Fall guys

Flo and Thomas both got a taste of justice this week for keeping Beth from Hope. But Flo was left to pick up Reese's pieces while predictions of Thomas going over the edge came true in an unexpected way! Take the plunge with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you take the full blame for a crime you were "just" an accomplice to? Did you show some luv to someone you used to torment? Was your favorite '80s jam I'll Tumble 4 Ya? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Fulton clan this week!

Ready for an early fall, Scoopers? It was quite the suspenseful week, with intriguing shots and sequences. We found out Flo was into handcuffs and that there might be #JusticeForEmma, after all -- not to mention, we skirted closer to a child abuse scene than B&B ever has before. Well, Thomas literally fell for it -- and I think I might know what's had him acting so nutty these past months. Analyze this! Let's Scoop about it!

A HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL

So, if you were hated by an entire family for keeping quiet about a stolen baby and said family had pocketed your driver's license so you couldn't bolt town, what would you do? Why, go to said family's house and try to get them to forgive you, of course. What were Flo and Shauna thinking? They were lucky enough they weren't arrested the second Hope found out that Flo was an accomplice to Reese snatching Beth.

Shauna went up against the Logan sisters to plead Flo's case, but the Valley girls were like totally not having it. When Ridge caught Shauna in his home, he pointed out that she was from Vegas, so she should be able to calculate the odds of Flo going to prison that day! Shauna turned the shade of sheets at a January white sale when she found out Reese had already been nabbed in England! But we'll get to that.

Over at the Logan cabin, Flo bleated on ad nauseum about how she hadn't known what she was getting into until it was too late, never once mentioning that she'd also gotten into fifty thousand dollars for agreeing to do Reese's dirty work. How come that isn't coming up? And Flo might be able to snow her apparent family about being innocent until she turned guilty, but we saw her beginnings. We know better.

Flo may have forgotten her history, but our character profile for her hasn't: Flo wouldn't agree to help Reese unless he told her everything, so Flo already knew Beth was Hope's baby before she ever signed the phony adoption papers. Girl, you tried it. Flo cried for Hope to forgive her. But Hope, who saves her virginity and does perfect wedding lines with sustainable fabrics, took a different tack. "No," she said. "HELL NO!"

Annika Noelle's performance here was pitch-perfect. It would be an easy choice to let loose and scream and yell, but so much of Hope's reaction to Flo's begging was quiet, seething. Hope also demanded to know if Flo had thought of Steffy in all this, or considered the heartbreak Steffy would eventually suffer when the truth came out. Given how much Hope and Steffy fought over Liam, I love to see them acting like actual friends.

But Hope's rage built when she realized Flo saw herself as a victim in the situation. "I had to wallow in agony for some jackass' gambling problem -- he put a dead baby in my arms and told me it was mine! THAT is who you aligned yourself with. THAT is who you were loyal to. And THAT is what you deserve!" The final THAT was accompanied by a bitch slap that would make Gangsta Granny Stephanie proud!

Caressing her face, Flo asked, "Do you want to do it again?" The nerve of this bitch! Though Flo did agree to leave when Hope ordered her to, saying, "I can give you more time" in terms of Hope coming around to forgiving her. What part of "get lost" did Flo not get? That came through in Hope declaring Flo wasn't her cousin but her uncle's bastard!

Oh, yeah, Hope paid more attention to Stephanie than we thought. In swept Ridge, the sisters Logan, and the fawning Shauna, but in a battle of wits, the Fultons were unarmed. Brooke couldn't believe a man as good and selfless as Storm, who sacrificed his life for his family, could have had a skanky daughter like Flo! Agreed, but let's not make Storm a saint over here!

He was good and selfless most of his life, but he would never have had to shoot himself in the head to give Katie his heart if he hadn't gone nuts and caused Katie to get shot in the first place. Why do so many normal B&B characters go bats**t for no apparent reason except to drive story? Storm, Pam, Rick, Taylor...now Thomas...man, I thought the smog was getting better in L.A., but apparently not!

