The Soap Central B&B 2024 Half-Year Awards

The Daytime Emmys are happening, where B&B and its cast/crew are up for a slew of awards. But what would its on-screen antics take home if they got their own trophies? How would the appearances by Xander, Ivy, and Lauren; Luna's "special mint" sex; and Hope's relationship with Thomas fare? Don your sequins and tuxedos with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your 2024 so far been bold and beautiful? Was your night of mistaken sex peppered with mints? Was your relationship like Philadelphia in that it was one of brotherly love? To spice up a murder, did you just add Sugar? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Avant-Finnegan-Nozawa clan the first six months of the year!

The Daytime Emmys are upon us, Scoopers! Yep, on Friday, awards were given out among the soap, talk, and "reality" show worlds, and B&B was certainly up for a bunch of 'em (I am writing this before the awards)! For Lead Performances in a Daytime Drama Series, Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) is nominated for Lead Actress, with Scott Clifton (Liam), Thorsten Kaye (Ridge), and John McCook (Eric) for Lead Actor, while Jennifer Gareis (Donna) is being considered for Supporting Actress, as Ashley Jones (Bridget) is for Guest Performance.

Meanwhile, B&B itself has been submitted for Daytime Drama Series, Writing Team, Directing Team, Technical Direction/Camera/Video, and Costume Design. You can catch all the winners on CBS and Paramount -- and you know you're gonna get all the deep dish here on Soap Central, as always. Delicious!

So, in light of all that, since B&B's stories themselves don't get any noms, I thought it might be fun to put them up for awards myself in a very special half-year column. I mean, while some arcs have been bold and beautiful for sure, some have been head-scratching, while others have simply been totally out there! Let's get all dressed up and see what fiction is up for these fictional top spots in the first half of 2024. Shall we?

Hope and Finn were fated to develop an unusual relationship ever since their parents, Deacon and Sheila, respectively, went public with their more-than-unusual pairing. Who else could better understand the bizarro world nature of lovers whose combined rap sheets are even longer than a CVS receipt?

The friendship between Finn and Hope started out sweet, but as a rift developed between Finn and Steffy over Sheila's aliveness/deadness/aliveness, and Hope lost the second man she lost her first man over, there seemed to be hints that the like-tempered Hope and Finn might be better suited to each other. These were only hints until Finn gave Hope an unexpected massage, and Hope started flashing back to it.

Hope's judgment has been questionable since she got the hots for sometime-stepbrother Thomas, and Finn has been so fixated on his birth mother that he even soaked his hands in what he thought was her blood like it was a dish of Palmolive. Could Finn and Hope find themselves writing themselves a prescription for romance?

It's true, Thope burned up the sheets, and other surfaces, enough that viewers were pulled in by their heat. So much so that it's been easy for people to forget that Hope and Thomas have always been part of an extended family -- and, for a while, they grew up together in the same house. B&B has gone all-in on psuedo-incestuous relationships since Ridge first locked lips with former daughter Bridget in 2003, but landing Thomas and Hope in bed was a step too far for these stepsiblings.

Thomas, supposedly reformed off-screen after his multiple rides on the crazy train, made a show of giving Hope space but couldn't help proposing to Hope three times and putting the pressure on after each knee bend. Hope, only wearing Thomas' ring on a chain, must have known deep down that the entanglement had knots in it the Boy Scouts couldn't untie and gently jilted her designer, prompting the boo-hoo Thomas to take Douglas and run away to Paris...at Steffy's urgent urging.

Our soap would be wise to leave Thope stored deep in the closet with Thomas' Hope mannequin, because there's a difference between being bold and being too close for comfort.

Xander Avant, who had moved back to London after being Forrester fired for his part in keeping the existence of baby Beth a secret, showed up in L.A. after five years...to go to the doctor? More incredibly, his physician ended up being Finn, brother-in-law to Thomas, Xander's former tormentor. Xander filled Finn's files with the story of how Thomas had run Xander's ex, Emma, off the road and left her to die (even though Xander wasn't an eyewitness) to stop her from blabbing to Beth's real mom, Hope.

Finn went on alert and became determined to use the info to break up Hope's already twisted relationship with Thomas. Xander disappeared from the canvas, but soon, so did Finn's mission after a few arguments with Thomas, and Hope reconsidering being with a suspected murderer for about three seconds. Bringing Xander back to get Finn fired up about this forgotten major element of Thomas' evil past had so much promise, but B&B threw it down a ravine just like they did with poor Emma.

