I'm gonna knock you out: The Bold and the Beautiful Two Scoops for the week of December 2, 2024

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you turn a virgin into a seductress? Did you visit your not-free not-daughter? Did you come back from the dead so fast that even Taylor was impressed? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton clan this week!

Attention, Scoopers! This column is sponsored by the letters L, L, and C! Double on the “L” because when Carter busted in all smooth the day after his firing, telling the Forresters he had become the man in charge, Steffy, Eric, and Ridge were like “What the L!” Meanwhile, we got more intel on Remy and Electra's backstory, plus Luna got zaddy daddy Bill to visit her. And what is Taylor still doing here? Let's Scoop about it!

Why do you riff with me, the maniac psycho

Most of the week was all about the LLC in La-La Land, but there was actual other activity on the show, albeit of the sociopath variety. Interestingly, we started out with old school psycho meets new school psycho when Sheila instructed fresh hire Remy to get Il Giardino ready for opening. Remy went right back to staring at pictures of Electra on his phone instead of following orders.

I hope Sheila saw that because if anybody could peg a fellow loony-tune, it's our original naughty nurse from Michigan. You know, if B&B really wants to convince us that Sheila has changed, and not just because they've told us she has, they could have Sheila save Electra from Remy when he finally goes crazy town on her. That would be a huge, tangible step toward redemption that isn't just words.

Of course, because there's nowhere else to eat in L.A. besides the IG, Electra took her menu only to see that Remy was handing it to her! And 'tra proceeded to lay the syrup on pretty thick. She was so glad to see Remy that Will got all bent out of shape about it. Although I don't know why; Electra already assured Will that she and Remy had only ever been platonic. Still, Electra seemed way too excited to see her old bud.

At least we got a little more info about them: Electra and Remy were not only schoolmates (in whatever town or country that was), but they worked in a movie theatre together. Turns out, Electra likes Christmas horror flicks. Good primer, because from the way Remy stared at her and Will holding hands and smooching, Remy's gonna have Electra hanging from a hook in a dilapidated cabin by New Year's.

Across town, Poppy visited her deranged daughter in the hoosegow, seemingly more out of motherly obligation than a move toward forgiveness. Indeed, Poppy tongue-lashed Luna for making out with her boyfriend after framing her for two murders to get closer to the guy. Poppy's light bulb flashed all 100 watts when Luna made another inquiry about Bill, realizing that Luna was still thinking about him.

“Was it me who created this monster?” the sad Poppy wondered. I wouldn't go that far. True, Poppy didn't provide Luna the most stable of childhoods – Luna was raised without a father or even knowing who he was, and Poppy clearly had a revolving door of men around that outpaced Brooke's romantic history. But, unless one of those men abused Luna in some way, or Poppy's darker than we've been told, I can't see Luna becoming psychotic from Poppy merely being flaky.

That's not how Luna told it, however, when she wrote Bill a third time. In her latest missive, she attributed her behavior to childhood trauma and reminded Bill that was something that he could relate to. Um, how? We know that Bill was also raised without a father, but he's never alluded to anything scarring him when he grew up. Too bad that, after 15 years, we still don't know who Bill's mother was!

Rather than rely on the mail, Bill decided to reply to Luna's latest in person. And wow, was she happy. Now, where can this be going? Usually when a character, especially a not-long-established one, offs multiple people and kidnaps another, once they're jailed, that's the last we see of them. Do we really need back in Bill's orbit, let alone ours? What do you guys think?

How ya like me now

On to the main story of the moment. Ridge didn't want to believe that Carter had come up with the whole LLC scam on his own. It had to be all Hope's fault. Ridge doubted Hope's love for Carter (not that I don't, the way Harter was rushed together) and claimed Hope didn't know right from wrong. How could Carter let his whole life tank over a “scheming seductress”?