Anyway, Brooke's disbelief over Flo being Storm's daughter brings up another pertinent question -- the fact that everybody bought an ancestry website saying Flo was a 52% match for Storm without double-checking with an actual lab. I'm sorry, but that's not enough proof to add someone to the family tree! Maybe it'll turn out Flo isn't a Logan, after all, which would be fine by me.

In the middle of this stuff, I kept wondering why someone hadn't called the police the moment Flo and Shauna showed up. Surprise! Ridge actually had! Detective Sanchez came back to cuff Flo! When Shauna asked what the charge was, Sanchez was like, how much time do you have? Actively participating in the falsifying of government documents, representing herself as the mother of a stolen baby...

No one wanted to hear Shauna's begging, and Flo was carted off to the hoosegow, as well she should be. But, I have a major problem here. Where the hell is Reese? Yeah, yeah, he was arrested off-screen and is supposedly being extradited to the U.S. to face punishment, blah blah blah. Flo is, of course, guilty as hell, but it's like she's getting Reese's comeuppance in addition to her own.

I need to see Reese behind bars. I need to see Hope confronting him. How hard is it to get Wayne Brady back for a few episodes? Flo is being made to take the entire rap, and that's just not satisfying, considering Reese started the whole Phoebeth thing to begin with. It's too weird to see all the accessories catching hell but not the actual perpetrator. Imagine if Sheila had been arrested off-screen for stealing Lauren's baby!

OH, GOD, I THINK I'M FALLING

Det. Sanchez also had questions for Bridge about Thomas. Because, apparently, as his final act, Xander went to the po-po and told them what he'd discovered about Thomas chasing Emma up Mulholland the night of her death! Ridge deflected all over the place, saying Thomas was just working through some stuff, but Brooke contradicted her hubby at every turn. Thomas was MIA, and yes, that was unusual!

Now, the info Xander got from Thomas' GPS is certainly not definitive, and one could take issue with Xander having broken into Thomas' car to get it. But I guess Xander is responsible for getting Emma's case reopened, which it seems the cops had written off as texting-while-driving. Do you think Justin has been told that Thomas has been tied to his niece's death? Because I don't think he has.

If Justin knew, he probably wouldn't have cheerfully waltzed into Casa Wyatt and gushed with Bill about baby Beth. Who knew, back in 2011-2012, when Bill was actively campaigning against Hope by locking her in gondolas and siccing paparazzi on her because she was "sleeping with a married man," that the Dollah would one day be disappointed because Hope wasn't there with his granddaughter?

Indeed, Bill was decidedly Team Hope, grumbling that at least Ridge's people apprehended Reese, if his people didn't. That didn't seem right somehow. After all, Bill has the most "people" -- remember it being Bill who found Brooke and Thomas washed up on Berry Island when no one else could? For that matter, knowing that, you'd think Ridge would have Bill track the missing Thomas for him again!

Bill wanted Justin to find out what judge would be on the Reese/Flo case so he could be privy to all the information surrounding it...then Justin stepped in and reminded Bill how Ridge had influenced Judge McMullen. Great continuity, but kind of a weird time to bring that up. You want weird? Try this. Hope had Justin handle her upcoming legal cases for her because Carter was out of town.

Wow, Carter just can't catch a break, can he? Not only does he never have his own storyline, but now his adoptive bro's pop is doing his work for him. Not that Justin ever gets his own story, either. Now, Justin planned to file a motion that would explain the fraud that was committed regarding Beth's adoption. I'm not a lawyer, but isn't that adoption automatically invalid because of the illegalities surrounding it?

Along those lines, Hope tasked Justin with fast-tracking an annulment from Thomas? I don't think that's necessary, either! The fact that Beth is alive should invalidate Lope's annulment, because it proves they consummated their marriage, as if the fact they were expecting a child didn't already prove it. And that would mean Hope's marriage to Thomas was not legal, instantly making it null and void!

But what do I know. Hope sent Justin on his way with a big ol' hug. I don't know that I'd be willing to hug a guy who helped my father-in-law pull crap on me over and over. Liam thought Hope should have asked for a restraining order against Thomas; amen. It's amazing nobody's bolting the doors in anticipation of Thomas' unhinged arrival. Instead, Hope decided to call Thomas and give him her annulment news personally!

