Axes, exes, and hexes to grind

Aly wielded an axe to end the lifelong hex Taylor had on Thorne and Aly's family. Brooke sent Bill's ex packing from Spencer, and Katie accepted a marriage proposal on a string from Brooke's ex. Liam fought to break Quinn's blackmailing hex on Bill, and Bill told Quinn to grind elsewhere, because he was no longer interested. It's time for a heaping helping of Two Scoops.

Mike and Tracy are both on assignment this week, so we've asked our B&B recapper, Chanel S. Garner, to step in for a guest appearance.

I'd like to open with another nod to B&B for the animal shelter segment. Having adopted a pet myself, I applaud those who choose to give a discarded pet a second chance.While visiting the South Los Angeles Animal Shelter with Liam, Hope adopted a cat, and she managed to avoid having a dog lift a leg to urinate on her very 80s rose-garden-patterned jacket. Seriously, Hope, Caroline should have disowned you for wearing that thing.

Hope's new cat is actually actor Scott Clifton's real-life adopted pet, Walter the White. As beautiful as Walter was in his television debut, he'd been unadoptable and on death's door with a broken paw, respiratory disease, and infectious parasites until the Cliftons adopted him and spent thousands in vet bills to rehabilitate him.

Something preternatural was brewing between Hope's new cat and Quinn, and I'm thinking the cat has the power to sense evil. Aly had already sniffed out the "evil" within Quinn, and the cat sneezed when Quinn got near it. When Hope asked if Quinn wanted to hold the feline, Quinn tensely murmured that she was allergic to cats, and she seemed relieved when Pam carried it away.

Maybe Liam knew what he was doing by getting this cat for Hope. As old wives' tales go, cats sense and ward off evil spirits. The cat might keep Quinn from showing up in Brooke's bed with whips and handcuffs, but Liam should have gotten himself a cat to keep Quinn out of his house, too.

Liam might think that, with Bill living at Brooke's, Quinn won't be slipping in and out of the cliff house any more, but the fiery arguments between Liam and Quinn make me suspect that she wouldn't mind showing up in Liam's bedroom in leather to bend him over her knee for a good spanking.

Perhaps it's nonsensical to think that a cat can break the hexes Quinn has on the Spencer men, but common sense did a great job of breaking them when Quinn tried to wedge her Wyatt agenda between Liam and Bill. Swinging her x-rated selfies at Bill like a sword, she won her battle to get Wyatt the Spencer name; however, she didn't win an ally in the battle for Hope's heart.

Liam's Spencer senses picked up on blackmail in the air, and he gave his corporate shark of a father a 101 course in the obvious. Number one, Quinn had taken the sex picture to use it someday, and number two, Bill had no real reason to fear telling Brooke -- who'd put the "A" in the Scarlett Letter -- that he'd slept with Quinn while Brooke had been betrothed to Ridge.

Bill dealt the second round of common sense to Quinn by pointing out a Grand-Canyon-sized hole in her blackmail scheme. He doubted that Brooke would smile in Quinn's face at Forrester if Quinn attempted to blindside Brooke with the sex picture. As proven with Katie this week, Brooke is about the business of an eye-for-an-eye, and Bill warned that Brooke would probably take two eyes from Quinn.

Bill told Quinn that Brooke would not only go to Hope with Quinn's blackmail plot, but Brooke would also see to it that Quinn Artisan Jewelers had fashioned its last clasp in the name of Forrester Creations. Wyatt would lose Hope, and Quinn would lose her prestige.

I don't know about you Scoopers, but I'm not connecting with what Bill so deeply fears about Brooke learning of the one-night stand he had as a single man. Bill had been the last thing on Brooke's mind on her wedding day to Ridge. In fact, I don't recall a single flashback from Brooke to Bill while she'd been preparing herself for the wedding.It goes without saying what Ridge and Brooke would have done on their wedding night -- and it would have transpired at the same time Quinn cycloned through Bill's bedroom -- so the Stallion shouldn't be spooked by the threat. Brooke might be hurt that the other girl was in her saddle, but after mistaking a twenty-something-year-old masked man for her more mature and experienced lover, Brooke has no room in hell to judge Bill.

Besides, Bill hates to be judged. It's one of the plethora of reasons he wanted to get away from Katie. Bill claims to live his life on his terms. He doesn't accept condemnation when he's guilty, so it's puzzling that he'd accept it when he hadn't even betrayed Brooke. Bill needs to read How Stella Got Her Groove Back instead of fearing Brooke's feelings about Quinn giving him back his groove.

