Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did sand sprinkle out of your nose from your head being buried in it? Did you get dumped for something silly, like refusing to tell the truth? Did you make sure your child could no longer say "I ain't afraid of no ghosts"? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Spectra-Avant-Buckingham-Fulton clan this week!
We've got a hostage situation, Scoopers! Thomas has essentially taken over Hope's life -- and the show while he's at it. A "simple" baby switch story is now the saga of a crazed designer who will stop at nothing to possess the object of his desire. At least some are starting to see the full deck not being played with, but those closest to Thomas won't even acknowledge the existence of the cards. Let's Scoop about it!
IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY...
One thing was made clear this week: the Thope engagement was not meant to be played for romance. Despite little Douglas' hostage video of a proposal, Hope's green-around-the-gills contemplation of the query and the creepy music lifted from Sheila's 1998 return-to-madness scenes left no room for doubt. Thomas is officially mentally deranged, and I think maybe, on some level, Hope knows it.
Amid Thomas saying waiting for her had taken its toll and that there had been so much death and tragedy, Hope seemed to sense that something was off with her stepbrother. And that can't be mentioned enough: Thomas and Hope are related by marriage. Why anyone thinks such a union is okay, I don't know. Anyway, Thomas pushed Douglas in Hope's face so much, she finally agreed to be a Forrester.
But as she said, "yes, I'll marry you and be a mother to Douglas," Hope looked ready to puke. Indeed, it's amazing Thomas didn't taste that Hope had thrown up in her mouth a little as he engaged her in a Krazy Glue liplock! Hope pulled back lickety-split then told Thomas she was going to sleep alone that night, despite being his betrothed. It was all she could do to get out of the room and away from Thomas.
I have to wonder -- does Hope realize Thomas has become unhinged, and she only accepted his proposal to keep Thomas calm and protect Douglas? That would be a great motivator; B&B doesn't usually plot that deeply anymore, but that's how I would write it. Because Hope simply agreeing to marry Thomas out of her grief over Beth and Liam -- and her desire to be a mother to Douglas -- doesn't feel like enough to me.
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO LOCATE YOUR NEAREST EXIT
Hope purposely wearing Thomas' ring to save Douglas would also make more sense than Hope simply ignoring the warnings of...well, pretty much everyone around her. Brooke has gone real mama lion these days. There have been times that seemed hypocritical, like when Amber first came into Rick's life twenty years ago, but today, Brooke's worries feel real, and this emphasizes a much stronger side to La Logan.
Brooke was horrified to see the bling on Hope's finger and begged her youngest daughter not to marry Thomas. I was horrified, too, to hear that Thomas had kept his original engagement ring from Cabo San Lucas to regift to Hope. First off, recycling is good, but there's been too much reuse of rings on the show the last couple of years. Like these guys can't afford to go back to Zales every few months for new ones?
But the big thing for me is the idea that Thomas has held onto this ring for the past seven years because he kept harboring the hope that Hope would one day agree to marry him, like she didn't in Mexico. I'm sorry, what? You'll never convince me that Thomas was pining for Hope while he was involved with Caroline -- and especially the whole time he was with Sally.
Nope. What I saw during the Tally days was Thomas "burnin' old mem'ries with a brand-new flame," to quote a Kathy Mattea country song. There's no way Thomas could have shipped Thope all these years. Brooke scoffed at that concept, too. "Destiny is not manipulation," Brooke pointed out when Hope tried to hold her and Thomas up to Bridge.
I had to snicker at that one, because Brooke did plenty of manipulating as she tried to land her "destiny" the past 30 years or so. But Brooke was right about one thing -- Hope doesn't need to marry Thomas just to be there for Douglas. That feels like a dated, or at least tired, soap trope to me. To paraphrase The Wizard of Oz, "people get married and divorced so quickly here!" It makes weddings not special.
Hope chose her determination to mother Douglas over her own mother's concerns, and Liam didn't have any better luck getting through to his former wife. "Are you doing this because I was with Steffy?" Liam wanted to know; good question, dude. Hope insisted that Liam loved Steffy then went on a long diatribe about her grief regarding Beth and needing to do something to move past it.
I feel for Hope, and I have this whole six-and-a-half months since she "lost" Beth, but, more often than not, she seems to forget that Liam has had his own grief to deal with, too. It's like she doesn't realize Liam also lost a child. For Liam's part, clearly, he can see that Hope thinks his having sex with Steffy means Steam is back together. Why isn't Liam letting Hope know that isn't the case?