CATCH ME (I'M FALLING)

Brooke kept trying to convey to Ridge that his son was one design short of a collection, but Mr. Former Speedo wasn't hearing it. I can understand coming to the defense of your child, but Ridge might want to do his next line in ostrich feathers for as much as his head was in the sand. Can Ridge really not see the merit in what Brooke is telling him?

It's not just Thomas' actions, it's that now mental instability is in the family -- let's not forget that the butter slipped off of Taylor's noodle just last year. And where is Taylor, anyway? She should be told that the adoption she arranged was illegal, and she just might be able to redeem herself by talking Thomas down and getting him the help Brooke rightly says he needs. But Taylor is MIA, as well.

Brooke repeatedly mentioned how Thomas had lied about knowing Beth was alive; I wish she had also reminded Ridge how Thomas had lied about sleeping with her to get his hands on Stephanie's Forrester stock. At least that time, his deception was at Stephanie's behest; this time, he acted all on his own. But Ridge finally came around, admitting he felt responsible for Thomas because he hadn't been a very good father.

Ridge's supposed guilt would be good motivation for why he's been so deeply in denial about his son, but I'm not 100% sure it tracks. All the talk about the Tay-tots being ditched for Brooke -- the first time was because Taylor was "dead." I can recall only one time Ridge left the kids in Taylor's care to go back to Brooke, and that was after Thomas had grown up. So, I don't know. But if it makes Ridge get a clue, I'll take it.

I FALL TO PIECES

Meanwhile, Thomas Forrester, heir apparent to Forrester Creations, with money out the wazoo, had to slum it at his friend Vinny's dinky apartment because he had gone on the lam with just the shirt on his back. Not that he spent much time wearing it. Seriously, this guy couldn't hole up in the Beverly Hills Hilton? Did he just not want his credit cards to be traced? I'm surprised he didn't fly off to hide out on Berry Island.

Vinny couldn't quite decide whether to prop up his bro or if his bro was about to blow up his pad. He vacillated between encouraging Thomas to talk to Hope and getting on him about throwing laundry everywhere and snarfing everything in his fridge. Then Vinny made a joke that I think could be taken quite seriously. Enduring Thomas' ranting, the Vin-man asked, "Are you dippin' into my stash again?"

We know Vinny slipped Thomas some kind of pill that made Liam super chill and horny. (Valium with a side of Viagra?) And the indication is that Vinny procures other kinds of drugs, too. So, I started thinking...could Thomas be a drug addict? Hooked on something so potent that it could alter his behavior? Because that actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

I've been saying all along that I need a reason why Thomas' personality has changed so drastically. I'm just now Googling it: cocaine can cause paranoid delusions, anabolic steroids can produce mania and violent behavior, and LSD can trigger hallucinations and violent behavior. Plus, all three can cause psychosis. How many of these symptoms apply to Thomas?

Maybe he started taking something simpler to cope with Caroline's death and being a single father, which elevated into the hard stuff. Thomas has been getting increasingly unstable. The fact he already has a history of anti-social behavior? Drugs could be exacerbating it. It's the only explanation that could buy Thomas any redeemability; otherwise, he's just a nutcase for no other reason than plot-driven story.

Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that we've got a drug pusher in the mix. But even Vinny drew the line at Thomas talking smack about his own five-year-old son! Thomas was calling the kid the "little brat who ratted me out," and Vinny got triggered from his own abuse as a child. He thought Thomas should call Douglas immediately and let him know he was okay!

WAITING FOR A STAR TO FALL

Thomas made an Olympic event out of not taking his father's calls, but once Hope's image lit up his phone, he was on it like an ice cream cone on a hot day. Thomas tried to tell her anything that would make her understand why he'd lied to her about her baby being alive. But Hope didn't want to hear it!

