Alliances of the unholy kind

Quinn went back to Eric despite exchanging three little words with Carter, while Sheila spilled the tea that Jack is Finn's biological father! But do certain questions about Sheila need to be answered before her new chapter can go forward? Make the connection with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you decide to go through the divorce process in reverse? Did you open up a world of hurt with an emoji? Did you get reminded that Father's Day is every day? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Walton-Buckingham-Finnegan clan this week!

Whatza haps, Scoopers? Time once again for me to break down B&B in the only way I know how. Eric wanted Quinn back, even if he was willing to emasculate himself to do it. Meanwhile, Paris agreed to keep the secret that Finn had been in contact with Sheila, and Jack confronted the naughty nurse himself. But are a whole bunch of questions about Sheila being left unanswered? Y'all ready? Let's Scoop about it!

Separately, Eric and Quinn lamented the fact that their divorce was about to be final, and all it would take was two signatures, which were about to be implemented. Wait, wait, wait. First, what happened to B&B divorces taking six months? Does that statute only apply when it serves the plot? Eric only booted Quinn a month and a half ago, in early July. Second, what's all this about documents needing signatures?

Eric already signed his divorce papers. I would assume at some point, Quinn signed them, as well, or Carter couldn't have filed them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a judge that finalizes a divorce, and not the about-to-be-exes via signing a paper together? I've never been married nor divorced, but I've seen enough soaps to glean that B&B somehow got this latest divorce proceeding glaringly backwards.

I realize this was all a ploy to heighten the drama and conflict, contrasting the final nail in Queric's coffin with Carter asking Quinn to move in with him. Carter never does let any grass grow under his feet, does he? Just last fall, Carter handed Zoe a change of address card, even though they'd only been dating a couple of months. Is not the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results?

One thing I do have to give Carter here is that he made it clear to Quinn that he didn't care if his relationship with Quinn meant being fired from Forrester Creations or ostracized from the Forrester family. Carter wanted to take Quarter public! Quinn didn't really endorse or pooh-pooh Carter's suggestion, but, on the way out the door, simply donned her sunglasses that were supposed to camouflage her movements.

Over at the Forrester mansion, the Forrester patriarch began a painful process that lasted throughout the week. Eric had been thinking things over, he told Ridge, and Eric realized he had pushed Quinn toward Carter by withholding affection from his wife. Okay, now, there's nothing wrong with taking responsibility for one's part in things. It's the mature thing to do. But Eric went way overboard, to the point it was hard to watch.

Eric spent too much time making himself wrong for what happened with Quinn. Yes, Eric denied his wife their marital pleasures. But has Eric forgotten why? It was because Eric had developed trust issues with Quinn after Quinn nearly succeeded in replacing Brooke with Shauna as Ridge's wife. And Eric may have iced Quinn out, but he certainly didn't carry Quinn to Carter's pad and place her in Carter's bed.

The emasculation continued when Quinn arrived to sign these supposed papers that would finalize the Queric divorce. It's true, the estranged couple had some warm moments as they faced this finality, and that's totally reasonable. But as Quinn reached for a pen, Eric stopped her. He didn't want the divorce. Instead, he wanted Quinn back!

In a nice overlap, Eric deemed that the return of Sheila had caused him to rethink things. Nothing that Quinn had done could compare to the reign of terror Sheila had inflicted on Eric and his family. (Um, I'd ask Liam about that; even Sheila never crafted a sword by hand with which to impale an enemy.) Then, Eric grabbed the divorce papers and tore them up!

Why do soap characters always do that? It's not like that does any good; only the court can stop the divorce process. Yeah, it's symbolic, I know. I just always have to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head. Anyway, Quinn got her second relocation request of the day, as Eric asked her to move back in with him. Oh, how the United States Postal Service must be getting whiplash.

For some strange reason, B&B never showed Quinn's reaction to Eric's offers. She simply knocked on Carter's door and walked into the romantic setting Carter had created for her. I'm surprised the wine wasn't stale, for as early as Carter poured it, but if he was letting the wine breathe, he certainly didn't give himself a chance to. He bleated on endlessly about his future with Quinn, though she didn't really do much to stop him.

Finally, Quinn managed to squeeze in the news that Eric didn't want the divorce. Quinn didn't know what to do. Tears streamed from her face as she admitted how much joy, stability, and love Eric had always given her, yet she doubted she could leave Carter to return to it. Then Carter decided to go all 1950s on Quinn...by making Quinn's decision for her!

"Deep down, I think you know what needs to be done," Carter stated. I'm sorry, Mr. Walton, I don't agree. The direction seemed very clear here. Quinn didn't cry that much when Eric threw her out. I understand that she might have felt bad for Eric, but it was obvious she didn't want to ditch Carter. Instead, Quarter acted like they needed to make some big sacrifice for Eric's benefit.

