A new way to romance

While the coming week of encore presentations will focus on summer escapes, new episodes are on the way with interesting COVID workarounds. And one Forrester heiress will be getting a long-awaited dose of Vitamin Love! Rediscover Steffy's romances with Two Scoops' Mike!

Will your week be bold and beautiful? Will you get burned by more than the sun? Will you find your reel life and real life merging closer than ever before? Will you finally have a reason to look forward to going to the doctor? These and more situations face the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Avant clan this week!

Love is on the horizon, Scoopers! No, I'm not talking about me (damn it), but B&B is back in production and rife with new faces, some of which you'll see, and some of which you'll only "see." We're getting COVID workarounds, a recast, and lo -- will Steffy finally have motivation to take down that giant photo of Liam? Yaaaaasss! The sizzle of summer is not in the past but the future, so let's Scoop about it!

HOT TOWN, SUMMER IN THE CITY

I gotta be honest with y'all -- I've never been hugely enthusiastic about soaps' "summer" stories. (Is that what they're still called?) You know -- shirts come off, midriffs get exposed, grade school kids get SORASed into randy teens. And the IQ of the story arcs drop to below SAT level. I know; they're meant to appeal to out-for-the-summer high schoolers. And that they certainly do.

As for the adults, the same amount of skin suddenly needs sunscreen, and their purpose is more for titillation. Again, there's an understandable market for that. I just never really got into it. When you've seen one six-pack, you've seen 'em all, maybe. I like my soaps the way I'd like a boyfriend -- being easy on the eyes is great, but a brain is far sexier. Call me a nonconformist. It wouldn't be the first time.

So, this week, characters will again require heavy doses of SPF70, though only two offerings actually originally aired in the summer. (Granted, in L.A., it's true: you can pretty much get away with a "summer escape" any day.) Leffy/Lope's height in 2012 gets two samples: Steffy and Thomas trying to keep Hope and Liam apart in Cabo San Lucas, and Liam going out dancing with Steffy the night before one of his weddings to Hope.

From 2013's vault, Caroline works to turn Maya's web series Room 8 against her while the Hott/Lope triangle begins; said triangle continues into 2014 with Wyatt and Hope's campout on the beach. And finally, everyone runs amok in Australia following Steam's 2017 Zipline wedding. If there are summer selections that would do more for me, I'm blanking at the moment. Because the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

WHO IS THAT MASKED MAN?

Something else I gotta be honest about -- coronavirus ain't over. Not even close. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if things have to get shut down again. That said, B&B does seem to be doing everything they can to keep their cast and crew safe as they shoot new episodes, and we'll have to see how that reflects on-screen once those installments make it to our screens and monitors.

We've already heard about the "dolls" being used to make love scenes safer to produce (will Brooke get brief reactive psychosis flashbacks of running around Barbados with her dollies?). But the show has taken the less snickerworthy step of having actors' real-life partners and spouses standing in for characters' paramours! This, I think, is a really clever workaround.

Hey, these actual couples have already been isolating together, so that's a lot less risky. And talk about Method acting -- it'll be interesting to see how our actors' real emotions translate to their fictional counterparts from doing love scenes with their actual loves. And, given that Denise Richards (Shauna) has already talked about kissing on Ridge, I guess it's safe to say their drunken wedding in Vegas happened, after all!

THE FORECAST FOR LOS ANGELES

In a recent interview here on Soap Central with B&B's head honcho, Brad Bell, it was mentioned that they had been ready to shoot their next episode when production was shut down -- which I assume means Wyatt's reaction to either seeing the unconscious Flo, or not seeing her, was about to be committed to pixels. From the way I read it the first time, I got the impression that we are, indeed, picking up right where we left off.

You may already know from one of my previous columns that I thought it would be better for B&B to do a time jump as a way of writing themselves out of current story and moving on to different ones. And who knows -- in rereading the article, they could be doing exactly that; perhaps I misunderstood. At any rate, I do like at least one aspect of the future envisioned for our fictional California families.

"Both Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus have had a strong impact on how we're thinking and how we're moving forward," Bell said in the interview. "Soaps have always been a reflection of the times, so we're diving into some stories that will hopefully reflect how our society is evolving..." Now this I am on board for! Soaps are fantasy, but how they deal with real life holds far more intrigue for me.

