Talk is cheap

Los Angeles was full of talk. People tried talking each other into things and out of things. Zende failed to talk Nicole into a barely-there Halloween costume, but Lizzie cooed her way into getting a new sibling out of Auntie Nicole. R.J. talked Ridge into wanting Brooke more than stock, but Brooke would be damned if Ridge talked her out of marrying Bill. To Brooke, Ridge's talk was cheap, but it might cost her a future with Bill. Let's scoop on who's all talk and who's all action this week on the Bold and the Beautiful.

The week kicked off with a corporate and a person revelation from Quinn -- Wyatt would run Forrester, and the Forrester family didn't like Quinn. Duh, Quinn. The week ended with a wedding betrayal in Bill's bedroom. In between the talk and action, Nicole concluded that Zende knows nothing about the feeling of birthing someone else's babies, and instead of being the Bride of Dracula, she preferred to be a human stork this Halloween.

In case you missed it, Zende believed he and Nicole were on the same page about turning Rick and Maya down about a second surrogacy. Nicole led Zende to believe that it was all trips and fun from here on out -- but ixnay on the sexy, because she wasn't into skimpy Halloween costumes or making out all over the Forrester doors, walls, and desks. Sanitizer, please!

As Sasha and Zende waited around for a photo shoot that had been postponed to decorate the backstage area for the Halloween party -- because a Halloween party trumps money-making photo shoots -- Zende wondered what was taking Nicole so long to decline the baby-carrying gig.

Meanwhile in another part of town, Bill was also wondering what took so long to do things -- things like smoothing on lipstick and zipping up dresses. Just like Zende, Bill thought he and his love were on the same page about the future, but Brooke and Nicole allowed the desires of family members to threaten everything that should matter most to the women.

Rick and Maya had promised Nicole that they wouldn't pressure her to accept their second surrogacy request, but they never said Lizzie wouldn't do it. For a second time, Lizzie was paraded in front of Nicole, this time by Maya, who blinked her huge, tear-laced eyes and said it sure would be nice if Nicole would let Maya borrow that uterus one more time.

Zende should have known it wasn't going to go his way the moment Nicole ditched him when Maya called her to meet up. There he was, locking doors and throwing Nicole on the desk, when Nicole's phone chimed. Zende said not to answer it. "But it's Maya's ringtone," Nicole whined. After realizing she was late to play catch-up with her sister, she left Zende all hot, bothered, and a little blue.

Why does Nicole jump for Maya but puts Zende's desires on the back burner? Nicole doesn't want to wear a sexy Halloween costume but drops her boyfriend to drink tea with her sister. I'm all for doing what you want to do; however, she knew all along that she'd accept the surrogacy request, so the least she could do for Zende was wear the damn Dracula's bride costume. But, no. Despite what Zende wants, Nicole just has to be a nurse for Halloween and to give her body over to her sister instead of her boyfriend -- again.

At least Brooke had a little more sense than Nicole when it came to turning down outrageous requests this week, namely Ridge's. She didn't let Ridge's kisses, sad puppy looks, and trips down memory lane sway her into giving up what she and Bill wanted. Bill was enraged, though, that Brooke had even listened to Ridge's pitch. By the same token, should Zende be enraged that Nicole even entertained the second surrogacy request -- let alone has agreed to it?

Zende doesn't know that Nicole changed her mind after getting high on new-baby fumes at Brooke's house with Maya. Does Nicole expect Zende to get why she's doing it again? According to her, no. She said she didn't think men could understand the maternal instinct. Does Thomas ring a bell here? Maternal instinct is one thing -- if you're the acting mother. But how can Nicole feel "maternal" about being bred for Forrester/Avant babies?

I'm with Sasha. The first time, yeah -- Nicole's such a saint. The second time, someone's getting taken advantage of, if you ask me. Would a doctor even advise Nicole to get pregnant six months after giving birth? And what about Nicole? What about her life? When is Nicole going to think about where she wants to be in life and what her own family nucleus will be like? When will she protect the dreams of the man she loves, which is the same thing Bill expected of Brooke.

I'm perplexed at why Nicole even thinks she and Maya have such a tight sibling bond. Sasha and Nicole probably know each other the best and have spent the most time together. While growing up, Nicole barely remembered having an older sibling. Since she and Maya found each other again, the whole relationship has been take, take, take from Maya.

Well, except for the Forrester and Logan accoutrements, but to me, birthing Lizzie evened the score. This time around, Nicole doesn't feel she owes Maya for the lifestyle. Instead, Nicole feels maternally obligated to give Lizzie a sibling.

