Forrester children, and she helped raise two Forrester brats?

I think they wouldn't clarify until after their connection was revealed. Or, we might get something like Lark hearing that someone thinks Kaia is her celebrity relative, and her in a confessional scene explaining to the viewers that, because Kaia isn't who the clues are pointing to, she's not the right answer. (Or a similar confessional scene right after the person guesses wrong or at the start of the next episode.)

That reminds me - when Thomas had his infatuation with Paris, Steffy got one look at how he was looking at Paris, and she got nervous that he was going to be all psycho obsessive over her. And that wasn't all that long ago. But now she's perfectly willing to risk her nephew's well-being on whether or not Thomas is fully recovered from being a psycho. Who cares if beating the Logans comes with collateral damage? Deacon, you idiot, how do you see this all playing out in any way that isn't bad for you, bad for Finn, and bad for your relationship with your daughter? You know damn well Sheila isn't going to be content to just hang out at your place for some indefinite period of time and then eventually get bored and go somewhere else. She's using your place to bide her time until she puts another plan into place. And when that plan goes into place, and eventually goes south, you're going to go right down with her. Ask Mike how well she repays loyalty when it comes to leaving an accomplice holding the bag. Meanwhile, you now can't risk having anyone over to your place, which is not a great situation when you consider that 1) you have a daughter you want a relationship with who has already stopped by unannounced once. and 2) you have a parole officer who can do surprise drop-ins to check up on you. And you can't get away with pulling a long delay because you were in the shower, asleep, or whatever very many times before he suspects you're up to something. I'm going to be really pissed off if we don't get a Liam/Steffy confrontation soon, with all of her spouting off about Douglas living apart from his father long enough. I need this to put some major dents in that friendship. She should absolutely have to deal with losing some of her shine in the eyes of her little pet waffle.

And that would probably be accompanied by Thomas, Steffy, Taylor, and Ridge talking about how it's some combination of the Spencer genes and spending too much time with the Logans that's responsible for his behavior. OK, now, I was not watching when Deacon was first on. (I think my first exposure to him as a viewer was when Bill and Steffy brought him in to try to sabotage Hope and Liam's Italy wedding). But, from what I remember reading about the character in the soap mags back in the day, isn't Deacon supposed to be a somewhat skilled plotter/con man? Because current Deacon doesn't seem like he could scheme his way out of a paper bag. The man has no poker face, no chill, and he can't think on his feet at all. He may as well have just started yelling "oh my God, it's Sheila. She's still alive, Finn! She's right behind you, holding my phone!" when Sheila showed up. Just as I was thinking to myself that the "Douglas loves being with his daddy" stuff was so over the top (sitting glued to his side, repeatedly talking about how awesome it is to be around him, etc) that Thomas (or Taylor) must have put him up to it, Thomas tells Hope "I haven't been putting him up to that." And that just seemed like an admission that, yes, he is. And then he pulled that "I'm a one woman man, and that woman is you," line, and it's pretty clear what's happening here. Even if he's not directly telling him "tell your mom how great this is," I'll bet he's absolutely planting that seed - repeatedly telling him "aren't we having the best time? Isn't this so fun? Don't you wish we could do this every day?" And, soon enough, it will escalate to "wouldn't it be great if you, your mom, and Beth all lived here with me?" @nilyank, I think you're right. Finn's "death" and Steffy thinking she was still married to Liam gave Thomas the idea that Steffy could clear Liam out of his way, so he'd have a shot at Hope. And now that Finn's return put the kibosh on that, he's going back to using Douglas to get her. The only thing that brain surgery fixed was his believing the mannequin was talking to him.

Ridge, Taylor, and Steffy have all agreed to keep that to themselves to protect Thomas from those evil Logans. I'm hoping that Steffy forgets to tell Finn they're keeping it secret, and he lets it slip in front of Hope or Liam. I was glad to see Bill is taking an interest in this. Someone needs to fight dirty against the Forresters.

