Bill won the battle of Caroline, but he might lose the war of principles between him and Liam. Though Bill succeeded in reuniting Thomas and Caroline with the fake illness, Bill's brutality and criminal ways precipitated a civil war in the Spencer family. Liam executed a hostile takeover of Spencer Publications, but slap queens Brooke and Steffy don't know what to be angrier about -- Bill commissioning arson or giving Liam the beatdown for threatening to rat Bill out to the cops.
In this week's Two Scoops, we remember who hauled off and clipped Liam since he came to town. Relationships will be ripped apart and new ones will form when people choose sides in Liam's power grab. The honeymoon just might be over for Brooke and Bill, and Steffy and Liam.
In case you missed it, Bill and Justin played along with Liam's little coup, but Bill left Liam in a stupor on the floor with a cut over his eye that is bound to leave physical and emotional marks on Liam. Steffy blasted Bill for punching his son, but Bill appealed to her to help him reach out to Liam. Steffy was disconcerted by Liam's refusal to budge, and Liam warned Steffy that Bill was just using her to get his power back.
Brooke looked at Bill sideways, perplexed because he just ain't acting right. He wouldn't tell her why he suddenly needed to take a leave of absence from Spencer or why he had to put Liam at the helm. While she wasn't one to look a vacation stallion in the mouth, she found herself unable to even look at Bill once he confessed to ordering the fire at Spectra and punching out his son for making him resign as punishment.
Neither Steffy nor Brooke knows who her husband is anymore, and as usual, Wyatt is the last to know what the heck is going on in his own family. Until Liam called Wyatt into Liam's office, Wyatt had no idea that a conspiracy had even been brewing. Liam might have to pick himself up off the floor again once Wyatt learns what Liam did to gain his newfound power.
The Spencer family is splitting at the paternal seam; however, I'm still stuck on why Steffy and Brooke can hand out slaps like they're free facelifts, but the women are somehow incensed that Bill would strike Liam. Frankly, that smackdown might be the best thing to ever happen to Liam. He needed a little fathead deflation because his power over Bill is swelling his ego.
Liam haters like me needed Bill to strike the whiner down before we booked private jets to L.A. to rub Liam out personally. I don't have a lot of money, but the ticket would have gone to a good cause. And I wouldn't be the first person out to body slam or kill Liam, either. Disgruntled citizens have been slapping down the hero in Liam's own mind ever since he got to town, including his wife.
Liam's Decade of Smackdowns
Surprisingly, Steffy the Barbarian is outraged by Bill hitting Liam. She claws Quinn down like a bear mauling prey but acts like the world ended because Bill hit her punk husband. Then there's Brooke, who stands around with her mouth open like a fly trap because Bill has done the most vile and disgusting thing she's ever heard of.
I doubt that, Brooke. I've been following you since before following was a thing, and you've both heard of and been involved in more vile and disgusting things than Bill hitting Liam. Sure, Bill cracked Liam's eye socket, but I recall many jaws that Brooke tried to relocate in her day. Taylor, Katie, and Stephanie probably can recall it, too.
One could argue that Bill owed it to Liam, who socked Bill across the face back when the two were first discovering each other. Bill didn't flinch at the hit, and he concluded that Liam just might be his son, after all. Liam, on the other hand, convulsed on the floor as if he'd been electrocuted when Bill hit him. Liam's a wimp just like Quinn has always said, but maybe this hit can spark Liam's testosterone, and he can finally grow a backbone.
In the real world, Steffy's words hold true: we need to use our words and not our hands. In the reel world, using the self-important Liam as a tee ball stand can be a fun stress reliever. Here's a list of people who relieved stress by squeezing that rubber head of Liam's over the years.
The smacks felt around the kitchen island
Stephanie Forrester's smacks are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. You might get a smack first, a smack back, or a smack intervention, which is when she catches your arm mid-swing and holds it there, turning you from a badass aggressor to spoiled weak sauce. For Liam, Stephanie had a special technique that I call the smack attack.
The year was 2010, and Liam had just arrived on the scene. He became the prime suspect in tampering with Steffy's laptop to replace her Brooke tribute video with a scandalous video that outed Brooke for having sex with Oliver. Stephanie slapped Liam, and when he tried to evade her, she chased him around the kitchen island in the guesthouse, swiping at him until he confessed what he knew about the source of the video.
Ridge clocks Liam over the Brooke video scandal
After Stephanie was finished berating Liam into revealing that Justin had tampered with Steffy's laptop, she dragged Liam into Ridge's office to force Liam to tell Ridge who had really made the scandalous video of Brooke and Oliver. Ridge reared back to punch Liam for making Ridge believe Steffy had made it, but Liam begged Ridge not hit Liam because Liam was Ridge's son.
