The Bold and the Beautiful Recap for Monday, February 17, 2025: Hope catches Ridge and Carter hugging

In the design office, Brooke was working on her laptop when Hope came storming in. She was furious that the jewelry launch was a success, but they weren’t celebrating. Brooke wasn’t surprised by the mood of the room and wondered what Hope had expected. Hope ranted about how horribly they had been treated in the past. Brooke agreed but said it didn’t mean Hope should have stolen their company. “I truly believe this is what is best for everyone in the long run,” Hope said. “And Carter?” Brooke wondered. Hope admitted that instead of being proud of himself, Carter felt guilty.

Brooke tried to explain to Hope that Carter had always envisioned celebrating with Ridge. Hope snapped at her mom, wondering why she always took the Forrester’s side. She said Ridge was even with Taylor at that moment, and yet Brooke was still defending him. Brooke explained that was a separate issue, and she was talking about Carter. “He is hurting right now. He knows what he did was wrong. He destroyed his relationship with his best friend!” Brooke reminded her.

Hope said she would never understand the hold that Ridge had over Brooke and Carter. Hope thought Ridge and Carter had a one-sided relationship, but Brooke said it ran deeper. “Have you ever noticed Carter never talks about his family and spends the holidays with us?” Brooke pointed out, but Hope didn’t think it mattered. Hope said that the Forresters never respected Carter. Brooke tried to appeal to Hope’s sense of compassion and suggested that whatever Carter is feeling, she should support him. “Or else?” Hope asked. Hope told her mom that she would support Carter by protecting him and his big heart from being taken advantage of by Ridge or anyone else.

Hope refused to back down or give in to Ridge and Steffy’s demands. “Listen to what you’re saying,” Brooke admonished. “What are you saying? This has been a war for years!” Hope cried. She said she and Carter were pushing back, and they were succeeding. “What kind of future can you have when you can’t look at yourself in the mirror?” Brooke wondered. Hope said Carter was hurting because he was a good man, and people took advantage of that. She said she would make sure Ridge wouldn’t be able to.

At the Forrester mansion, Steffy told Taylor and Daphne that the jewelry line was a success and assumed Carter was riding high about his expansion plans. Zende walked in and said he was in the room, and the only one excited was Hope.

Zende described how Hope couldn’t read the room and even called for champagne, but Brooke was as torn as the rest of them. Taylor suggested that if Brooke was genuinely upset about it, she’d stop the takeover.

In the CEO’s office, Ridge asks his “brother” if it’s lonely at the top. Carter was sitting on the desk, nursing his cut hand. “Blood on your hand. Well, that tracks,” Ridge noted. “You stole this company from your family, betrayed your best friend, and killed a friendship,” Ridge told him. Carter turned and glared.

Carter wrapped his injured hand as he told Ridge that it was a big day for him and the company and wanted to celebrate, noting that they had gone through it already. “I’m a backstabbing traitor who stole the company and betrayed our friendship. We don’t need to go through this again,” he added. Ridge said maybe they did need to repeat it.

Ridge told Carter he was confused because when he looked at him, he saw the man who stayed up with him night after night when his dad was dying, and the man who slept on his couch when Maya had left, and he saw his brother. “Man, I don’t want to, but I still do,” Ridge implored. Ridge said he was trying to wrap his head around how Carter could take the company. “It’s more than a company. This is my life, and you stole it from me,” Ridge added. “I’m protecting it,” Carter insisted. Ridge asked if that was what he told himself to sleep at night.

Ridge asked what Carter dreamt about at night and if he dreamt of the beautiful woman who always knew him but only started talking to him when she needed something. “I’ll tell you what a dream about,” Carter seethed. He said he dreamt about taking the company from a couple of bullies who signed a contract without reading it. “How I took power from a man who wouldn’t tell his daughter to stop calling our employees bitches. That’s what I dreamed about, and I sleep well at night, Ridge,” Carter told him.

