This week on The Bold and the Beautiful, Steffy put Hope on notice, personally and professionally, while Finn knew not all superheroes wear lab coats, and Brooke insisted that Hope must not be held accountable for her actions.
There Is Hope for the Future, After All
At the much-anticipated showdown at the Forrester corral, Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), and Carter (Lawrence Saint-Victor) showed the utmost professionalism by allowing two people who do not even work for the company to play audience members during a directors' meeting.
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You don't need to be in the corporate world to know it was wrong to let Taylor (Rebecca Budig) and Finn (Tanner Novlan) be spectators. At least Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) works at Forrester Creations, but she has her own line and doesn't belong at the meeting, either.
Of course, the audience just added to the anticipation that Hope (Annika Noelle) would lose Hope for the Future. We could easily envision how Hope would be humiliated in front of her crush, Taylor would give a wide-eyed look to Ridge, and Brooke would use her inside shrill voice for Ridge or Carter to "dooooooo something."
However, Steffy shocked everyone by not canceling HFTF. Instead, she said she had studied the minds of the type of people who would buy (or, in this case, are not buying) Hope's clothes. For some confusing reason, Steffy thought that the do-good-for-the-world shoppers of today who don't want to spend their money on HFTF would one day become haute couture customers, and she wanted to keep them happy.
Despite HFTF's low numbers dragging down the company's profit margin, Steffy decided they could write off the current losses as some sort of marketing plan for the next generation. Even Ridge and Carter were on board for the cancellation, but Steffy saved Hope's line.
I Know What You Did This Summer
Hope didn't get to celebrate her non-loss for too long, though. She had only told one person the good news when Steffy came to Hope's office to clarify.
Steffy knew that HFTF sucked for years but still thought it had potential. However, she said she wouldn't make a professional decision based on personal feelings. She would, however, place a personal threat on that professional decision.
Steffy told Hope she is to stay away from Finn—or HFTF gets the axe. Brooke came in and rolled her eyes, realizing that they were talking about "this" again. Apparently, it was an inconvenience to Brooke that she had intentionally overheard something.
Brooke was already irritated that Taylor had an opinion about Steffy's personal and business decisions. Brooke also got worked up when she realized that Ridge didn't seem too interested in making business decisions based on personal relationships. But nothing infuriated Brooke more than hearing Hope being called out for kissing Steffy's husband. That is just a line that you do not cross.
Now, in a situation where Hope is being accused of acting like her mother, one would think that Brooke could've—and should've—sat this one out. But Brooke not only defended Hope; she also made promises on her daughter's behalf.
Hope said nothing as Brooke adamantly swore that Hope's lips would never touch Finn's again. Unsurprisingly, Steffy didn't accept Brooke as a credible reference.
Hope's unforgettable kiss
Finn ran into Hope at Il Giardino, and she broke up with him. Finn said it was probably best that they didn't spend any more time together because of the kiss she had planted on him. Steffy's threat must have worked because Hope didn't even complain that Steffy gave her an ultimatum.
Finn wanted to know why Hope had kissed him. Hope didn't give him an answer or point out that he kissed her back.
Hope said that she cared too much for him. She watched him pick up lunch for all the nurses at the hospital then drifted back into a Finn-centric daydream.
The Doctor Is In
Finn returned to the office, and Brooke showed up to try reverse psychology on him. Brooke insisted that Finn needed to forget about that kiss. Finn didn't know what she was talking about. Brooke repeated that Finn needed to stop thinking about that kiss. Finn said again that he didn't give it a second thought.
Brooke tried scolding Finn for not trying to forget about the kiss. Finn said it was the last thing on his mind. Brooke insisted that Finn get that kiss out of his head right now. Finn shook his head and said, "Nope, still got nothing in there."
Brooke didn't understand communicating with a man who wasn't under her spell. She tried one more time to tell Finn that he had to let it go, and that's when it happened: Finn became my hero.