"You were just gonna lie to me the rest of our lives?" Hope fumed. Quickly tired of her fraudulent husband's attempts to justify himself, Hope hit him with the A-word! And, as if to confirm my theory that Thomas is strung out on drugs, Hope's announcement echoed in his ears, following a neat sequence in which Thomas clicked a pen mindlessly and essentially heard voices. I'm tellin' ya, the boy's high as a kite.

Thomas then tried the Douglas angle, hoping to manipulate Hope into changing her mind. It didn't work, though. Hope told Thomas he needed to reach out to his son and was incredulous when she heard him mumble, "He never should have been spying on me like that." Uh-oh! Time to stash Douglas in a safe deposit box! Hope put her foot down, telling Thomas he could talk to her lawyer. She never wanted to speak to him again!

Well, Thomas at least took a few of Hope's words to heart; he decided it was time to see Douglas. Because he and his son had "some unfinished business." You know, I've been watching soaps since I discovered the original Dynasty in 1986, and I've just about seen it all, but a father plotting revenge on his kindergarten-age boy is definitely a new one.

And maybe I'm extra sensitive because I spent the latter half of my childhood in an abusive environment, but I absolutely did not like where this was going. Deeming Douglas "a 45-pound brat who decided to ruin my life," the first thing Thomas did was put in a call to Amelia. I thought Amelia was Steffy's babysitter? When did Amelia's duties extend to Thomas' child?

I guess Amelia must have been brought up to speed about Thomas, because she looked like she was filming a hostage video the entire time they were on the phone. Thomas wanted Amelia to take a detour from the zoo and bring Douglas to Vinny's apartment. And Amelia agreed! Who's stupider here? Amelia, for not calling Ridge right away with Thomas' address, or Thomas for giving Amelia his address?

I'd have said it was a toss-up, but once Amelia and Douglas arrived at Vinny's (which, perhaps, not coincidentally, looks just like the dump Sheila was holed up in back in 2002), Amelia won the Duh! Award of 2019: at Thomas' request, Amelia left Douglas alone with his father! If Amelia was in the loop about Thomas' mental instability, why would she do that?

For some reason, Douglas was jazzed to see his daddy. Why? He's spent his last couple of appearances, worried that daddy was mad at him, and Douglas had clearly been scared of him. Hell, if Douglas wasn't, he was within seconds, because as soon as Amelia closed the door, Thomas went off on Douglas, accusing him of liking Liam better than him and ruining his marriage to Hope!

Douglas' expression was both fear and anger (Henry Joseph Samiri can convey such a range for a young boy!) as Thomas lit into him; Thomas' rage toward him intensified to the point that Douglas shielded his face as if Thomas was going to hit him! End of episode! Awesome cliffhanger, but Thomas just moved two spaces closer to unredeemability in the board game Redeem-opoly. Do not pass Go! Do not collect $200!

NOW I'M FREE...FREE FALLIN'

Hope decided to head over to Steffy's to pick up the rest of Beth's things, with Steffy choosing not to be there because it was too painful. A lot of the fallout from the Phoebeth reveal has been great, but we haven't seen hide nor salon hair of Steffy since she made the painful choice to let Hope take Steffy's adopted baby home. Everyone's calling or visiting Steffy off-screen. But no Steffy. What gives?

I'm sorry, but putting all the focus on Hope and Beth doesn't work. Steffy just lost the child she considered her daughter, and we're not getting to see any insight into her journey or how she's dealing with it. That's missing a beat the size of Mount Rushmore. How about giving Steffy a chance to confront Flo -- and Reese? I agree with Chanel in last week's column; I need to see Steffy and Hope gang up on these people.

While Hope was compiling Beth's things (and running across Steffy's "Princess Phoebe" onesie; aww), Amelia showed up at the Logan manse to tell Bridge she "might have done something wrong" by leaving Douglas with Thomas. The hell? Amelia drove all the way to Beverly Hills from the Melrose area during the day -- which could take an hour, depending on traffic -- instead of calling from the hallway?

Ridge headed over to Vinny's, where a remarkable thing was happening. Thomas was still chewing Douglas out for betraying him and making him lose Hope, and he was none too glad to hear Douglas declare that "everybody says I did the right thing." But something clicked with Thomas when Douglas said he wanted his old daddy back. His father was different now.