Quinn offered to be Bill's gift that keeps on giving, too. I'm all for a woman being sexually liberated, but nothing embarrasses me more than to see another single woman humiliate herself to a man who doesn't want her.

"I will never be that desperate," Bill told Quinn on the heels of her "girl on the side" proposition this week. Not only is Quinn the same ex that Bill threw money at and left pregnant, but after she threw her best seduction upon him decades later, she's become a discarded booty call -- again.

Ouch. I felt Quinn's pain when she said she didn't need Bill to feel anything for her. She never got to be a Spencer, and she's quickly showing why she's a spinster instead. I also don't know why she'd offer to be a side dish when, with Brooke, Bill has a twenty-four-hour buffet. Bill likes it hot, and Quinn is a dish best served cold.

Brooke takes care of Bill with business and family, too. That's a triple threat, something Katie felt the sting of as she cleared out her office and handed her child over to Bill this week. I might be in the minority on this, but I found it to be delayed justice for Katie, who'd been on a power-grab ever since she divorced Bill.

And make no mistake -- Katie divorced Bill, which she seemed to forget the other week when she said that Bill divorcing her revoked his all-access pass to his son. After Brooke used the papers to set things right for Bill, Katie reeled because she'd "lost control" of her son's life.

I'm not quite sure what decent mother talks about her child in these terms, but after what went down, Katie reminds me of the woman in the Bible who'd rather let King Solomon cut the child in half than let the other mother have it. Katie sobbed like she'd never see Will again, but equal custody means that the parents see the child equally. What does Katie not get about that? It was a shame that Bill had to tell her that he loved the boy, too. Bill tried to further set things straight by offering to let Katie return to her last position at Spencer, which if I remember correctly, contained a board seat. Ridge scoffed at that because he had his own answer, his sure fix for a woman's insecurities -- a marriage proposal.

Katie gloated that she'd lost her job but wonRidge. That's a fascinating choice of words, solidifying that Ridge is some prize in Katie's revenge game. A string for an engagement ring turns out to be the most honest Ridge has ever been in the majority of his proposals. It finally indicates the truth -- he strings his women along.

I went through history and counted the number of Ridge's marriage proposals. I came up with over a dozen. It was hard to count because at times, the Who's Who profiles didn't always indicate whether he'd proposed -- just that there was another wedding. But we all know that Ridge is the Lord of Proposing and the Lord of the Rings -- engagement rings anyways.

After I skimmed through and counted, Ridge's proposals looked something like this: Caroline Sr, Brooke, Taylor, Brooke, Brooke, Taylor, Brooke, Brooke, Taylor, Brooke, Ashley, Brooke, Taylor, Brooke, Taylor, Brooke, Brooke, Katie. Ridge's ex, Brooke-but-forever-Logan, has so many engagement rings, she could open a pawn shop. Maybe Ridge thinks Brooke has the shop in her bedroom. Rumor has it that he takes Brooke's engagement ring. Katie needs to consider that, in his new position, Ridge might not have the funds he once had, and her proposal is on a string budget until he can slip a ring out of Brooke's house.

Katie had Brooke's hand-me-down clothes as a child, she got Brooke's hand-me-down soul mate, and she might possibly get Brooke's hand-me-down engagement ring. Katie had better hope it isn't that ugly, cockroach-looking black ring Ridge doled out in Italy.

I wonder what advice Ridge's ex, Taylor-but-forever-Doc, has for Katie. Does Katie get a pet name, too, or will she take the hand-me-down Logan title from Brooke, too?Taylor's hands might be too full with the axe Aly has to grind to have time to give Katie any more Brooke-survival tips. Some backstory about Thorne, Taylor, and Aly leaked out over the last couple weeks, and I fact-checked a little with the Soap Central archives, my memory, and some videos to recall what had actually happened.

Firstly, Saint Darla slept with a drunken Thorne when he'd still legally been married to Macy. Saint Darla had contemplated aborting Aly and giving her to Macy and Thorne to raise, but Macy turned her back on Darla and Thorne upon learning about the one-night stand. Darla opted to be a single mother, but after Macy died, Darla and Thorne united in marriage.

Darla died while helping Phoebe with a flat tire while on the side of a foggy road. Taylor, who'd once before almost ran herself into oncoming traffic while sobbing over Ridge leaving her and who had a DUI, had been drunk when she'd finally gotten Phoebe's message for help.