I've said before that it would be smart to write coronavirus into the stories. True, as soap viewers, we're a forgiving lot, and surely, we'll work with whatever they have to do to make scenes happen safely -- but going there would help us assimilate their adjustments that much more. Plus, a lot of drama can be squeezed out of a character trying to stay healthy, and/or maybe even contracting the virus.

And Black Lives Matter! Hell, yeah! I did say in the aforementioned column that the show has a bounty of wonderful Black actors who are just sitting on the sidelines. Perhaps this is why Zende is coming back with a new face? Now, I admit, he wouldn't have been my first choice, not with Maya, her parents, Carter, and Justin waiting for something to do. But maybe Zende can kick things off.

Assuming he's coming back without Nicole, the Z-boy's gonna have some 'splainin' to do to her mom, Vivienne, and especially Julius, the golfing father from hell. And I can't help thinking...Zende did come to Maya's defense in 2017 when she was being harassed by bigots. Wouldn't now be the perfect time for Z to help Maya lead the charge? It might even be necessary to procure the services of lawyers Justin or Carter.

And what's a soap without switching sisters? It wouldn't be at all unexpected in this genre for Zende to fall for Maya, who got Rickrolled in late 2018 and still hasn't told us why. A seed did get planted when Zende and Maya shared their bullying experience in Monte Carlo. I'll be very curious to see how the current movement factors into story, which is something I think should definitely happen.

SHE'S SUPER FREAKY, YOW

And I mean that in the best possible way! We are, of course, talking about one Steffy Forrester. She's our Sexy CEO, the supermodel of the world (thank you RuPaul) who doesn't even need a runway, though she's strutted down them before. She's fierce, she's fine -- she's a fan favorite. I have fully capitulated to Team Steffy. Which is kind of amazing, when you think about it. Because I really hated Steffy at first!

Well, maybe not in the very, very beginning. Admittedly, I wasn't watching the show regularly when Jacqueline MacInnes Wood stepped into Steffy's stilettos in 2008. But I got to know the Steffster quite well once I started columnizing for you guys in late 2009. She was horrible! Going after Hope's boys, whining about having to share her daddy! I was having to hire the Waaaaaahmulance for her 24/7 in those days.

Then came the Great Leffy/Lope Reign of 2011-2012, which still gives me nightmares. It wasn't the triangle itself -- it was that it was the front-burner story forever. And let's face it -- Steffy was the underdog. Even then, it seemed Liam's heart was with Hope and that Steffy was his second choice (sorry, Steamers). But I couldn't feel sorry for her, because Steffy had only snagged Liam unfairly. (Gondola, anyone?)

Then, somewhere around 2013, Steffy started to grow up. Perhaps it was losing Liam's child after skidding out on a motorcycle. Yes, she went away for a while, but when she came back in 2015, she was slapping Liam and telling him she wasn't singing backup for anyone! And that's where I think Steffy really started coming into her own, though she's made some really hinky choices since then.

Steffy is one of the few characters who has actually experienced permanent growth on this show. Could you see the anti-Logan Steffy of 2010 being willing to build an extended family with Hope and working to have both their daughters by Liam grow up together? Steffy even went so far as to choose herself in her determination to move forward without a man. And she's been single for well over a year. Let's see Brooke do that!

IT'S RAINING MEN, HALLELUJAH?

Speaking of men, Steffy's had a few! Sure, we all associate her with Liam, but even before him, she had left a trail of broken...teddies? First, there was sweet Marcus. Man; he really had it bad for Steffy. But she went to the Big Bear cabin with him and turned down his proposal. You know, since she had the hots for Rick. Ouch. Too bad Rick had already been with Steffy's mother and sister and that she'd grown up with him as a Forrester. Gross-a-rama.

You know it's bad when your relatives have to do an intervention to get you to give up your stepbrother. And when your own brother has to blow up your bae's car. Luckily, Steffy's attention was diverted elsewhere as soon as nearly legal Hope came back to town. Then it was "HO for the Future" sabotage and attempting to steal Oliver away from Hope, because lingerie.

I suppose it could be argued that Bill is the second love of Steffy's life, if you can really use the word "love" to define their...was it even a relationship? The first time, Steffy knew the way to Bill's heart was not through his stomach, but someplace else, so she used that to snatch Forrester Creations back from him. Ingenious, actually. And Still certainly kept flirting well into Bill's marriage to Katie.

Then, when Still erupted into a full-blown affair, it wasn't even all that full-blown, because they never did the do. Taylor totally c-blocked them before they had the chance. Interestingly, Don Diamont and JMW kept their alter egos' sexual tension boiling for years, until their now-infamous 2017 romp in the Forrester guesthouse. Which was so brilliant...until it wasn't.

