The King of Denial finally sees the light

No less than four B&B characters vowed Thomas would pay for his Beth backstabbing while Ridge continued swimming in Egyptian river water regarding his son's actions. Until he didn't! Dry off with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you get a do-over when you should have been done? Did your hospital gown have targets all over it? Did you finally pull your head out of that place where you can see what you had for lunch yesterday? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Fulton clan this week!

Got your water wings on, Scoopers? Because the man who made Speedos a household name was content to do the backstroke -- not in the Forrester pool, but all the way in de-Nile down in Egypt. Meanwhile, Thomas seemed more and more likely to become the victim of a whodunit, and Wyatt's relationship with Sally came back from the dead. Oh, yeah -- and Ridge finally got a clue! Let's Scoop about it!

WALLY OR WON'T HE?

Let's get this part over with, because the less said, the better. Wally 2.0 happened, and no. Just no. I don't care if Wyatt conceded he "wasn't exactly Mr. Maturity" and that he "erred on the side of fast." (Ya think? Look at his whiplash involvements with Ivy and Katie before Sally!) Ms. Spectra countered his lip-locks with an "I don't know if I'm ready to dive into this." A second later, she pulled a Jacques Cousteau!

No scuba gear required! Yep, Sally essentially came from an episode of the old Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau series as she swam deeper into Wyatt's waters, actually telling him, "I'm glad that you're even talking to me after what I did." What the serious hell? I can't believe she's still on that! If the O.G. Sally were here, she'd head-butt her grandniece with that helmet hair hardened with Aqua Net!

"I know how you hate that stuff," Sally said of Wyatt's dislike of deception. Wow. Maybe if Wyatt admitted that he frenched Flo while still involved with Sally, which made him come off like a total hypocrite when he flipped over Sally keeping Thomas' secret, I might cut Wyatt some slack. But the boy doesn't deserve a do-over with Sally. He needs to take time to reflect and stop setting world records for rebounds.

From Katie to Sally to Flo to Sally with no break in between. I'll at least give Wyatt half a point for offering to take Sally "on a real date" (what a concept) so he could "treat you like you deserve to be treated." But Sally needs her head examined, too. You don't take back someone who still has another someone's spittle on their lips. No Spectra ever did that. Not Sally Sr., not Macy, not C.J. #SpectraFail.

ACCI-DENTAL PLAN

In the hospital, Ridge rightly told Detective Sanchez he shouldn't be pelting Thomas with questions when Thomas literally just woke up from being unconscious for hours. But what I wanna know is, how was Humpty Dumpty, who had just taken a great fall, able to sport a goatee he didn't have before he cliff dived? Was Ridge manscaping his son as he grew the fastest five o'clock shadow known to man?

Much suspense was generated over whether or not Thomas would tell the law that Brooke had pushed him on purpose. Perhaps not surprisingly, Thomas reported that he'd fallen, and Brooke was innocent. An attempt at restitution? An attempt to score points with everyone he'd wronged? Or did Thomas finally, after six months in Matthew Atkinson's form, tell the truth about something?

There's been a lot of kerfuffle among B&B's various fan bases about whether or not Brooke meant to roll like Quinn and toss Thomas off a cliff the way "Eve" did with Deacon. Sorry to disappoint one faction of you guys, but I watched that scene more than once, and I didn't see Thomas' going over as premeditation on Brooke's part. I saw Thomas reach for Hope, and Brooke shove him away from her daughter.

Did La Logan, likely in the adrenaline rush of the moment, push Thomas harder than she meant to? Yeah, that's reasonable. But Brooke's never been known to have a violent streak outside of a bitch slap here and there (Amber, Katie, and of course giving it back to Stephanie). There's no way in the three seconds it took to run to the Forrester newlyweds that Brooke decided now was the time to rid herself of Thomas.

Too bad Ridge didn't see it that way. After listening to his son babble on about how sorry he was (cry me a freaking river) and how horrified he was by what he'd done (make that an ocean), Ridge bought the mea culpas like he once bought Spectra Fashions. But, instead of renaming it Logan Designs like he did back then, he barked that Logan had designs on offing her daughter's husband!

Ridge, dude, surely you know better. Brooke sleeps with her daughter's husbands; she doesn't kill them. Indeed, I kind of wish Brooke had said something like, "Ridge, I don't hate your son. You should remember I like him enough that I berry boffed him while hallucinating on that island!" Ridge pulled his hand away as Brooke tried to hold it, grumbling that Brooke should thank Thomas for not ratting her out to the cops!