"You're not bad, you're good," Douglas said. I melted, and you'll never believe it -- Thomas melted, too. He actually broke down, and the maniacal look he's had glued to his face for weeks softened as he asked if Douglas really thought he was good. It was like Thomas snapped out of it; he tearfully apologized to Douglas and admitted "It's not okay for Daddy to act this way -- it's wrong."

This is all the more reason I'm thinking Thomas is a drug addict, because if it was pure psychosis, he wouldn't have been able to dial it back. "I was so fixated on having Hope, I forgot what's important!" It's hard, but I have to concede that Thomas really still genuinely loves his son underneath his recent obsessions and deceptions. Feeling much better, Douglas slipped that he knew where Hope was.

For a moment, I thought Thomas coming back from the Dark Side was just a ploy to get Hope intel out of Douglas, but I guess it was on the up and up. Then we did a little square dancing at Vinny's -- swing your partner, do-si-do! As Amelia arrived, Thomas left, and Ridge showed up. When Ridge learned from his son (yeah, I know, grandson) that Thomas was headed to Steffy's to see Hope, Ridge jumped back in his car.

Having gotten a heads-up from Ridge, Brooke made a beeline to the cliff house, as well, where Hope somehow didn't hear Thomas letting himself in! Suddenly, he was just there, looming over Hope, but the confrontation didn't go the way I expected. Hope was much stronger, and Thomas wasn't threatening and diabolical. Whatever two-by-four Douglas smacked him upside the head with, the effect held.

Thomas agreed he was as horrible as Hope said for keeping Beth from her; he knew he was a liar, and he sounded like Flo when he added that there was nothing he could do to rationalize what he'd done. But he shot himself in the foot when he insisted, "Let me apologize! You at least owe me that." Smooth move, Ex-Lax! Hope cried she didn't owe Thomas a damn thing and tried to make a run for it until Thomas grabbed her.

She managed to break away from Thomas' strong-arming once and darted out the patio door where Quinn had once tormented Liam. Quizzically, Hope ran to the back of the cliff house instead of out front to her car. This time, Thomas grabbed her arms to keep her from getting away, though he was far more remorseful than intimidating. As he tried to explain himself, Brooke came upon the struggle.

La Logan wedged herself between her daughter and her one-time partner in hallucinogenics. As everyone talked over each other in a mad rush, Thomas reached for Hope, but Brooke pushed him away...and he toppled over the cliff and landed on the sand below! Oops! Guess that was karma for Thomas pushing Rick out a window. But Ridge arrived and shot daggers at Brooke. That's gonna cut into future Bridge sauna time!

Where are you with all of this, Scoopers? Is Flo taking the heat that's meant for Reese? Should Steffy be more involved in the Phoebeth fallout? And what do you think caused Thomas' personality transplant? Fall over yourself in the Comments section below or the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback. Your comments could wind up in a future column! Like these!

"Hope and Liam don't have any proof that Phoebe is Beth. They think they are just going to collect her and go home. Hello? You need a DNA test. They will make Steffy dumb enough to let them take her. I would be on the phone with a lawyer and then the police. They only have second-hand information [from Reese and Flo]." -- Kasi

"Steffy did the right thing. She's a mother and she herself really did lose a full term baby in utero, her and Liam's son Aspen; she would never deliberately inflict that kind of pain on another mother. It's also good for her so she can begin to heal, get strong and go full speed ahead after Flo and Reese. I'd like for Steffy to summon her inner Stephanie and light them up!" -- Estella

"Interesting that all the Black characters are arrested, fired, or killed off except Maya. And we never see her either. But the guilty White characters are still on the loose. Just like real life." -- Sharon

Word. Well, at least Thomas isn't on the loose anymore, and it remains to be seen whether his cliffside tumble will knock some sense into him, whether Bridge's marriage will survive, or if we'll see Steffy, Taylor, and Reese at all, because they started the whole adoption arc! Phoebeth's fallout continues, so keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember: no matter color, creed, religion, gender identity, orientation, or nationality, we're all beautiful!

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