Seriously, he just stood there, looking like he wanted to clarify his Steam status, but he didn't. "Let me in!" Liam pleaded. "You're not free!" Hope countered. Fill in the blank, Liam; all you had to say is, "Yes, I am." Weird enough that Hope is all bent out of shape about Liam shagging Steffy when she forced Liam to have an annulment and pushed him into Steffy's bed in the first place.
Unable to persuade Hope that Thomas wasn't on the up and up, Liam asked, "What if I found proof he's using you?" That both intrigued me and struck me as odd. It was an out-of-the-blue thing for Liam to say, and what proof could he possibly find? Yet, it's high time someone got some goods on our Mister Thomas. The guy's been getting away with too many things lately. And Liam versus Thomas would be fun.
Hope ran up against even more opposition, this time from the Logan sisters, who were all giddy about Hope getting married again until they found out the groom wouldn't be Liam. "Should we have Quinn take a look at this," Donna said of Hope's ring, "and make sure it's..." Katie, the only Forrester employee who worked this week, bookended with, "I'm sure the diamond is the real thing, but is the engagement?"
Agreeing with Katie that Hope never once said she loved Thomas, Brooke reminded her daughter that Thomas was unstable. "He scares me," Brooke admitted, adding that Thomas' fixation with Hope reminded her of "issues he'd had in the past with anger and impulse control." Hope pooh-poohed Thomas' history, declaring marrying Thomas was "a way I can honor [Beth] by giving Douglas the mother he needs."
Brooke, you'd better still have James on speed dial, because Hope isn't any more stable than Thomas is, in her own way. Hope may not have had a psychotic break like Thomas, but she's behaving erratically and should have been in grief counseling before Valentine's Day. If Hope's loss has to drive her down a self-destructive path, can't she get addicted to pills again? At least there's some basis for that direction.
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME
Over New Year's, Hope passed out, and Dr. Reese Buckingham stole her baby, arranging for it to be adopted by Steffy so Reese could pay off his mobster creditors. Then people started finding out about the switcheroo and arguing over whether or not Reese's secret should be kept. The story got repetitive and needed a B-12 shot, right? Well, it got one, but I'm not sure it got the right one.
Did you ever think that now-infamous night on Catalina Island would result in Thomas going nuts and taking over the show? Because that's what's happened. Phoebeth is barely even mentioned anymore; now it's all about Thomas stalking Hope and doing everything short of kidnapping her to make her his own. It's as if Thomas has kidnapped this storyline -- nay, this show.
All it really does is backburner the truth of Beth being alive, which the majority of viewers would rather just have come out already, and put the focus on the crazy antics of a character that wasn't crazy the last time we saw him. I would have bought Caroline being crazy, because during her last appearance, she practically foamed at the mouth after trying to commit uncle-cide.
Thomas has gone past redeemable; the only endgame for him here is a long stay in a mental institution. What turned an otherwise charming, sane stud muffin with, yes, some questionable behavior in his history, into a guy so far gone he uses his child as a pawn and watches innocent people die? I need answers here. At least hints. So far, the show hasn't offered a single one of either.
I'll take a whack at it: maybe, somehow, Thomas accidentally killed Caroline, and the guilt drove him over the edge. Or, Caroline killed herself in front of him, and it had the same effect. That would track -- Thomas hasn't always fired on all cylinders, as Brooke reminded us, and apparently mental instability runs in the family, as we saw when mama Taylor came back totally utsnay last year.
You know what I really need to see? Taylor coming back, right now, being the one to notice that Thomas has become certifiable. Not only would that hearken back to the psychological expertise that Taylor has all but forgotten, but it would also redeem Taylor from her own demented actions to show she's recovered enough that she can tell her son needs some serious help.
Taylor saving Hope (and Douglas!) from Thomas would be epic. Instead, we have Thomas' other relatives cosigning everything he does. Steffy at least gave her bro some sass when he wondered why she wasn't working to secure a commitment from Liam. "What, I'm gonna get Kelly to tell him to buy me a ring?" Steffy snarked, citing Douglas' proposal to Hope.
Steffy still had enough "I choose me" in her to inform Thomas that she didn't have a leash on Liam and that "I realized years ago having someone's attention is different than having someone's love." When Thomas had to take a call, Steffy all but offered him two snaps in a Z formation, spouting, "Good, you're already irritating me. Bye!" Love it! If only Steffy hadn't congratulated Thomas on his engagement to Hope first.