Ridge's words, not mine! I can understand Ridge not being able to process his best friend stabbing him in the back and, therefore, trying to find a scapegoat, but Ridge is acting like he hasn't known Hope her whole life. Ridge was on deck when Hope for the Future started up, and Hope incorporated her virgin status into the line ad nauseum. Up until the summer of 2023, Hope was pretty steadfast and level-headed.

Now Ridge wants us to believe that Hope is some Machiavellian mama? Ridge has always been a judgmental hothead, but this is too much. I'll give him this, though: B&B has never explained Hope's one-eighty in personality. The minute she started fantasizing about her one-time tormentor, Thomas, it seemed something was very wrong with her, to say nothing of going on to kiss him while happily married to Liam.

A year and a half later, we still don't know what's driving Hope's changes. For Carter's part, he wasn't having Ridge's attacks on Hope and flamed Ridge for learning his Logan-blaming antics from Stephanie (bazinga!). Carter even sarcastically congratulated Ridge for giving Brooke “some phony executive team position.” So true! Outside of modeling lingerie again, we don't know what Brooke does at FC and haven't for years!

Ridge told Carter he'd keep him on staff if Carter would just dump Hope, but Carter was pretty much k thx bye. Ridge fired Carter on the spot, though it seems Carter had his flame-retardant designer trousers on; more on that in a minute. Over at Hope's Cabin of Luv, Hope championed Carter to Brooke, hailing him as the underdog of all non-Forresters. Kinda overkill there, Hopey-girl.

In fact, when Brooke reiterated that Carter should have stuck to doing his COO job instead of plotting a takeover, Hope “reminded” Brooke that, back in the day, Brooke “had no problem taking power back because you knew you were doing what was right for the company!” Hope wasn't born yet, so I don't expect her to get the history down, but that's not how Brooke ended up CEO of Forrester at all.

What Brooke was retaliating against in 1993 was Stephanie, Eric, and Ridge trying to trick her into signing a document that would give the company control of its wrinkle-free BeLieF formula instead of Brooke, who had created it. That was much more revenge than doing what was right for the company, though the inexperienced Brooke actually did end up being a surprisingly good CEO for a decade in real time.

Brooke went to Ridge, who was still pointing all ten of his fingers at Hope, and decried that Hope had turned Carter into someone that Ridge didn't recognize. Ridge did have one moment of non-Hope clarity, amazingly, when he recalled how Carter had done Eric over by porking Quinn. “Maybe that's just who [Carter] is,” Ridge sighed. Ridge said the Quinn debacle should have been a red flag. That's still painting Carter and Hope with the same brush, but it's true Carter isn't a wide-eyed innocent in all this.

Innocent is how I might describe Carter and Hope talking about their romance. “Our love is more powerful than anything!” Carter told Lady HFTF. Soaps always have people talk in absolutes, but at least in the cases of Ridge and Brooke, say, or Ridge and Taylor, each supercouple had years to build up to those absolutes. Carter admitted he wanted to see Hope in lingerie, and the next day, they were trying to boff on a desk. That's hardly the soap love of legends.

Hope told Carter she'd understand if he went back to FC, which I assume meant she would have been OK with him dumping her to save his job. No, Carter was going to stay with Hope, although he didn't seem to hint at any sort of countermove regarding Forrester one way or the other. In fact, it seemed like both Carter and Hope were free to start somewhere else anew. Maybe with their own fashion house, like many of you have been hypothesizing?

Don't you dare stare

Steffy was enraged to learn that she and Ridge had been punked into signing the LLC documents under false pretenses, but it was kind of surprising that she only found out about it in that moment. I'll grant that maybe Ridge was too busy fencing with Carter, and it was roughly the same soap day, but still, you'd have thought Ridge would have interrupted Brooke's reveal about the scheme to page Steffy, pronto.

That was as far as my sympathy went, though, because all Steffy has done for months is scowl and bitch about Hope. A kinder, gentler perspective after being starved and dehydrated in a cage for days? Not our Steffy. She just doubled down on the disagreeableness. Hope had manipulated Finn, then Thomas, and now poor naïve Carter! Well, Steffy got the order wrong, but at least she's consistent.

