Luna eclipse: The Bold and the Beautiful Two Scoops for the week of March 10, 2025

The Bold and the Beautiful asks you to beg its pardon

Has your week been like The Bold and the Beautiful? Were you the doormat you laid out for your former employers? Was your sister an engine that needed a choke? Was your Get Out of Jail Free card big enough to cover the entire Monopoly board? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton-Finnegan-Nozawa clans this week!

You know the phrase, Scoopers! In space, no one can hear you scream! Which is good, because the airtime-monopolizing arcs of Luna living at Bill's (she suddenly got pardoned!) and Carter having possession of Forrester Creations (he handed the company back!) each ended with a wink-out, not a supernova. Frustrating! Not that it wasn't time to move on from both. Y'all ready to launch? Let's Scoop about it!

Pain in the astronomy

Hope didn't like that Daphne had kissed Carter! Not at all! And Hope wanted Carter to give the perfumier whatever you call a heave-ho in French! I also don't know how to say “hypocrite” in that tongue, but Hope needs to take several rows of seats. She told Liam that she'd kissed Thomas in Rome because of Liam's constantly divided heart. And she was married! It was okay for her to have loose lips, but not Carter?

Putting Hope and Carter together was certainly interesting on paper. And anything that involves Liam not bouncing back and forth between Hope and Steffy, I'm for. But the actual Harter (Cope?) romance has been as flat as left-open-for-weeks champagne. And while I hadn't been on the side of Hope using Carter, her actions the last little while have me reconsidering my stance.

Personally, I don't know what fashion house runs the same line for 14 years, and Hope for the Future reached its expiration date years ago. If Hope really used Carter just to keep the thing on life support, I hardly find it worth it. But Hope did not get to hear what she wanted in regards to Daphne. Carter hedged like a fund, eventually saying that he loved Hope, but also that asking Ms. Rose to leave would be a mistake.

I will give Carter points for pointing out that he and Hope needed to show Daphne the same grace that Steffy hadn't shown them. Karma and all. I'll lob a half point at Hope for sensing that Steffy was behind Daphne's presence, especially with Daphne parroting Steffy's party line about Hope using Carter. I kind of feel like Daphne didn't have the right to throw that accusation around as a Forrester newcomer, though.

At least Steffy and Hope have interacted all their lives, however skewed Steffy's view of Hope might be every other year. For Daphne to have ruined her scheme by falling for her mark...well, it did take longer for Daph to catch feelings than it did Hope, who was mooning over Carter after a couple of episodes. Hope didn't like that Carter wouldn't leave his boot print on Daphne's behind and walked out on his.

One giant leap for Forresterkind

Brooke moped to Hope about not being a part of Ridge's life anymore. This latest journey on the Bridge/Tridge-go-round has fallen flat, too. Ridge's renewed romance with Taylor has no rizz, and it's not like the ultimate Logan to not go after her destiny like a bird dog on the scent. Outside of a handful of failed attempts to talk to Ridge, Brooke has pretty much just sat on the sidelines, which again, is out of character.

Hope moped to Brooke about Carter kissing Daphne. Wait – is that the sound of the waaaaaahmublance outside the door? Nobody cares about your great love with Carter, Hope. Not the audience, not Brooke, and at this point, not even Carter. And he was getting another earful from Daphne, who entered his office and immediately asked if Carter was missing Ridge. How could she know Carter was thinking about his BFF in that moment?

The one good question Daphne asked was if Forrester Creations was better without the Forresters. Using the loose definition, as Ridge, Steffy, and Thomas aren't blood Forresters and blood Forresters Thorne, Kristen, Felicia, Rick, and Bridget have been AWOL forever, the answer to Daphne's question was still a qualified no. Daphne then ran to Steffy and reported to her commandant that Carter's walls were cracking.

What great timing, since Steffy, Ridge, and Eric had already decided that today was the day they were going to retake the company. As I've said in earlier columns, they've really all been quite lax about taking any kind of action to achieve that aim. So they might finally be deciding to get off their rumps, but I'm still having to hold back a big yawn. There's been no intrigue, no struggle, and no stakes in this entire saga.

It was as simple as Eric and Ridge marching into their old CEO office and telling Carter they were coming back. And not just as Carter and Hope's staff. No, they were giving Carter one more chance to make things right. The only thing that kept Mr. Walton from caving completely was his caveat that FC had to keep HFTF. The Forresters were fine with that as long as the line was making money.

