Got a Quarter? Wanna play?

Liam struck gold, reuniting with Hope, while a copper checked his connection to Vinny. But Quinn, trying to help Zoe win Carter back, ended up putting her mouth where her money is! Cash in with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you find yourself slid into an Easy-Baker oven? Did you dust off a page from your first marriage's playbook? Did you make like an '80s arcade and reach for a different joystick? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton-Buckingham clan this week!

Whatza haps, Scoopers? Yes, my column title is from an obscure line that was only in the trailer for Desperately Seeking Susan, not the actual movie. But it fits, because Liam spent the week desperately seeking to block out running Vinny over (maybe he should ask Taylor for advice?), and Quinn got tired of playing an arcade game she kept losing, so she switched consoles! Pac-Man fever? Let's Scoop about it!

OMG, did you see what I saw? Was that Hope and Liam actually kissing? True, after eleven years of this Leffy/Lope nonsense, Liam smooching one wife or another really does nothing for me. It's just that this was clearly the first time since the pandemic hit that we actually saw characters lock lips and not make out with mannequins. It was actually really jarring for me!

I can only assume that all cast and crew on B&B have been vaccinated at this point, and, in having been, regular romantic scenes can make a comeback. It's just kind of eerie after living the past year with silent proximity alarms going off in my head any time I'm out! I suppose it was kind of appropriate that B&B reentered the kissing game with Liam and Hope, although my thoughts on them rather ended there.

I mean, for real, can we trust Lope isn't just going to break up again in a month or two? I also have a bit of a problem with everyone encouraging Hope to take Liam back, this after he cheated on her...again. But Hope was ready to have Liam move back in, which Liam was there for...except for the fact that flashbacks of hitting Vinny wouldn't move out of his head. The audio-only one was really effective!

There was an interesting overlap, in that Liam kept acknowledging his misdeeds but referred to turning Vinny into roadkill instead of shagging Steffy. There was a lot of that, but the moment I found most interesting in Lope's reunion was Liam's voice-over -- as he hugged Hope, he silently hoped she would understand that he had to keep one more secret. Though I can hardly imagine Hope being upset with Liam for it.

As the week began, Katie remained in Bill office, not knowing she was listening to similar doublespeak about the status of Liam's life. Bill successfully had her believing he was merely talking about Liam's marriage. Then Bill made some overture in terms of Katie herself, but I pretty much tuned out. No Batie reunion, please! He's done her over too many times. They're good friends and co-parents; let's leave it at that.

Suddenly, Former Lieutenant Hot Dog waltzed in. Bill laid it on thick for now Chief Baker, promising generous donations to the police academy or whatever. But as soon as Katie was gone, the tone between Bill and Baker became one of consternation. Baker was working off the conclusion that someone had hit Vinny on purpose, and he got Bill's hackles up by implying Liam might have had something to do with it.

Have they not done an autopsy on Vinny? I realize the LAPD wouldn't be able to determine motive from one per se, but they could probably discover if Vinny had sustained some kind of life-threatening injury before he was mowed down. Which would effectively, if not completely, rule out the possibility that foul play was involved. But Baker seemed to focus only on the tampered-with paternity test.

Even Bill correctly pointed out that Vinny cavorted with all kinds of "lowlifes," something Lt. Sanchez had reminded Baker of back at the station. Yet Baker was of the suspicion that Liam, who had nearly lost his marriage and most certainly lost another chance at fatherhood, had been angry enough about all that that he could have used Vinny as a speed bump on purpose.

I dunno...that just felt kind of contrived to put Liam in a situation where he'd have to face the po-po. Sure, Liam is one angle, but not the only one, and it's been established that Vinny trafficked with enough scum that he could have been targeted by any number of other people. Bill didn't help Liam's case, raising his voice as Baker tried to see if the murder slippers fit Liam's feet.

Bill was right that Liam is against any kind of violence (except when Liam punches Wyatt, or Thomas, or Bill...). Nonviolence Boy proved it by bursting in and reporting on his reunion with Hope...until Bill pointed out the number 9-1-1. Liam became markedly quiet after that, and, again, Bill only made things worse by answering for Liam. Thankfully, Bill pulled a nice save by reinterpreting the chief's question.

