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B&B celebrated Halloween with a missing diamond, an imposing black-and-white mountain, and Brooke in a bear costume. Now that's really scary! Join Mike for this week's installment of Two Scoops and find out if the latest happenings on B&B are a thriller or just filler!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you finally get a chance to bake someone happy? Did you decide to steal more than the show? Was your new favorite song Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'"? These and more situations faced the Forresters et al this week!

What's happenin', Scoopers? Mike back with you again as B&B heads into November Sweeps. Or is that plummets? Yes, Brad Bell's favorite invention must be the telegraph, because his "Aspentastic" free climbing free-for-all had every bit of potential suspense choked out of it with repetitive dialogue and too many hints. Get your helmets on and let's harness the Halloween hijinks!

Rick was happy happy happy to tell his parents that Caroline accepted his proposal. Well, naturally, Brooke was thrilled: she engineered their meeting, which Eric acknowledged. Maya who? I wish I could be happy happy happy for Rick and Caroline, but after all of Caroline's trickery and Rick's flip-floppery, they just have no more rooting value to me. Shame, too, because that proposal was awesome -- so awesome that we had to have a flashback of it when Rick conveniently forgot his phone in the car.

However, watching Brooke and Eric interact is always a delight, and every time I see them together, I think of how the show really dropped the ball not reuniting them, especially with Taylor gone. Brooke and Eric are all that remain of the Core Four, and I think even Stephanie wouldn't have minded Brooke inheriting her husband. Wish Stephanie had floated by as Brooke actually took a moment to question herself and her involvement with Bill!

Even Eric raised his eyebrows when Brooke admitted that she might be following her heart and not her conscience! That would have been the perfect time for a Stephanie sighting or flashback. But at least Brooke had that moment before going back to justifying everything she's done. Yeah, yeah, Katie pushed you and Bill together. Well, you can lead a Stallion to water, but you don't have to get in the saddle! After Hope's recent blasting, though, Brooke may simply be trying to convince herself that Bill is Destiny 2013.

Hope had her own hands full when Liam revealed that Quinn was the one who sent Steffy's tribute video. Of course, Liam was still looking for anyone to blame but himself. "We were being manipulated!" Liam cried. Good thing Hope wasn't having it and went straight to Wyatt to find out if he'd known about his mother's electronic exploits. Big...long...dramatic...pause...and finally Wyatt admitted he'd found out after the fact. Really? Whether or not he knew wasn't that much of a nail-biter. Spit it out already!

Then Liam chimed in on the conversation, and after the boys butted heads for a while, Hope did something pretty well unprecedented: she told them she was going to put her personal life on hold! "I need a break from this," she admitted. So do I, really. Now, I took a bit of heat after my last column, where I basically said watching Liam and Hope is like watching paint dry! They're a fan favorite, I was told.

Hey, more power to all the Lope shippers out there, but, like, Rick and Caroline, too much has happened with Liam and Hope to make them viable anymore. And maybe I just get tired of seeing them on all the time. At least Hope drawing a line and choosing to focus on herself was different -- and a mature decision at that. How long she holds to it, who knows, especially since she slipped and called what she and Wyatt have a relationship.

Wyatt's still a breath of fresh air (all cheesy karaoke scenarios aside), but, as I've Scooped before, it seems B&B doesn't know what to do with him. He's a good guy with tons of integrity. He's a bad boy with a sense of entitlement. He knows he's in trouble with Hope because she values honesty then turns around and "steals" the glowing, shiny, Bell Tree Diamond in an attempt to further endear himself to her. Say what?

Oh, I admit it must have been an easy robbery, since Keystone Kop Charlie was on the case. If you don't know, the Keystone Kops are a group of bumbling "po-po" from the silent film era, of which Charlie must be an honorary member. Sure, he's funny, and it seems that lonely Pam may have finally met her quirky, culinary match, but B&B let him drone on way too long about his supposed expertise. Who really stands around talking about heists that "everybody" knows about? What "everybody" is that?

Even Quinn questioned Charlie's qualifications -- would Ricardo be happy to know his diamond was being supervised this way? I still say Ricardo wouldn't have let the rock out of his sight without sending along his own personal posse to guard it. And we're supposed to believe that Forrester Creations, who has had scads of fashion designs stolen from them, would hire a guy like Charlie? Sheila Carter's mealy-mouthed old cohort Mike Guthrie was a better security guard than him!