Siblings are cool, but Nicole should consider the downside to having them for people in the Logan and Forrester families. There is constant, painful competition. She just has to take a look at Brooke and Katie, Liam and Wyatt, Karen and Bill, or Rick and Ridge. And like I asked the other week, will Nicole's sudden maternal instincts become a problem for Maya and Rick this time?

The instincts are definitely a problem for Nicole and Zende. Not only does Zende have to decide if he can wait around for his future again, he also has to cope with Nicole just doing whatever she wants to do with no regard to him. Nicole can't be in a committed relation but make decisions like this based upon herself and Maya. At some point, Zende needs to ask if it's about him and Nicole or Nicole and Maya.

Luckily for Zende, Sasha has a free shoulder to cry on, and though she won't take Thomas from Douglas, she has no problem taking Zende from Nicole. Should Sasha and Zende hook up in light of the fact that Nicole is choosing surrogacy over Zende again? Even better, maybe Zende and Nicole should part ways until she is ready to focus on her own life and relationships instead of Maya's. Wonder how their parents will feel about it.

Contrary to Nicole not focusing on a future Zende, Bill was laser-focused on his with Brooke. He single-handled planned a house wedding. By "single-handed," I'm referring to Alison's hand, of course. Alison planned the whole thing after meeting with Evelyn and even made sure the Stella Maris was sparkly clean for the honeymoon.

Alison remarked that the guest list was modest, but Bill said the wedding would be epic. Did Dollar Bill mean Dollar Store epic? Because that was where those fake flowers, which the Big Brother cast toted in, looked as if they'd come from. Where were the flags, the trumpets, or the quartet? With all the beautiful shots of the mansion between scenes, I even wondered why there wasn't an outdoor wedding on the grounds.

As far as the guests, in attendance were Alison, Donna, Justin, and Wyatt. Yeah, that's it. No Avants, no Rick, no R.J., no Will, and no Liam. Caroline and Douglas weren't even there, and they supposedly live with Bill right now. Rick told Ridge that Rick hadn't gotten an invitation, but Brooke had tried to gauge whether he wanted to go. Instead of inviting people to weddings, the new thing after Eric and Quinn's humiliation must be "feeling out" the guests.

RJ. outright boycotted. Maya conveyed to Nicole that the wedding was "intimate," and she and Rick didn't favor Bill. Really? After all the whining and regret about putting Eric in the hospital over missing his wedding, Maya and Rick decide to let their judgment of Bill determine their attendance at the wedding of Rick's mother? Even after Bill went to their wedding and apologized to them for his news articles?

Even more pitiful, the Forresters seemed to be depending upon Brooke to marry Bill to get the stock, but not one of them saw fit to support her on the wedding day. Not even a good luck phone call or text? Wow.

Actually, Donna and Justin were enough wedding guests for me. Their chemistry filled the entire room. I missed the good old days of having that "Jessica Rabbit" type vixen around, especially when the men get "growly," as she said of Bill. Bill had good reason to be growly. After all the preparations he'd made, Ridge somehow slipped upstairs to have an audience with Bill's bride.

In case you missed it, R.J. finally convinced Ridge to stop the wedding and put their family back together. Before that talk, Ridge believed that the same thing would happen as usual. Brooke would get married, the marriage would fall apart, and if he felt like it or was free, he'd swoop in and scrape the vulnerable Brooke up off the pavement.

Ridge claimed to R.J. that Ridge was respecting Brooke's wishes by not protesting her wedding. R.J. asked his father if the stock was worth losing Brooke forever, and that got Ridge to thinking about Plan B -- "B" as in bust up the wedding.

Ridge decided that he wanted to try again with Brooke more than he wanted the stock or to get Quinn out of their lives. He told Brooke that he just had to hope Eric came to his senses about Quinn. If Ridge implemented this simple solution a long time ago and had taught his daughter to have the same type of respect for people, we wouldn't even be in this plot to begin with!

How is it that Ridge can say to his son that he respects Brooke's wishes to marry a man he detests as much as -- if not more than -- Quinn? Bill, unlike Quinn, actually tried to kill Ridge. Also unlike Quinn, Bill actually completed a hostile takeover of Forrester in the past. Ridge could respect Brooke and R.J. being in a family with that man over Quinn and Eric being together? Really, Ridge?

Instead of her decision to play musical moving boxes at her marriage's expense, why couldn't Steffy save her marriage by letting the relationship with Eric and Quinn play out as Ridge had been willing to do with Bill and Brooke and is now willing to do with Eric and Quinn in order save a chance with Brooke? Oh, I forgot. We're not supposed to tell Wyatt that the real reason she left him was Liam, not Quinn. Shhh....By the way, does Wyatt even know he's getting a divorce yet?