The LLC news served as a sort of confirmation bias, so Steffy marched right over to Hope's and did her best to further villainize her frequent, but not full-time, rival. Steffy only slowed down long enough to choke out a “Why didn't you just tell me?” when Hope finally announced that she had been wearing the telltale lingerie that got her fired for Carter, not Finn.

Hope stated that she wanted to protect her relationship with Carter but then added more rationale that confused me so much I can't recount it here. Suffice it to say, it should have been enough for Steffy to acknowledge that she fired Hope for the wrong reasons. But Steffy doesn't do crow. Instead, she barked that “we Forresters opened the door to you Logans!”

Just once, I'd like to see Hope, Brooke, or anybody push the fact that Ridge is a Marone in Steffy's face. Yes, yes, Ridge was raised as a Forrester, etc. But when Steffy starts lording that name over people, it would only be right to have someone set her straight with some cold, hard DNA. It's true that Eric allowed Brooke to begin conducting chemical research at Forrester, but Steffy can miss me with that “we Forresters” stuff. She wasn't even a swimmer in Ridge's left nut when Brooke came on board at FC.

The one thing — and the only thing — that Steffy was right about was that Carter had been all for cutting HFTF before he became involved with Hope, complete with the “facts and data” that Steffy claimed he had. Somehow, that never comes up between Carter and Hope. As for Steffy, she congratulated Hope for finally being “just like your mother,” but that's not entirely accurate, either. Hope lusting after Finn was more in the Slut from the Valley vein, not this LLC thing at Forrester.

Over the competition, I'm towerin'

Taylor popped into Forrester looking for Steffy (people must not be hiring a psychiatrist contending with broken heart syndrome these days) and instead got an earful from Ridge about recent events with Carter. Why is Taylor even still here? Rebecca Budig's incarnation hasn't been around a few months and she's already been reduced to nothing but a sounding board for Ridge and Steffy.

The latter of whom had earlier not been matchmaking but simply asking her mother if, should she be in the market for a man, would that man be Ridge? Taylor pivoted with the genuinely earnest admission that family meant as much to Brooke as it did to her. I was impressed. In addition, Taylor noted that Ridge and Brooke seemed to be doing well. Which was when Steffy got another astute moment of her own.

Steffy wondered why Brooke and Ridge hadn't remarried yet, and it's a fair question. Usually, the “destiny” pair gets in front of a minister as soon as they're over their latest rift. Here, it's been nearly 18 months since they roamed back to each other in Rome, and no matrimonio. Maybe they just don't want to have to tell people they're on their ninth (legitimate) run as Mr. and Mrs. Forrester?

Anyway, back to Taylor having nothing better to do but haunt the halls at Forrester. Ridge was glad to have a new ear to pour his anti-Hope rhetoric into, which, unfortunately for him, Brooke bore witness to. Wow, first the chakra healing, and now this! Brooke didn't like Ridge talking stink about Hope; La Logan acknowledged that the takeover plot was jacked but begged the Dressmaker to not let it all pit them against each other over her daughter!

I hope this slight scuffle over Hope won't be the reason that Ridge waffles yet again over to Taylor. Not only do we not need to see that a three-thousandth time, but this Ridge is untested with this Taylor, unless you count the fact that portrayers Thorsten Kaye and Rebecca Budig both appeared on All My Children at the same time, though their characters were never romantically linked. nuRidge (albeit 11 years in) and nunuTaylor would never work.

Don't call it a comeback

After Katie got filled in on Carter's coup and told Brooke that her ex would never do anything malicious, Eric finally got caught up to speed as well. Along with Steffy, I'm amazed Ridge didn't call Eric into a meeting immediately after Carter was exposed instead of spending all his time Hope-bashing. Well, the Forrester patriarch was beyond not thrilled, and his Marone progeny was at his side when Justin came in, having gone over the LLC paperwork.