Kind of ironic, huh? Liam thought that being someone's son would save him from a beatdown, but Brooke and Steffy are losing their poo because Liam's father hit him. As it turned out, Liam wasn't Ridge's son, and Liam's claim to it is what ultimately made Ridge sock Liam.
Steffy Hulks out on Liam
Steffy knows good and well what it's like to be in Bill's shoes and have Liam yank the magic carpet from beneath her dreams. When she returned in 2015, she thought that she and Liam were finally going to be together, but when she arrived at Liam's house with parachute toys and crinkle fries to celebrate their reunion, she learned that, instead of breaking up with Ivy Forrester, Liam had married her to keep her in the country.
While Liam shot his mouth off about how the marriage changed nothing between Steffy and him, Steffy saw red. She fronthanded Liam harder than a tennis racket drives a tennis ball, and Steffy swung at the table, the dishes, and the chairs, too.
Liam thought he was being a good world citizen by marrying Ivy solely to make her an American citizen, but Steffy was tired of sharing her man and coming in second with Liam. She was as mad as hell that he hadn't considered her before he'd done it. Telling Liam time and time again with her words just wasn't working, but he understood her hulk-out loud and clear.
Liam complained to Steffy about Bill treating Liam the same way Liam had treated Steffy when she'd slapped him. Liam said it hadn't mattered to Bill that he'd punched his son or that Sally had talent, because Bill would take down anyone in his way. Likewise, Liam insists on "doing the right thing" regardless of who he hurts.
For example, Liam married Ivy at Steffy's expense. Liam saw Ivy off at the airport without bothering to check in with Steffy. Liam took over Spencer Publications without considering his brother, and Liam splintered his family to give Sally a design career that puts her in direct competition with his wife. Does it really matter to Liam who in his family gets hurt if they stand in the way of him patting himself on the back for doing what he thinks is right?
Wyatt's fist meets Liam's hard head
In 2014, Liam was insistent upon protecting Hope, Bill, and the Forresters from Quinn and Wyatt. At the time, Ridge was MIA after the helicopter fall, and Liam was squawking to anyone with eardrums about how it was Quinn's fault because she'd shown Ridge a picture of her and Bill in bed.
Liam derided Quinn for her deeds and taunted her with threats of making her lose her job for her actions. Quinn claimed she'd been protecting Bill from Brooke. "I'd take any woman over you. You are a vile, evil, manipulative bitch!" Liam quipped.
Bam! Bam! Two hits came out of nowhere. Wyatt hit Liam, and Liam hit the floor. The punch plugged Liam in his nose, but Wyatt should have plugged Liam in his mouth, so Liam would stop running it. Even with a handkerchief pressed to his face, Liam managed to whine about becoming the punching bag when Quinn was responsible for Ridge's disappearance.
"I'll talk to whoever I have to, but you two are gone from Forrester Creations," Liam asserted. It's the same tune Liam sang when he blackmailed Bill. Back then, Liam used Quinn's so-called bad behavior and Wyatt's assault to get what he wanted -- Quinn and Wyatt out of Forrester and Hope's life. Liam hasn't changed. This week, he used Bill's bad behavior to justify Liam blackmailing Bill out of Spencer, and when Liam goaded Bill until he was mad enough to strike, Liam blamed Bill for that, too.
Again -- people shouldn't hit people, but at what point is Liam to blame for goading them into it? Liam volunteers his opinions of people in the nastiest ways possible. When listening to him go off on his moral tirades, my fists clench, and sometimes, I yell, "Will you shut up? Damn!"
Liam's condescending tone drips with blame and contempt, and I get peeved just listening to it. It's obvious that he enjoys telling others how beneath him they are. Can you imagine how it feels to be constantly stalked by the superior morals police?
Bill does not spare the rod on the spoiled child
So that brings us to the present, where Bill is snarling mad at his spoiled "boy" for betraying him after all Bill has done for Liam. Bill has pretty much given Liam everything from putting a roof over Liam's head, to dressing him, finding him a wife, lining his pockets, and giving him a career. It was my pleasure to watch Bill give Liam one more thing -- a well-deserved attitude adjustment.
Liam had better be glad that it was all Bill did, but Bill also warned Liam that his decimation is coming. It's a heads-up Ridge didn't get before he went tumbling into the sea, so Liam ought to be grateful.
Bill became conciliatory with Steffy and Brooke, and he pretended to feel sorry for socking Liam. Liam told Steffy not to fall for it, and he might be right about that one. Bill hasn't stopped stewing over the way Liam barreled in with the nerve to think he could throw Bill out of his own business and teach Bill a lesson.
Liam had better keep watching his back because Bill isn't going to sit around in Liam's timeout corner, reflecting on what Liam said Bill did wrong. No. Bill is in his boxing corner, lacing up for the next knockdown round with Liam. And Bill's getting prepped on Liam's weaknesses by his boxing coach, Justin.