But the one I really don't understand is Ridge. This is the guy who has, ever since Ronn Moss's early incarnation in Speedos, made the most noise when he merely suspected foul play toward someone he loved. Just last year, Ridge maintained that Bill was using Will's custody hearing to get closer to Brooke, and he was right. Yet now, Ridge can't see all the shady ish Thomas is pulling right in front of him.
"You must not have seen your son in action lately," Liam barked, and boy, was he right. If anything, Ridge has started making excuses for Thomas, declaring that his son is kind and honorable. The Dressmaker even went so far as to call Brooke "Stephanie" for what he termed Brooke's interference in her daughter's love life! Great continuity, but cold, dude, cold!
Like Brooke's sisters said, it's not the same thing at all. Stephanie may not have thought Brooke was any good until toward the end of her life, but, for all Brooke's scheming over the years, her machinations never put Ridge or anyone else in actual danger that I can recall. Brooke is sensing mendacity in Thomas, and Ridge has been around enough psychopaths (Sheila, Morgan) that he should be able to sense it, too.
Someone needs to take some old photo albums out of storage and show Ridge and Steffy snaps of teen Thomas (Drew Tyler Bell's version) and curly-headed grade schooler Hope. I saw one online, and it really drove home just how gross a Thope pairing is, and Ridge, especially, should see that pushing stepsiblings together is just plain nasty. Not Ridge, who's so far in denial that he actually turned on Liam this week.
THESE ARE MY DEMANDS
For all of Thomas' treachery, and almost everyone turning a blind eye to it, only one character stood up and exclaimed, "Hell, no, we won't go" -- Xander! Having gotten hit in the face upon meeting the dearly departed Emma, the graphic designer turned underwear model had no problem getting hit in the face with Charlie's security footage, which showed Thomas giving chase to Emma via automobile!
Xander's heroics need a little work, though. I wondered how Thomas going after Emma meant that he murdered her, and Zoe wondered about it, as well. Truly, Thomas could have been rushing out to pick up his dry cleaning before they closed. So, Xander decided a little breaking and entering was necessary to gain more intel. Not that Xander had to work hard on it, because Thomas' car was strangely unlocked.
Okay, so the Logan grounds probably have tons of security, so maybe Thomas didn't feel the need to lock his ride. But here's where it got a little weird. Xander found the key card to the car (is that new? I thought you only saw that in hotels), and managed to get right into its GPS history that showed Thomas pulled over at the site of Emma's car crash.
Um, maybe I'm just not up on the latest technology, but would a GPS system really record every trip you take for easy access? Well, Xander ran back to the continually doubtful Zoe, who remained doubtful. "Even if it was a coincidence," Xander cried, "[Thomas] had to have seen what happened...and he didn't call for help. He drove away!" Xander couldn't believe Zoe was still rationalizing Thomas' actions.
Worse, the first thing Zoe did when Xander took off was call Thomas! For real? The last time she did that, someone died! After finding out about Thope's engagement from the Logan sisters, Xander railed at Zoe, saying, "How safe do you think [Hope's] gonna be, married to the man who murdered Emma?" On cue, Thomas emerged from some racks of clothes and warned Xander he'd better be careful.
"What are you gonna do, drive me off a cliff?" Xander spat. I have to hand it to Xander for being the only one on this show lately with balls, and to portrayer Adain Bradley, who's finally gotten a chance to give his character steel-strength backbone and also heartbreaking vulnerability. Then, Xander made the same mistake Emma made. He told Thomas he was going to expose everything.
Damn, guys! When confronted by someone you think committed crimes, agree with them, get out of the room, and go to the cops! If Xander thinks Thomas rammed Emma's car, there would be evidence of it; surely the GPS findings would be enough for the police to step up any investigation. Thomas growled that they'd all go to jail if Xander snitched, but Xander said he'd rather do life than let Hope do life with Thomas!
Zoe suggested that, given Mulholland Drive's hairpin turns, if Thomas ran Emma off the road, Thomas would have gone through the guardrail, too. Interestingly, Thomas actually was the first to mention "the crime that my sister and my mother unknowingly took part in." Thomas even posited that there could be trouble for Steffy because she took a baby that wasn't hers out of the country!
All interesting points, as was Thomas swearing he only wanted to stop Emma from getting to Hope; that gibes with Thomas' recollection of yelling at Emma to slow down so they could talk. Still, rightly, Xander was enraged that Zoe couldn't tell Thomas was working her, and he wondered what kind of life they'd have with the Secret of Phoebeth hanging over them. Xander was done. Either they spilled, or Xander was leaving her!
