This week on the Bold and the Beautiful, Thomas was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries from a cliffside fall. Ridge suspected that it hadn't been an accident as Brooke claimed. Hope revealed that Thomas had been trying to make amends with her, not attacking her, and as a sickening feeling bubbled in Brooke's stomach over what she'd done, Detective Sanchez insisted upon questioning a freshly awakened Thomas about the details of his fall.
Shauna gambled on her friendship with Quinn to help get Flo out of jail but faced backlash from Quinn, who'd been withholding judgment on Shauna and Flo thus far. A glimmer of hope might still be on the horizon for Flo in terms of a cooperation deal she might be able to strike with Detective Sanchez. He informed her that the police have been investigating a forged documents ring, and her cooperation in the matter would be greatly welcomed should she give it.
Speaking of cooperation, Sally is a little overly cooperative with Wyatt's desire to reconcile. She claims that there are hundreds of eligible women in Los Angeles, but judging by her desperation, the same must not be true of the men. Wyatt griped about taking her to France or Fiji on a weekend whim, and she still welcomed him back with open arms. Sally claimed that the reunion would be like boot camp, but it seems more like a free ticket to reboard her love boat cruise.
Across town, Bill and Justin fumed about the wrongs Thomas committed against their families. Justin asserted that Thomas would wish the fall had killed him if the accusations were true about his involvement in Emma's death. Bill -- like Hope, Brooke, and Liam -- was livid that Thomas hadn't come forward with the truth about Beth's kidnapping.
None of the abovementioned feel that Brooke should face consequences for pushing Thomas off the cliff. Not even Ridge spoke up when Sanchez questioned whether the fall had been an accident. That led me to believe that they are willing to lie and cover it up if Brooke meant to harm Thomas. How can Brooke's crew remain unforgiving of Thomas for his lies and secrets as they willfully lie and keep secrets regarding another possible crime?
Will Ridge, Brooke, Hope, and Liam expect Thomas to lie and keep the secret of what really befell him on the cliffside? If they do, surely, they understand that it erodes the moral high ground anyone has for judging Thomas and his crew for keeping secrets. If it was an accident, will Thomas threaten to claim the opposite unless Hope gives their marriage another try?
Let's get two scoops deep into how the highly hypocritical have fallen this week on the Bold and the Beautiful.
When tragedy befalls you, you'd like to believe that the hospital will be flooded with your closest friends and loved ones. Not so for Thomas. Besides the hospital staff, barely a benevolent soul could be found nearby as he struggled to recover after a fall over a cliff. They say that an unconscious person can hear what others say and can feel the vibes around them. If that's the case, Thomas should have died of a broken heart or should have emerged from his coma, filled with vengeance and animosity. Well, he ain't dead, so haters be forewarned of the wrath to come.
If you are like me, you probably wondered why Ridge was the only true loved one at Thomas' bedside this week. Ridge let Steffy spend the afternoon obliviously shopping and folding laundry without any idea that her brother had just fallen in her own backyard. Note to Steffy: get some Jurassic Park-strength fences pronto. Ridge didn't call Taylor or bring by Douglas with the hopes that his voice would rouse Thomas. Eric and Quinn even kept their distance, leaving Thomas surrounded by the people he'd hurt the most.
Hope, Liam, and Brooke paced the hospital corridors with a concerned Ridge, but when each of them slipped into Thomas' room for a moment alone with the patient, they weren't bearing balloons and flowers. Liam told Thomas that he wouldn't have cared if Thomas had died. Hope and Brooke told Thomas that it was his own fault he went over a cliff. That might be so, but is there no sympathy or even pity for the dying?
A vigilant Vinny would have been better than a vigilante wife spouting how much she hated her unconscious husband. Way to give a man something to wake up for -- and a reason not to blame your mother for attempted murder. Thomas might deserve Hope's animosity, but shouldn't she save it for after he clears her mother of any crime?
Maybe hate inspires the hateful because, during Hope's reprisals of Thomas, he awakened. Dr. Armstrong wanted Thomas to rest with only his father in the room, but police orders must trump doctor's orders in this hospital. Detective Sanchez insisted that Thomas answer police questions even before Thomas could figure out that he was alive in L.A., not dead in hell.
Delivering upon the twist the writers promised, this week's episodes upended the baby-napping storyline by turning it from a poignant tale about a mother and father reuniting with their lost daughter and getting justice into a story about pitying the perpetrators and punishing the true victims. The script flipped, and now viewers are supposed to feel pity for the broken and battered Thomas, who just wanted to say sorry, and for the deer-in-the-headlights Flo, who merely wanted to do a favor for a friend.
The writers used Ridge, who witnessed the fall, to inflict blame upon Brooke and punishment upon Flo while sparing his own son from the rod and staff of justice. Hypocritical much? It seems that Bill has more faith in Ridge's wife than Ridge does, a factor that might play a role in the further estrangement of Bridge.