Luna's paternity has been a great big question mark since her first appearance last September, but as 2024 began, potential answers to it began emerging. Given Bill's 20-years-ago one-nighter with Poppy, Bill had to be the pop. But then, for Li to hate Poppy so much, surely Poppy got popped by Li's husband, Jack. After all, Jack had already cheated, and Poppy was staying with the Finnegans the year before Luna was born. That meant Finn was also under the same roof as Poppy! Could Finn and Luna be more than cousins?

The query was dropped as quickly as it had ramped up in favor of Luna's oopsie sex with Zende and the Sheila/Sugar saga. Now, the culprit (er, father) seems to have been revealed in the form of Bill, unless DNA test administrator Li fooled with the results. But why was there such a rush to get that blank filled, only to let it languish for months? The interrupt watered down any suspense, and the current rapid resolution isn't making up for it. (Why ex-wife Katie is all butt-hurt by Bill having another insta-child is another question entirely...)

One of the many repercussions of Luna hopping on Zende while hopped up was the possibility -- or, this being a soap, the probability -- that Luna would find herself with child. This seemed to come to light after a few months when Luna horked up in one of Forrester Creations' wastebaskets and ran out to buy a pregnancy test. She did her bit on the stick, but when it came time to find out what the test said, Luna had the visiting Poppy read the results to her.

Poppy reported that the result was negative and advised Luna to put her Z-rated night out of her mind for good. But who takes a pregnancy test and doesn't confirm the results for themselves? Plus, Poppy, receiving blame from every side for "drugging" Luna when all she did was leave her chalked-up Chiclets out for Luna to find, could easily have told Luna what she wanted to hear to buy everyone some time.

Of course, if that's the case, biology would quickly betray Poppy's misreading as Luna started to show, but the way the prospect of Luna being pregnant was glossed over, it sure left a giant door open for a baby carriage to be rolled through.

Any relative newcomer to B&B, or viewer who's never watched Y&R, had to have been left scratching their heads when copious mentions of someone named Sugar got scooped up just after Sheila died. It took Sheila's visiting Genoa City nemesis, Lauren Fenmore, to school Deacon on the fact that Sugar was an old accomplice of Sheila's...whom Sheila had forced to get plastic surgery...to look just like Sheila!

This face-switching story had played out on Y&R in 2005 and had been long buried in the annals of soap history. So, for B&B to dig it back out to service Sheila's latest return from the dead was actually brilliant. It also tied in because it was B&B who introduced Sugar, in her original visage of Robin Mattson, in 2003. And Sugar wanting revenge for Sheila fooling with her face aligned with Sugar's first attempt at retribution, where she stabbed Lauren's son, Scotty Grainger, pretending to be Sheila.

B&B even hatched a gargantuan Easter egg by making Sugar's given name Janet Webber -- a cross between Mattson's AMC character, Janet Green, and her GH character, Heather Webber! Geeking out! (Though if Sheila's alive, and it wasn't Sugar with Phyllis Summers' face that Lauren shot in 2007...who did Lauren kill?)

There was a time when soap characters mistakenly sleeping with the wrong people was a lot more in vogue. A drunken OG Caroline thinking she was in bed with Thorne; Y&R's Drucilla, having downed too much cough syrup, thinking she was shagging her husband and not his brother. But it's not the '80s and '90s anymore, and with the advent of the #MeToo movement, such a story is no longer palatable. Even when Thomas seduced an incapacitated Caroline 2.0 in 2015, viewers cried foul.

Repeating this type of tale today, with Luna sexing Zende but seeing R.J., was the ultimate in tone deafness. It might have been novel to have the offending water muddier be infused mints instead of OTC medicine, prescription drugs, or alcohol, but the overarching distaste of the story remained. To add insult to injury, Luna gave Zende, who should have known better, a free pass, while everyone rained hell on Poppy instead of taking R.J. to task for not seeing an obviously stoned Luna home.

In its wake, Zende is treating Luna like an unrequited love, making the whole affair even more nauseating. This storyline should have stayed in the 20th century where it belonged.

The soap news sites lit up like an old telephone switchboard. Ashleigh Brewer was coming back! Ashleigh Brewer was coming back! What would the arrival of her B&B alter ego, Ivy, herald? Would she turn out to be Thomas' new girlfriend? Would she lock horns with Steffy again? Would she cause a ruckus by resuming work at Forrester? The possibilities were endless!

Alas, those possibilities ended up being mostly in our minds, because, as of yet, a stopped-over Ivy appeared for a scant two episodes in late April, showing up to simply let Liam know that she still had designs on him. Sure, Ivy raised Steffy's ire when Steffy caught Ivy kissing Liam, but that's all we got. Either the show dropped the ball by already letting a month elapse before continuing Ivy's new arc, or the hype surrounding her return was just that -- hype.