The one-time Slut from the Valley gave her hubby the old Valley Girl side-eye, silently asking, "Like, fer shurrrrr, what is your major damage?" Brooke reminded Ridge why they'd rushed over to Steffy's in the first place -- the fear that the news of Hope filing for an annulment would push the increasingly dangerous Thomas over the edge. But Ridge wasn't about it, simply insisting his son had just made some bad decisions.

The next day, at the office, Ridge still had all but tried and convicted Brooke for attempted murder while shrugging that he was still trying to figure out why Thomas had done what he had. Brooke was sick of Thomas laying down the smackdown on her kids, first by chucking Rick out a window and then by letting Hope believe her baby was dead. (Good thing Bridget and R.J. are AWOL!)

Ridge made a dumb pivot and attributed his defense of Thomas to not being able to get to Reese, "not now." Wayne Brady is still in the credits, but we can't get Reese in an episode to face the music? Hell, Maya and Taylor remain in the opening, too, and we never see them! And we still see Xander and Zoe in there, even though they're gone.

The entire fallout over the Phoebeth reveal has revolved around Thomas, which is certainly part of the arc, but it's depriving us of seeing Reese's comeuppance, plus how Steffy is dealing with her heartache over surrendering the baby she raised to Hope. That's not only incomplete storytelling, it's actually a cheat to viewers. It brings the repercussions down to one dimension when they could easily be three.

JAILHOUSE ROCK

Shauna, meanwhile, paid Flo another visit in prison. We have a jail set? I thought maybe it was a lack of one that allowed Bill, Quinn, and so many others to run free when they should have been doing time for any number of illegalities. Speaking of Quinn, Shauna was bummed that her (former?) bestie wouldn't lift a finger to bail Flo out. Dis bitch, tho. Shauna tried it! Tried it, tried it, tried it.

Not that Quinn wasn't a total hypocrite, acting all high and mighty when she tried to shish-kebab Liam before kidnapping the amnesiac version, and she paid for her crimes by supposedly reforming because of the love of a good man. But that's a whole 'nother column. Shauna lamented that Thomas was going to live after his "have a nice trip, see you in the fall" act, then decided that Thomas needed to pay!

Pay especial attention to that. Moving on, Ridge, who believed Thomas' supposedly B.S. apology when he didn't believe Bill's, took Shauna's place in the visiting chamber and brought Flo a picture of the Logan girls united. And what followed was an absolutely stellar performance from Thorsten Kaye. B&B doesn't always provide their actors the meatiest material, but TK got a chance to prove why he was legendary on AMC.

Instead of yelling and screaming, Kaye rendered Ridge so calm it was absolutely eerie. But that quietness gave way to a desperate attempt to keep his dam from bursting as Ridge asked Flo if she realized the hell she'd put Steffy through. Yesssss! Finally, Steffy's journey got addressed, even though she was off-screen. Ridge both succeeded and failed at holding back tears as he schooled Flo about Steffy.

"That lie broke her heart into a million pieces," Ridge told Flo, his voice breaking with it. Describing how Steffy went from strong to defeated after letting Hope take her adopted child home, Ridge could barely talk, recalling how it "was like someone pulled the spine right out of her." Ridge taunted that Flo's youth and beauty would fade in prison and that he wanted her to suffer the way his family had suffered.

That's an Emmy right there. Flo, on the other hand, went on ad nauseum about how she had tried to do the right thing so many times. Girl, save it. Flo's carbon copy explanations have been in the scripts too often, and I don't want to hear them anymore. The only thing that saved her in the scene was her turning the tables on Ridge and forcing him to hear about all the heinous things that Thomas did!

Ridge tried to slough it off, retorting that his son had merely gotten "caught up in your web of lies." That is, until the King of Denial was reminded by Flo how often Thomas had threatened her, Xander, and Zoe into keeping quiet about Beth so Thomas could have Hope. And then, Flo took it to the next level. "There are a lot of people who think Thomas is responsible for Emma's death."

Bam! You could see the cracks forming in Ridge's steely resolve, actually see Ridge starting to consider that maybe his son wasn't as innocent as he was making himself believe. Flo was tired of taking all the blame (as well she should be, since Reese should be in that jail with her) and called for the guard. But as she left, she silently took the Logan photo Ridge had tried to troll her with and walked out. Nice touch.

SEND ME THE BILL

The Dollah got a little kissy time with Katie, pretty much the only reminder that Batie 3.0 is still a thing. Still can't ship them, but we'll leave it at that for now. Bill Spencer Jr., the man who trapped Hope in a gondola and sicced paparazzi on her, was now pissed that Reese and Flo had messed with Hope and Liam! That just doesn't quite sound right coming out of Bill's mouth, does it!