The second Thomas hung up on Hope, she should have headed right over to Eric's house to pick up Douglas. Of course, I'm guessing that's one of the reasons Thomas was happy to take Douglas out to the store for more art supplies. He probably suspected Hope might come running, and he wanted to be gone so she couldn't take Douglas home. I was at least happy to see Hope and Brooke reminding Steffy and Taylor that Douglas is Hope's son and Brooke's grandson. Hope wasn't the babysitter, she's his mother. Thomas very intentionally made that happen, so they can all blame his psycho ass if they don't like it. I really wish Hope would have fought back harder at Steffy's bullshit. I know Hope is supposed to be the "nice" one, but screw that. When Steffy said she has to put up with Brooke "constantly throwing herself at my father," Hope should have said "she's not throwing herself at him, he's her husband. Your mother is the one throwing herself at my mother's husband." When she trashed Brooke for marrying all of the Forrester men, Hope could have pointed out that Steffy's mother has been through all the same men and that Steffy has been through the entire Spencer family, except for Will, who just hasn't been old enough yet. And when Steffy went with the "Douglas has been with you long enough, it's time for him to live with his father" crap, Hope should have said the exact same thing about Kelly. Bonus points to anyone who says that Douglas actually isn't a Forrester, he's a Marone and a Spencer, and he's currently living in a Spencer household.

I agree, they don't have that kind of chemistry. I think the only older woman SC has ever had that kind of chemistry with was a brief time with Heather Tom.

That close call should have Deacon very firmly insisting Sheila needs to get the hell out of there. The way he took off when he found out Hope was at his place, he was obviously terrified as to what would happen if Hope found Sheila there. That should be all the wake up call that he needs that this can't go on. He got lucky this time, in that Sheila was in her disguise and Hope, somehow, couldn't see through it. But, does he really want to risk the same scenario where Sheila hasn't slapped her disguise back on and Hope walks in? Because Sheila won't hesitate to hurt or kill his daughter to keep her secret. But, I'm guessing we're going to have Deacon still stupidly going along with this insanity, despite the obvious risk to the person he says is the most important in his life. And the writers were basically laying out their "Deacon is still a screw up who's going to prove RIdge right" plans via Liam's dialogue today.

I really hope that was from one of the sites that speculates, and not a clean spoiler. I kind of can't see it right now. They're not going to break up Steffy and Finn in the immediate future, after their grand romantic reunion. So, they'd be leaving Liam unattached, which doesn't seem like something they'd do. He's been established, for years as the "must have" man of that generation. And, oh God, I just grossed myself out - what if they have Hope off with Thomas and Ridge off with Taylor, and we end up with Liam/Brooke? I swear I sometimes, over the past couple years, have felt like the show was chem-testing those two, but I try to convince myself I'm just imagining things. But, really, if Ridge does go to Taylor, and Bill is with Li, and Deacon is being a dumbass harboring Sheila, and Eric is with Donna, who would that leave for Brooke? I'm going to go vomit now. Also, seriously, Hope/Thomas should be the one pairing that can just never happen. It's one thing for her to get along with him for Douglas's sake, but with everything he's done to her, especially keeping her from Beth, he should never, ever be rewarded by finally having her.

I feel like I grabbed onto Poppy as a main suspect around the same time this season that I did with Jan last season. And, really, she was on my potential suspect list from the start of the season, just because she felt like one of those "hiding in plain sight" mousy characters we were supposed to ignore in favor of a flashier one - Cinda. Any time we had someone refer to a woman with dark hair and glasses, and we were all supposed to assume it was Cinda, it made me wonder if it was an example of how ignored Poppy was, which reinforced that "hiding in plain sight" thing. But, at the same time, I still partially fell for it, too, when Kreps's flashbacks kept showing Cinda. I had to keep reminding myself "but, if the camera were to pan over just a bit, Poppy is probably right there." And Kreps being involved felt like a possibility to me right from the start. He was clearly the shady cop, while Williams was the good cop. When it seemed like Williams was intentionally keeping Kreps in the dark as to her whereabouts, it confirmed for me that he was involved on some level. Once we realized he was Glitter Guy, and then we got his story about the brunette woman with glasses, it was pretty clear that he was working with either Cinda or Poppy. Then once we found out Poppy was Becky, it felt to me like our three options were 1) Cinda was the killer with Kreps as her lackey. 2) Cinda staged Bunny's death, with help from Kreps, to create a podcast storyline (this was based on the assumption that Cinda had known all along Poppy was Becky, which was obviously revealed to not be the case in the finale). 3) Poppy was the killer, with Kreps as her lackey. In the finale, after the diner scenes, I was pretty sold on Poppy being the killer because: 1) She was in the diner all the time, so her having the matchbook was likely, and her running into Bunny there regularly was likely 2) The way she acted reluctant to give them the info on Cinda's fears. It just kind of had this air of the insincere "oh, no, don't go after her and get her out of my way..." thing going on. 3) When Mabel got the call from Williams and then came back to the table saying she knew who it was. If that call had reinforced Cinda as the suspect, she wouldn't have seemed like this was a whole new direction. So, that left it at Poppy. Of course, all of that was based on my certainty that Kreps was involved at the behest of whoever the woman he was in love with was.