Double-O Justin and secret agent Wyatt
Please say I'm not the only one who heard James Bond music when Justin swore his allegiance to Liam and then leaked the details of the meeting to Dollar Bill Spencer. Liam is an amatuer at a high stakes poker game, and he has no idea that, no matter how good his hand looks, the house always wins in the end. Especially if it's Bill's house.
Liam showed how inexperienced he is when he kept Justin and Alison, Bill's right and left hands, on at Spencer. When Katie took over, those two were the first to go, because Katie, unlike Liam, understood that Alison and Justin are not Bill's forced labor. In Liam's rescue revenge fantasy, he thinks he's setting the captives free, but what if the people who work for Bill do so because they like Bill? Because they think like Bill, they enjoy their booming employee stock, and they get off on being a little ruthless from time to time?
Wyatt said as much to Katie when he talked about his desire to take over at Spencer someday. He believes he's very much like his father, and he's proud of Bill, not ashamed like Liam. Katie isn't attracted to Mini-Bill by accident, either. Wyatt is just enough like Bill to hold her interest, and Wyatt is different enough to maintain her sanity -- for now.
But what happens to Katie and Wyatt when Wyatt finds out what Liam did to their father? Will she be willing to slide out of the sheets to help Wyatt battle Liam in the boardroom the way Wyatt helped her pull off the fashion show at the summit? I don't know. Katie's been slipping ever since she got herself a man. She can't even be bothered to go in to work these days.
Dating a younger man is about to get more complicated for Katie because Wyatt isn't gung-ho about Liam's plan to convert Spencer into a nonprofit Justice League. They are company executives, not Clark Kent and Peter Parker. Contrary to Liam's misguided belief, even Bruce Wayne had to make sure Wayne Enterprises turned a profit.
Maybe after watching Steffy run Forrester, Liam thinks it's so easy that Captain Caveman can do it, but how is he going to save the world without funds? It's easy to toss away millions when you aren't responsible for the bottom line. We'll see how generous Liam will be when he has to choose between buying himself hero Underoos or getting Grams a new car so she no longer needs help crossing the street.
Hopefully, it won't get that far, and Bill will get control of the business back before Liam turns the Spencer building into a homeless condominium. Bill will probably appeal to Wyatt's sense of ambition, promise him the CEO chair in the future, and enlist him as one of Bill's spies until Bill eventually outplays, outmaneuvers, and outlasts Liam.
My bets are on Bill because the show would be nothing without its mega-rich, moustache-combing villain. I just wonder what the relationship landscape will look like when Bill finally reclaims the big-boy chair and fastens Liam back into his highchair.
As the Spencer alliances shift, romantic relationships will do-si-do along with them. Ridge is sniffing around Brooke at just the wrong time for Bill. It might be the reason Brooke is so eager to get away from Bill. Whatever happened to not walking out on him? Isn't that the very thing Brooke warned Katie not to do when Katie was fed up with Bill?
Liam is turned off by Steffy's misguided support for Bill, but that support might attract Bill to Steffy, the only person on his side so far. Steffy is emotionally vulnerable now that she's seeing her husband's dark side. Liam taking in the new rescue kitten, Sally, won't sit well with Steffy, who vowed not to share Liam's attention with another woman again. It seems to be time again for another game of musical relationships, but who ends up without a partner on the next round?
Let the music play; he'll still get away
For now, Sally Spectra is the loner. She took the advice of eighties singer Shannon to let the music play, but Thomas still got away. In case you missed it, according to Soap Central news, Pierson Fodé, who plays Thomas Forrester, is leaving the show. Along with him goes Tally, the same way Tasha disappeared when Thomas went off to New York while Fodé was away from the show last fall.
Each of Thomas' sojourns has been to pursue Caroline and Douglas off-screen, which robs the viewers of any chance to connect with Carmas. Each of his departures has also been under screwed-up circumstances that make it even harder to root for them as a couple. Viewers had mixed opinions about Carmas through the Douglas paternity scandal, but we can agree it's unfair that Robin Thug Bill stole Thomas from the poor woman and gave him to the rich one.
Why isn't Super Liam righting this wrong for Sally, too? Bill suspects it's because Liam has a thing for Sally. It's just like Bill to point out the obvious and be correct, whether anyone appreciates him for it or not. When he shared the suspicion with Steffy, she glared at him like Maya did on the Spencer jet when Bill pointed out the obvious about Nicole and Lizzy.
Steffy thinks the idea that her husband might be attracted to Sally is ridiculous. Katie thought the same thing about Brooke and Bill, but look who was in Katie's old bedroom, getting ready to model surfwear for Bill. Liam falling for Sally might be exactly what Steffy deserves for going along with Bill's plan to break up Sally and Thomas in the first place.