As for Flo, the writers used Quinn to whitewash her deeds and garner empathy. Shauna threw her pity party at Quinn's, leaving viewers to feel sorry for Flo and Shauna because a reformed degenerate like Quinn passed judgment on them.
Liam and Hope just got Beth back. It should be a joyful time in their lives, but instead, they are steeped in suspicion about Brooke, drowning in vitriol for Thomas, and fearful that Beth's grandma might wind up in the slammer for trying to protect Hope. Even worse, they look like jerks for antagonizing a comatose Thomas, even though Thomas fully deserves it. Way to ruin the emotional momentum of the Beth reveal.
As usual, the writers seek to turn the crimes Thomas commits into harmless incidents so that viewers might side with him and disparage his victims. This time, Thomas commits the acts of stalking, harassment, and false imprisonment against Hope, but viewers are expected to conclude that Brooke overreacted and was wrong to intervene in the struggle between Hope and Thomas -- just because Brooke didn't get that he merely wanted to apologize to Hope.
I hate to break it to the writers, but the law says that no matter what Thomas' "intent" was, if Hope doesn't want to listen to him, he cannot make her do it. He cannot restrain her to make her listen. He cannot block her path, or refuse or restrict her freedom of movement. Accosting Hope in this way, no matter why he wanted to do it, is a crime.
I also hate to be the one to break it to the writers, but determining whether Brooke acted in defense of Hope is derived from what a reasonable person would do in Brooke's shoes. It would not be based upon Hope's opinion of what Thomas was trying to do. Brooke didn't have the luxury of that knowledge from her vantage point, and possessing that knowledge doesn't mean that Thomas wouldn't hurt Hope for rejecting his apology.
If Brooke was tried for this crime, a jury would determine what a reasonable person would do if they walked up to the scene and saw a proven dangerous man restraining her daughter by a cliff. Brooke had a reasonable fear of Thomas, and she intervened to make this man release her daughter.
There might be a case to be made that Brooke used undo force, but if the jury hears Hope's story the way she told it to Ridge, they would determine that Thomas was stalking, harassing, and unlawfully imprisoning Hope, and Thomas went over the cliff during Brooke's attempt to rescue her daughter.
Here, the writers missed an opportunity for a PSA on domestic violence. Many are arrested daily for unlawful imprisonment, stalking, and harassment, and a conversation needs to be had about what constitutes stalking and whether the laws are too strict against someone who, like Thomas, just wants to apologize and is desperate to receive forgiveness to the point of assaulting a person.
These crimes, which can be felonies, happen when a perpetrator might just want the person they love to hear them out. The crime can be as simple as locking someone in a car until he listens, barring the front door, or making one feel that he cannot leave because he is under the coercive power of the other person. It can be unwanted texts, phone calls, and emails, or being accosted at one's job.
Thomas' intentions might have been harmless, but just as Hope said to Ridge -- what would have happened if Brooke hadn't intervened? What was Thomas going to do if Hope kept struggling to get away from him? Would Hope's struggles have sent him over the cliff if he'd been determined not to let her go?
We all know Thomas had it in his mind that Hope was going to listen, and he would have her. He wasn't going to back down. We also know Hope was equally determined to rid herself of Thomas and had already told him that she never wanted to see him again. So, real talk, how does a situation like that end amicably? Hope even had to run out the back door to get away from him. He kept pursuing, and I believe he'd keep pursuing until something made him stop.
How would you feel if you wanted to get away from someone you were angry with, but that person tried to block your path, hold your arms, and force you to listen to him?
Some people will say Hope should have calmed down and heard Thomas out. Brooke should have done "this" instead of "that." I say, Hope was within her right to never listen to Thomas or ever see him again if she didn't want to. He had no right to try to make her do it. But, like Flo, Thomas wanted what he wanted immediately, and he refused to let Hope cool off and forgive him in her own time.
As for Brooke, there are plenty of things she could have, should have, or might have done, but it doesn't change the law. Brooke was in reasonable fear because Thomas was struggling with her daughter by a cliff. If Hope had gone over the cliff, it would have been the same argument and result -- an unintentional fall as a result of self-defense.
I just wonder if Ridge would be so angry and bitter if it had been Hope and not Thomas at the bottom of that cliff. If Hope had been the one hurt, would Ridge be telling Brooke right now that she'd acted to defend Hope, and this was just a tragic accident? Probably. And it would make him an enormous hypocrite because he can't say the same when it's his injured child in question. But that's nothing new for Ridge.
As it stands, Thomas was the one who fell from the cliff, causing Brooke to fall out of Ridge's favor. Surprisingly, Ridge didn't share his suspicions about her with the police. If Thomas tells the police that Brooke maliciously pushed him, will Ridge continue to stand by his wife? To Liam, Ridge said he'd make sure Thomas paid for his mistakes, but Ridge wouldn't let Thomas fall too far. Will Ridge stick by Brooke the same way, or is it Bill to the rescue at the expense of his reconciled relationship with Katie?
