Beth's Death: Placental abruption or baby abduction?

Hope and Liam's babymoon turned into mourning gloom when Beth didn't survive her delivery. Hope's doctor is a money-hungry OB/GYN with a debt to pay and daughter to protect, so one has to wonder if Beth succumbed to placental abruption or baby abduction this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.

Happy New Year! Well, not for the Logans, Spencers, and Forresters. For them, the Champagne just fizzled out along with the promise of a new baby in the family. Hope and Liam's dreams of raising a daughter together got swept away with the Santa Ana winds this week when Dr. Buckingham claimed that Beth died in childbirth due to placental abruption.

What the heck is placental abruption? According to "Google University," placental abruption is when the placenta separates from the inner wall of the womb at any point in a pregnancy. It can cause heavy bleeding and back and abdominal pain. The condition deprives the baby of oxygen and nutrients and, if the tear is severe enough, can cause death for the mother and/or child.

If it sounds fishy to you that Hope would suddenly develop a condition like this to such a degree as death without Dr. Phillips catching it or without Dr. Buckingham seeing it on an ultrasound and deciding to do a C-section, cast your rods with me. We're about to fish in the deep end of conspiracy theories about possible corpse stealing and baby abductions on Catalina Island.

Y'all know I suck at predictions, but something doesn't add up with Reese, the patient that he discharged from the clinic, and Beth's sudden bout of placental abruption. Hope didn't trust Reese's bedside manner, and I didn't, either. After all, what OB/GYN releases a patient in the middle of a windstorm with island-wide power outages and closed roadways? An OB/GYN who is up to no damn good, if you ask me.

Is Reese Buckingham telling the truth about how baby Beth died? Or is it possible that, to stop his own daughter's abduction, Reese pulled off an abduction of his own? Let's get two scoops deep into how two patients' losses could be Dr. Buckingham's gain this week on the Bold and the Beautiful.

Did anyone else thank God when Nathan finally rushed into the helicopter terminal and rescued Liam from Kieran and Matt? Nathan is one of Bill's standby pilots, who gambled on an opening in the wind patterns and took Liam to Catalina via the Spencer chopper. While Liam was on the bumpiest ride of his life, Hope checked herself into a clinic on the island. It was a clinic with only one doctor and no attending nurse due to road closures during the windstorm.

Sounds like the start of a Scooby-Doo mystery, doesn't it? "Fred" finally got "Shaggy" and "Daphne" a helicopter out of Los Angeles, and the gang will soon meet up at the clinic to solve the mystery of the placenta abruption on Catalina Island. In case you don't know how Scooby mysteries wind up, be advised that the only other character in the plot who isn't in the gang is usually the culprit. In this plot, that character is Reese Buckingham.

Hope thought Dr. Buckingham was nice and all, but she didn't like how distracted he seemed while she was belly-deep in labor. She was uneasy because she'd expected to give birth in the comforting arms of her husband as Dr. Phillips sat on the receiving end, coaching her through delivery. Instead, Hope had a text-preoccupied Dr. Buckingham ducking in and out of her backup-generator-powered room.

Reese didn't scrub up. He didn't get the boiling water -- none of it. He just stood there, reading his phone, occasionally stroking Hope's back and promising her that he knew what he was doing. How about checking between Hope's legs for blood, Reese? Doesn't a placental abruption come with heavy vaginal bleeding?

Hope should have stayed at the hotel and put Dr. Phillips on speakerphone for all the good Buckingham was doing. If she couldn't get the doctor, then Brooke could have coached her daughter through it. Even a YouTube DIY birth video would have been better than Reese.

Texts weren't the only things Reese was attending to that night at the clinic. He had another patient, a meek and mousy blonde whom he sent out the side door in the middle of the storm. Before releasing her, he tried to reassure her that "it" hadn't been her fault.

What hadn't been her fault? A missed period? A yeast infection? An STD? A botched vagina lift? If Reese is an OB/GYN (a fact I dispute after his performance on the island), there are only so many conditions his patient could have. There are even fewer conditions devastating enough to compel him to tell her that it wasn't her fault -- either a miscarriage or a stillborn baby.

"Be careful out there," Reese told the woman before she dragged herself out the door. Reese might be charming to Taylor and Zoe, but his bedside manner needs a facelift. To be fair, though, he had just received a text from his debt collectors that said they'd take Zoe if they couldn't get their $200,000.

Reese. Come on, dude. You know Zoe is more vicious than an angry cat if you pet her the wrong way. Just ask her stalking victim, Emma. Go ahead and let the debt collector nab her if he dares. In no time, he'll be willing to pay you to pry Zoe's claws out of him.

Back in L.A., Brooke was stressing out and crying about Hope being alone with only a doctor and a generator while in delivery. With the way Brooke blubbered on, you'd think Hope was lost in the jungle. The situation had to be serious because Bill and Ridge got along, and neither got jealous when the other comforted Brooke. Not only did the men refrain from exchanging insults or punches, but Ridge also agreed to fly in the helicopter Bill eventually procured for them. Bill claims he's a changed man, but you better buckle up, Ridge. You better buckle up.

Annika Noelle busted out some seriously poignant and palpable scenes. Her guttural moaning during the labor and after the birth ripped right through me. I shed tears as she cried, "She needs her mommy. She needs her mommy." When Noelle held Hope's stillborn baby and wailed, she finally became Hope Logan to me. Congratulations, Noelle, on your heart-wrenching performances.

