An unborn child is poised to enter the world and increase the Spencer family. This week, Liam and Steffy named the first female Spencer of the new generation Kelly in honor of Liam's mother. But like a failing star, the Spencer family is becoming a black hole, expanding and dying at the same time. Bill's dirty deeds are at its center, sucking everything good about the Spencers into it. Wyatt and Liam's relationship might be the latest casualty. The destruction of the Spencer family seems imminent unless Bill can drop his obsession with Steffy for the survival of his clan.
Wyatt has a lot to lose by confessing to Liam. Wyatt's betrayal of Bill will activate Bill's wrath. That is bad news for Will and Katie. It sets the stage for a renewed custody battle and leaves Wyatt and Katie's relationship vulnerable to Thorne. Wyatt could stand to lose his brother, too. With the truth out, Liam can choose to be angry at Wyatt for keeping secrets or grateful that Wyatt eventually spoke up.
What does Wyatt's revelation mean for Hope and Liam's future? Is it enough for Liam to return to Steffy because she only cheated once with his father, or will the rekindled love affair with Hope become an obstacle to a Steam reunion? Should Steffy think about whether she really wants a man who'd leave her and take up with Hope so quickly when Steffy, on the other hand, stood by her belief in him even when he thought he was an attempted murderer?
Let's get two scoops deep into whether Wyatt's last-minute revelation will irrevocably shatter the Spencer family.
In case you missed it
This week, you'd think Hope would have learned by now that it's bad luck for Liam to see her before the wedding. You'd also think Bill would have learned by now that money can't buy him sons. Even so, Hope let Liam peek at her on the morning of their wedding, and under threat of Wyatt telling Liam the truth, Bill practically robbed and carjacked himself to keep Wyatt quiet.
"I'll just be taking this..." was Bill's sentiment the other week when, without even discussing it with Steffy first, he lifted priceless artwork off the wall and walked out the door with it. Bill can't be that confident that he'll get Steffy in the end if he couldn't leave the painting on what would eventually be his wall again when he finally does get Steffy.
How convenient for Bill that he happened to have the expensive artwork baking in his hot trunk just in time to convince his sons that he'd just come from breathing the same beach air as Steffy. Bill gave the painting to Wyatt and promised him their entire company if he'd continue to keep quiet about Bill's fake affair with Steffy.
Bill spent the remainder of the week bickering with Justin about Bill's faulty scheme. No matter how Bill asserted that he was righting the wrong he'd done to Hope and Liam, Justin wasn't buying it, and he doubted Wyatt would keep quiet through the wedding. If you ask me, Justin ought to be upset about missing a chance to watch sexy Donna catch yet another wedding bouquet.
Which reminds me...Pam, the other permanent bouquet contestant, must be somewhere, sticking pins in her Brooke voodoo doll, because Brooke not only neglected to invite Pam and Charlie to the wedding, but Brooke didn't ask them to cook, either. If Quinn can attend one of Hope's weddings after the way those two women left things when Hope was last in town, why can't Pam and Charlie be there?
Ridge and Brooke experienced a little friction when Ridge stuck up for his daughter, and Brooke sided with hers. Ridge showed amazing restraint to allow the farce of a wedding to take place in his own home. As much as Ridge likes to get violent with Bill, Ridge also gets credit for choosing to talk some sense into Liam instead of knocking it into him for pitting Ridge's daughter and stepdaughter against each other again.
Someone needs to tell Ridge that Taylor shot Bill so that Ridge can stop confiding in Taylor about Bill and Steffy. It's what got Bill shot in the first place and might be what gets him hurt again if this keeps up. Apparently, when ranting to Taylor about Bill, Ridge left out the part about the wedding. She seemed surprised to hear that it was happening the day she visited Steffy.
Taylor seethed about Bill and about Brooke Logan. Steffy had to remind Taylor that Brooke is married to Ridge. Taylor mumbled something about Brooke taking Ridge from Taylor. If you listened carefully, you could hear a pin drop. It was the sound of Taylor becoming unhinged again.
Brooke might be the manipulator Taylor speaks of, but Brooke didn't take Ridge from Taylor. The last wedding Taylor had with Ridge was canceled when everyone found out that Stephanie and Thomas had been lying about Berry Island. Taylor acts like she never dated Thorne, but he was the man she was seeing when she was last on the show.