Ridge said he was an idiot, but he'd be a happy idiot if Brooke would be with him. Bill thought Ridge was an idiot, too -- and a bozo and a jerk to have the nerve to show up in Bill's house to derail another wedding. "If I had a helicopter right now..." I'm sure Bill was seething as he watched Brooke and Ridge talking in the bedroom when Brooke should have been with Bill at the altar.

Brooke told Bill that she didn't know why Ridge was professing love to her, and she wasn't plotting to marry Bill just for shares. Oh, Brooke, come on. You know why Ridge said it. You probably put a fire ladder out the window, hoping he'd flatter you with his presence.

It's a game Bridge likes to play. How many weddings of Ridge's has Brooke busted up and vice versa? Taylor wasn't pronounced man and horse for no reason. And whatever happened to that motorcycle Ridge bought off that man so he could chase down Grant and Brooke, who were getting married on a boat? It happened during a game of "wedding chicken" in which Brooke threatened to marry Grant if Ridge married Taylor. So much for "meaning" your vows, Brooke.

Bill should have hired extra security on the grounds or installed laser beams in the hallway, because it's a no-brainer that Ridge knows how to sneak into his former house undetected. Donna sure as heck wasn't any help. For someone who supported the marriage, she rolled over and played double agent pretty easily.

Bill didn't fall for Donna's stall tactics and sent in his own agent. With a nod from Bill, Alison slipped up the back stairs to check on things. When she reported hearing a man's voice in the room with Brooke, Bill's nose flared. Wyatt gets the trait from Dear Old Dad.

"Oh, you are so never getting my stock," was Bill's sentiment about Ridge after Bill found him with Brooke. Ridge didn't care about stock anymore. He was there for Brooke, and he asked Brooke to leave with him. Brooke batted him away like he was an attacking gnat. She declared that she only want to marry Bill and didn't care about the stock, either.

"You think we're gonna get married today?" Bill asked Brooke. Oh, snap!

Bill threw me for a loop with that one. I thought he'd buy Brooke's explanation. No, sir, not today, he didn't. Bill has pride, and he didn't appreciate that he'd been waiting downstairs, thinking Brooke was raiding the drawers for Katie's spare pantyhose when she was really up there, listening to Ridge pitch about being the better pick.

Bill indicated that the Brooke he thought he was marrying should have told Ridge to get lost and smacked him for good measure. Bill couldn't accept that Brooke even thought it was appropriate to listen to a word Ridge had to say.

Now, come on, Bill. This is where we part ways. Bill knows good and well Brooke wouldn't know appropriate if it bit her in the hiney. She's the same woman he had to tell to get out of his bedroom and not to hide under his bed. She's the same woman he had to tell to announce her visits to his and Katie's house. Remember her reply to that? Family doesn't need to do so.

Brooke is also the same woman who will listen to what anybody has to say. In her "fair-mindedness," even the Devil can have a good excuse. Brooke's desire to hear people out and give them another chance is the very reason she and Bill were the bride and groom that day. Otherwise, she never would have forgiven him for dumping Ridge out of the helicopter.

Brooke proved the same thing by letting R.J. delay the wedding so he could feel as if she'd heard him out. She proved it when she stood in the office with Quinn, debating the fairness of Quinn's use of Eric's power of attorney. Brooke is the only one who tried to actually discuss the situation. Everyone else in the room dismissed Quinn and took pot shots at Wyatt because he didn't know his wife was in bed with his brother instead of at the meeting. Yeah, Rick, wasn't so funny when Ridge did it to you, though, was it?

More importantly, Bill knows that Brooke tried to reason with the hallucinating, alcoholic Katie and wanted him to stay with Katie. So it should be no surprise to Bill that Brooke would let Ridge come in there and drivel on about glances across the room and destiny. She'd listen to a brick wall if the person on the other side banged hard enough.

Let's be clear. Ridge wasn't promising Brooke that it would work out. Note that he said he wanted to try to get back what they'd had because he was an idiot and was sorry he hadn't fought for her in the past. Brooke wondered what it would be tomorrow. Ridge said he'd still be an idiot but a happy idiot if he had her. Okay. That was sweet. But along came Bill to remind her of how many times the poet Ridge had forgotten her and left her.

Bill was ready to leave Brooke, too, because he didn't want to be another casualty in the Bridge saga. He marched right downstairs to let everybody know there wouldn't be a wedding. Brooke announced that there would so be one. She didn't put all that weave in her hair for nothing, and she wasn't doing it again in another few months when all of this blew over.