Baker had flat-out asked if Liam had murdered Vinny. Bill asked Liam if he had purposely gotten into his car and hunted Vinny down. This way, Liam could tell the truth: no. Bill also got Liam to say that Liam absolutely did not have a desire to kill Vinny. Funny Liam said that with a straight face, considering he did snarl, "I could kill him" to Hope not long before the accident.

With Baker gone, Liam bemoaned the horrible things he had done. Bill countered that yes, Liam had to own sleeping with Steffy, but offing Vinny had been accidental. Liam rallied a little, thanking Bill for protecting him and determining that he couldn't bring the kind of darkness he'd been wallowing in to a home where children lived. Liam couldn't let Hope get suspicious...which Wyatt heard as he next sauntered in!

Is it just something with this soap, or does this happen on all soaps? You'd think, for as many times as people have walked in on telltale conversations, that characters would learn not to talk about incriminating things unless in total private. Liam fobbed it off on Bill, leaving Bill to shut down on Wyatt and make his older son even more dubious. Until Wyatt wanted to borrow Bill's fanciest car to chauffeur Flo around in.

Ooh, nice touch! Wyatt was incredulous upon learning Bill had sold the ride, however, during which the scene straddled the line between fake outrage and comedy. I'm guessing this limited-edition car is going to come back to bite Bill and Liam in the ass at some point, even if it's now owned by a Middle Eastern sheik. Oh, wouldn't it be something if Prince Omar had it? Pretty random, I know, but that's my brain for ya.

How is it that Brooke, the only other character besides Eric to be played by its original actor, does not have a storyline of her own? She's pretty much spent all of 2021 comforting Hope and trying to keep Thomas at a reasonable distance from her. Both of these motivators were on display this week as...well, yes...Brooke comforted Hope and tried to keep Thomas at a reasonable distance from her.

One moment stood out, though: when Hope expressed gratitude that Liam was coming home because Beth needed her daddy and Hope knew what it was like to have an absentee father, to which Brooke gasped, "I'm sorry!" Just those two lines added such depth to the conversation, of course referring to Deacon's directed dereliction. Can we get more moments of deep character history like that? Please?

Anyway, over at Forrester, Thomas showed Ridge a tribute video he had put together for Vinny. This was not the first time B&B paralleled my own life; just last weekend, I had a celebration of life ceremony for my wonderful kitty girl Shadow, who left us three months ago...for which I put together a tribute video. Too soon? I do still think Thomas' grief over Vinny would resonate more if we'd seen them hang more often.

No, Vinny didn't deserve to die, but let's face it: what kind of a BFF could he have been if his primary skills were dealing drugs and switching paternity tests? Kinda makes you wonder if Vinny was actually a bad influence on Thomas and helped lead Thomas into the life of depravity he led most of 2019 and 2020. Brooke interrupted Thomas' preview and announced that Lope had the same address again.

Brooke just wanted to be sure Thomas wouldn't crash Lope's reunion. Ridge balked at first, then concurred that Thomas should let Lope have their moment. Thomas uttered some gobbledygook about allowing someone you love to be happy. Um, that's your stepsister, bro. Remember that. At the cabin, Hope swore nothing would come between her and Liam again. HAHAHAHA! Tempt the soap gods, why don't you!

Carter has been moping about his relationship with Zoe almost longer than he had a relationship with Zoe. Not that I've never done that, but still. Paris' words fell on deaf ears as she kept trying to repair Zarter. Pretty generous. considering how badly Zoe treated Paris, if you ask me. Carter remarked that Quinn was also batting for Zoe's team, but Paris had heard things about Quinn and advised against counsel from her.

Carter didn't think Quinn was all bad. He was beginning to see another side of her as they spent time together. Uh-oh! I seem to recall the same thing happened with..."Adam!" Although at least Liam had to have amnesia before he was willing to overlook Quinn's quirkier qualities. Speaking of whom, Zoe wanted Quinn to keep working on Carter for her. She was sure Quinn could get Carter to open up!