Maybe Taylor somehow got ahold of more berries. If she did, she must have shared them with the wedding wardrobe team. Brooke's matron of honor dress looked like all those flowers Brooke and Thomas were bouncing on in the berry cave. Katie looked like she was wearing a slice of sparkly watermelon. As for Quinn, it looked as if Eric had made her gown from satin bed sheets and hadn't noticed that he'd accidentally sewn a few pillow feathers into the blanket ruffle down the front. Donna arrived dressed as Hope's "something blue," and if I could name Maya's gown, it would be called "Ode to a Yellow River Forrester."
Liam and Wyatt wore colored suits with black lapels. I just wonder if they were supposed to be so tight? Not that I'm complaining about watching biceps strain against fabric and abs threatening to pop off the jacket buttons. Eric and Thorne opted for "OG" pinstripe suits, and Rick, Ridge, and Carter went with traditional suits.
Hopefully, there is no shrimp cocktail spoiling away in Brooke's kitchen because the wedding got interrupted -- as Hope and Liam's weddings often do. This time, it was by honest Wyatt who just cannot tell a lie...anymore. While Hope and the wedding guests exchanged quizzical glances downstairs, Wyatt took Liam upstairs and revealed the truth about fake-affair-gate.
The stage is set for Liam to once again choose between Hope and Steffy. Will Liam go through with his wedding anyway? After all, Steffy did cheat once and still hasn't been able to get out of Bill's orbit. Also, Liam claims to be in love with Hope. Does that just fade away? Shouldn't Liam keep his marriage promise, or should Wyatt's revelation be Liam's dump-Hope-for-free card?
Aren't you guys ready for the choice not to be Liam's anymore? Hope should decide she doesn't want Liam if he doesn't marry her despite Wyatt's revelation. Liam claimed he wants to be "safe" with Hope, but he really isn't worthy of Hope if he damages her trust to consider returning to Steffy just because Steffy only cheated with his father once, not twice. When it comes to cheating with your father-in-law, once is enough.
Sex has consequences, and for as much as Liam can't stand to think of Bill's hands on Steffy, how does Liam think Steffy feels about his on Hope? By the way, do the writers know Hope can also get pregnant? It might be refreshing for a change for them to give Hope a cement baby with Liam. If Liam's sex with Hope didn't get her pregnant, it should at least make Steffy think twice about wanting him back so badly after he readily took up with Hope.
For once, Steffy should realize that Liam's love for her cannot be that deep if he fell into bed with Hope while mad at Steffy for falling into bed with Bill. Steffy knows Liam so well that even when he tells her that he shot his father, she doesn't believe it. Liam, on the other hand, doesn't know Steffy well enough to question whether Steffy would do what Wyatt said she did. Liam is so weak, he won't even confront her about what Wyatt claimed he saw.
Even if Steffy had cleared the fake affair with Bill up for Liam, Steffy and Liam still haven't worked through her original betrayal or Liam's betrayal with Sally that led Steffy to be at the guesthouse. If Steffy couldn't deal with Liam kissing Sally, how does Steffy reconcile him sleeping with Hope and proposing marriage to Hope? And a piece of paper annulling the marriage is not an excuse. Marriage is in the heart and mind, not just on paper.
Liam needs therapy before getting into another marriage. He also needs to sort things out between him, his brother, and his father. Liam has to figure out if it's worth being with Steffy if Bill is never going to stop trying to get with her. Liam might need to take a cue from his Aunt Karen and move his family totally away from Los Angeles to live a life free of Bill's influence.
As for Wyatt, what happens to him now that he has betrayed Bill? It's a no-brainer that Bill will strip away the power he promised Wyatt. The Ferrari is as good as repo'ed. We can expect Bill to stroll into Wyatt's office and lift the painting off his wall, too. Wyatt had best move in with Katie because Bill owns the beach house. That is, unless Will suddenly becomes Bill's newest favorite son and Katie becomes Bill's favorite person to hurt Wyatt through.
Katie isn't marrying Wyatt, and Katie told Wyatt not to tell Liam the truth for one reason: Katie doesn't want to lose Will in a custody battle with Bill. Wyatt's tell-tale heart might have cost him a future with Katie if Bill decides to take his son's betrayal out on her in the courtroom.