At least Donna got to be there for dinner in her home. I love Li, but it stood out that Finn got to have his mother there, but Ridge didn't bring his wife. At least they could have thrown me a bone and had Bill accompany Li as her date so he could snark on some of this shit for me. Oh, Deacon. So pretty. So dumb. Go to the freaking police, dude. Maybe hearing that Hope stopped by while Sheila was alone there will rattle some sense into him? (I'm assuming that Sheila will be in disguise already and Hope won't realize it's here.) If Steffy gets in Hope and Liam's faces about Douglas needing to live with his father, and we don't get them saying "OK, well then Kelly needs to live with her father," and they don't bring up her losing her shit over them taking their kidnapped daughter home, I'm going to throw shit at my TV. (Since nobody is ever allowed to land a legit shot on Steffy like that, I should probably just go ahead and order myself a new TV now, shouldn't I?)

I have had this conversation with my TV every day this week, so far. Come on, Deacon. I just cannot with Taylor. Why don't you just cover Thomas in sugar and hold him out to Douglas saying "isn't this great? Don't you love daddy most?" Every time we've seen Steffy and Finn getting romantic since they got back from Monaco, all I can do is wonder whether he needs to whisper "your parents are definitely going to get back together," in her ear to get her there. And fuck Ridge and Eric. You're having a "family dinner," but Donna, who seems to live there now, and Brooke, Ridge's wife and Eric's best friend, aren't there? I know Taylor and her spawn are all in on the Forresters vs. Logans grudge match, but you two dumbasses are sleeping with and married to Logan women. Why are you enabling this bullshit?

I had a moment of hope that Bunny was really alive right after Mabel found out Poppy was Becky. Since the subject of one Cinda podcast wasn't really dead, I figured maybe Bunny wasn't either, and that Cinda's podcasts were normally about fake mysteries she essentially writes. Sadly, not the case. Since she was after Bunny for the painting, she likely watched her and discovered them. I figured Cinda was in on it from the way she was gushing over Mabel. Cinda doesn't gush over anyone but Cinda. So, that had to be an act. After we saw the flashbacks of her life, and then her missing person case being reported on the news, I said to my son "I wonder who even noticed and cared enough to report her missing." We never saw exactly how Poppy became interested in Rose's story, but it was something she was already interested in before she met Cinda, since she proposed it as a podcast idea during that initial meeting. Maybe she came across her story while she was researching how to disappear with no trace herself? And she clearly did her research, because she knew about the painting and that Bunny had it, and it seems she knew that was Charles's father in the painting. As for it being a reason to kill, well, she's clearly nuts. She looked at Cinda's telling her that there needed to be a murder, and she looked at Bunny who was refusing to give/sell her the painting, and, in her mind, murdering Bunny and framing Mabel, Oliver, and Charles became the answer to her problem. What's less clear to me is why she didn't take that opportunity, then, to break free from Cinda and do her own podcast. Why orchestrate this story for a podcast and let Cinda profit from it, including even giving her the title? She and Kreps were talking about how much money she was going to make, but it would seem that they skipped the part of their plan that enables them to make that money. I assume she was hiding it because of Poppy badgering her about it. And she wanted to leave Mrs. G to Oliver to drive him crazy, but she also probably figured that, given how close the two of them are, the painting would still get to Charles.