Carter and Quinn exchanged "I love you's" for the first time. See, now, if that's the way they feel, then it shouldn't matter that Eric didn't want the divorce. Quinn could have held her ground, despite having sympathy for how Eric might have taken the news. But Eric calling and asking Carter to bring Quinn's portrait back was enough for Quarter to cement things. Quinn needed to go back to her husband.

Carter said that Quinn's heart was with Eric. Did you guys watch the same scene as me? Because I really didn't see much in the way of conflict where Quinn was concerned. When Quinn returned to the mansion and saw her portrait back on the wall, she seemed like she had stepped out of a hostage video. Could Eric really not see that Quinn looked like she was about to blow chunks all over her giant image?

And let's not forget, Eric not only made Carter bring the portrait home to the mansion (and believed Carter had put it in storage) but also made him hang the damn thing up. For someone who spent so much time castrating himself this week, that sure was a passive-aggressive move. For Eric's next trick, he told Carter and Quinn that they had both proven their commitment and loyalty to him!

Some of you have suggested that Eric is merely playing Quarter by lulling them into a false sense of security, but I'm not seeing it. What I'm seeing is Eric hanging himself on some kind of cross by making Quinn the injured party and turning a blind eye to what's right in front of him. I don't like to see Eric making himself such a patsy. Sure, he's probably lonely. But he deserves way better than what he's doing to himself.

Regardless of how much of a cold shoulder Eric might have given Quinn, nobody made her cheat with Eric, and somehow, that never factored into Eric's decisions this week. He caught Quinn crying after Carter left and never made the connection. Then, the tables turned in a weird way. Eric played the piano and sang for Quinn (yessss!), which seemed to melt Quinn's heart. Suddenly she was glad to be home!

All right, I just can't with these two. Both Eric and Quinn should have stuck to their guns. Their marriage is over. At the very least, Quinn should have said "thanks, but no thanks" to Eric's reconciliation offer. And since when is the headstrong Quinn weak enough to let Carter decide her future like she's in a '50s sitcom? Never mind those bass-ackwards divorce papers I still can't get over. Save me.

Quinn went upstairs and returned in a nightie, only to find Eric knocked out on the couch. She very sweetly covered him with a blanket and forwent the night of make-up nookie she had hinted at, once again climbing the stairs solo. Then, Eric opened his eyes and watched her leaving! He had the strangest look on his face. Could it be he's testing Quarter? I'd rather that than Eric cuckolding himself.

Finn kept staring at his phone, on which he saw that he had responded to Sheila's I-love-you-I'm-leaving-town message with a heart emoji. Let's call up Taylor and see how her heart fared with Sheila in the mix. Finn confided in roomie Paris, figuring that his sending an emoji instead of a proper text response would imply to Sheila that there would be no more contact between them.

How did Finn pass medical school, being this dumb? All right, he's still in shock that a strange woman claimed to be his biological mother and that his new in-laws judged said woman the devil incarnate. Maybe Finn's not in the best place to make a clear call. Still, you'd think he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to reply to Sheila, even if it was just with an emoji.

I think, not far under the surface, that Finn doesn't really believe the extent of Sheila's misdeeds, which Steffy and her family laid out for him. When he got Sheila's text, all he had to do was Google her, and he could have gotten confirmation of her numerous crimes. Instead, Finn believed Sheila's contention she was leaving town and thought an emoji was enough of a shield to block him from further contact.

"But she's my biological mother," Finn sighed to Paris. Not enough of an excuse, Finn-man. I guess one can only expect this perspective from someone who imagined Lucy Ricardo as his mother. (Hey! Now Finn can join Liam and all his Bob Hope movies.) Finn asked Paris not to tell Steffy that Sheila had been in contact. He would say something if Sheila made a second attempt.

For Paris' part, at least she told Finn that she didn't think it was a good idea for either of them for her to keep the lid on such a secret, even if she ultimately agreed to. In a very astute bit of writing, Paris sympathized, relating that her own father, Reese, and Sheila weren't much different. After all, Reese was still serving time for kidnapping Hope's baby and replacing it with a dead one. Nice! Definitely Sheila's playbook!

A knock on the door startled Finn -- and also Paris -- who wondered if it was Sheila on the doorstep. The roommates spent an unusually long time deliberating and discussing before Finn finally opened the door. Which was why I was glad the arriving Zende said that Finn had taken forever to answer! "Forever" was exactly the word I had said to myself! Zende wanted to hang with Paris but also offered a terrific moment of continuity on his own.

Zende revealed to Finn that he could understand Finn's predicament, to a point, because Zende had also been adopted. I love when the show actually takes the time to tie together disparate details like that. Zende felt he had lucked out with his adoptive parents (Kristen Forrester and her husband Tony Dominguez, for those not watching in the early 2000s). Finn had to admit that he had lucked out, too.