So Carter took his LLC papers and ripped them up! And all was right with the world! Not! That's not a legal business move; if anything, it's just symbolic, so there's still a whole filing process they have to go through. And Carter gave back Eric's fabled stapler, which wasn't even a thing in the first 36 years of this show. If Papa F had had the thing on his desk from the early days, it would have packed a much bigger punch.

And that's that. Everything old is new again, and Ridge and particularly Steffy can resume lording their positions of power over everyone; I'm sure Brooke won't be allowed to stay on as CEO. And I'm even more sure Hope is gonna lose her s**t when she finds out Carter fell apart faster than a Boeing plane. If that means Harter is done as well, I can't say I'd be sorry. Let's just go forward with some fresh story already.

Houston, we have a problem

Steffy is nothing if not good at bitching loudly and throwing her weight around, but I couldn't blame her for being pissed at Bill for spiriting Luna out of a proper prison and letting her ankle bracelet it at his mansion. And while we've never explored Bill's childhood until now, I have a hard time believing it was so traumatic that he could understand how Luna's upbringing turned her into a killer.

Bill Sr. wasn't even around, from what was established when the Dollah first showed up in 2009. That means the implication is that Bill's mother, whoever she is, did the number on Bill, not his absent pop. As for Luna, I have no real sympathy. I've told y'all before, I grew up with an alcoholic stepfather who beat my mom. That's a traumatic childhood, not having a flake for a mom who went through men like Cookie Monster goes through cookies.

My feelings for Steffy's plight ended there. Because she fell back to her usual blustering about how Luna wasn't Finn's daughter (um, she is) and how Luna was never going to see Finn again. Yeah, that worked so well with Sheila. Steffy is freaking out about this being the Sheila situation all over again – that's legit – but she's certainly not acting any differently than she did then. That kinda gave the whole thing a déjà vu quality.

Sea of non-tranquility

Sheila has been going on upward of four years about wanting a relationship with her son (whom we have yet to prove is actually her kid), but outside of shooting Finn (and Steffy), she really hasn't done much about it. I suppose, spurred on from her conversations with Poppy and finding a kindred spirit in a mother also separated from her kid, Sheila did something this week she's never done before: she stopped by Finn's office.

Took this long to think of it? Finn should at least be credited for telling Sheila she couldn't be there, not that that stopped the former Michigan and Wisconsin resident from plopping herself down in a chair. After which she dropped the needle on her own broken record about missing Finn and wishing she could have been the mother who raised him, blah blah blah. We've heard it, Sheila. We've heard it.

Maybe this comes from Sheila being obsessed with kids since losing Scott's baby on Y&R in 1990 is what first drove her to madness. It's just kind of along the lines of the most recent Forrester takeover and Brooke being broken up from Ridge – nobody really does anything. They just talk. Sheila, who used to be the stirrer of a certain brown substance, has been up there with them all, choosing words over action re: Finn since 2021.

And that's what made it so unexpected when Finn's next visitor was Li, and he opted to drop the entire bomb of his night with Poppy and its result on the elder Nozawa. I mean, this is the guy who hems and haws for episodes in a row when he has a cold hard truth to tell someone. Like other reveals, he had to build up to tell Steffy about being Luna's father. But he didn't do that with Li. It was like a photo dump, only with secrets!

Yup, Finn blindsided his unsuspecting adopt-o-mom with the fact that he had slept with his own (adoptive) aunt and had a child with her. Oh – and that child, Luna, was kickin' it over at Bill's instead of being behind bars! I'm surprised Doc Li didn't have to do CPR on herself. That was a lot to pile on her at once. I got the feeling the show just wanted that aspect of the arc over with, so they packed it all into a couple of scenes.

Li is not above violence herself. She can throw down with catfight queen Sheila and body-slam niece-turned-granddaughter Luna better than any WWF member out there. Might Finn not have chosen a gentler way to tell Li about his real connections to Luna and Poppy instead of simply throwing matches on what he knows is a powder keg? I dunno, maybe it's just me. Did you think it was an odd move?

Baby, I'm a star

Steffy continued ranting at Bill, saying his harboring of Luna was “sick, even for you.” I guess when you consider that Bill installed Sheila under his roof a pair of years ago, Steffy's assessment is not entirely inaccurate. She finally whipped out her phone to call Deputy Chief Baker and get Luna thrown back in the hoosegow, but first Ridge and Taylor had to come over and put in their two cents, you know, because they didn't have anything else to do.

