Take the Nestea Plunge

Bill sort of took one when his face had an encounter with Ridge's fist. Liam also came close as he got the opportunity to see Wyatt's knuckles up close. But Ridge schooled them both on how to take a proper Nestea plunge by splashing into the Persian Gulf! Feel the refreshment with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did your hot picture put you in the hot seat? Did you find yourself wishing you'd never taken those helicopter lessons? Did you go for a little dip? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer clan this week!

Hello again, Scoopers! Do you guys remember the Nestea plunge? Back in the '70s and '80s, there was a series of commercials showing thirsty folks taking a sip of the elixir, causing them to fall back into a pool to illustrate their quenching. I hear they're currently bringing the ads back. Just in time, too, because Ridge took the ultimate Nestea plunge into the Persian Gulf. Like father, like daughter! After all, Steffy splashed into the Adriatic Sea two years ago! Let's find out why these people are so dehydrated.

Ridge certainly worked up a thirst, sprinting through the desert to stop Brooke from becoming Mrs. Spencer. And he did: he shoved Quinn's naughty selfie in Brooke's face, then a knuckle sandwich in Bill's, dragging Brooke away as if she'd escaped from a harem. (Hey, we're still in the Middle East; it fits.) Brooke didn't put up much of a fight! And mountain-climbing, extreme sportsman Bill barely busted out a jog, stopping to watch as Ridge deposited Brooke in a helicopter. Wouldn't you rush the chopper?

I have to give it up, though -- the helicopter sequence was actually pretty suspenseful. It gave me that little thrill that only good old soapy drama can provide. Well, wouldn't you know, our whirlybird had the Spencer logo on it! Ridge spied it just as Bill called Justin, who has apparently been watching Top Gun while on the backburner. "Cool him off," Bill ordered, and Justin proceeded to tip the chopper like a pitcher of iced tea and pour Ridge into the ocean! Ah! So refreshing!

Brooke didn't think so, especially as she was delivered back to terra firma. Why wasn't she more upset that the pilot ignored her demand to circle around and look for Ridge? Bill returned Brooke to the hotel, where they found time to change out of their wedding duds before displaying dismay about Ridge's high dive. Man, I miss those Dynasty days, when folks would remain in their soiled finery during a crisis. But I digress.

Back in Los Angeles, Katie must have had a dime on the floor, because she sure turned on it. She confided to Quinn that she fell in love with Bill for his honesty (!) and suggested that Quinn and Bill would make a great couple before calling Quinn evil and telling her to pack up her necklaces because her sister was sure to give Ms. Fuller the boot. Wow! But the first person Brooke called with the news of the missing Ridge was Katie. Not Eric -- Katie. Does this mean there's hope for the embattled Logan sisters?

Bill, on the other hand, made his first call to Liam. Strange choice, don't you think? Although I'm not sure who would have been a more appropriate one. Not coincidentally, Liam just happened to be in a standoff with Quinn and Wyatt, who, once again, spent too much airtime engaged in circular conversations. Maybe I just notice it more because I watch a week's worth of episodes in one sitting. Same thing with the flashbacks. There were too many this week; perhaps day-by-day it doesn't seem so.

Wyatt broke the news of Quinn's selfish selfie to Hope, who turned around and relayed this information to Liam. Hope was surprised that Liam already knew about Quinn and Bill's ugly-bumping, telling Hope not to let herself visualize it. That was actually pretty funny! Liam, of course, went straight to Quinn, pointing fingers and essentially accusing her of killing Ridge Forrester. A little intense? Yeah. But who knows...maybe Liam is just still steamed.

Once the news of Ridge's disappearance made the rounds (and do we really care what Carter and Maya think of all this? Or even Rick and Caroline?), Quinn quickly became Public Enemy Number One to everyone concerned. If I didn't know that Quinn was going to soon cross paths with Deacon, I'd say we were being set up for a murder mystery. Did Quinn see Ridge's smoke over Brooke marrying Bill and fan the flames? You betcha. But she didn't put a gun to Ridge's head and make him fly to Abu Dhabi. Let's be real, here.

Back in the United Arab Emirates (or a hotel set shot in the studio, as the actual remote seems to be over), Brooke was amazingly tame about Bill having slept with Quinn while they were apart -- as is right, given her track record. But the almost Mrs. Spencer did make the right declaration: "I wanna know who was flying that helicopter!" It seems no one else cared about that, so I was glad to hear Brooke addressing it. Enter Justin, our top gun. (Play Take My Breath Away here.)

