Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you go full steam ahead on a plan even though it wasn't scents-ible? Did you take a stab at confirming your long-held suspicions? Did your not being a father cause a son-rise? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton-Finnegan-Nozawa clan this week!
Li thought she had the ace in the hole on The Bold and the Beautiful
Look at the cards we've been dealt, Scoopers! Steffy's doubling down on her plan to have Daphne seduce Carter away from Hope, but it isn't very well thought out. Meanwhile, Bill revealed nuggets from his childhood, and we finally heard for ourselves why Li has hated Poppy for so long. Luna's paternity also came up again for some reason, but Jack not being her daddy could mean the truth is Finn-tastic. Let's Scoop about it!
Diamonds are a girl's best friend
Steffy was cocky, certain that using Daphne to break up Hope and Carter would result in Steffy retaking Forrester Creations from Carter. OK, yeah, but...how? As I mentioned in my last column, Hope dumping Carter does not at all mean that Carter will suddenly decide he doesn't want to run the company anymore. This is all based on Steffy's rationale that Hope called the shots, but that rationale is flawed.
It was Carter who came up with the LLC idea, based on the fact that Steffy, Ridge, and Eric rejected his idea to expand into mergers and acquisitions. Sure, Hope for the Future being cut factored into it, but even if there had been no Hope, Carter still would have felt sidelined enough that he probably would have made a takeover move anyway.
So even if Daphne and her scented scarves succeed in luring Carter away from Hope, there's little guarantee that Steffy could win the design house back that way. It's only because Steffy believes that Hope pulled the strings that Steffy thinks her plan will work. It won't, but I guess that's going to be the fun of watching it not work. And subtlety is not in Daphne's wheelhouse, is it? She came on so strong with Carter that her scarf should have turned into a red flag.
Another component of Steffy's scheme has been to go back to work at Forrester, seemingly so she can be at the ready when Carter decides to hand the reins back over to her. But that doesn't really make “scents”, either. And what happened to Zende playing double agent for his adoptive family? Not to mention, where did R.J. disappear to? He would be smack in the middle of this battle between his half-sisters.
Finally, there's the supposed seduction itself, precipitated by the notion that Carter and Daphne will be spending long hours collaborating on perfumes for Forrester. But will they? When Y&R's Ashley Abbott crossed over to create the same in 2007, she and Eric weren't locked away endlessly in her lab. Plus, as a former co-CEO, Steffy should know that Carter is way too busy to do anything other than have Daphne come to him with samples for him to sniff and approve or disapprove.
Hope was super stoked about Daphne coming on board...and gushed to Steffy about it? Why is Hope even talking to Steffy? Liam's other baby mama only had Hope shame-walk out of the company after pulling HFTF. You'd think Hope would be keeping her distance, to say nothing of being completely suspicious about Steffy returning in the first place. Are there mind control fumes in Daphne's perfume à la Stefano DiMera on DAYS?
Calling a spade a spade
Heaven and earth also had to be moved to plant Luna in Bill's house. Okay, let's go with Bill being able to tap enough of his resources to have Luna transferred from prison to his mansion. It's a soap; sure. But this only works if no one goes to visit Luna in that prison. Granted, the only visitor Luna would have would be Poppy, but what happens when Poppy goes to the jail only to find that Luna isn't there?
At least Bill isn't falling into some romantic trap of Luna's, which I'd been afraid would happen from the moment Bill even started entertaining Luna's letters. Bill has held fast in reminding Luna that he's not her father and that what she did to Tom and Hollis and Poppy was so beyond wrong. For Luna's part, she amazingly has made no moves on Bill. Of course, we know she has another target now.
It was seemingly affirmed this week that Luna's house arrest basically means Bill is stuck to the house, too. He had to have known any long-term absence from Spencer Publications would raise eyebrows, which it did when Liam (remember him?) showed up and inquired into that very absence. Bill made up some work-from-home excuse, but Liam wasn't buying it. Liam wondered why Bill was suddenly isolating himself.
I don't think Bill thought past getting Luna out of the klink, or he would have foreseen being asked these questions. His having put everyone on alert by holing up with Sheila two years ago makes his actions dubious in terms of his family as well. Will had shared his concerns with Liam, which was why Liam showed up on Bill's suddenly locked doorstep. Liam, it's L.A.; even in Bel Air, you still gotta dead those bolts.
Luna's new job has been to watch Bill's relatives from her hiding place on the stairwell. Wouldn't it be funny if Luna also set her sights on Liam and not just Will? They're both Bill's sons, and Liam is actually single. It shouldn't matter to Luna which of Bill's boys she aims at! Good thing Wyatt peaced out of La-La last year, or he could get caught up in this scenario himself.
