The Phantom of the Soap Opera: The Bold and the Beautiful Two Scoops for the week of January 13th

It's time for The Bold and the Beautiful and the week that was. What’s got me excited? Li’s discovering Lunas' parentage...and that's kinda it.

The Bold and the Beautiful: We have Tridge back, but let’s not talk about it

I wish The Bold and the Beautiful would steer away from the Taylor and Ridge thing, and from what you've told me, I don't think I'm the only one. Brooke did the usual and strolled on into Steffy’s house to confront Taylor. Why did she knock at Eric’s for the first time in her life but waltz into Steffy’s as if she’d even be invited? Anyway, she told Taylor that she’d stabbed her in the back — seriously? Were they besties a few minutes prior? Give it up with the same tired arguments, Brooke. There was plenty of time for her to let someone in the family know what she was trying to do to get Forrester Creations back for Eric and Ridge. Instead, she kept it to herself and made it look exactly like what she’d done. She can't honestly look at what happened and expect any outcome different from what transpired. And whether that was intended — and it is really hard to know if it wasn’t — the fact remains she acted, Ridge reacted, and we have what we have. And what we have is the most predictable thing ever: Ridge immediately went back to Taylor. Brooke being upset by this is equivalent to when Taylor inevitably cries foul when he returns to Brooke. Anyone want to lay down bets when that will be?

The Phantom of the Soap Opera

Remy stalking and being a creeper to Electra was a story I felt could have been extended. The Bold and the Beautiful could have made Remy more menacing and devious, and they could have played it out a little longer before Electra discovered it was him. Or they could have at least shown him getting arrested. If you blinked, you missed the finale of that whole storyline…assuming it’s over now that Electa suddenly found the ability to tell people about her hometown drama.

We needed another “watching and waiting to strike” type of arc on The Bold and the Beautiful, and so I present to you Luna…tick (See what I did there?!) the box if you want to see her tear up the Spencers and Forresters! I know I've said it before, but how on earth did a double-murdering, kidnapping, pathologically lying young lady EVER get remanded on house arrest? I shall digress. Luna sits at the top of the stairs or hides away upstairs whenever there is company at the Spencer mansion. If she were down in the basement, hidden away, I'd say she was a mask away from being the phantom of the soap opera.

I thought Bill was going soft in the heart (and the head) by having Luna at his house. What possible good could come from this? If he wants her to reform, I think his best bet is to contact Dr. Emmett Brown and see if he can fire up his DeLorean to the flux capacitor — it's not happening in this timeline. I was pleasantly surprised that Bill did not go easy on Luna. He’s questioned why she killed Tom and the other things she has done. And he wanted to know how she did it all, too. But what most impressed me is that he hasn't given her one ounce of wiggle room to try and weasel her way into getting another smooch on the couch or that he’s doing any of this for anything other than wanting to help her reform. Which means, in some odd way, Bill’s trying to do good. But he still channeled his inner Darth Vader and laid it on thick with the “I'm not your father” and “You killed Tom, the only father you will have.”

Bill told her if she had any ideas about being a Spencer, think again. It wasn't going to happen, this is The Bold and the Beautiful Bill , remember that. But Luna was looking at a photo of Will and thinking to herself, “Think again, Bill.” So it looks like Will is the lucky recipient of Luna’s attention, and she could be on her way to slithering back into the Spencer family. Good luck on that one, Luna, but it could be fun to watch as she tries. Once Liam told Will that their dad was spending an unusual amount of time working from home, he came to check on him, and the usually unflappable Dollar Bill got Luna to run away and hide upstairs.

“The Phantom” grinned as she listened to their conversations. Bill will need to come up with some proper excuses soon, though. You know Will isn’t as dumb as he looks. Ok, maybe he is. We’ll know better if he falls for Luna.

Meanwhile, Will's keying into that Bill's reasoning for being at home instead of the office doesn't make sense, and he knows his dad better than that. I can hear the gears spinning and the smoke accumulating as his brain goes into overdrive, trying to figure out what Bill’s hiding.