Zende seemed to take it in stride when Paris opted to cancel hangtime with him in favor of not leaving Finn alone. What did Paris think she was going to do if Sheila showed up -- assail her with her unusual fashion sense to keep her at bay? Come to think of it, why was neither Paris nor Finn at work? Maybe Finn's on paternity leave still, but even Steffy went to the office.

Steffy couldn't concentrate on her co-CEOing because she was still trying to process the idea that Sheila Carter was her mother-in-law. Ridge told his daughter not to worry, because Carter was working on getting a restraining order against Sheila. Oh, Ridge, Ridge. You look hot in a suit but since when do little things like restraining orders work on Sheila? You first dealt with her 29 years ago. You know better.

Plus, I wouldn't count on Carter's ability to litigate anything these days, because he's too busy making his own portraits of Quinn, probably X-rated. But I did have to smile when Ridge relayed that he understood what it was like to suddenly have a parent show up out of nowhere. Steffy remembered Massimo and noted that Ridge didn't talk about him much!

I have never agreed with that bit of retconning and wish the show would reverse retcon it, but it was still awesome that Massimo even came up, especially in this context. Ridge again asked Steffy if Finn could be trusted in regard to Sheila. Finn might have been told about Sheila's crimes, but Finn hadn't lived it, which was actually a very good point.

Later, Steffy brought Ridge home to find Finn and Paris deep in conversation. Paris couldn't get the hell out fast enough; finally, she remembered she had a job to go to! Way to be subtle, Paris. Anyway, after Paris left and was told by Zende that it was good that Finn had someone like Paris to open up to (where is this going?), Jack and Li showed up to add their dos centavos to the convo about Sheila.

Li's hair was loose and free, but the rest of her was still wound tight as a drum as she scoffed that she couldn't believe Jack hadn't told her about Sheila. That was the only reference, but I can imagine Jack has been sleeping on the couch since Li found out about her son's bio-mom. Jack assured the dubious Ridge that he had only ever heard from Sheila once, back when Finn was a baby.

Ridge was not convinced of their safety and declared that, as long as Sheila was out there, she was a threat! Okay, but where was all this alarm the past three years? Ridge himself was the last one to encounter Sheila at Il Giardino in 2018, where he actually encouraged Sheila to shoot Bill! After that, everyone just went their merry way, as if Sheila couldn't have been in Los Angeles the entire time.

Honestly, we can't know for sure at this point where Sheila's been for three-and-a-half years. I just know the Forresters haven't been very concerned about it. Then Finn had the audacity to tell Steffy, in front of his parents and father-in-law, "I'm gonna protect you and the kids." Sure, by sending a heart emoji to a convicted felon after a dozen people told you how dangerous she was. That always works.

Case in point, Sheila stared at Finn's heart emoji and deduced that Finn loved her, the exact opposite of the message Finn said he'd wanted to send. Sheila sprinted to her laptop and punched "Dr. John Finnegan" into a search engine as if she were doing it for the first time. Right. Like she hasn't Googled him every day for who knows how long. And then she looked at the same page she browsed the week before!

Sheila grumbled about having been kicked out of the Forrester family, thinking back to when Eric rated her "crazy as hell." That was just before the infamous gun struggle that left Taylor and Brooke bleeding out for dear life -- and that happened in 2002. Given Finn's age, even taking SORAS into account, Finn would have had to be born by then. You mean Sheila was positioning her daughter, Mary/Erica, to replace Amber as Rick's wife while having given up a baby not long before?

Well, Jack managed to find Sheila, and we got a glimpse of what Jack's about without his son, in-laws, and/or wife nearby. In fact, in that moment, Ted King gave us a Jack to be reckoned with; Jack really reminded me of Bill for a bit. Of course, that was before Sheila bit back. She didn't like being told what to do and where to go by Jack and let him know that was not a smart move!

We have no idea yet if Sheila has reformed at all since her last appearance in 2018. But the fire in her eyes and growl in her voice definitely tipped the scale in the other direction. When Sheila insisted she had held to their adoption agreement by staying away from Finn, Jack barked that he'd known Sheila was trouble and that Sheila would see Finn over Jack's dead body.

She didn't think it needed to come to that! And Jack did pick up on the inherent threat in Sheila's statement. Upon hearing Sheila say that Jack owed her a debt of gratitude for not embarrassing Jack at Steffy's wedding with everything else Sheila knew, Jack snarked that, if Sheila would make herself scarce, Jack would send her a thank-you card and maybe some flowers. Loved it.

But then, Sheila took control of the situation in true Sheila fashion. She recalled how, at one time, she had gone to see Li at the hospital, the implication being that Sheila was Li's patient. And yet, it had been Jack who had pulled Sheila into the supply closet, and Sheila had kept Jack busy while Li pulled double shifts! And, as a result, Sheila had gotten pregnant and given away her rights to Jack's bastard son!