Finn looked Brooke dead in the eye and laughed at her ridiculousness. He said not only did he not think about that event she mentioned at all, but Brooke was the one who came to him to talk about it, not the other way around.
Brooke gave up on hypnotizing Finn with thoughts of kissing Hope and instead turned her attention to Steffy. She told Finn that his wife couldn't be trusted and that he needed to convince Steffy to leave Hope alone. Finn immediately went home and told Steffy everything.
Reunited, and it feels so good
With Hope put in her place and Brooke ignored, Steffy and Finn made time for each other to reconnect at home.
I'm not going to lie; I fast-forwarded through most of that. But it was probably tender and loving, and I'm sure Finn and Steffy reconfirmed their commitment to one another.
Making love to her husband was probably extra special for Steffy now that she knows she's married to a superhero. I'm also going to assume that Finn was not thinking about Hope's kiss.
Taylor-made conversations
Okay, so Taylor's back. A couple of you might wonder what that means for Brooke and Ridge, and you might hope for another love triangle.
For most of this week, we saw the typical scenes and conversations that we anticipated: Taylor and Ridge walked down memory lane, Taylor sat in on Forrester meetings, Taylor argued about morals and bad behavior with Brooke, Taylor was worried about Steffy, etc.
Taylor visited with Eric and Ridge, who made her feel as welcome as family. She professionally assessed Hope's "learned behavior" (lookin' at you, Brooke) and confessed that she'd spied on Ridge in Monte Carlo. Taylor and Ridge shared some warm and fuzzy moments, as usual, and Taylor noted that he still hasn't married Brooke.
Later, Taylor assured Brooke she hadn't returned for a love triangle. Brooke was so happy that she asked if they could be friends. Taylor wasn't that into it, so they talked about how Hope needed to stop kissing Steffy's husband. Brooke said everyone should believe that Hope had accidentally hit on Finn.
All normal stuff. Until…the very last scene of the week, when—plot twist—Taylor visited Li (Naomi Matsuda) and confided that in Europe, her doctor had said Taylor had a heart condition, and she was going to die.
The CEO's office is the Logans' lunchroom
The Logan sisters had lunch together in Eric's office and talked about love and relationships. Katie (Heather Tom) lamented that she hadn't been lucky in love, but they all agreed that Brooke had scored with Ridge.
Katie and Donna (Jennifer Gareis) cherry-picked history. They gushed about how they have Brooke and Ridge's relationship on a pedestal. Like us, Katie and Donna worried that with Taylor back in town, Brooke should be concerned that she's about to share her man in another love triangle.
Katie offered her and Donna's stalking services, but Brooke said she wasn't on high alert anymore. Brooke said she trusted Ridge more than ever and wasn't concerned about Taylor.
Elsewhere in L.A.
Finn kept his cape on long enough to play big brother to R.J. (Joshua Hoffman). He summoned R.J. to his office to find out how R.J. was handling the Luna (Lisa Yamada) disaster.
R.J. was doing pretty well, and he was already hoping he would fall in love again one day. Finn didn't think R.J. had enough to burden his thoughts, so Finn reminded R.J. that R.J. was half Logan and half Forrester. R.J. said it was rough, especially when his sisters didn't get along.
Captain Deuce (Tom Arnold) came by the hospital to get some test results, but he's okay. He just had a funny bone.
Finally, Liam chatted with Steffy and said he couldn't believe Hope was a homewrecker.
So, now what happens? Will Hope keep her word and keep her lips to herself? Or will she stop daydreaming about Finn and focus on bringing up HFTF's numbers before Ridge axes her line himself?
Is Taylor actually dying? If she is, she has gone to the right doctor. Li has brought people back to life before.
But if Li can't save her, will Ridge fulfill Taylor's dying wish and love her until her last breath? Would Brooke wait for him after lending him out?
And now that Liam has accepted that he's not Steffy's husband, will he just wait for Ivy to return? Or will Hope use him to distract herself from Finn?
Until next time!
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.
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