It was dysfunctional enough when Steffy and Bill were beyond May-December and Bill was really a subversion of Steffy's daddy issues. But Still officially died in 2018 when Bill tried to blackmail Steffy into ditching Liam and marrying Bill with the threat of sending Taylor to prison if Steffy didn't. Sorry, that's not romantic, and Steffy is well rid of him.

Liam...I don't have to tell y'all about that. But from a purely psychological perspective, Steam was doomed from the beginning. You don't take a bath, crying over losing one man, hit your head in the tub, and then fall in love with said man's son minutes after running said bath. It doesn't matter whether Liam saved Steffy's life or not. That kind of turn-on-a-dime stuff B&B does with romance at times never works for me.

And, of course, that's how Steam started out, with Liam getting with Steffy seconds after Hope dumped him. Even for a soap, that's extremely unhealthy. And I think that's hung in the air between them throughout their courtships and marriages. That might have been all Steffy deserved or was capable of in her early days, but she's evolved far too much to accept that now.

Finally, there's Wyatt, but is he even worth mentioning? That he and Steffy married on April Fool's Day said all there was to say about their brief togetherness. Sure, they thought Liam had gone rogue, but it was so obvious the whole time that for Steffy, Wyatt was only a placeholder. And if Wyatt still hadn't been into romancing Liam's leftovers then, he would have seen that. Steffy did herself no favors there, either!

STEFFY FOR THE FUTURE

Inevitably, as always, Liam went back to Hope, and Steffy has spent month after month folding baby clothes and staring longingly at the Sears Portrait Studio blow-up of her, Kelly, and Liam. This is what the Sexy CEO has been reduced to? She even turned away super studmuffin Leo to keep the home fires burning for Liam. To quote JMW's own song, "girl, you knew!" (CAUTION! Definitely NSFW.) Was this all that was left for the sultry Steffy?

Thankfully, it seems that our soapy prayers have been answered. Along with Zende's recasting, we also learned this week that there will soon be a hunky new doctor on the scene -- a Dr. John Finnegan, to be played by Tanner Novlan, the real-life husband of Kayla Ewell (who played Caitlin Ramrez in the mid-2000s). The doc will be known as "Finn." Why do soaps always crib character names from each other? General Hospital already has a doctor named Finn.

Anyway, I am excited about the possibility of Steffy finally breaking away from Liam and finding love with a man who is not a Spencer or one of Hope's castoffs. I need this romance to be so scorching that Steffy won't even remember Liam's name outside of him being Kelly's father. And don't let's throw Stinn (Feffy?) together hurriedly. I want build-up. I want seduction. I want unbearable heat. Oh...yeah...for Steffy, too.

And all you other B&B ladies -- keep your mitts off this Finn! Triangles are so overdone, anyway, and it's high time Steffy has a man all to herself. Of course, soap couples have to have problems, but let them come from within with these two. I'm just glad Steffy is finally getting a non-Liam shot at love. She deserves it, we deserve it, and really, the timing just couldn't be better. Kelly, time to learn to fold your own damn laundry!

What do you think of this week's "Summer Escape" selections? How do you feel about Zende being recast? Do you think tackling real-life issues like COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter in the show is a good thing? And where are you regarding the idea of Steffy finding new love? Write some sweet nothings 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!

"I admit I haven't watched Bold regularly since Susan Flannery left. I have caught strings of episodes since her departure and some of those were when Katie and Wyatt were together. They were soap opera hot and I hate that they are no longer together. I am currently watching the last 10 episodes of Bold prior to Covid19/classic episodes with the hope of watching regularly and so far there isn't a couple nearly as hot and entertaining as those two!" -- Dean

"I'd love to see more of Pam and Charlie and hope they get a lovely wedding soon. It would be fun to see Pam and Charlie act as the voice-of-reason 'recappers' of the shenanigans of the other characters by telling each other what they've learned and discussing it. I don't want to see them secretly meddling but it could be interesting to hear their take on what's going on and see them calling out bad behavior when they encounter it." - "DaffySez"

Which would keep them pretty busy, eh, Daffy? At any rate, we are here for you in the absence of new episodes, and we sure will be when new episodes air. So, keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember -- wearing a mask to help tamp down a virus and respecting everyone even when they're different than you is always beautiful!

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