KerleyQ

I would have paid cash money for Brooke, when Thomas mocked her for her adult kids all leaving LA. would have said "kind of like how your own mother couldn't get away from you often enough, huh?" Does Brooke know that Taylor is the one who shot Bill? I want to see her start throwing that kind of shit out there when the TayTots go on about their sainted mother. Just her recent history - violated Brooke's medical privacy to find out she was pregnant and then told Katie. Then left Eric's place (yes, remember, children, mommy was fucking grandpa, or "Eric" as you called him at the time to pretend that wasn't a thing?) and stayed out of the country for a long time. Until, of course, she came back and tried to murder Bill because her daughter rode him like a stallion, leading to "Who's the Daddy, part 1" and ending her marriage to Liam. Then she bought Steffy a black market baby to try to help her lure Liam back in while he and his wife grieved their "dead" baby (that Taylor bought), peaced out of town and didn't come back to help Steffy deal with the aftermath of that whole thing or to find out what the fuck was going on with her psycho son who went to extreme measures to keep the "Phoebe is Beth" secret, including running a woman off the road to her death, abusing his own son, roofying Liam so he'd sleep with Steffy, and almost roofying Hope because she very clearly did not want to have sex with him, despite the sham marriage he manipulated her into. But, sure, Taylor is mother of the year, and Brooke's to blame for Thomas's crazy because she dared to be a decent and involved stepmother while his sainted mommy was faking her death and not coming home to be with her children. Twice. I agree that Brooke needs to tell Hope in specific and thorough detail exactly how her conversation with Thomas went. Hope needs to understand that Thomas is not this new, improved man. He's just hiding his crazy a little better most of the time. Also, if Donna is babysitting Douglas, why not just have her bring him home while Thomas is at work. Hell, he won't even notice right away, since he'll likely go directly from work to yet another tedious Parent Trap dinner party at Steffy's house, and won't be home until after Douglas's bedtime. Oh, wait, does he have a bedtime at Daddy's (Grandpa's) Vacation House of Fun and Giggles? Thomas won't figure out he's gone until the next time he calls Hope or shows up in her living room to try to lure her over to see him, only to find Douglas is with her.

Brooke, your husband blew you off last night. Never called to tell you he was going to be out. Never came home. Why are you going to Taylor and not Ridge? He's the one who is married to you. None of Steffy, Thomas, or Taylor's antics could matter a single bit if he didn't indulge them. He is the one who is your problem. If he'd even given a passing thought to talking to you last night to let you know what he was doing, Steffy wouldn't have had a chance to keep you from talking to him. But he didn't. Come on, you had the confidence and backbone to walk away from Bill when you refused to compete with a building. Where is that now? The only reason you should have gone to the cliff house to talk to Taylor should have been to say "here are his things. He's all yours." Instead, you're practically over there singing "Jolene" to Taylor, allowing your husband to keep playing happy family with her, and terrified of saying two words to Bill or Deacon, lest it send Ridge running right to Taylor. Fun fact, though, Brooke, he can't run to Taylor when he's already with her 24/7. When Taylor told Brooke that Ridge was struggling to choose between the two of them, that was the perfect time for both of them to look at each other, laugh, and say "and why the hell are either one of us putting up with that shit like this is the fucking Bachelor?" And, Hope, pick up the hints. Thomas is hardly being subtle. First it was his "one woman man" comments. Now "Romeo and Juliet"? He's not talking about co-parenting. He's using Douglas, again, to try to drag you into his life. And you're allowing it. School has started. Go pick your son up from school and take him home. Then talk to a lawyer about formalizing a shared custody agreement that explicitly spells out where Douglas will sleep on specific nights. Thomas and his "I never want to lie to you" bullshit. The only acceptable response to that was "since when?"

Thomas sure is spending a lot of time with him, isn't he?

I've been taking the two of them never mentioning it as a fairly common thing with abuse. It's sometimes really fucking hard for the victim to admit it's happening. If Allison specifically isn't mentioning it, Patty is taking her cues from that and not bringing it up herself, even though she probably finds it very obvious when Allison says something like "I had an accident with the door." But, they both know it's happening, and that's why Patty keeps agreeing to go to these lengths with Allison, even though she keeps saying it's too much and she's done. No matter how much you liked a friend, you'd have sat down with them long before things got to "I'm going to fake my own death" and told her she's a dumbass for not just filing for divorce is this was just a garden variety "I'm unhappy being married to this man child," situation. I think both actresses play their scenes like there is some other issue beneath the surface, going unacknowledged. But, that could just be something I'm reading into it since I'm pretty sold on the "Kevin is abusive" theory.

