Has your week been bold and beautiful? Were you of the opinion that rejection is the greatest aphrodisiac? Did you let your fingers do the walking and get yourself some beyond prison help? Did you come home hoping for no drama with a family that knows nothing but? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Walton clan this week!
Holy homecomings, Scoopers! Ridge Forrester Jr. is back in our screens for the first time in five years, and the adventurer/influencer's potential influence on his extended, very extra family could be an adventure. Across La-La Land, Bill's gone back to trying to reunite with a woman he hasn't been with since 2016, and Sheila, who should be cooling it on the backburner, is trying to heat things up with a mystery helper. Let's Scoop about it! (Extra credit if you get my reference to a string of '70s beer commercials in my title.)
Well, the news of one Ridge Forrester Jr.'s return made its way from Charlie's jesting lips (are we ever going to see Charlie and Pam marry? They've only been together ten years -- in real time!) to pretty much everybody in the Forrester-Logan brood. Initially exclusive to his parents, R.J.'s reappearance was soon also heralded by Hope, Taylor, Thomas, and Steffy.
Now, if you don't remember R.J., it's because, as a child, his scenes were limited. Our character profile for him should refresh some memories, but here's the gist: R.J. was born out of yet another of Brooke's paternity scandals; thinking Ridge had been burned to death after a scuffle with Sheila, Brooke had "grief sex" with Ridge's half-bro Nick and later didn't know which man had fathered her child. Hey, it happens.
Once that mess was sorted out, R.J. had two father figures in Ridge and Nick, depending on who Brooke was with at the time, alongside sister Hope. The sibs' biggest claim to fame up until that point was almost burning down the Logan manse. Actually, R.J. had a third father figure for a while, as well: Bill, who showed the boy his cache of money and guns. Wonder if R.J. still has the sword necklace he was gifted by the Dollah?
R.J. did the boarding school thing, then in 2016, he came back hoping to reunite his parents, like all good Forresters try to do. Didn't work. He logged some hours at Forrester Creations and crashed up Ridge's Camaro, letting bae Coco Spectra drive it. That's pretty much it. So, R.J. has a clean slate to work with. I hope he gets something more substantial to do this go-round.
So far, R.J. seems happy with his life as an "influencer" (whatever that is; my Gen X-ness is really showing here), and he managed to resist his pop's repeated -- and I do mean "repeated" -- attempts to get him to join the company payroll. Man, did Ridge overdo it, despite apparently knowing how R.J. "feels" about the fashion industry. That feeling was not defined, but it would be cool if R.J. continued to stand his ground.
How many otherwise independent characters have gotten sucked into the Forrester Creations vortex? Zende wanted to be a photographer and graphic designer, and now he's designing for Hope for the Future. Zoe was an artist but ended up being FC's top model. Paris was a social worker who now only does philanthropic stuff for Forrester. Even Brooke, who graduated college with a major in chemistry, gave up her original ambitions for FC.
I'm crossing my fingers that R.J. keeps following his own star now that he's "almost out of school," as Taylor said. I hope she meant out of college, because he was already 16 in 2016, and even in real time, R.J. is 19, having been born on-screen in 2004. Maybe Taylor misspoke; I can't see how R.J. would be in any kind of school, tooling around the world, posting about his escapades.
He did admit that being a Forrester had "opened some doors" for him. It must have, because moments after he uploaded a pic with his parents, it got 3,230 likes. R.J. said he was proud of being both a Forrester and a Logan, though Rick and Bridget both beat R.J. to that, and those scions actually are Forrester-Logan. We really ought to retcon the retcon that Ridge is a Marone. It would save so much trouble.
Speaking of trouble, R.J. wouldn't be with us again if his presence wasn't meant to stir some up. What impact do you think R.J. will have on the characters you love and the characters you love to hate? Taylor already prophesied to Thomas that Brooke and Ridge would likely reunite as a result of their son being home. Should Taylor care, since she and Brooke are supposed to be gals before pals?
Too bad Taylor is so gung-ho on the honesty and transparency she wants with Brooke, because the nothing-burger of Brooke being seen in lingerie with Ridge is going to end up being a much bigger deal than it needs to be. A more intriguing source of drama looks to be between R.J. and Thomas, even if R.J. stayed away to avoid getting caught up in his family's drama.
R.J. had apparently stayed in touch with everyone but his mother's victimizer, and Thomas hadn't been particularly anxious to keep up with his little half-bro, either, it came out. Thomas surmised it was because R.J. resented him for coming between Brooke and Ridge. This was confirmed when R.J. took Thomas aside and put Thomas on notice. R.J. knew everything Thomas had done in his latest round of wretchedness.