So, it turns out Jack is not only Finn's adoptive father, but his biological one, as well. That one I did not see coming! I honestly thought Finn's pop would end up being James, because that was an easy enough history rewrite with Sheila still being married to James when she took off in 1998; Sheila could have been carrying James's second child. And Tanner Novlan does share enough of a resemblance to Ian Buchanan to make that work.

Crafting a new situation can work, too, since there were long enough gaps in Sheila's appearances post-1998 that those gaps could be filled in. But Finn's paternal revelation inspires more questions than answers, which I suppose is all right at this point in the storyline. Still...when was Finn born? At which hospital did Sheila come to see Li, and for what ailment? It couldn't have been in Los Angeles, because, as of 1998, Sheila was on the run and raised Mary all over the country.

And if Jack had access to a hospital supply closet, does that mean he was/is a doctor, too? I'd like to know how Jack convinced Li to adopt a baby. Is Li unable to have children, whether because of biology or work? If not, she'd likely have wanted her own baby with Jack. These are all questions I hope B&B answers for us in the coming weeks, though I'm tempted not to hold my breath, because more times than not, answers like that are not forthcoming.

Y&R told us that Sheila had Phyllis Summers' face and that Lauren shot "Pheila" dead. B&B told us that the story was exaggerated when Sheila showed back up with her own face. One or two lines of explanation would not be out of line here. And does Lauren even know that Sheila is alive and running around free in Los Angeles? You'd think one of her buddies in the Forrester family would have 4-1-1'd her about that and that Lauren would not take the news of Sheila being alive quietly.

Even if we only focus on the current moment, why is everyone taking it as gospel that Sheila is Finn's mother, just because she says he is? Yes, it seems more likely with the reveal that Jack got Sheila pregnant (which he has yet to confirm or deny), but even Felony Flo got tested via a DNA site before she was accepted as a Logan (and I'm sorry, but a 52% result remains pretty flimsy evidence to me).

Considering the Forrester-Logan-Spencers' penchant for paternity tests, I'm surprised they didn't yank Finn out of his wedding reception and get his cheek swabbed to make sure Sheila wasn't actually his mom. And/or demand that Sheila prove her claim. We, the viewers, need verification. I really hope we're not just going to be expected to take Sheila's, and now Jack's, word for it.

After all, we only have Sheila's word for it that Diana is her kid, and Y&R's Daisy and Ryder merely said they were. Only Mary is Sheila's official offspring. All the more reason we need documented proof about Finn. And the odds of Sheila's possible reformation shrunk when Sheila snarled at Jack that she wasn't going anywhere and that she was going to know her son, or Jack would regret it!

Whaddaya think, Scoopers? Do you need more proof of Sheila's claims, or are you ready to take her at face value? Do you think Finn is risking his marriage by promising to protect Steffy and the kids from Sheila on the one hand and swearing Paris to secrecy about Sheila's contact on the other? Do you think Eric is up to something by taking Quinn back? And, with Quinn declaring her love to Carter, should she have reunited with Eric in the first place? Make your allegiances 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 don't know about anyone else, but I'm Sheila'd out. Back in the day, Sheila was must-see TV. Now, when she is brought back, TPTB don't seem to know what to do with her. I hope we at least get a good back story on why Sheila put Finn up for adoption (if she is truly his mother). I'm guessing that Jack is Finn's bio dad as well. I sure hope this story line goes somewhere interesting and doesn't result in ending SINN and sending Steffy back to pining for Lame Liam!" -- "thomascd"

"'Moments after Steffy clicked 'send,' a shadowy figure checked an email account and got a full view of the upcoming Forrester-Finnegan nuptials. This person then zoomed in on Finn. But hold the modem! Steffy posted this on social media. Not to individual email accounts! How could B&B get this wrong?'I just assumed that Sheila had a clippings service notify her whenever Finn's name appeared anywhere in the media. One of my friends has a son who is a local celebrity in another state and she gets emails all the time from the clippings service that have the original social media post attached." -- "DaffySez"

Good point, "DaffySez" -- this is not something that would have occurred to me, never having subscribed to such a service. But why do I still get the feeling it was a mistake on B&B's part and not something they did on purpose?

And I have to agree with "thomascd" -- Sheila's 2017 return wasn't her best. The character would be far better served being reformed, but not completely able to control herself, as during Sheila's 1992-1998 appearance. I, too, hope Sheila doesn't end up being another reason Steffy and Liam gravitate back toward each other. Hasn't it been refreshing that we haven't seen Liam, Hope, or Thomas the past two weeks?

It's like a different show -- one that's got Sheila back in the mix, and there are still a metric ton of questions her return poses, so keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And for soap's sake, get vaccinated! Because protecting yourselves and others from a virus and its variants is always beautiful.

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