Give Steffy time, and she'll make the whole thing Brooke's fault. "If Brooke had kept her nose out of my business and didn't get in Sheila's face, Sheila wouldn't have given her the real champagne, and there would have been no reason for me to confront Sheila in that alley. Really, if Brooke hadn't been an alcoholic in the first place, Finn and I would have never been shot!"

I'd just like to remind Ridge that Deacon literally saved his daughter's life. And Bill rescued Finn and flew him to Monaco to reunite with Ridge's daughter, bringing her out of her deep depression. Both men should be welcome visitors in "his" home. (Since we all know it won't be his much longer.) Is it me, or does it seem like they were headed in certain directions, with romantic pairings, like a month ago, but they have since thrown all the cards up in the air and reshuffled the deck? It seemed like we were going to get some level of Deacon/Taylor, while Ridge was going to stay with Brooke (for the time being). With Finn alive, it seemed like the show was going to leave Liam and Hope together to deal with other stories. And Bill/Li seemed almost certain. And, of course, we finally got a payoff on Quarter, but it was only like 10 minutes before Rena left. Now, Deacon hasn't even shared air space with Taylor since she went to Monaco. Deacon will likely end up "in love" with Sheila, because the writers seem like they can't tank his character enough. Brooke and Ridge just need someone to call time of death already so that Steffy, who recently welcomed her husband back from the dead, can declare it the best day of her life when her father deigns to fuck her mother again. (And we can all vomit when Taylor overshares every single excruciating detail with her like they're at a slumber party in high school.) Thomas is trying to insinuate himself back into Hope's life. And they're throwing that Bill/Brooke hug at us. The only hint of a change that likely won't stick is Bill/Brooke. Because they worked too well together last time they got a chance (until that skyscraper idiocy), and we can't have her happier with anyone than she has ever been with Ridge, so she'll remain in limbo or getting involved with Deacon and not realizing he's also involved with Sheila. It occurs to me that, along with her name, Steffy apparently also inherited the self-appointed role of keeper of Ridge's dick from her grandmother. When her kids grow up, she's going to be a combination of her grandmother and mother. She'll micromanage Hayes's dating life, and she's going to completely forget (like she hasn't already) that she used to love Beth like a daughter, and push Kelly to go after any guy Beth so much as smiles at.

And there's the need to see the men on soaps as some romantic ideal. So, all the bullshit must be the women's fault. Can't let on that Ridge is a waffling, hypocritical, controlling asshole. So, it must be that whatever woman he's about to waffle away from is some unmitigated ho-bag who doesn't deserve him.

Ridge is coming home to his wife, fresh from telling his ex-wife that he still loves her, and hugging her, and he probably still smells like Taylor's Love's Baby Soft body spray. But, I'm betting he's still going to throw a temper tantrum over Brooke hugging her ex (who she hasn't been kissing, cuddling, and declaring her love to over the past few months or so).

One of the many reasons I want to see Bill get more involved in this story as the custody issue persists. Douglas is his family both through Liam being his stepfather and through Caroline. I really want to see him butt his nose in and remind Taylor that he's let her get away with shooting him...so far. And I would pay cash money to see both Liam and Bill teamed up against Steffy on Brooke's behalf. Nothing would hit her harder than seeing two of her backup men siding against her for Brooke, of all people. I can't remember which website it was now, but I saw some soap site doing a writeup on this whole thing that was very decidedly pro-Marones. At one point, I had to rage quit reading any further when I saw "and, as always, Hope is stealing from Steffy. She stole Liam, and she stole Phoebe right out from under her." Yeah, Hope is with the man she was supposed to marry before Steffy imprinted on him like a baby duckling and fucked around in their relationship. And Hope's got her baby who was stolen from her and sold to Taylor to aid in trying to reel Liam back in for Steffy. Steffy has her own man and her own new baby now. And Hope doesn't need or want either one of them. So, what, exactly, would she be "stealing" from Steffy? Steffy is the one trying to interfere in Hope's custody of her son, because she wants to use her own nephew, who has been through more than enough bullshit in his life, to drive a wedge between her father and his wife. (Side note: FFS, there is no "Phoebe." She is Beth. Phoebe was essentially imaginary. Also, Steffy should have been just as mad at her mother over that whole thing as she was at Thomas. Taylor should be trained to report signs of human trafficking, but she blew right past all the red flags because she wanted to buy a baby to get Liam to fuck her daughter again. She set her daughter up for that pain.)

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?)