It turns out Zoe had that backwards, but this is a family show. Instead, she came upon Zende and Paris still talking about Paris' gastrointestinal gaffe and actually endorsed their relationship! Paris appreciated her sister's turnaround (bet she wouldn't if she knew said sister had given her gas) and thought it was healthy for Zoe to be fighting for Carter. No, it isn't! At this point, it's codependent! Move on, girl! Move on!

In the CEO office, Donna watched as Eric gathered materials for his trip to Chicago. (Good throwback, as show creator Bill Bell was from Chicago and often worked the Windy City into the early days of the show; Stephanie and her family hail from there.) Donna pinged when Eric seemed to imply that he wouldn't miss his "current wife." But Eric offered no further clues, which Donna seemed to accept.

I'm glad they didn't have Donna flirting with Eric, or Eric leering at Donna. It just would have been so predictable. Also, as Deric are former marrieds, I don't really feel like we need to go to that well again. Donna needs someone her age, and perhaps there's more to Eric's sexual malaise with Quinn than meets the eye. Eric was on Viagra already when he was with Donna, after all.

On Carter's advice, Quinn approached the exiting Eric and tried to persuade him to let her come along, if not work on reconnecting when he came back. Eric wasn't ready and essentially ignored Quinn's attempts. I couldn't help thinking of the early days, when Eric similarly blew Stephanie off as their marriage deteriorated. And no shouts of Brooke destroyed Steric, please! Eric was the one who pursued Brooke.

While we're on the subject of La Logan, I have to agree with Chanel's contention last week that Eric is having a hard time forgiving Quinn because it was Brooke whom Quinn went after. Eric has never completely fallen out of love with Brooke; that's been both covertly and overtly obvious in the nearly 30 real-time years since their divorce. Eric's soft spot for Brooke pissed off many wives, Quinn included.

I'd always thought Bridge was endgame, but with Katherine Kelly Lang and John McCook the only two original actors left (I still call them the True Two, in honor of the Core Four they belonged to when Susan Flannery and Ronn Moss were still in the cast), sometimes I feel like it should be Beric. At least until McCook retires, and he should be on-screen as much as possible before then.

So, Donna went to straighten Eric's tie, and Quinn walked in on them! Because of course she did! Man, that's one of the oldest soap tropes in the book. I just rewatched Luke Fuller straightening Steven Carrington's tie on the original Dynasty, and that was in 1984! Maybe Donna saw that episode, too. Again, at least Donna didn't ooze at Eric, as befitting her former "honey bear."

Post-rejection, Quinn whined to Carter that Brooke had made it her life's mission to undermine her. Um, when was that? A few episodes, and after Quinn sicced Shauna on Brooke's husband, at that? Though, to be completely fair to Quinn, it's overkill that she's acting like she always has to atone for mistakes with Eric. Because when you line them side-to-side, she really hasn't made that many.

What has Quinn really done since she married Eric? Most of her big stuff came before. As Mrs. Forrester, Quinn's biggest sin was kissing on Ridge. Maybe Eric isn't over that? Quinn was questioned when Bill was shot, but she was innocent there. She did sabotage Pam and Charlie's attempts to get married. Quinn got hit on by a masseur, but that was Sheila's doing. So, is Eric overreacting here?

Quinn didn't want to keep dumping on Carter. But Zoe kept insisting that Quinn continue talking to Carter on Zoe's behalf; Zoe was pretty pushy about it, actually. That didn't sit well with Paris, who thought Zoe should be talking to Carter on her own behalf. I believe the children are our future! Teach them well and let them lead the way!

Sorry, Paris; I know you're not a child. In fact, you're mature enough to sense that stirring Quinn into the Zarter soup might just be a recipe for trouble. Paris had heard the rumors and felt that Quinn might go too far with Carter in some way. That seemed kind of out of nowhere, didn't it? It felt like it was just written in to foreshadow what all of us can already see coming.

With Kiara Barnes about to leave Los Angeles for Fantasy Island, we already know who's not gonna have her fantasy come true. Indeed, Quinn knocked on Carter's door and learned that he lived in a brick...house! He's mighty mighty! He was letting it all hang out. Well, above the waist, anyway, since Quinn had caught him shirtless. She admitted Carter had the best body she'd ever seen. Better not let Bill hear that!