A family under siege from within
"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." ~ Ariel Durant
The Spencer empire isn't a civilization, but the above warning is one that Bill has failed to heed up to now. Bill has done crippling damage to his family and his business in his desire for power, control, and Steffy. Will the Spencer family fall apart, or can the Spencer men find some way to salvage their relationships for the benefit of the family, their business, and their legacy?
In 2009, the B&B writers reimagined the Spencer family by crafting the character of Bill Spencer Jr. precisely for actor Don Diamont, who had previously played Y&R's deceased Brad Carlton. It was one of the best moves B&B has ever made to bring on a multi-layered, villainous hero to pair with the naïve, insecure Katie Logan. The rivalries, intrigue, and drama surrounding a complex man like Bill Spencer have been endless, partly due to the expanding and contracting family that Bill has both loved and hated.
Bill arrived in L.A. alone, but to his chagrin, his family grew. He was pleased to add himself a wife, but he wasn't so pleased when he learned that his sister had added herself a wife, too. Bill made peace with Karen marrying Dani, but the female couple decided it was better to live across the country from Dollar Bill. It took their daughter, Caroline, a few more lessons to learn that she, too, wanted the maximum number of states between her and Douglas and her uncle.
No family bond is sacred when it comes to Bill getting what he wants. Will, Bill's only son born in wedlock, lost his one-roof family when Bill courted Katie's sister, Brooke. After Hope Logan brought Bill's grown sons into his life, he eventually accepted them and tried to turn them into Mini-Dollar-Bills. Bill and Liam often clashed over morals. Liam usually wound up on the losing end when Bill arbitrated between his sons in their battles over Hope and Steffy, but in Bill's battle for Steffy's heart, Bill is prepared to squash both sons.
Liam's marriage was shattered when Bill seduced Liam's wife, and it was one straw too many for Liam, who turned his overburdened back on his father. Before he'd been shot, Bill had been intent upon writing both his sons off permanently. During his recovery, Bill figured out that he could use his sons' trust in each other to block Liam and Steffy's reconciliation.
Wyatt is usually adept at keeping his mouth shut when his parents are up to something. He is equally adept at doing the right thing at the last moment. This time was no different. Just like when Wyatt saved Liam from Quinn's sword and rescued Liam from Quinn's cabin, Wyatt interrupted Liam's wedding at the last moment possible to confess the truth about Bill and Steffy.
Unlike with Quinn, there are no police or mental institutions to keep Bill from striking back at Wyatt in retribution for his disloyalty. The intrigue of the plot lies in the jeopardy Bill exposes the family to as he continues pursuing a woman "who already knows where her heart is," according to Bill. To save the family, Liam may have to look beyond Wyatt's temporary acquiescence to Bill's manipulations, and Wyatt might have to give up his desire for his father's approval.
The family will continue to fall apart as long as Bill has a hold over Steffy. Bill has subtly hinted about what he wants in return for not telling the police that Taylor is his shooter, and Taylor is flaming mad that her actions gave Bill a hold over Steffy. Taylor has to be thinking that if she got away with shooting Bill on a whim, she might be able to get away with doing it on purpose, too.
In a look ahead
Click here to read our B&B scoops in detail. In the meantime, here are the highlights about what's ahead:
After Wyatt's revelation, Liam and Hope make some decisions about their future. Bill continues to make his case to Steffy, even as he punishes Wyatt for the betrayal. To Bill's surprise, Justin refuses to carry out Bill's orders.
Things get rough for Steffy, who continues to rebuff Bill's advances. Bill's insistence leads to danger, and Liam rushes to Steffy's side for a premature delivery. According to casting news, Robin Givens will be back for the entire first week of June, so the baby crisis is coming fast.
Quinn and Eric return to the forefront as Wyatt and Katie confront fissures in their commitment. Thorne keeps a watchful eye out for any void he can fill in Katie's life. Will he have any help from Quinn? If Eric and Quinn wind up on opposite sides of the issue, let's hope he doesn't start stopping in for long, therapeutic lunches at Il Giardino.
Let us know what you think, and until we scoop again, here's to hoping your Memorial Day weather is bold and beautiful, baby!
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