No, Wyatt inexplicably got Charlie to step away from his post to usher customers out of the store, then pocketed the diamond, sending Charlie into a frenzy. Maybe he and Pam had better open up a bakery, because he's through as a guard after this. As for Wyatt, his scheme to ramp up publicity for the diamond and win Hope over seems to be going as planned. He'd just better hope bell trees don't go off now every time he walks by!

B&B's main focus for the week was Bill deciding he needed to go "free climbing" in Aspen, as if we needed yet another trip there, complete with that bad map and the robotic music that accompanies it. Look, Aspen is beautiful, and it was nice to see it in all its fall color glory for a change, but we're talking probably a dozen remotes in just two years. Let's do the Time Warp again! I understand if B&B's budget prohibits going anywhere else, but Aspen has just gotten boring.

Bill, however, didn't have time to be bored, as he spent his pre-trip time arguing with Katie about seeing baby Will. I don't really blame Katie for wanting to keep her kid out of Bill and Brooke's love nest. And Bill has the nerve to call Katie a control freak after everything he's done? He doesn't care about Will! He just wants to be the one holding all the cards, and he can't stand that it's Katie who's stacking the deck these days. Suck it, Bill! You're a bigger baby than Will is any day.

Then B&B did something I don't think it's ever done in its 26 years: it acknowledged Halloween! Not full-on, mind you, but it wasn't just another day, either. I couldn't decide if Brooke's sexy bear costume was scary in the good way or the bad way, but inevitably it was the best part of the attempt at All Hallows' Eve. Hey, it was better than the bats and wolf howl that made their way into B&B's short credits! That would have been perfect if B&B was doing a whole Halloween episode, but it wasn't.

The other thing I didn't understand was Bill and Katie lamenting separately that Bill should take Will trick-or-treating, then blaming each other for it not happening. Confusing. Later, Charlie predicted weirdos showing up at the boutique, but no one was in costume. The most bizarre detail of all? Katie having a doctor's appointment on Halloween night! I'm glad she's okay, but that would never happen, nor would her heart be in "excellent condition" after three heart attacks! Maybe she's a zombie.

At least Katie's health was addressed again (it had been strangely forgotten since Bill's affair came out at Brooke's birthday party), and the moments between Hope and her Aunt Katie were surprisingly sweet. Good to see Katie has a true ally against Brill! But Katie must have been hanging out with Dayzee's friend Anthony, whose psychic prediction of rain and a cat on Taylor's doorstep was meant to herald a romance with Thorne. It was Katie's turn to channel Miss Cleo and predict doom for Bill!

And that was the whole problem with this mountain-climbing escapade. We already know something bad is going to happen, because B&B wouldn't stop hinting at it. For a moment, it looked like Brooke would be the one to meet a different "destiny" on the slope, but soon it was clear it would be Bill: everyone mentioned he was distracted, suspenseful music underlaid Brooke and Bill's otherwise romantic scenes, and then there was that big, looming shot of the peak that went black-and-white!

Who needs spoilers when you've got B&B spelling it all out for us? How about just sending Brooke and Bill to Aspen, letting everyone go their merry way, maybe having Katie worry about someone falling once, and then surprising us when someone suddenly nosedives to an almost certain death? Sure, I want to see Bill crack his head open as punishment for all the crap he's pulled, but shutting up about it first would have really made the moment must-see TV. This way, it's like knowing where a birthday present is hidden: you get what's inside, but there's no fun in discovery.

Who cares about this Ramona chick, and why the hell was Othello there? After he helped Rick lie to Hope about Liam being with Steffy, you'd think Othello would be banned from all Forrester/Logan/Spencer functions. Instead, he was bringing up the rear, telling Bill to pay attention as Bill's mind wandered to his fights with Katie. I can see it now: Othello breaks Bill's fall but gets killed in the process! He'd be like the hapless away team member on Star Trek! One to beam up!

So what do you think? Will Bill really fall down go boom? Will Wyatt have any "hope for the future" when it comes out he stole its namesake diamond? And of course there's still a recast Ridge to opinionize about. Express yourself on the Soap Central message boards or in the comments section. Send e-mail. Leave a voicemail! Or "free climb" on Facebook below. Your comments could end up in a future column. Like these!