Darla was tussling to remove the lug nuts on Phoebe's tire, and Taylor drove down the road uncannily close to Phoebe's SUV, which hadn't even had its blinkers on. Taylor struck Darla, but Taylor and Phoebe hid it from everyone upon Hector's advice.

Taylor and Thorne grew close, and when the truth eventually emerged, so did Shane McGrath, a witness who, in the pitch black, happened to see Darla fall into the road at a time that Shane deemed it impossible for the drunk Taylor to avoid striking Darla. Taylor got off in a court of law, but not the court of Aly, who claimed to have suffered immensely due to Taylor, the murderer in Aly's eyes.

This week, Taylor claimed that Aly had avoided all family functions that Taylor had attended. Yet in 2007, the year Phoebe died, Aly, who'd just lost her mother and ripped up Taylor's wedding dress a year prior, had no reaction when Taylor arrived at the family Christmas gathering.

Taylor and Thorne also discussed their star-crossed love affair that Thorne claimed had gone on before Darla had been in the picture. Taylor and Thorne's initial entanglement began after Taylor had gotten drunk and set herself on fire while waiting around for Ridge, who'd been held up in a meeting with Brooke. Thorne conspired to be Thomas' father and to keep Ridge and Taylor apart.

Thorne even divorced Macy via fax, hoping he could marry Taylor. Brooke and he aligned to keep Taylor and Ridge apart, but Taylor eventually revealed that Ridge was Thomas' father, and Thorne briefly dated Darla for the first time before transitioning to Brooke.

In 2006, Thorne and Taylor reunited after Taylor had made him a widow. They separated again when Aly refused to accept their union. Aly had actually been excited about Taylor and Thorne's wedding until the big-mouthed Hope told Aly that Taylor had run over Aly's mommy.

Another interesting side note is that Taylor almost hit the young Aly, too, who'd run away and been on the exact highway where Taylor had struck Darla.

Thorne and Taylor didn't hook up again until Anthony prophesied about a cat, a rainstorm, and a visitor on Taylor's doorstep. See what I'm saying about cats and evil? The prophesy came to fruition, and the visitor was Thorne, who'd wanted to use Taylor's newfound power at Forrester for a takeover of the business. Taylor and Thorne dated during that time, though neither of them nor Aly has ever mentioned it happening. It ended after Taylor unceremoniously told her children that it had ended and shortly before Taylor hooked up with the widower Eric.

I have to interject that Thorne also fell in love with Donna Logan, who had been out to marry him to get revenge on Stephanie. This romance occurred after Aly wouldn't accept the marriage to Taylor. Still grieving for Darla, Thorne had become an alcoholic. Katie busted up the wedding to Donna by revealing Donna's true intentions to Thorne.I'm not quite sure how Aly appears not to know that Thorne tried to marry Donna, which had been the second failed wedding for Thorne within the first year or so after Darla's death. Instead, Aly told Taylor that Thorne never married again because Darla had been his true love. Thorne most certainly would have married Taylor if Aly hadn't cut up the dress, and he would have married Donna if Katie hadn't intervened.

History aside, Taylor and Thorne reunited in Paris and expressed severe concern about Aly's reaction to the new relationship. This week, the pair flew to Los Angeles to reveal their relationship to Aly. Thorne, who'd had to fly home a short time ago to deal with Aly's rage against Wyatt, apparently had no problem with Taylor encountering Aly alone. Taylor located Aly in the studio, where a medieval axe just happened to be lying on a table in plain view. I'm not sure it was coincidence that Pam, who identifies with Aly's type of crazy, saw Taylor in the building and then put an axe in Aly's hands, but there it was on the table for Taylor, the world-renowned therapist, to recognize that the situation was volatile.

In true fashion, Taylor defied respect for a delicate situation to plow through with her own agenda. She'd done the same thing to the postpartum-depression-suffering Katie when Taylor had just had to tell Katie about the kiss between Brooke and Bill instead of allowing Katie to recover first.Something tells me that Aly is the wrong person to force the truth upon during a recovery. I doubt there's even a need to address Taylor turning her back on Aly, who has a literal axe to grind with Taylor.

Instead, let's hear your thoughts. Do you think Bill has a real cause for concern about Brooke's reaction to his indiscretion with Quinn? Can Katie and Ridge make it through a wedding before each one finds the other unworthy of something as they have their past spouses? Do you have an accurate count of Ridge's proposals? Will Aly's axe attack make Taylor disappear on Thorne faster than she'd disappeared on Eric last summer? And for goodness sake, is Wyatt ever going to accept Caroline's friend request on his social page?

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