Given that Justin himself just tried to gain control of Spencer Publications three years ago, I'm not sure why Ridge would seek out Justin's legal services unless having a takeover attempt in common with Carter was considered a boon to Justin's skill set. Well, Eric, Ridge, and Steffy were all teh sads, because Justin had to concede that the documents in question were all in order.

I must admit, this is one of the more inventive takeover storylines we've seen in regard to Forrester Creations. Usually it has to do with whoever has the most stock and/or whoever is able to plant themselves in the infamous green CEO seat. This time, it's serviced by this LLC angle, which, I admit, as someone whose business knowledge mostly extends to what he's seen on TV, I have trouble understanding the mechanics of. But at least it's different.

And I guess, in between all the Sturm und Drang with Ridge firing Carter and badmouthing Hope to anyone who would listen, Carter had time to actually file the LLC forms, which I'd said in my last column were useless unless Carter did exactly that. I think they'd be processed a lot more slowly than they were, but ya know, soap time. Carter was ready; he told Hope that the “battle between the families ends today.”

What dream world is he living in? If anything, Carter becoming the “manager” at Forrester (they never had a manager before; I'm confused) would merely be considered the shot across the bow. Seems to me Steffy and Ridge, at least, will only step up their anti-Logan bombast instead of agreeing to any sort of truce. That stance was on full display when Carter arrived in the CEO office.

The typically peacemaking, anything-goes Eric was not going with this. He deemed Carter a traitor and was aghast that, although Eric had forgiven Carter for dallying with Quinn, Carter had betrayed Eric once again. Carter relayed that he was there to end the favoritism, but Ridge had a point when he fumed that favoritism was exactly what Carter was displaying by virtue of his takeover.

When Ridge scoffed at Carter's assertion that he didn't want to lose his friend, Carter countered that, in that case, he didn't want to lose his lead designer. That hiked Ridge's blood pressure up even more, and he again looked to Justin to fire back at Carter; Justin had to admit that, while it may not have been ethical for Carter to register an LLC with himself as its manager without Ridge and Steffy's knowledge, it wasn't illegal.

Eric nearly landed himself in the hospital with another unnamed soap disease like the one he had this time last year when he raged that he agreed with Ridge! Carter was fired! But then Carter did the most badass thing he's ever done in all his time on B&B. He might as well have been channeling LL Cool J the way he swaggered over to the CEO chair. He all but spit rapped, “Don't call it a comeback — I've been here for years!”

Mr. Walton informed Eric, Ridge, and Steffy, all of whose eyeballs were about to pop out, that he managed the LLC. Hence, Carter was now in charge. “Is that understood?” Whoo doggies! I thought, when Brooke blabbed on Carter and got him fired, that that was it for Carter at Forrester. Maybe Carter would start up a competing design house, which, admittedly, B&B needs.

I hardly expected the paperwork (filed off-screen) to hold or for Carter to actually take the reins at Forrester! I don't think FC has been out of Forrester hands since Bill controlled it in 2010. I assume Carter will reinstate HFTF (meh), but I wonder what else he might do over there? Could he actually end up breathing new life into the place and only do right by it? Bill only nabbed the company to avenge his father, but Carter actually cares about it. Might he actually use his powers for good?

Now it's time to put y'all in front of the mic, Scoopers! Is Ridge going too far with his hatred for Hope? Do you think Bill will fall prey to Luna again? What do you predict Remy will do in his pursuit of Electra? Is Steffy running the risk of being completely unlikable? Is there really a place for Taylor on the show right now? And is Bridge in danger once again? Bust some rhymes of your own in the Soap Central message boards!

When I next Scoop for you guys...it's year-end time again already! I'm gonna break 2024 down the way only I can, and you're gonna love every word of it. At least, I hope you will. I'll see you in two weeks for my Best & Worst of 2024 column, and in the meantime, I'll say what I've said for the past 15 years of columnizing: keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold!

(You can purchase all of Adam-Michael James' books on Amazon.)