• "I am so looking forward to [Thorsten] Kaye coming on as Ridge. I hope they take advantage of NuRidge and make him his own, and give Brooke the dump she deserves...I would also like to see Thorne and Ridge become partners and work together again. That would right the Logan wrong for me...I cannot figure out why some think Aly can be with Thomas. He is her blood cousin. Last time I looked, that...was incest plain and simple..." -- Sue

• "I can not wait for the return of Ridge. Kaye will be perfect! They have had Ridge in Paris for so long [he could have picked up] an accent. I think he will put a spin on Ridge that will make him more romantic, with a little ruthless attitude...[and] put Brooke and Bill in their place. This will be exciting!" -- Karen

• "Sorry you aren't a fan of the Liam and Hope pairing, but there are many fans of the show that are...what a condescending commentary from you on a riveting week, great performances [from Scott Clifton and Kim Matula] and compelling dialogue." -- Chelsea

• "Great article, Mike. I feel exactly like you about the new Ridge. I didn't think it was possible, but now I'm so excited to see what TK will do with the role. Also, can you please pass along the message to B&B['s] writers....that viewers are tired of Lope. It's time for them to be over..." -- Manda

• "Best way to bring Ridge back is to make him CEO of Spencer Publications...[Karen] has history with Ridge plus Bill and Ridge don't like each other. Can make for some juicy plot twists. Soap watchers love payback. Spencers infiltrated Forrester; now Forresters can infiltrate Spencer." -- Jay

• "I can remember when I thought no one could replace Sarah Brown as Carly on GH. Then along comes an extremely seasoned actress like Laura Wright, and she IS Carly! Maybe Mr. Kaye will work out. Got to give the man a chance." -- Martha

• "I love reading your column, but...Aly and Thomas? As a couple?!? Are you out of your mind? They're FIRST cousins!...I think Thorsten Kaye will do a marvelous job [as Ridge]. Let's not forget that nobody thought Peter Bergman would be able to replace the fabulous Terry Lester and now people can hardly remember a time when PB wasn't Jack Abbott. Ronn Moss was great but he wanted out and the show needs Ridge..." -- Trecesa

• "Please stop combining two names together for what you think is a cute and clever nickname for love interests! It is just annoying and outdated." -- Cathy

Actually, Cathy, I couldn't agree more, but we're not exactly the ones who came up with it! As for Thorsten Kaye, it seems as if the majority of fans are on board with this recast, and here's hoping it gives B&B the shot in the arm we're all desiring. And, before anyone thinks I think incest is best, you may recall the original idea for Aly and Thomas came from a comment I merely agreed with.

It's true: Aly and Thomas are first cousins, and I also agree with everyone's assessment of "eww." But remember: a hundred years ago, marrying your first cousin was very common, B&B's pulled worse pseudo-incestuous connections than that (starting with Ridge and Bridget!), and I love the idea of Aly using Thomas to hurt Taylor and avenge Darla's death. Though surely you all remember that I really want Thomas with Oliver -- and we know that ain't happening! Now, let's ponder some points!

Liam told his annulment lawyer that Bill was "on leave" from Spencer. Um, no: Katie took over as CEO, and then Bill dealt with it by pouting and walking away from the Spencer board... If Brooke's been staying away from the office, how was she still able to use a Forrester jet for a personal trip with the man she's trying to keep the public from finding out about?... How is little Will blond? I know he's Heather Tom's real-life son, but Katie and Bill both have dark hair, and Logan blond comes out of a bottle!

"I built it!" Bill raged about Spencer. No, you didn't. Your daddy, Bill Sr., built it; you've only run it... How is it possible for Katie to sell Bill's Aspen house? Unless it's a company holding, she has no claim on it... Nice to finally hear that Brooke has been talking to R.J.! Setting the stage for his return, I see!... Why was the Forrester boutique playing the same corny reggae music that plays at the Bikini Bar?... If Pam was at the boutique, and Donna was watching rock-climbing videos with Katie, who was answering phones at Forrester? The phantom employees that were gawking over Rick and Caroline?

"A year ago, I thought we'd be talking about another baby," Katie lamented. Wrong, Katie. A year ago, you were in the throes of postpartum depression and had abandoned Will to Brooke and Bill!... Quinn was upset that Liam found out she sent the video because he was once a "major computer genius." Yeah, a genius that accidentally recorded Steffy yapping about Brooke's mask-boink and was forced by Justin to include it in Steffy's tribute video. Some genius!

But it was very astute of Liam to realize that Quinn has it out for him because he's Bill's son... Rick and Caroline briefly faking Brooke and Eric out by implying there was a baby on the way was actually cute. And, since Rick has lost two biological children and one son he considered his own, maybe it's time Rick finally gets to have one. But can you imagine Caroline as a mother? And of course Eric will make her wedding dress, but it was funny when Eric agreed with Caroline's request to blog before and after its creation as long as someone showed him how!

Tracy will climb the Two Scoops mountain for you next week, and I'll scale it again November 18. In the meantime? What else! Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold!

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