In minutes, Bill built up a head of steam and ditched Katie for Brooke! Well, not in the way he usually does. Bill wanted to set Ridge straight about Thomas but found Brooke home alone like Macaulay Culkin instead. Hearing from Brooke that Ridge was clinging to a revisionist history of what happened at the house Bill originally bought, the building-blower-upper had a surprisingly insightful psychological take on Ridge's behavior.

"He's never seen Thomas for the monster he is," Bill growled. "It would mean admitting his own failures as a father." Ooh, snatch him bald, Dollah Man! That is the spottest of spot-on. Bill also called it when he scoffed that there was something seriously wrong with Thomas. "He's a sociopath!" Yup, and as Liam told the Logan sisters, a fall doesn't suddenly change your personality. Unless you're Caroline!

I'll give Dollar Bill one thing -- the writing for him can be amazingly, and hilariously, consistent. He marched into Thomas's hospital room and asked him, "How's the boo-boo?" Only Bill, y'all! Bill proclaimed he'd been working on himself, and that his first priority was keeping his temper in check. "Normally, I would have walked in here and choked you out." You mean like Caroline did to you, although you don't know it?

I do have one gripe about Bill's outrage, and it's especially glaring with Thomas at the center of it. Bill had yelped to Katie, "[Thomas] perpetuated that lie in the most heinous way possible!" True, but you did that to Thomas yourself, Bill, when you told Thomas that Caroline was dying and that he needed to leave Sally to give Douglas some precious last days with both his parents! Guess it's okay when Bill does it.

You'd think Thomas would have reminded Bill about his Caroline lie. No such luck, but Bill did return to his self-awareness, admitting to Thomas, "I understand how you can get fixated on something and lose perspective." Yeah! Steffy, Brooke, Sky? Maybe Bill has really evolved, after all! But as the new and improved Bill promised Thomas he was going to pay (paying attention, Scoopers?), Ridge walked in and broke up the party.

Ridge booted Bill out of Thomas' hospital room, but not before Bill sneaked in a "There seems to be a connection between Thomas and Emma's death." And Thomas knew it was true, because his understated but clear expression was, "Oh s**t." Bill added, "Daddy can't save you from this one -- or from me," then stalked out, later cornering Ridge in the hallway.

Unlike Ridge and Bill's usually acidic confrontations, there was a level of softness as Bill tried to convey to Ridge that Thomas had not been playing with a full deck. Ridge responded with a sincere, "Bill, I'm worried about him," which truly surprised me. Bill calmly warned Ridge that Thomas would be toast "if the police find evidence linking Thomas to Emma's death." Once alone, Ridge seemed to weigh Bill's words heavily.

AN AFTERSHOCK APHRODISIAC

Hope had listened to Thomas offering apologies in the hospital and crying how he'd really wanted Hope to be Douglas' mother. On the true tip, if Thomas was sincere about making full amends, he'd tell his whole family how he forged drawings from Douglas and letters from Caroline, not to mention how he essentially abused Douglas by menacing him and purposely scaring him with a projected (bad CGI) ghost.

Liam gave Hope a look like, "Are you believing this crap?" Later, at home, Hope confirmed that she didn't. "We both obviously know why he did that," Hope sniffed. Thomas's apology wasn't enough and that is the damn truth. Later in the week, Lope fussed over baby Beth, with Liam suggesting he and Hope be good to Steffy. Have they even taken Beth to visit Steffy, like they promised they would?

Anyway, with her mother barely escaping jail, and her almost-ex-husband about to come home and live a few hundred feet away, Hope decided it was time to bust out the candles and the cleavage and get freaky with Liam. Yeah, okay, it was the first time Lope made love since their "invalid" annulment and the Beth reveal; it was just really weird timing. Maybe they needed the stress release!

PAGING MISS CHRISTIE...MISS AGATHA CHRISTIE...

Katie was aghast that Ridge thought Brooke should thank Thomas for not sending her to the pokey. Agreeing prison stripes weren't her best look, and certain that Thomas's "I'm sorrys" were just more manipulation, Brooke scowled, "There's a lesson to be learned here, and Thomas has to learn it." Hope you're counting, guys, because that's three. Are you noticing the pattern yet?

Before his Lope luvin', Liam commiserated with the sisters Logan and worried what would happen when Thomas came home to the main house. Liam was going to make sure Thomas didn't get away with what he'd done! And that's four! Shauna, Bill, Brooke, and Liam all stated this week that Thomas was going to pay. My soapy senses tell me we may have a murder mystery in the works!

I don't personally want to see another one of Tridge's kids die (where the hell is Taylor in all this, anyway? Her son is in the frickin' hospital!), but there really isn't much of a way to redeem Thomas, not unless he goes to jail, checks into a mental hospital, or is found to be hooked on drugs, which I said would explain his actions in my last column. But I don't know that I'm seeing any of that happening.