YESSSS!!! I was saying this weeks ago! There needed to be consequences for all this secret-keeping, and Zoe being so willing to live a lie should have had Xander questioning their relationship. "I don't even know you," Xander remarked as he said his goodbye. Wait. So, he's going back to London...with the secret intact? Might be worth it if we get scenes of Xander forcing Reese to confess to Hope and Liam.
IF YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH A CHILD...
Thomas must have had Glenn Miller songs on auto-repeat, because, with his ring on Hope's finger, he was in the mood. Surprise! No jitterbugging tonight! Hope was sure Douglas would want to share in their celebration and did everything she could to insert the boy into it. Then, she pulled a Hope for the Future 1.0 and told Thomas that they should wait on that kind of celebrating until their wedding night!
Woo-hoo! Hope didn't want any of that from Thomas, no matter how much Sally once did. Speaking of whom, there was a useless scene Friday where Sally walked in on Wyatt and Flo making out; she got rid of Flo so she could bust a move on Wyatt herself. Sally, honey, get some self-esteem! You did not mess things up with Wyatt by keeping Thomas' secret, and Wyatt isn't even worth going after anymore.
Anyway, what to do when you gotta wait 'til your honeymoon to get your swerve on? Move up the honeymoon! Not that B&B characters have never done that before (Brooke, I'm looking at you), but this may be the sickest way anyone on the show has gone about it. "I'm sorry to do this to you," Thomas thought to Douglas, "but I can't wait anymore." OMG -- was Thomas going to drug his own son this time?
No, but what Thomas ultimately did do was as bad, and probably worse. While Hope was downstairs, being told by Brooke, "you can't marry a man you don't have feelings for" (an additional "I should know, I've done it twice" in reference to Grant and Whip would have been excellent here), Thomas ducked into Douglas' closet, pulled out some sort of device, and stashed it under the kid's bed.
What happened next was both heinous and unintentionally hilarious. Thomas set a timer, roused his son, and hid...then, Douglas woke up and saw the most obviously CGI'd cartoon ghost dancing around on his wall. Really, Thomas? Is that the best you could do? Your average five-year-old sees far worse on the Disney Channel. How about projecting a menacing image of Caroline if you wanna freak the boy out?
Of course, that's the heinous part. Bad enough Thomas forged a drawing from Douglas to Hope and coached the kid to propose to her...but to traumatize the boy this way? Even Sheila never victimized kids. Hmm. She did give infant Thomas a haircut once; is that where this is coming from? Naturally, Hope ran into the room to comfort Douglas, and she decided that what must be done must be done!
"It needs to happen," Hope decided. "We should get married right away." It was all Thomas could do not to dance around the room as he thought to his son, "It worked! Hope Logan, you will finally be mine!" What if she changes her mind? Will Thomas tie her to a train track until she says "I do"? And yes, Thomas is now outright abusing his son just to get some, and it's disgusting. Diabolical, soap-wise...but disgusting!
What are your thoughts, Scoopers? Was Xander's intestinal fortitude too little, too late? Should Ridge really be this far in denial about his son? Do you think Thomas has taken over the baby switch story and the show? And has he finally crossed into territory even the best soap writers couldn't bring him back from? Board the Comments section below or the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback. Your comments could wind up in a future column! Like these!
"Can we please have an effing storyline for Steffy & can she be doing something other than laundry! [JMW] just won an Emmy...for God's sake!! #FreeSteffy" -- Christi
"Steffy hasn't been to the office since she came back. Enough of the beach parties. Xander is the only one with a conscience. Glad he dumped Zoe, she's heartless. Also Thomas is so crazy I'm beginning to wonder if he didn't kill Caroline." -- Lisa
"It's obvious Thomas's descent into madness is because Caroline wouldn't be with him. They may have left for New York to be together but Thomas wasn't Caroline's once-husband Ridge, and she let him know it. Maybe he killed her too with a carefully passed drug. Maybe a real letter will be found and Karen can bring it to Ridge telling him how [Caroline] always loved him and wished Douglas was his son, that if anything happened to her she knew Douglas would be kept safe by Ridge?" -- Amber
Or maybe we'll finally find out Douglas is really Ridge's son. Wouldn't that throw a few monkey wrenches into Thomas' plans! Hey, it could happen; Ridge is supposed to be a hot enough lover that even shooting blanks wouldn't pop his potency! Thanks, as always, for reading, and, until we meet again, keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember: no matter color, creed, religion, gender identity, orientation, or nationality, we're all beautiful!
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