How stupid can Justin be? "I came as soon as I could," the lawyer-turned-pilot offered. Did Brooke not find this suspicious? Why would Bill's right-hand man fly halfway around the world at this moment? Sure, it's nice to see Mr. Barber getting a storyline, but it could easily be his last when everyone discovers his involvement. Bill actually felt guilty ("I told you to cool him off, not lose him!") -- and Justin told his boss to chill in a rather sinister way. Donna, it looks like you're well rid of him!

Speaking of being rid of things, wasn't the hotel staff rather quick to write Ridge off as a body? Maybe people are just more pragmatic in the Middle East, but it felt kind of cold. No tip for you! The search team wasn't much better, wanting to call things off only hours after they were brought in to find Ridge. To go back to Brooke's demand, why isn't anyone looking for this mysterious pilot? Surely Justin couldn't hide the Spencer chopper that easily in the desert and then take a taxi back to the hotel!

But then the ish got serious with the arrival of two more rescuers: Katie and Eric! Let's back up: Eric had just admitted that he'd come around to the idea of Katie and Ridge as a couple, providing her with the latest in a long line of wedding dresses he's designed. (I still say Forrester could make a billion on these dresses alone!) "It's clean and simple," Eric began...and apparently it's not anything else, because we never saw it out of the garment bag. Saved the wardrobe department a bit of money, eh?

Anyway, Eric and Katie decided they could help find Ridge, and hopped a plane to the Emirates. Now, there's already a lot of buzz among you guys that the tenderness between the patriarch and the heart patient means they're going to hook up. Yeah, I know Eric has gotten with his son's girlfriends before, but I don't see that happening here at all. Besides, Nick already holds the title on having bagged all three Logan sisters. You think he's gonna give it up that easily?

Here's what I don't get: Eric said it took a day and a half to fly to Abu Dhabi. He and Katie were shown on a night flight that became a day one. Yet, Brooke and Bill were in the same clothes when their visitors arrived, and it very much looked to be the same afternoon! Plus, it was still the same evening in Los Angeles, where Liam and Wyatt actually agreed that Quinn shouldn't have interfered. But the half-bros soon found themselves at odds once again as the merry-go-round chats about Ms. Fuller continued.

Things got really interesting when Liam battled Quinn alone. I've always found Liam dopey, indecisive, the list goes on -- but get him around Quinn, and he's strong, sexy, and where has this guy been? If he'd had these huevos all along, we'd never have had to sit through Hope/Liam/Steffy, and then Liam/Hope/Wyatt! Liam ripped Quinn a new one and called her a "vile, manipulative, evil bitch." And then pow! Wyatt showed Liam why he's a blood relation!

Yeah, Liam's face was rather messy, which is a little unusual for a soap, but more realistic. Did Quinn deserve the label? Frankly, yes. But for those of you who are proclaiming Quinn the new Sheila, I'll say it again: Quinn is an amateur cartoon by comparison. Quinn pulls the stunts that Sheila did toward the end of her run, not when Sheila was a layered, sometimes conflicted human being who did bad, bad things in the name of love. Quinn the new Sheila? Not in this lifetime. *cocks eyebrow Sheila-style*

Well, Hope was horrified to see that one of her boyfriends had clocked the other and went off on Quinn like we've never seen her do before. She privately admitted to Liam that she felt guilty for bringing Quinn into their lives in the first place and said she couldn't quite get the taste of Wyatt's diamond heist out of her mouth -- before putting that mouth on Liam. I guess Hope has forgotten about Liam's waffling with Steffy at this point. Decision made: Liam is the winner! Ooh, Mama Quinn ain't gonna be happy.

Quinn continued to be everyone's target in Abu Dhabi, where the search for Ridge kept coming up empty. Don't worry, y'all -- Bill has successfully done this type of thing before. Remember how he found Brooke and Thomas when they were missing at sea in 2011? Thankfully, no psychedelic berries are involved this time. Brooke assured Katie that Ridge would be found, and it really seemed like their sisterly bond was fusing right before our very eyes. Nothing like a tragedy to bring everybody together!

Of course, the big question is, where is Ridge? Will Bill and Justin's part in his plunge be exposed? And is Quinn so close to being toast that she needs to get out the butter? Talk to us on the Soap Central message boards or the comments section. Send email or leave a voicemail! Or talk about it on Facebook below. Your comments could end up in a future column. Like these!