That and what is going on with Lucy are the two plot points that I hope we get more on next season. I would assume that, since Nina is in charge, we're going to see that plan for the building progress (or attempt to progress, with the residents resisting). And with Lucy, we got some hints that there are problems at home, but no real explanation. Since we saw her in the 1 year flash forward, I'm assuming she'll be around for us to get more of that story. The stories of the murders seem intended to be the catalyst for the backstory and development of the main characters. The show isn't really about the murders, it's about them. And I can get that being the angle, because the leads are freaking magical together, so their back stories and the relationship among the three should be the "star" of the show. But, I can also get how frustrating it must be for viewers who are hardcore into solving the mystery as the main purpose for watching.

From what I can put together, she discovered, at some point, that Bunny had the Rose Cooper painting. (Maybe she found out when she was with Cinda talking to residents during season 1?) She wanted the painting to use as part of the podcast she wanted to do on Rose's disappearance. It sounds like Poppy went there regularly to get the #14 sandwich (either for herself or for Cinda). She probably saw her there when she went in to order and sat down to bug her about the painting again. I think her goal was initially to frame Mabel, but when it was looking like they wouldn't be able to pin it on her (Kreps likely told her that they just didn't have the evidence to nail Mabel), she decided to start throwing Cinda clues to Mabel, Charles, and Oliver. One thing that stuck out tome was Charles telling Ben "be smart," and that made me think of Jan. We know Jan had an interest in younger men. I could see Ben hating Charles because Jan is obsessed with him, and Charles repeatedly warning him to stay away from her because she's crazy and dangerous. Outside of that, my other candidates for who "her" was were Mabel and Lucy. We know Lucy had issues with her newest stepfather, but we never really got into what, exactly, was going on with her this season. Just that she seemed to keep wanting to escape to Charles' place. Mabel felt a lot less likely by the end of the scene, because the only thing I could think of that would make it Mabel was if Ben was interested in her. But Mabel's reaction to his death struck me solely as an "another fucking murder right around us??" kind of reaction, not like there was any kind of connection between her and Ben. So, I guess I'm down to Lucy or Jan. That is really who I thought it was going to be, right up until episode 9. I figured he was with Nina to get to the building, and he was pissed that Bunny staying on would delay his plans for the building. After episode 9, I was pretty sure we were looking at either Cinda or Poppy. And I was leaning towards Poppy, since Kreps never saying his girlfriend's name, but describing her as brunette with glasses made me think it was misdirection to make us think it was Cinda.

I don't think we've ever had it explicitly confirmed. Unless I'm remembering wrong, I think Mabel said something to him about it, but he didn't confirm it was him. I think it's just an assumption that it was him since he seems to be Glitter Guy, and GG is the one who went to retrieve the matchbook after they texted that number. I think it's just as likely, though, that it could have been Cinda (or Poppy, I'm not ruling her out) who texted that night, and then, when they texted that number about the evidence, sent Kreps to go retrieve it. That conversation in the boxing ring makes it pretty clear he's essentially someone's lovestruck henchman, so it would make sense that he was playing gofer for Cinda/Poppy.