With no less than four characters wanting to rain down the pain on Thomas, I can't help thinking someone is going to off him, or at least try to. Movie and TV characters have bit the dust for far less appalling deeds than Thomas has done. Traumatizing his kid is enough to deserve that fate, as far as I'm concerned, at least on television. I mean, how do you really bring Thomas back after this?

So, shine up your magnifying glasses and dust off your plaid coats (but leave the pipes alone, because smoking is bad for you!) -- it's elementary that before long, the Grim Reaper is going to make a date in Thomas's day planner, with no shortage of aggrieved suspects. Not that Detective Sanchez is any good at solving crimes. He still hasn't figured out that Taylor shot Bill, and that was 18 months ago!

WHERE THE SON DON'T SHINE

Ridge must have had Flo and Bill's words echoing in his head, because something changed in him when Sanchez came back as Thomas was about to be released and started asking Thomas about what, if any, part he played in Emma's death. Ridge believed Emma's demise was an accident -- ironic since he wouldn't believe that Brooke sending Thomas over a cliff was an accident.

When Sanchez recalled that Xander had learned Thomas' GPS put Thomas at the scene, Ridge grunted that Xander didn't like Thomas and had probably lied just to stick it to him. But after Sanchez, who can never get a straight answer from any of these people (Lieutenant Baker feels ya, guy), the fog seemed to lift from Ridge, just enough for him to not be swayed by Thomas sobbing that he needed his father.

It was wondrous to behold. While Brooke and Bill were separately sure Ridge wouldn't hold Thomas accountable, the longtime designer announced that Thomas being his son didn't give Thomas a free pass, not after what he'd done to Hope...and Emma! Maybe there is "hope for the future!" "Look at me and tell me," Ridge demanded. "Are you responsible for that young woman's death?"

The answer is yes! A thousand times yes! Thomas could have called the cops or an ambulance when he spotted Emma's car down the ditch, yet all he did was smirk, get into his car, and drive away! And that was the horrible realization Ridge came to as Thomas cried he hadn't run Emma off the road, but he'd known what it would look like if he'd been the one to report what had happened to her.

"You just left her there?!" Ridge was disgusted. "Where's the boy I raised? Where's Thomas?" What Thomas had done was worse than actually killing Emma, in Ridge's estimation, because Thomas had been indifferent about the tragedy. "You know what I see? I see a despicable human being. I'm ashamed to be your father!" Man, when Ridge finally gets woke, he really gets woke!

It got better. Thomas worried what would happen to Douglas if he went to jail, to which Ridge barked, "Now you're concerned about Douglas. The only time you think about Douglas is when you need him to do something for you -- like break up a marriage so you could have a woman who would never be yours!" I really hope Ridge begs Brooke for forgiveness now. He can't believe she pushed Thomas purposely after this.

As Ridge reeled from his son's revelations, Thomas said the truest thing he's probably said since returning from New York: "I've been in a fog since Caroline died. I didn't know I'd be a single parent!" Like I've said before, it'd be perfectly feasible for Thomas to have broken from reality if he'd seen Caroline kill herself. Maybe from the guilt of lying she was dying in the first place, or because she was now dying for real.

Ridge held Thomas as he broke down, weeping that he wasn't good enough for Douglas. Ridge assured Thomas that he believed in him and that they'd get through things. And that's where we left it! Is Ridge going to let Thomas pay the piper, or is he going to go back to cushioning Thomas' fall? Do you think Ridge owes Brooke more than one apology for insinuating she knowingly tried to kill his son?

And what do you think should happen to Thomas? Get real in 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!

"How ANYONE can defend Thomas and accuse Brooke of deliberately pushing him over the edge blows my mind! After all of the evil things Thomas has done...he's now garnering sympathy? One has to hate Brooke awfully bad to feel sympathy for the vile, despicable, Hope-obsessed Thomas Forrester!" -- "thomascd"

"Maybe just maybe everything will align and Steffy will be pregnant with twins this time. Maybe just maybe Reese really did mix up the girls and Hope's baby really did die and Steffy will have twins plus Phoebe back...until they can find the real biological parent and Steffy gets to keep her. This sucks that Steffy always gets screwed out of Liam with one woman or another..." -- Paula

"Why won't you people give up on the whole 'Reese lied about the whole thing [and Beth isn't really Hope's daughter]?' Next we'll hear that it was all a big dream sequence that Zoe had!" -- Sharon

One thing that won't be a dream: Steffy is finally coming back next week, and she's about to go off on Flo and Thomas, which I can't wait to see. I know Jacqui Mac is gonna bring it. And we really need to see how Steffy's been dealing with things. Could Reese and Taylor be far behind? 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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