Luna moved from Steffy to Ridge to Taylor, trying to get someone to stop the imminent calling of the law. “I'll die in there!” Luna shrieked. And she shrieked it so many times that I swear, I was expecting everyone else in the room to chant it along with her. B&B runs 18 minutes without commercials, but they seriously could trim the show to five just by cutting out the steady stream of repetitive dialogue featured in pretty much every episode.

Bill wondered if Steffy could really put her husband's daughter in jail – but when said husband also showed up, he was amazingly resolute. “You killed two men and attacked the love of my life,” Finn reminded Luna when she begged for his help. Good on you, Finn! Bill also swore that he could help the broken Luna, leading psychiatrist Taylor to pipe up, “You can't fix her.”

And that's the truth, too. Taylor offered another moment of clarity when Luna again blamed her actions on her lousy youth. Dr. Hayes had had plenty of patients with far more tragic backgrounds, and they hadn't killed anybody. That was the most sensible line of the week. Sure, if Finn really is Sheila's son (show me that DNA test!) and Luna is Finn's daughter, Luna may be predisposed to psychopathic tendencies. But I'll reiterate that nothing in Luna's childhood justifies murder and kidnapping.

Steffy actually got around to hitting Baker's digits – naturally interrupting his enjoyment of a hot dog – and the officer who's been hanging about since Ridge was accused of shooting Grant Chambers in 1997 stopped in to reincarcerate the errant Luna. But what would precipitate Luna needing to be taken back to jail? She was serving her sentence at Bill's and she hadn't committed a new crime that would have undone Bill's deal with “the powers that be.”

Well, before we could sort all that out, Baker got a call and wouldn't you know! Luna was pardoned! As in ankle monitor gone and everything! The hell? Tridge was torqued and vowed to fight it (hahahahahaha like they take action on anything, remember?) while Steffy was even more outraged than she usually is. It was the last they'd see of her, Steffy snarled to Luna. Which didn't stop Finn from looking longingly at his newbie daughter as the Finnegans left.

In what lifetime would Luna be pardoned after murdering two men and leaving a woman to die in a cage? In B&B's modern era, its criminals serve the barest of time before being turned loose on the public once again. First Sheila, then Remy, now Luna. What message are we sending here?

Blood moon

Poppy, who hadn't yet heard the news that her daughter wasn't actually doing her time in jail, popped in to Il Giardino, where she and Sheila had another chinjaw about not getting to spend time with their kids. Deacon, for some reason, didn't trust Poppy, though I'm not a hundred percent sure why. I agree Poppy is shady in her own flighty way, but Deacon's done way worse than gorge on “special mints” and sleep around.

Sheila, however, was fully Team Poppy. And when Sheila thought of Luna, well, the young woman's deeds were just awful. Poisoning two innocent men and locking Steffy away in a cage! Well! Sheila would never have wished that on Steffy! I'm sorry...what did you say? Sheila's probably just mad she didn't think of caging Steffy first!

Dude, this is the woman who didn't stop to get medical help for Finn when he accidentally took the bullet Sheila meant for Steffy – and then decided to get the job right by shooting Steffy point blank for trying to call 911! And you wouldn't have wished penning Steffy up like a farm hen? Just wow. I expect Sheila to be delusional. I just don't expect the script to be.

Li texted Poppy and wasted no time delivering her sister some cold crypticism. I'm surprised Poppy didn't pick up on Li reverting back to the old ways after her sibling had been so friendly the last several weeks. Li revealed that Luna wasn't missing and/or dead, just calling Bill's address home. Had Li seen her, Poppy wondered. No, but Finn had. “My son. Your nephew. Luna's father!”

The first two designations weren't necessary. Poppy knows that Finn is Li's son, and thereby Poppy's nephew. B&B has a nasty habit of having characters talk this way, going back to the '90s. Our beloved Sally Spectra always used to tell other people about “my daughter Macy” when they knew very well who Macy was to Sally! But Poppy's hands flew to her mouth. The jig, as they say, was definitely up.

“You got pregnant with your nephew's child, Poppy!” Li shouted. (Well, when you put it that way...) “You hid this for 20 years and looked me in the eye!” True dat. Poppy has a better poker face than Lady Gaga. Li was dizzy with rage, yelling that Finn's cousin was now his daughter! You gotta admit, that one would have made even Jerry Springer gag. But from there, Li let her fingers do the walking. All five of them!