Ridge said he saw a man who was scared of what he’d become and was afraid that all of it would eat him alive. Ridge reminded Carter that they had a meeting in that very office and decided to cut Hope for the Future. He said Carter agreed with it but then reinstated it after Ridge left. He wanted Carter to reconcile how his business decisions weren’t skewed in Hope’s favor because of his personal feelings for her. Ridge also pointed out that he had stepped down as CEO, and Steffy had asked Carter to run the company with her. He said that would have been the perfect time to rectify what Carter claimed was a toxic atmosphere and implement all of his grand ideas, but he didn’t do it then, either. Ridge wanted to know what had changed.

“I walked into an office and heard your daughter threatening Hope to stay away from Finn,” Carter explained. Ridge agreed Steffy made it personal because she didn’t want Hope sniffing around her husband. “And what did you do? You put your name on paperwork...you stole the company. Is that good leadership?” Ridge queried.

Carter said he was better than Ridge as he didn’t have Charlie escort Steffy out of the building and let her back in. Carter said it wasn’t about ego, but Ridge said he wouldn’t succeed in the long run. Carter suggested Ridge come back, but he said he would never answer to Carter and Hope. “It just kills you to see the jewelry line launch be a success,” Carter sneered. Ridge hollered that the line had nothing to do with Carter.

“Okay, let’s pretend this was your win. Where’s the party? Where’s the balloons and the champagne?” Ridge asked. He pointed out how unhappy everyone was. “It’s an adjustment. They’ll come around,” Carter said. “They won’t,” Ridge told him. He told Carter that the jewelry line was a win and the fragrance line would be, too. “You are good at this. You have great instincts. You just don’t have morals,” Ridge told Carter.

“Your make up as a man, as a friend…is awful. Hope can tell you you’re the hero, but you know who you are,” Ridge told him. He added, “You sold your soul to gain the world, and now all you want to do is turn back time. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Drag me all you want, Ridge. I won’t give the company back,” Carter replied. He said the only thing Hope was guilty of was supporting him. “I supported you!” Ridge snapped. He reminded Carter of all of his promotions right up to COO. He just didn’t like Carter’s idea of turning Forrester into a global luxury brand. “If I’d said yes to that, would we not be here right now?” Ridge asked.

Ridge asked Carter to remember the first thing he ever said to him. “You said I need to start working out if I was going to wear shirts this tight,” Carter remembered fondly. Ridge asked if Carter remembered his comeback. “Says the guy who’s trying to bring mullets back,” Carter laughed. Ridge smiled and said it was classic, and they clicked at that moment.

“I don’t like people. I don’t get on with them. I just don’t. But you…I met you, and I trusted you right away. Why can’t you trust me when I tell you Hope is taking you for a ride?” Ridge asked. He pointed out that Carter always fell in love so fast without seeing the red flags, like with Zoe, Quinn, and Maya. “What Hope and I have is real. I love her,” Carter told him. He said Hope just wanted respect. “She wanted to beat Steffy!” Ridge hollered, “That’s all she ever wanted for years. And now you’re caught up in the middle of it because you champion her.” Ridge added that relationships were beautiful but hard. They should make you a stronger person, not richer and more powerful, Ridge told him. “Is that what Hope did to you? Are you a better person now than when I first met you?” Ridge asked Carter.

Ridge recalled what an awful day it was the day they lost the company. “But losing you? I thought the two of us would be sitting on a park bench together when we were 90, laughing about tight shirts and stupid haircuts,” Ridge said. “Losing you, my best friend in the world…that broke me,” Ridge cried. Welled up with tears, Ridge started to walk out, but Carter stopped him.

“When I thought of the moment that my ideas of taking this company to the next level, of making an impact here, I never thought I’d be doing it without you. Without my brother. I miss our friendship, Ridge. I miss my brother,” Carter told him emotionally. Both men looked at each other, crying. Carter rushed forward and hugged Ridge. He slowly put his hand up and hugged Carter back as Hope opened the door and saw them.

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