Steffy: "I've learned lately that you can't give up a minute with the people you love." And that's why, instead of being with the husband you thought was dead, you're sitting there bitching about the "evil" Logans and braiding your mother's hair while she giggles about kissing a married man. And, God, you could die of alcohol poisoning in one episode if you took a drink every time someone said Douglas belongs with his "real family." OK, Thomas. You think Douglas needs to live with his "real" aka biological family? Well, then, saddle up and go find paw-paw Marone and ask if you and Douglas can live with him. Otherwise, you're a fucking hypocrite just like your sister and mother. Does the show not get that you can't have this herd of assholes being complete hypocrites with no recollection of their own past (and present) if you're not going to give us someone reminding them that their shit does, in fact, stink. I'd pay good cash for it to be Liam (or Bill, Bill would be amazing, but Liam is the more invested party here). I want Liam to tell Steffy that she's shown him the light, and he believes that his daughter living with her mother and stepfather isn't appropriate any longer. She needs to be with her real father, and she needs to learn about her Spencer birthright. He can remind her of how magnanimous he's been to let her have full physical custody all this time, especially not raising holy hell when she impulsively fled the country, in the middle of a mental breakdown, with his daughter. He can remind her how against a child going to live with their "real family" she was when he and Hope came to take home their kidnapped daughter who Mommy Taylor bought for Steffy on the black market. Bonus points if he condescendingly refers to Steffy "taking care of Kelly" for him, like she's the babysitter. I also want Finn and Li to get an earful of her "real family" bullshit and blast her so hard her and her mother's wigs fly off their empty heads and blow over the cliff from the verbal impact. Back to the Bill option. I always wanted Bill and Douglas 1.0 to have a bond, mostly because I wanted scenes between the two of them. We didn't really get that, but I'll gladly take them retconning that he was super bonded with the kid if it gives me a scene of him ripping Steffy a new asshole for trying to take "my grandson" away, and announcing his support for Liam going for full custody of Kelly. I would enjoy the hell out of Steffy having to deal with both Liam and Bill reading her for filth and no longer being in her thrall. As for a potential custody battle, yes, let's see a judge learn all the details of how, exactly, Hope came to be Douglas's mother. Leave no details out, Hope, including how he knew your daughter was alive and living with his sister, and he kept his mouth shut, forcing others to keep quiet as well, because he needed you grieving her "death" so he could keep positioning his son as your replacement baby, to lure you into marriage. Make sure the judge knows about how he mentally and physically abused Douglas to advance his agenda. Throw in the Hopequin details. And, please, please, please, let Hope find out about Thomas's involvement keeping Sheila's crime against Brooke quiet, as proof that, no, he hasn't changed much. Having said all of that, for the love of fuck, has nobody involved in this show ever heard of split custody? The kid living half the time with one parent and half with the other? These people are all basically in each other's pockets 24/7. I think Thomas and Hope could manage dropping Douglas off at each other's homes every other week.

The combination of the "star-crossed" comment about Steam, and the way they're clearly going to have Hope unravelling and going to any lengths to get Douglas back, makes me fear they're going to kill off Hope and give her husband and baby to Steffy. I have to say, I'd be done then, just completely, utterly done. After everything they've done to the character over the past year, to give her five minutes of happiness and then just off her so Steffy can have everything she wants? Nope. Hard pass.

I will give John one tiny bit of credit for saying to CT (after they picked him to go into the final) "if I die, I expect you to pick me up and carry me like a backpack." Johnny Bananas Backpack will forever be my favorite reality show moment. I knew there was no way the stars would win, but damn, that wasn't even close. The champs were done before the stars got a single plank in place. I agree that they should transition some of those games over to the real Challenge. They used to mix some "silly" games into the Challenge, but I feel like that's largely gone by the wayside as they now just keep trying to up the ante. Sometimes silly is good, MTV. Sure, have the extreme heights challenges, but also add in some human foosball or human hot dog type (from Champs vs. Pros) kind of stuff. It will make the regular seasons more fun if there are some episodes where the game isn't necessarily going to be won by the people who do the most cross fit in between seasons or take the most steroids.

And John typically throws those tantrums over shit he just wishes he would have gotten to do first. And they should all know this about him by now, so I'm annoyed that so many of his cast mates indulged his whiny tantrum over not being made MVP, just because he staged a whole deal with the kid showing up and told everyone how great it would be to be MVP while he was there. You weren't the MVP, John. Deal with it. It's not fair to the other charities being represented there if you get to tilt the advantage and take away money that they should have been given under the existing rules. I live for the day he launches into one of his tantrums (over someone doing the kind of shit he's always doing), and the whole cast shrugs and walks away instead of trying to argue or placate him. In this one, I think Wes psyched himself out. He knew this was his to lose, and once John put in a good time, and as others did well, you could see all over his face that he was letting that get in his head. Then he hd trouble with that knot, and it was all over. Had he not gotten stuck there, he would have smoked the rest of them. Oh, and I question the official times. It seems like CT did much better than John, but there was no drama in CT getting it, so John it is. I'll be shocked if next week's finale doesn't include gross food. I'm surprised John is talking about bringing in strong players as their third. I thought, for sure, he'd want Tori, telling himself both girls are strong enough to compete with him and not hold him back, if his outcome partially depends on them, but not strong enough to outdo him. And given that he had to know the odds were high that the other side would be fielding two girls (because everyone over there apparently dislikes Matt now), it wouldn't put him at any disadvantage against the stars side. Unless he knows something about the final format, I can't believe he's pushing to bring CT in. (And, yeah, CT gets gassed on those serious endurance things, but I doubt they're taking them on a two day finale culminating in climbing a mountain on one of these charity things.)