Li indeed reached out and touched someone, grabbing Poppy's neck with one hand! Say what you want, but Li is a badass; I can't recall seeing a one-handed choke before. She had a good grip, too, because Penelope was gasping for air. I'm tellin' ya, at the risk of it sounding like I'm saying this just because Li is Asian, she must have a black belt in some kind of martial art because her fighting game is strong. Mortal Kombat strong. Li wins!

Now realizing that the choker Li wanted to give her wasn't a necklace, Poppy got Li to release her neck and was summarily banned from Li's life. Can't say you didn't have that coming, ya Pop Tart. But at least the truth is out. For sheer drama and scandal, Poppy having her adopted nephew's baby is the best fictional outcome of Luna's year-and-a-half daddy dilemma, and we can consider it wrapped up. Finally.

It isn't rocket science

On B&B, folks talk about stuff and then they retire to other sets to talk about what they just talked about. In this case, Ridge and Taylor fulfilled their need to go over what had just happened at Bill's. And Taylor hated Bill. Uh oh. The last time she felt that kind of animosity towards him, she did the Dollah with a bullet from his own golden gun. Would another shooting attempt make this Taylor interesting?

Luna, that much lighter for having her ankle monitor snipped off, got confirmation from Bill that he was absolutely the one who arranged for Luna's pardon. What I can't understand is why. He knows she's a double murderess – he moved heaven and earth to entrap Sheila into admitting her own killings for the express purpose of putting her away forever. He didn't want a nutjob near his family. But Luna's okay, then?

Bill's not going to be able to land on whatever bad childhood he had when Luna makes short work of his own child, Will. Bill's next step was to tell the freshly-released Luna “here's your hat, what's your hurry” – in other words, it was great having her around, but she needed to be gone by the time he came back. Huuuuuuuhhhhh? Does that even begin to make a lick of sense? And where is Luna supposed to go?

“You ain't got to go home but you got to get the hell out of here” is a strange pivot for a guy who was perfectly fine having this criminal under his roof...until she was pardoned. Thanks to him! You'd think he'd be giving his wannabe daughter his pad's security code instead of kicking her out. Or that he'd give her time to find her own place. Did this move track for any of you? Because it's making my head hurt.

I've said for a while that Steffy never learns, but something must have stuck because she exhorted Finn not to make the same mistake with Luna that he had with Sheila – in other words, let Luna into his life à la trying to connect with Sheila. And I will absolutely give Steffy her props for this. She tried to impress upon her hubby that Luna needed to go back to jail, “for life, Finn.” “I know, I know,” came his answer.

But do we really think Finn is going to be able to resist forging a relationship with his daughter? I don't know how he managed to pass med school, because he is a chandelier working with two, maybe three bulbs. The old 40-watt kind. Maybe Steffy really does need to leave Finn. I just wouldn't want that putting her back in Liam's orbit. By the way, why did Ivy make a point of visiting Liam during a stopover and kissing him, but now she's been back in town since October and hasn't seen him once? Oy.

Maybe Poppy needs to take out life insurance because before the red marks on her throat could fade, she went to see Luna...of her own volition. And her daughter wanted answers. “Finn would have loved me,” Luna wailed. “You told me it was just us!” And when Luna begged her mom to say who her dad was, Poppy had zero words to say. Yet the truth had been in front of Luna the whole time!

Not so fast, Poppy popped off, and with the second-best line this week at that. “You took those men's lives to protect yourself, not because you had some kind of traumatic childhood!” Poppy informed her felonious filly. Damn right! Poppy's usually a wuss, looking spooked when confronted with her naughtiness, so I was glad to see her take a stand here.

But Luna wasn't done. Had Poppy known all along that Finn was her father? Had she? Not the first time we've had a cliffhanger of sorts on that subject, but what the hey. B&B wrapped up its only two stories of 2025 so far in the same week, and maybe now we can let other characters have a turn. But, this coming week, Luna is going to connect with Gramma Sheila! And they ain't gonna crochet doilies, I can tell you that right now!

The moon is setting, Scoopers! And I know I'm not the only one with opinions about our soap (I admit I read it for filth here, but only because I know it can be so much better!), so plant your flags in the comments below!

Let's see what B&B does with its new lease on storyline life. Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember – no matter color, creed, heritage, religion, gender identity, or orientation, we're all beautiful.

Watch The Bold and the Beautiful weekdays on CBS or stream the show on Paramount Plus.

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