Thomas pleaded his case to R.J. and respected R.J.'s proposed watchful eye. They seemed to bond a bit after that, yet Thomas still seemed peeved that R.J. was there, as did Taylor. Hmm. R.J. had added that Braylor's friendship was another reason he came home. I wonder if the ladies' buddy-buddyness is going to buckle over R.J.'s return? I like Joshua Hoffman in the role so far, and again, I'd like to see R.J. in some significant story now that he's back.
Revisiting the vid of Hope and R.J. torching their mom's house made me think that maybe, at her core, Hope really does like to play with fire. Hope could barely hide blushing when Taylor, who was strangely allowed to stay for a Hope for the Future huddle that Taylor had nothing to do with, couldn't stop gushing about what a good team Thomas and Hope make.
Maybe Liam's Spencey senses are tingling, because he made another visit to Steffy to talk about Thomas, his development, and his intentions. Finn was very much not about it and basically told Liam to suck it up like he had before bailing on the waahmublance in favor of the real ambulances at his hospital. No matter what Steffy said to comfort him, Liam couldn't let go of his worrywarting about Thomas.
I giggled to myself as Steffy said she pinged when there was something with Thomas to be concerned about. Sure, that's why Steffy had no idea Thomas was back at it with his now-infamous self-rat-out to Child Protective Services, working to frame Brooke. Liam's broken record at least skipped to a different cut when he began wondering if there was something within Hope that kept pulling her to Thomas.
Liam knows! But Steffy doesn't; she was amazingly clueless as she rattled through the laundry list of connections between Hope and Thomas, skipping the Captain Obvious subjects of emotion and attraction. Steffy finally caught on, and Liam pooh-poohed the very topic he had brought up, but he's essentially answered his own question. Previews into spring and summer indicate Hope will continue battling desires for Thomas. And all I have to say is, whyyyyyyyyy? Just why?
Liam even blew off some lunch meeting with Wyatt and a client to bitch to Steffy about Thomas, and Wyatt wasn't pleased. Wyatt even channeled Bill as he slugged back whiskey and took Liam to task for not prioritizing. Don't the Spencer bros each have an office? Why are all their meetings at Il Giardino? (I know; cheaper to limit the number of sets.) And when will Wyatt get his own story? Where's Flo, for that matter? (Not that we care, just for completion.)
It was weird how Wyatt acted like Bill at the restaurant but tucked his tail between his legs as he and Liam tried to justify the purchase of some social media channel to their dad. Thankfully, Wyatt's spiritedness came back when dad announced he was rebooting his campaign to win back "his Katie." Neither Wyatt nor Liam was on board with Bill trying to make Katie their stepmom again.
And I don't blame them. As Chanel pointed out last week, Bill was already on that before COVID. I'll go one better. Bill and Katie haven't actually been a couple since 2016, y'all. It's true Will tried to matchmake them back together, but Batie never really gelled. So, why on earth is Bill, who at least became interesting during his sting of Sheila, on the Katie train again?
Batie seems to have their fans, but I don't know why -- if a man cheated on me with a younger lover and then locked me in a tower to keep me from busting him when he knew I had a heart condition, I would never reunite with him in the first place. Yet Katie already has, twice now. That ship has sailed and sailed and sailed, and Bill looks weak and pathetic for pursuing Katie for the thousandth time...especially after he made the same play for Brooke seconds after his last reach-out to Katie failed.
For her part, Katie was literally sweating from her raucous romp with Carter. I don't know if it was their first time, but it kind of seemed like it. And Katie, who only used to fantasize about tuxedoed studs as a teen, blunted reality by suddenly asking Carter, as they basked in their glow, what "it" had been like with Quinn. Wow, talk about a bucket of cold water!
"It was just so out of character for you," Katie noted. Strangely, Carter gave Katie the blow-by-blow (ahem) of his time with Quinn, wrapping up by admitting that it had just been sex with the leather-loving jewelry designer. I knew it! I'd said that the whole fall of 2021 when Quarter was making change behind Eric's back. But Carter and Katie, Carter said...they had made love.
That remains to be seen, but it was enough in the moment for Katie, who rebuffed the exact page in the playbook Carter knew Bill was working from. It was actually kind of hilarious for Carter to lay out the precise moves we were watching Bill make in the same episode. Will got mentioned a lot; is he coming home, too? B&B did say they were going to fill out the younger generation this year.