We got a second overlap for the week, since Carter couldn't forgive Zoe alongside Eric not being able to forgive Quinn. "You sound like my husband," Quinn commented, herself aware of this overlap. One that's more than a little ironic: Carter thinks Eric should absolve Quinn, but he won't pardon Zoe. And Quinn's Bridge-busting was way worse than Zoe flirting with Zende behind Carter's back.

When Carter revealed he'd been single most of his life, it made me wonder if that was why Carter had rushed things with Zoe so much. What Zoe did was wrong, but it was Carter who wanted Zoe to move in two months after their first date and then proposed before she even said yes to the key. It's understandable that Carter wouldn't have wanted to let a relationship slip out of his hands after being alone so long.

But I think Carter did play a role in how things played out with Zoe; he's just not taking responsibility for it. Perhaps as indicated by the fact that Carter didn't want to talk about Zoe. He wanted to talk about Quinn, who, for her part, felt misunderstood by all the Forresters and their ilk, but not by Carter. Quinn thought that was weird because Carter was so close to Eric and Ridge.

Not as close as Carter was about to get to Quinn! Carter didn't think the needle could move in regard to Zoe, but when he saw her, he did want to hold her and make love to her. Quinn didn't want Carter to be hurting and lonely, and she confessed that she couldn't remember the last time she felt wanted. She was starving for affection and just needed to be held.

Carter didn't want to chase after anyone. Quinn didn't want to give up on Eric. Carter found a lot of Quinn's traits sexy. Eric's devotion to Quinn had made her feel sexy. Ooh -- introduce a derivative of the word "sex" and you know it's goin' somewhere. And go somewhere it did! Carter softly touched Quinn's face. Quinn undid the buttons on Carter's shirt and touched his chest.

Is it getting hot in here? Never taking their eyes off each other, Carter unbuttoned Quinn's dress, inspiring her to let it slide down. I gotta tell ya, this lead-up was really hot. Perhaps more so because, like Scott Clifton and Annika Noelle, there were no stand-ins or mannequins with Lawrence Saint-Victor and Rena Sofer. That might have made the foreplay seem even more forbidden than the script intended.

Quinn trembled at Carter's touch. "We can't," she gasped. But they did! And I mean all over the lower level of the loft. Carter even had Quinn up against the wall, and you didn't see that all that often even pre-COVID! Yep, it may have happened pretty fast (it's only been two weeks since they started talking), but Quarter's quavering is the hottest thing to play out on B&B in a long time. The. Hottest!

Not that I can see Quarter developing into any kind of actual relationship, but as an affair, they definitely qualify as love in the afternoon. Eric is going to be devastated -- though, unlike Quinn's smooching with Ridge, Eric was the one who pushed Quinn away. Speaking of Ridge, he's going to be super torqued with his BFF! Or is Ridge just going to be jealous that his BFF went further with Quinn than he got a chance to?

What's fanning your flames, Scoopers? Is Quarter actually a better story than the much-ballyhooed "murder mystery?" What would you do to move things along? Was Hope right to take Liam back? How do you think Zoe will be written out? Should she be recast? And do you think there's more going on with Eric's disinterest in Quinn than he's letting on? Deposit your thoughts into 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!

"Though until now he did and said all the right things I have a feeling Finn maybe is not what he seems to be...he's too perfect...and we don't know a thing about him...only that he's a doctor and good looking. No background, no family...Steffy got 'his mother's ring', but did she ever meet his mother? As far as we know his mom could sit in a rocking chair in the basement of Finn's house..." -- "Susannah14_54"

"Where the hell is Taylor with all this going on in her kids' lives???!!!!! Did Steffy go out of town with the kids to see Taylor (don't know if it was mentioned why she left)....still, what about her other kid??" -- "None Ofurbusiness"

"JUSTICE FOR EMMA!" -- "Dorinda's Pajamas"

Hey, can't forget to mention that Jacqueline MacInnes Wood is back on the set, filming, so Steffy will be on our TVs/monitors again soon. It'll be interesting to see how she figures into this whole storyline with Liam "killing" Vinny! Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And don't forget, protecting yourselves and others from a virus and getting vaccinated for it is always beautiful.

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