Maybe having Taylor as a mother-in-law every couple of years gave Liam a crash course in psychology, because he conjectured that Bill was avoiding everyone following his bad experiences with Poppy and Luna. Why would Bill be doing that now, and not months before, right after Luna's deception and Bill's separation from Poppy? Delayed reaction?
Again, based on Bill harboring Sheila in 2023, Bill's similar and elusive change in behavior should be pinging on Liam's radar. I guess Liam's “Spencey senses” must be working on some level, though, as he could still feel Luna's energy in the house. Liam proposed that Bill visit Luna in prison (har har) so Bill could attempt some closure, which was actually a solid suggestion.
You're all heart
Once Liam was gone, Luna ventured out from hiding and again told Bill she didn't recognize herself as the person who had soullessly poisoned Tom and Hollis. Yeah, keep laying that on, Luna. We know you're lying like a rug. Especially because B&B insists on having you say it over and over. Myself, I'll reiterate that I'm glad that Bill isn't being swayed by Luna's mea culpas. He keeps holding Luna to account.
We did get some tasty tidbits about Bill's childhood, an aspect of his life that has never really been explored in Don Diamont's nearly 16 years on the show. Bill relayed that life with his mother had been “chaotic” at best. How I'd love to see this reenacted with a soap vet playing Mama Bill in flashbacks. Or bring his present day mom in for a few episodes. Maybe played by Susan Lucci! Can't you just see it?
Bill also confided that he hadn't known who his dad was until he was older (maybe that's why he ended up not knowing he'd fathered Wyatt and Liam until they were grown up), adding that Bill Sr. had treated people like trash. Somewhat debatable, but I'll take it. We also found out that Sr. had manipulated Bill into joining Spencer! Who knew? It always seems like Bill was born behind that desk; finding out otherwise was intensely fascinating!
One thing that irked me, however, and I'll admit for personal reasons, was Bill declaring that what Luna went through as a kid was heinous. Now, it's true: everyone's trauma is their own, and it's not up to anyone else to define their experiences or tell someone how to feel about them. But dude. Luna grew up with a flaky, sleep-around mom and didn't know who her father was. An unstable childhood? Yes. But heinous?
If I were Bill, I'd be more concerned about Luna admitting that she had only wanted to find a “kind, successful” father. Why did a pop have to be successful? Luna gave herself away a bit there. But now we know why she was so disgusted that scruffy, homeless Tom turned out to be her dad. Luna told Bill that she just couldn't see any of Tom in her, not in personality or resemblance. Could somebody else have fathered her after all?
Join the club
Pretty much all of the week was centered around that very contingency. Which leads me to ask, why are we on this again? The mystery of Luna's father has been part of her character ever since she debuted in September 2023, and it seemed like it was finally solved last summer. For that matter, I still have trouble with Luna being back at all. Usually, homicidal characters (except a legacy one like Sheila) are killed off or shipped to prison, never to be heard from again.
But it seems the show decided there was still gas in the tank of Luna's paternity saga, so here we go with its next phase. Case in point: Steffy, who suddenly understood why she had fallen for Liam, a man with a divided heart, after growing up with a father with a divided heart (nice touch), just as suddenly wondered if Finn's parents would ever reunite.
Finn replied that there was still a lot he hadn't processed about his parents' divorce. Yeah, I guess getting shot, being held prisoner, having your psycho biomom released from jail, soaking your hand in your dead mom's blood, then encouraging your wife's sometime stepsister with massages and getting all indignant when that sometime stepsister came on to you all count as distractions. Let's be fair.
Finn had to wonder if his adoptive-dad-turned-real-dad had cheated on Li with other women besides Sheila. And wouldn't you know...at that very moment, Li was posing the very same question, accusing Poppy of getting jacked up by Jack. After all, the DNA test Li had run between Luna's blood and Tom's liver, which was still lying around for some reason, had come up negative!
Either I missed how Li happened to have a tube of Luna's blood, or I've already forgotten why that is. Whatever, I'll go with it. (Tom's liver is another story; as a substance abuser, wouldn't any internal organ of his be too damaged for donation?) Li ranted and raved to Poppy about Jack being another of Poppy's conquests and fathering Luna instead, but soon Li had another audience member in the form of Jack, whom Li had summoned.
And here Jack had thought Li had called because she'd mellowed out and wanted to reconnect with him. Surely Jack didn't think Li wanted a reconciliation, as Steffy had envisioned earlier? B&B really ought to keep Jack around. I'd love to see him with Taylor. Hell, Taylor already had a father named Jack and a son named Jack (he needs to come back, grown up and with an ax to grind for being abandoned by his mothers), so it wouldn't be anything Taylor isn't used to.
Well, reality smacked Jack like a liver in the face. “Same old paranoid Li,” he grumbled when he realized his ex-wife had brought him to the hospital for the express purpose of accusing him of popping Poppy. Jack felt bad that Poppy was still having to endure Li's tirades! I'm pretty sure this was the first time that Jack and Poppy shared a scene together, so that was a cool way of tying them together in a shared history.