Ridge isn't the only one not talking. Hope, Liam, and Brooke weren't exactly forthcoming with Detective Sanchez, either. I can't really blame them, but I also can't help but see how hypocritical it is that they are incensed with Thomas for lies and secrets, but they are not being up-front with the police. According to the law, you do have the right to remain silent, but it was a bit of a stretch for Brook to call it all a blur.
The Forrester and Spencer wagons are circling around Brooke, but will Thomas break ranks and tell the cops that Brooke shoved him intentionally over the edge? Thomas can't judge Brooke's intent. That's up to a jury, but he can certainly make up a story to persuade a jury. I can't help but wonder if he is capable of blackmailing Hope to stay in the marriage, based upon a threat to tell the police that Brooke had tried to kill him.
For now, I think Thomas will probably say that it's all a blur for him, too. Sanchez will go on his way, and the incident will be a wedge between Brooke and Ridge.
This week, our staple faves were on-screen, making it an entertaining time. Bill and Justin sat upon thrones of revenge, ready to exact justice upon Thomas for keeping secrets and possibly killing Emma. When they heard about Thomas' fall, Katie and Bill put all their money on Brooke's innocence, and Brooke just might need every penny if the case gets adjudicated.
Wyatt was also among the nose-flaring crew fired up to fry Thomas. He said that there was no coming back from this for Thomas, who'd kept Hope and Liam's child from them. If there's no coming back for Thomas, surely that means there's no coming back for "Sandra Dee" Flo in his eyes, either. Flo has done worse than Thomas by not only keeping the secret, but being in on the crime with Reese from almost the beginning.
In Quinn's eyes, there might be no coming back for Flo or Shauna, either. As disconcerting as it was for Quinn to hear about the crime, she reserved judgment until she heard from Shauna herself about what Flo and she had done. Unfortunately for Shauna, she talked herself right out of a friendship and bail money for her daughter when her rendition of the story left Quinn feeling as if Shauna and Flo had victimized Quinn's whole family.
Some might say that Quinn is being hypocritical because people have forgiven her for many things. It's true that they have, but that forgiveness and acceptance came after Quinn was ostracized and despised for a decent amount of time. Shauna might be able to repent for her fall from grace with Quinn and restore their friendship, but for now, it's Shauna's turn to stew.
The person who Quinn is hypocritical toward is Sally. When Quinn learned that Wyatt wanted to reconcile with Sally, Quinn rightfully reminded him that Sally had lied to him, too, and that there are no degrees of lying. While Quinn is correct, she also reminded him that Sally had stolen from Forrester, which brings Sally's trustworthiness into question. On that point, I disagree.
Quinn needs to stop being hypocritical about the stealing incident and let it go because Sally apologized for it, it's in the distant past, and Eric let Sally work for Forrester. Eric gave Quinn the same type of chance, and it led her to where she is today. Even if she doesn't want her son with Sally, Quinn needs to recognize that thievery is no longer what Sally is about, just as murderous-sword-crafting is no longer what Quinn is about.
While Flo fell from grace in Wyatt's eyes, Sally offered him some grace. He didn't even have to do one squat in a love boot camp to get it, either. So, grab your barf bags, ladies and gentlemen. We'll be seeing these two romp on the same couch at the beach house that he recently romped on with Flo. I hope Sally packs plenty of germ gel and Lysol.
In next week's preview video entitled Payback (which you can watch here), Thomas tells everyone that he's horrified by what he's done, but he really does love Hope. Brooke informs Ridge that Thomas is hospitalized because of his sick obsession with Hope. The suspicion about Thomas' involvement in Emma's death escalates, and Flo tells Ridge that his son might have committed a serious crime. Bill visits Thomas to let him know that Bill will see to it that justice is done.
Justice. We know how that goes on The Bold and the Beautiful. While Bill is at it, can some of that justice cross the big pond and whack Reese on his behind?
In other spoiler and rumor news, Steffy confronts her brother about the ramifications of his actions. Ridge tries to broker a deal with Detective Sanchez for Thomas' freedom. Bill teams up with Brooke to find evidence against Thomas. Douglas becomes caught between Thomas and Liam, Hope, and Brooke.
Look for Flo to remain vigilant about her relationship with Wyatt, even though he is with Sally. Somebody should tell Flo how hard it is to fill Wyatt's needs from behind bars. There are just not enough conjugal visits in a day. Thomas sets his sights on running Forrester as the consequences of the baby-napping creep into the workplace for Steffy, Liam, and Hope.
A new chapter begins for Maya, Rick, and Carter. I've never been so happy to see these names appear together! Can Rick please be played by Jacob Young? Just imagine -- J.R., Zach, and David all on the same show again! All My Children fans know what I'm talking about, right?
Until we scoop again, have a wonderful holiday weekend. Remember not to text and drive on Mulholland Drive -- or any Drive -- and unless you have a hang glider or excellent marriage, step away from the cliffside. Trust me, the fall is anything but bold and beautiful, baby!
What are your thoughts on The Bold and the Beautiful? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