Let me make something perfectly clear. In the '90s, I was a ride-or-die Sheila fan. I even went to a soap event for the express purpose of meeting Kimberlin Brown. But at this point, Sheila has outlived her on-screen usefulness. Shooting Finn and Steffy last year was already a corner she couldn't be painted out of. Then we had the whole Misery thing with Finn, and a bear mauling that sounded like the end of Ms. Carter.
Not enough? Sheila shows up days later with nine toes to freak Deacon. And when she's finally about to be snagged for her prison escape, Bill goes into his fake song and dance to clear her of lesser crimes so she could get life for larger crimes. Sheila's saga really should be over, at least for a year or so. Instead, Sheila is actively looking for a way to jailbreak again, and she's getting visitors left and right.
First Taylor, then Deacon, and this week, Steffy suddenly decided to see Sheila in her "natural habitat." Which I think was code for "lording my freedom over you." Steffy was rightfully indignant toward her would-be murderess, but I didn't see the point of the confrontation. And Sheila is still on her "if you'd only show me some human compassion" kick, the lack of which was the reason Sheila shot Steffy in the first place!
Over at the cliff house, Finn just happened to be visiting with Li, who recoiled from Finn's recollection of Sheila ruining their family. "My marriage didn't survive Sheila," Li lamented. First mention of Jack in quite a while, even if not by name. Where's he been hanging his hat since his apparent divorce from Li? We haven't seen Jack since he thought Finn was dead. You'd think he'd want to see for himself that his kid is alive.
Once Steffy sashayed out of the prison, Sheila got another visitor -- Mike Guthrie! Ordinarily, I'd have been happy to see an appearance from Mike, because he and Sheila raised their share of hell in the mid-'90s. Sheila was happy to see Mike, which struck me as odd. Did Mike not change his story to say that Sheila forced him to help her escape to cut some sort of deal?
The Sheila I know would be thirsting for revenge against Mike -- and Bill, for that matter. Instead, Sheila returned to her own past obsession -- Finn, whom she barely spoke about the whole time she was getting some Dollah D. "He's gonna accept me!" Sheila beamed. Did some recycled scripts from last year make their way into these scenes? Sheila's crazy, but not so much she wouldn't know she's burned Finn's bridge for good.
Sheila told Mike that she had put in a request to be seen by her "attending physician" -- in this case, Finn. Okay, clever, but more so if she wasn't healthy enough after a heart attack to be walking around prison, especially after a two-story fall that had zero repercussions. Why did we bother with such a drastic plot twist if Sheila emerged without so much as chipped nail polish?
I guess Sheila's not going away, because she bragged to Mike that she would be getting some help from the outside. She had sent an email to a "him," which had been responded to. Sheila then inexplicably dug some lipstick and perfume out of a pocket. How is she allowed to have either behind bars? Sheila left Mike with no answers as she went to meet her mystery good Samaritan.
A figure arrived -- one Sheila promised would not be disappointed. I see a little silhouetto of a man! Scaramouche! Scaramouche! Will you do the fandango? Well, we might next week when we find out who this dude is. But who is it Sheila could have contacted who has come to her rescue? Some have speculated former therapist/husband James Warwick.
But I doubt it. The last time we saw James, he was only helping Sheila in one of her schemes to bag Eric because she was blackmailing James. There are those of you who thought Sheila's visitor would be Quinn, since Quinn's name suddenly issued forth from Katie and Bill's mouths. But unless Quinn donned her Russian man costume again, that's not highly likely. The shadow was a dude.
And there's another faction still that names Deacon as Sheila's rescuer, but he was just there visiting her and wouldn't need to be emailed. Plus, why would he risk his freedom yet again? No, my money says that, for whatever reason, it's Jack Finnegan who has resurfaced. As I said, we haven't seen him for ages, and, cut free from Li, Jack could be just desperate enough to help his ex-lover if what he got in return was worth it.
What are your predictions, Scoopers? Who do you think cast the masculine shadow on Sheila's prison wall? Is this a cool new twist in her story, or do you feel Sheila is stale by now? Should Bill be resuming his pursuit of Katie, or let her and Carter be? And what do you see in R.J.'s immediate future now that he's back? Call it in the Comments section below or the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback. Your comments could end up in a future column!
Quite the Friday cliffhanger we got, so we have to find out who Sheila's shadowy caller is. Plus, all the welcoming of R.J. will be over soon -- what apple carts will he end up upsetting? Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold! See you in two weeks, my Scoopnesses!
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