• "I used to love Quinn as the 'mamma bear' who loved her son and always put him first and always tried to help him and protect him. Why did the writers have to take her in the direction of 'crazy.' And why does Wyatt have to be the parent figure to her now? And if Wyatt has to be the strong, smart parent figure, why on earth would he settle for sharing Hope with any other man? Shouldn't he be stronger and smarter than that? And I'm still not a fan of 'Brill' or 'Kridge.' I loved the strong, confident Brooke who stood up for her children, and I wish the writers would keep that going. Katie was once strong and smart, but now she's swallowing Ridge's behavior, and that's pathetic." -- Meira

• "I think what this show really needs is to be extended to an hour and introduce new characters and families. I agree with one commenter's statement that this show should be called recyclable because that is all that is really being done. I have only been watching the show for two years and it's the same crap time and again. They need to introduce some diversity and allow characters to develop instead of keeping them as these one dimensional bores. " -- Jon-Alexander

• "Sooo, B&B is getting yet another member of the Forrester family [in Ivy Forrester]. Seriously? How many existing characters are pretty much NEVER seen -- Maya, Carter, [Dayzee], Thorne, Justin... How about developing decent story lines for some of them before bringing on yet another person?" -- Mary

Haven't had enough refreshment? Then plunge into some continuity-quenching Points to Ponder:

"I want my sister as far away from Bill Spencer as possible," Katie told Quinn. Could Katie's disapproval of Brill have less to do with what happened and more to do with wanting to protect Brooke from the barracuda Katie knows Bill can be?... When Ridge dragged Brooke down the beach at Abu Dhabi, it somehow made me think of their 1996 sugar cane chase in Barbados. How about you?... On Tuesday's episode, the show backed up into Monday's finale and showed Ridge falling out of the helicopter again. I don't think we really needed to see it twice...

Carter wanted to offer his help overseas. He's already a lawyer, an actor, a minister -- what else does he do? Rescue kidnapped diplomats in his spare time?... Katie told Hope she had a feeling something bad would happen when Ridge confronted Bill in the Emirates. No wonder; she had a whole premonition about Bill falling off a mountain when he went climbing last year... Many characters pointed out that the helicopter wasn't that far from shore when Ridge fell. True -- and the water couldn't have been that deep. So why hasn't he turned up yet?Hope rather blew me away as she recognized that Ridge has been "a father to me all my life" -- then added that his loss would be devastating to Thorne, and Felicia and Kristen (remember them?), and Thomas...and Steffy! Something rather heartwarming in that acknowledgement, isn't there!... In other interesting admissions, Brooke blamed herself for Ridge's plunge, saying she could have struggled more and kept herself from getting into the helicopter in the first place...

Katie had a gang of pictures on her phone of herself, Ridge, and R.J. at the park. Only question is, who took them? Some random stranger? Eric mused that Katie had a lot of memories of Ridge for being with him such a short time. Amen! Is that a hint from the writing room that even they know that Kridge is underdeveloped? Two romps in the park, a couple of somethin'-somethin's, and an engagement do not a relationship make...

Hope told Liam, "Aly has been saying wonderful things about you lately." Has she? Isn't she a little busy processing her throwdown with Taylor? I appreciate the attempt to keep off-screen characters in the loop by mentioning them, but it always feels a little false when we don't see them for ourselves... When Hope raged about everything Quinn had done, Liam muttered under his breath, "And the steam room." But no one reacted. Did they not hear him, or do they already know about Quinn trying to roast Liam alive? Because I don't remember him telling anybody about that. Shouldn't this mention be news

There's supposed to be some big announcement on June 8 regarding B&B; the hints tell us it has to do with one of our couples getting married in Monaco. Hmm. Bill and Brooke are the only characters that have any history there, but Don Diamont is not on the list of actors visiting on this trip. But Kim Matula is; does this mean Hope is going to have another location shoot wedding? If so, pray it sticks -- let's get Hope married to somebody and move on from her romantic roulette!

It isn't officially summer yet, but Tracy will be back next week to monitor the heat as one Deacon Sharpe causes us all to up the SPF on our sunscreen. And I'll Scoop the first full week of his return on June 23. Deacon...oh, Deacon... Sorry -- I guess we'll figure out what happened to Ridge, too. Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold!

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