We’ll hang in there with you, Will. We have faith in you. No, not really, but he has to get there. Daddy doesn't want you hanging around the house and coming by unannounced. What’s at the house that you aren't supposed to see, Will? Keep digging away, young Sherlock. For entertainment, I often find myself rooting for the villains (Disclaimer: this does not apply to Carter and Hope). I want to see the carnage as Luna first tries to lure Will into her underground lair (okay, so it’s not underground, and she doesn't have a lair) and threaten Electra or remove her entirely. See? She IS the Phantom. If that chandelier comes crashing down, remember you heard it here first.

Where is this headed once Luna finds out about her actual Finnegan lineage? As I'm about to dive into next, she might have another target as she tries to become recognized as a Forrester. What? A Forrester? Yes! And here's how…

Where the Wild Things Are

So, this is the storyline that’s getting my attention this week on The Bold and the Beautiful, Li, with the help of her trusty lab technician, April, has been running a paternity test. The not-so-recently deceased Tom Starr’s liver was still taking up space in the hospital, and conveniently, the hospital still had Luna’s blood sample tucked away for no apparent reason.

Li was finally going to get answers to the one question she wanted answered: Who was Luna's father? Li had suspicions but needed the proof before she went full kaiju mode on her sister Poppy. The resulting paternity test is very clear. Neither Tom Starr nor Bill Spencer is Lunas’ father. Nozawa power! Li solved a mystery! Well kinda. She more unsolved a mystery but had more questions.

If we roll open the parchments of history, we know that Poppy had an affair with a doctor at the hospital where Li worked. This affair brought shame upon the family and was one of the strongest reasons Li despised her sister. That and Poppy being a bad mother, yada, yada. Li now suspects (or knows in her heart) that Poppy also had an affair with Li’s husband, Jack Finnegan. This shouldn't surprise the astute viewer of The Bold and the Beautiful as Jack's affair with Sheila gave us Finn, and that secret was buried for many years. The Bold and the Beautiful is on the brink of another bombshell retrofit of character history, but we must wait until next week to see it. What we do know is that Jack Finnegan is coming to L.A. everything (read: Li) explodes. Bring. It. On.

The cunning Steffy and her plan

The last thing I want to talk about here is Steffy and her plan to get FC back into the hands of her father and Eric. Bringing down Carter and Hope from the inside, crumbling the empire from within, what's not to like? Then The Bold and the Beautiful introduced Daphne Rose, the most exalted nose in Paris. I know she’ll get the job done, but I will struggle to believe what I'm seeing, and I'm sure we’ll be talking more about it next week.

Not one moment on screen with this lady is believable. From the grand entrances to her over-the-top mannerisms, she definitely makes a presence. But let’s face it. No one will ever do the dramatic overtures like the O.G. Sally Spectra. Daphne Rose needs to either stick to the French allure or go visit Ms. Spectra on her European yacht and get some lessons on making the unbelievable believable. Maybe it’s the way she seems to purr her flirtatious remarks, but she acts like a cat with a strawberry-flavored bum. I know Carter will fall for her, but he fell for Hope, too, so…yeah.

Steffy introduced “The Nose of Paris” to Ridge this week and said she was a good friend and no man could resist her, including Carter Walton. Ridge smiled as he now understood exactly what his daughter was up to. I wish Daphne was more like Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. I do. That would be believable. And then I could buy into this storyline, but alas, we’ve got what we have, and I will have to grin and bear it until this storyline winds up. Eric and the rest are curious about what Steffy has planned and ask lots of questions, but she’s keeping her cards close to the chest for a good reason. All it takes is one set of loose lips, and the plan is a bust. How often does that happen on The Bold and the Beautiful?

Anyway, next week on The Bold and the Beautiful should prove to be exciting as there's much to look forward to on our favorite soap: Hope tells Steffy they are partnering with “The Nose,” Daphne flirts with Carter, Jack Finnegan returns, and Li demands answers from him. Stay tuned, soap fans.

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Watch full episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful weekdays on CBS or stream on Paramount Plus.