Would it be asking too much to one day get a scene with Ivy and her half-sister Jessica Forrester, who hasn't been seen since 1996? Would it?

The bride wore black. The groom wore gray. The officiant was a homeless guy. And instead of a shotgun wedding, the ceremony had a shotgun maid of honor and best man. Yes, we didn't need Miss Cleo to predict that the nuptials of Deacon Sharpe and Sheila Carter would be as off-the-wall as the characters are, but undoubtedly none of us envisioned the bride as having just come back from the dead...again.

Hope had at least grudgingly agreed to stand up for Sheila, but Hope had no idea she'd end up trading glances with a squirming Finn, who obliviously showed up to pick up a pizza; that's what he gets for not availing himself of the hundreds of other such eateries in his immediate area. It's undeniable that Deacon brings something sweeter out of Sheila, which showed as they exchanged their vows, and of course, there were the toe-shaped pastries. Why not?

It looks as if the down-on-his-luck Tom will be sticking around awhile, since Deacon has just employed him. Could the rumors that Tom is Deacon's biodad be true?

B&B has gotten into a nasty habit of sending major characters on their way with nary an explanation or even an exit scene. Rick, Maya, Flo, Quinn, Taylor...and, late last year, Wyatt vanished after having had his house bought out from under him without even giving him a new set to populate. Given how prevalent ten-year veteran Wyatt had been, at least in the first half of his decade, his being ghosted seemed especially egregious.

So, how cool was it when, in January, Wyatt returned to the screen one last time to make his departure official? Granted, it was nothing earth-shattering: Wyatt handed over his keys to new tenant R.J. (even though Taylor was the new owner of the crib) and jawed with his papa about Bill's new/old squeeze, Poppy. No dramatic plot twist, or unexpected death, or grandiose speech, but at least Wyatt's leave-taking got an acknowledgement.

No final chat with Liam, though? Really?

Speaking of the Waffle Prince himself (Ridge will always rule as King), Liam found himself with precious little to do beginning last summer, after he spied Hope kissing Thomas in Rome and responded by instantly kissing Steffy. Shades of 2011, right? Perhaps even B&B noticed Liam's umpteenth return to form, because months after his divorce from Hope and repeated attempts to lure Steffy from Finn, Mr. Cooper Spencer seemed to finally be getting a clue.

Liam actually voiced awareness of his nonstop bouncing between Steffy and Hope and revealed that he was worried about the example he was setting for his formative-years daughters. He decided he needed to do some soul-searching -- his words! -- and focus on being the best possible father for Kelly and Beth. Didja ever think you'd see the day? Liam taking responsibility for his ultra-flaky behavior?

Of course, the show almost upended his growth by having Ivy throw herself at him mid-reflection, but Liam could have ditched his kids and followed Ivy back to Sydney, so he deserves a few points for that restraint, anyway.

Dateline: Genoa City, 2007. Lauren Fenmore shot her greatest enemy, Sheila Carter, to death, albeit as Sheila wore Phyllis Summers' face. And Lauren presumably breathed much easier the whole decade following -- but in 2017, Sheila (with her own mug!) showed up in Los Angeles, simply claiming rumors of her demise had been exaggerated. Did anyone named Forrester hurriedly call, email, text, or smoke signal Lauren to let her know Sheila was among the living?

Nope. And so it went through all of Sheila's son-adding, sentence-serving, toe-severing escapades. Even when Lauren came to a Forrester showing last fall, as Sheila roamed freely across town, Lauren remained in the dark. That is, until Deacon started wondering why "Sheila's" ten toes didn't add up to nine, and Lauren relayed Sugar's story to him, expressing relief that Sheila no longer took in air. And when Sheila did the phoenix thing yet again, Eric was shown telling Lauren so on the phone.

It should never have taken seven years to bring Lauren up to speed about Sheila. Still, unless Sheila "dies" again sometime soon, at least Lauren knows now that she needs to resume checking under her bed for monsters.

And that, fair Scoopers, is my take on 2024 so far! Did you agree with it? Did you not agree with it? Ya somewhere in between? Democracy still counts here, so express your opinions in the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback!

That's gonna do it for me for another two weeks, at which time I will be back to yap with you guys about all things B&B. What will the second half of the year (how is this year almost half over already? Yipes!) hold for our soap? Well, you know there's only one way to find that out. Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold!

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