No matter how many times Jack and Poppy denied ever having sex, Li wouldn't believe it. Jack reminded Li that she wasn't the only one who'd had a career that entailed being away from home more than not; he'd been up to his eyeballs with his law firm. (Wasn't he a doctor when he was first introduced?) Li wasn't having any excuses and demanded that Jack submit to a DNA test of his own.
Dunno much about phlebotomy (sorry, Sam Cooke), but I think it doesn't involve stabbing the patient in the arm with a specimen needle! Oops, did Li miss the vein? Stabbity-stab-stab! Li impaled Jack a second time! Well, it was “bold,” if nothing else. Li was sooooo overbearing. How the hospital's chief of staff hasn't flagged her for anger management classes, I'll never know.
Li was sure that Jack was Luna's father. She was sure of it! Until...she wasn't! The test conducted to detect biological markers between her niece and ex-husband also came up negative. And then...Li burst into tears! She apologized profusely to Poppy – and Jack! – and swore she would spend the rest of her life making it up to Poppy for her lifelong hostility. “What kind of sister does what I did to you?” Li wailed.
Wow! That was one helluva jump. It was so extreme, Li almost came off as bipolar to me (no offense to anyone dealing with that condition IRL). I would have bought it more if Li had nearly wordlessly sent Jack and Poppy on their way, then, in a week or two, visited them to say these things in a less histrionic fashion. But ya know, drama. Li even inferred that if she had been a better sister to Poppy, Luna might not have killed Tom and Hollis.
Now that's a bit of a stretch. (Besides, I liked how Li jiu jitsued Luna to keep Luna from getting away after imprisoning Steffy.) Nevertheless, I think we now know why Li has hated Poppy with such venom all this time – she thought Poppy had had an affair with Jack. And that's reasonable; Li even said she had picked up on strong shame coming from Poppy the year that Poppy was living with the Finnegans.
I think, though, that with the revelation that Jack can't be Luna's father, it's clear that the shame Li sensed in Poppy – and Li's hatred of Poppy – came from somewhere else. Let's not forget, the clue was dropped last March that Finn might be Luna's father. Poppy wanted Finn to be a strong male presence in Luna's life and had told Finn that Luna was conceived in love.
Ever since, many of us have thought that Finn wasn't Luna's cousin after all, but her dad – and, as of now anyway, those thoughts seem to have been substantiated. Because, if Bill isn't Luna's father, and Tom isn't, and now Jack isn't, who does that leave? Finn was the only one we know of who was in close proximity to Poppy, plus Li and Jack weren't home most of the time, leaving Poppy and Finn alone together.
Why Finn wouldn't remember having sex with Poppy isn't clear (though for real, he's not the sharpest scalpel in the operating room), but it is more and more likely that they did the deed. Some of you have said Finn and Luna's ages don't add up, but it could still work: while we know Luna is 21 now, Finn could be in his late 30s easily. He could have been 18 while Poppy lived with his fam. Hell, Finn could have been 17! Underaged people have affairs with older people all the time!
Poppy having slept with Finn would add definite weight to how much Li has always loathed Poppy, and it lends credibility to Luna's murderous tendencies as well. Because, if Finn is Luna's father...then Sheila is Luna's grandmother! And wouldn't Steffy just go nuts to find out her husband is related to the two women who attacked her so viciously? I'm here for it. And it would make dopey Finn far more intriguing as a character. Let's do it!
What did you think of Father's Day in January, Scoopers? Do you agree or disagree with the possibility that Finn could have fathered Luna? Would you like to see Jack stick around and romance a Forrester or Logan lady? Would it matter to Luna which Spencer man she got with, as long as it was a Spencer man? Did you find that the details of Bill's childhood and young adult life fleshed out his character more? And do you think that Steffy's plan to regain control of Forrester Creations by busting up Hope and Carter could work? Comment all you like below!
We are officially less than one month out to the debut of Beyond the Gates, which premieres alongside CBS' daytime lineup February 24. Why go in blind when we've broken down its characters and info about the actors in our new Beyond the Gates section? We even covered CBS News Sunday Morning's segment that took us behind the scenes of the developing show. Get in the know and be a part of the celebration of the first new soap of the 21st century!
Well, the tale of Luna's paternity continues next week, coinciding with Finn and Steffy's anniversary. Except they got married in August! Are the Finnegans relying solely on AI to tell them when to commemorate their milestones? Meh, whatever – send them the traditional fourth-anniversary gift of fruit or flowers anyway, then keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember – as it unfortunately once again behooves me to remind y'all, given the old-is-new regime that's back to sow division and hatred among us – no matter color, creed, heritage, religion, gender identity, or orientation, we're all beautiful.
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