As I stated before, Reese claimed that Hope had suffered a placental abruption, but according to Google, it has to be a severe ripping of the lining to cause the stillbirth. Though her labor pains were monstrous, Hope didn't complain about bleeding, which should accompany the condition. Once home, Liam and Hope need to have plenty of questions for Dr. Phillips. The questioning could lead them to discover what happened to Beth while Hope was passed out.

Something tells me that the stillborn child belongs to the other patient that Dr. Buckingham sent off into the night. If I'm right, Reese has a lot of explaining to do, and no one is going to accept, "I'm sorry. My bad. I got my blondes mixed up," for an answer.

Ever since Reese got googly eyes for Taylor, I've suspected that he would do something to Hope and her baby in the name of love. At first, I had an inkling that Reese might somehow make Hope miscarry; however, when Taylor shared Steffy's adoption plans with Reese, I started to think Reese might do something to Hope and Beth in the name of money.

It seemed random that Steffy would become so insistent that Kelly have herself a Phoebe. The thought of it never came up during her pregnancy, and she hadn't even thought about it when she'd carried Nicole. But now Steffy is obsessed with it, even if it means adopting a daughter.

Reese told Taylor that adoption is a long and expensive process. He perked up when Taylor readily said that money was no object. If Reese can produce a baby right away for the right price, he can save his own hide and his daughter's, too. Taylor's crazy enough to buy a baby with no questions asked, but is Reese, the OB/GYN, audacious enough to sell babies while his patients mysteriously lose their children in childbirth?

As it stands, Hope has lost Beth under mysterious circumstances, and the clinic just might come up one infant corpse short if the other blonde returns for her child's remains. If that blonde did indeed have a stillborn girl, that is. We still don't know what the woman was treated for.

If Reese did indeed abduct Beth to offer her for sale to Taylor, it would set the stage for another baby-bonding crisis like the one Taylor had with Jack. If you recall, Taylor was artificially inseminated with Brooke's egg and Nick's sperm -- except Taylor thought it was her own egg. Upon finally learning that she was carrying Brooke's baby, Taylor was unable to bond with Jack. She virtually abandoned him. Where is Jack now? Who knows? Brooke forgot about him.

If Steffy adopts and breastfeeds Hope's daughter, will Hope be unable to bond with Beth? It could be that Hope becomes cold to the child as Taylor did with Jack. It could also be possible that Beth will become so used to Steffy that she rejects Hope, her birth mother.

My heart breaks for Hope because she has already seen much adversity in her life. She had to overcome her mother being the SFTV. She had to live through the shame of her mother conceiving her with her sister's husband. As a young adult, Hope had to put up with Steffy bullying her and going after her boyfriends.

Hope had to suck it up when Liam married Steffy because Hope wasn't ready to give up her virginity. As a result, Hope became addicted to pills to cope with sexual anxiety. While married to Wyatt, Hope lost her first child. It was that miscarriage, not any love lost between her and Liam, that drove Hope out of the country for years. She returned to L.A. only to lose yet another baby.

It's hard to fathom that a setback such as this would not make Hope bitter and resentful of Steffy and Kelly. Hope will put on a brave front, but it will mar her inside to see Liam rejoice with Steffy over the daughter he still has. Hope will feel empty and barren, but Liam has Kelly to keep him going. Hope has already questioned Liam's devotion to her. It stands to reason that, without a child between them, Hope will feel as if she is preventing Liam from having a family with Kelly.

With Beth gone, Taylor and Ridge will probably start campaigning for Liam to be with the mother of his child instead of Hope. We all know what happens when the Weebles start to wobble the waffler. Liam becomes confused, Hope usually walks away, and Steffy is right there waiting for him because sloppy seconds are her style. Or is this "sloppy sevenths" at this point?

Grab your tissue boxes because, next week, the unhappy new year continues as Liam and Hope's families learn about Beth's death. Steffy vows to help Hope through the tragedy, but how can Steffy do that if the dangerous and crazy Taylor is still around?

As shocking as it might sound, Taylor and Brooke engage in a ceasefire in order to support their daughters. If Ridge and Bill can do it for Beth's sake, then I guess anyone can. Don't expect it to last with Bill and Ridge. Bill will probably go right back to telling Brooke that everything he does is for her and that she needs to drop that dressmaker for the money raker.

According to other spoilers, Liam, Ridge, and Bill demand answers from Reese. Zoe continues to worry about her father and his strange behavior. Reese's debt collector hurls more threats at Reese, and Reese claims to want to express his feelings for Taylor.

Let us know what you think. Is Elizabeth Avalon Spencer really gone, or will she soon be alternating feeding times with her half-sister, Kelly? Can Liam and Hope's marriage survive the stillbirth, or will the loss of Beth be Kelly and Steffy's gain? Could the adoption bug bite Hope, causing her to buy her own baby from Reese?

Maybe I'm completely wrong about Reese. Maybe after watching 8,000 episodes of B&B, I suffer from a grossly dramafied imagination. As Reese said of the other blonde patient, it isn't my fault. I blame it on B&B's dedicated writers, directors, and producers.

Friday marked an important episodic milestone in the soap opera's 31-year legacy. Congratulations to the cast and crew of the Bold and the Beautiful for 8,000 shows! Each and every one has been bold and beautiful, baby!

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