If the savior complex fits, Liam will commit. With Hope, it began with a rescue from the press. With Steffy and Ivy, it was drowning rescues. This time, Liam saves the damsel from a fire and the wrath of Bill Spencer. I'm sorry for all the Steffy and Liam fans out there, but I'm here to tell you that if it happened to Hope and Liam fans, it will happen to you, too.
Bill got rich off his ability to exploit the emotional blood he smells in the water, so Steffy had better get to checking in behind her man. Liam is already keeping the land deal a secret from her -- as if he can really keep it a secret how broke Sally wound up with the property. Liam's helping out Steffy's competition, and it will only get worse from here. Next thing you know, Steffy will be plotting to lure a Thomas recast to town to save her marriage from Sally.
I can't believe I spent weeks jumping all over Sally for being insecure about her relationship with Thomas, and as it turns out, she was right to be insecure. My jaw hit my breastbone when I heard that Caroline pulled a miracle healing, and Thomas decided to just stay in New York. Where did he learn his sense of commitment? Ridge?
Sally was standing in her burned office when she got the call. Thomas had good news for her. "You're coming home?" she guessed. Thomas was like, "Ah, nah. Caroline is in remission, and I'm staying in New York. But if it's any consolation, I'll be thinking of you while I'm lying in bed at night with her."
Thomas tried to tell Sally he loved her, but he had to make a family for Douglas, something Thomas never had while growing up -- except he did have it with Ridge and Brooke, who blended their families until Taylor returned from the dead when Thomas was almost an adult. Just saying, writers!
Sally wasn't trying to hear it. She was like, "Fine. I gotta go. Click." Coco hugged Sally, and Sally cried it out in her sister's arms.
Thomas abandoned Sally, and he abandoned Spectra. He sucks in romance and in business. He proved as much to his father, who told him not to get involved with Sally or Spectra in the first place. What was Thomas' point of plopping down a hundred thousand and then some to play around for a few months at Spectra?
Must be nice to drop your careers, homes, and businesses on whims like Caroline and Thomas did. I'm waiting to see if he's even going to bother to send some money to help rebuild Spectra. I mean, he is supposed to be her partner. Why should she have to take out bank loans against the land when Thomas can help fund the reconstruction?
On the bright side for Ridge, at least he can stop living in his car now that Thomas has abandoned the loft. Ridge will be rooming there with Steffy if Bill is right in his hunch about Sally and Liam. I fully expect Steffy to walk right out the cliff house door the very moment Liam starts acting all distracted from his takeout by flashbacks of Steffy smearing cake on Sally.
By the way, don't you just love how Liam is playing CEO over at Spencer while still living in his daddy's house? That just says it all about, Liam, doesn't it? Liam lives in daddy's house, is married to daddy's former mistress, sits in daddy's chair, and gives away his daddy's money.
Is Bill right about Liam rescue-crushing on Sally? Spoilers indicate that Liam and Steffy could become estranged from each other as Steffy tries to negotiate peace between Liam and Bill. Liam's balls are finally dropping, his voice is getting deeper, and he's asserting his manhood to his father, something he missed out on, growing up. Next, he'll be snapping back at Steffy like a moody teenager would to his mother.
And Katie thinks it's easier dating a younger man. Not one who is retarded in his masculinity. Steffy has wasted years of her life, dealing with the emotionally adolescent Liam. Now that she's finally gotten him to treat her the way she wants to be treated, along comes a another woman shafted by Bill, and this woman is even more vulnerable and needy than Steffy was when Liam saved her in the bathtub after Bill had ended things with her.
Thomas Forrester has been recast three times since he became of age, and he might be recast again. If Thomas returns within a year or so, would he deserve to pick up where he left off with Sally? If I were Sally, I'd have a problem with Thomas walking out on me to make a life with another woman. I take exception to the idea that he says he loves me more than anything, but he doesn't choose to try to give his son a family with me.
Blended families are a reality of life, and as I said before about Thomas, he goes off half-cocked, making choices in the moment. If he can't stay committed to Sally as a business partner, to hell with him when it comes to marriage and family. We already see that Caroline had to be dying for him to make the choice to give Douglas a fantasy family life.
Maybe it's just me, but isn't that a little much to go through to hang onto a man? It's not sustainable, and Thomas will be back in Los Angeles the moment he becomes restless. Hopefully, Sally will have learned by then that she doesn't have time to reorder her life and pick up the pieces when he leaves yet again.
Let us know what you think about the Spencer civil war. Will Liam come out on top or become another of Bill's casualties? Can Bill and Liam's marriages survive it? Is there a way for Wyatt to make out like a bandit while Bill and Liam are at each other's throats? Until we scoop again, if you must punch out your son, the lasting scar had better be bold and beautiful, baby!
Chanel
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