In Brooke's view, if they wanted to be married, they needed to act married and show each other some respect and understanding. Ridge tried to "Logan" her, but Brooke told him to take himself and that "Logan" mess right out the door, because she and Bill didn't want him there.

"Are you sure you two want to do this?" the officiant asked when Bill stomped to the altar with Brooke like a disgruntled altar boy. "Of course. Just let me whip some of this sweetness up on him right quick," was practically Brooke's response as she kissed Bill to lull him into compliance.

The ceremony started, but what will Bill say when asked if he takes Brooke to be his lawfully wedded wife? Brooke gave Bill something to think about, for sure. Her willingness to hear Ridge out and the way she dragged her heels on the wedding because of R.J.'s feelings let Bill know that talk is cheap, and his desires will simmer on the back burner when it comes to her side of the family.

What do you think? Should Bill forgive Brooke for the momentary setback and marry her? Is Ridge going to now respect her choice in marriage, or do he and R.J. have more shenanigans up their sleeves in their bid to reunite their family?

How will the wedding fallout affect the power struggle at Forrester? This is probably another wedding the family will wish they'd attended, so that they could have held Ridge down and knocked some sense into him before he destroyed not only his chance at destiny with Brooke but also of any hope to get the stock back from Bill.

I would have enjoyed seeing Thomas and Steffy on walkie-talkies while guarding secret entryways to the house that they'd discovered while sneaking in and out as kids. It would have given a point to the thriller music and dramatic, flash-action cinematics from the wedding day.

What was up with that? We viewed whiplash cut scenes of Zende and Nicole making out. There was even one of Maya and Nicole making tea faster than Dracula himself can move. Here's a little something a sibling relationship is good for. Let's imagine that same thriller music set to Steffy and Thomas, dressed to kill, slinking around their old mansion, securing it from a Ridge wedding invasion.

"Trash shoot secured? Over," Steffy says. Insert flash-action cut scenes of Thomas locking it down. "The lattice leading to the guest bedroom? Over." Insert flash-action of him knocking it down and removing the fire ladder Brooke put out the window. "Done. Neutralized Brooke's Bridge ladder, too. Over," Thomas says. Steffy sees Ridge walk in the front door and says, "Oopsie...He walked right in the front door. Dad's got some balls for that one. Over." Cut to flash-action scenes of Justin and Donna making out in the closet just for the hell of it. Over.

When Eric and Quinn hooked up, I was for sure Deacon would be the "best friend" who visited way too often, and he'd end up coming between the new couple. Boy, was I wrong. Quinn kicked him to a curb that must be located in another country. In comparison, will Ridge be a cling-on in Brill's marriage?

Before this week, Bill had already decreed that Brooke couldn't work at Forrester. If Bill and Brooke do jump the broom, how will Bill handle the Bridge relationship? Yeah, Brooke's mad at Ridge now, but she'll be back to making him turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving. I suspect that growly Bill will learn to scoot over and share his kitchen counter space.

With no hope of getting Bill's shares, Ridge either has to work with Quinn and Wyatt or to quit Forrester. In addition, Ridge will have some explaining to do to R.J. -- and to Eric. Don't think Wyatt won't tell Quinn and Eric about the stock deal that blew up at the wedding.

I'm sure Rick will find the outcome utterly amusing, and when Steffy finally surfaces from under Liam's covers, her head will explode over it. What does it mean for the future of Forrester now that Ridge managed to alienate stockholders with a combined fifty percent of the stock?

Ridge probably ought to save face and forgo the Halloween party this year -- unless he wants to constantly get asked, "What are you dressed as? Bozo the Loser?" Caroline and Thomas are going in matching costumes, anyway, something Ridge -- and probably no one else -- wants to see at this point.

In other tidbits from the week, Justin gave Bill a Brooke's Bedroom promo of Brooke as a wedding gift. Bill was shocked that Justin had found it. I wasn't. It's an ad. Spencer runs ads. There are probably fifty more of them in Spencer's basement.

The line of the week went to surly Bill. Alison told him that he had no idea what it took for a bride to get prepared. "And neither do you," he quipped. Justin came in a close second when he told the wedding guests, "Bill knows he can count on me to help Ridge cool off if it comes to it." The blood drained from Donna's face, and I think she lost any thought she might have had about giving Justin a post-wedding quickie in the closet.

Let us know what you think about Nicole and Brooke talking a good game this week but failing to take the actions their men expected of them. How do you feel about Ridge taking action but losing everything he'd worked for by accepting love advice from a teenager?

Until we scoop again, remember that talk is cheap, but the L.A. action is always bold and beautiful, baby!

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