I feel like this past week of The Bold and the Beautiful was like an Invasion of the Body Snatchers or a trip into Bizarro world. Who were those characters? Where do I start... Okay, Brooke and Taylor's therapy retreat. What did they do to James Warrick? Here's the most brilliant psychiatrist in Southern California - or at least one of the top ten - and he's reduced to a blubbering, drinking dolt after a weekend at Big Bear with Taylor and Brooke. Are you kidding me? This is Dr. James Warrick, the man who has gotten Taylor through a nervous breakdown and saved Thomas from becoming a homicidal maniac. This is the shrink everyone in Forrester-land turns to for help. I didn't buy this therapy weekend for a moment, did you?
First of all, Ridge has some kind of nerve asking Taylor and Brooke to go through couple therapy for him. The only one with a problem is Ridge. He's Hamlet, for goodness sake, unable to make up his mind. Instead of "To Be or Not to Be," he's "To Brooke or Not to Brooke," or "To Taylor or Not to Taylor" - why can't he just figure it out on his own? Instead, he asks these two women - who he professes to love equally - to undergo therapy with a psychiatrist to improve their relationship. Huh? Why does it matter if Taylor and Brooke are friends when they both ultimately don't want to be friends. They want was the other wants - Ridge. Friendship is a relationship that cannot really thrive when they are always going to be rivals.
Still, for whatever lame reason, Brooke and Taylor agreed to go to the mountains and endure James' prescription. You would have thought he pulled a page out of the hippie-dippie handbook from 1968. Mutual massages? Foam hitting sticks? Where was the food fight? I half-expected them to start flinging fruit at each other or cream pies! I was sitting there watching this and wondering what sane, grown women would put up with this goofiness... and for what, to make Ridge happy? Really?
So, what happened in the end? Ridge had to show up to act as a referee. Well, isn't that special! James goes to all this trouble for Ridge and it takes Prince Charming to come and get the damsels to play nice. Unbelievable. Here's what should have happened, if this had not be the Bizarro B&B: Ridge shows up and instead of resorting to drinking, James forces Ridge to sit down and have a real therapy session with him first where James gets Forrester to face his future and make up his mind. Then James has Ridge face Taylor and Brooke with his decision. That would have been productive and real. But instead of having a resolution, we're still in limbo.
There was yet another wacky scenario this past week on the other side of the tracks. After all the hijinks with cougars and cubs and photo shoots, Owen Knight was suddenly thrust into the spotlight as the San Diego hometown boy made good. Now, that sounds like a mighty fine promotion. In fact, it was an excellent idea by Whip Jones, public relations expert that he is, even if he only did it to get Owen out of town. See, that was where the idea fell apart. The fact that he allowed Owen to go on television without any prep was dereliction of duty, pure and simple. And it wasn't Clarke's job to accompany Owen to the TV station; it was Whip's. What are they paying him for if not to handle PR? Apparently, Whip makes up his own job requirements. Nick, were you aware of this when you signed his check?
So what happens then - Owen goes to SD, goes on TV and makes a complete and utter fool of Jackie personally, and Jackie M., professionally, because if you don't think that performance by "Owen" will reflect badly on the company, you're crazy. But, wait. It wasn't really Owen. It was Casper. No, not Casper the Friendly Ghost! It was Casper Knight, Owen's never-mentioned-before identical twin brother with a propensity for practical jokes. Casper thought it would be fun to punk his brother by doing the interview in his place. Never mind that he's completely out of the loop about Owen's life, he just decided to destroy his brother's relationship with Jackie.
The old identical twin bit has been done to death on the soaps, but this was really wild because it came out of left field. And the fact that Casper was a slacker version of Owen, didn't really make him a different person. You could see they had put no creativity into the character. It was a throw-away to explain a ridiculous scene. I mean, clearly, Owen and Casper were identical down to the rippling abs. They had the exact same haircut. They had the same tan! Nobody is that identical. Giving Casper sunglasses and a pierced earring wasn't enough. It was just a bizarro (there's that word again) way to explain the TV interview.
The pain caused by the interview was devastating to Jackie. I really felt for her. She has been so confident in her love for Owen - and her belief that he loved her in return - that Casper's words were crushing. Jackie was embarrassed and distraught and after enough champagne, completely soused. She cried on Whip's shoulder and they kissed. I thought for sure they were going to go for the gold, but fortunately, it was just the hot kiss. Still, once Jackie learned about the Casper/Owen switcheroo, the guilt was overwhelming for Ms. Marone. This will not end well.
There was one storyline that was remarkably grounded in reality - Bill and Katie. Talk about a mature depiction of a couple coming together and starting to fall in love. This is refreshing. It's not going in circles, it's not insulting my intelligence, it's not being propped up by some crazy situation or plot point. I'm not sure I buy that Bill Spencer is completely transformed by love, but I prefer this guy to the Snidely Whiplash villain he's been portrayed as up till now. And for Katie, finally, a guy who's really into her.
So, that catches us all up, I think. I'm going to share some recent comments below -- and I urge you to write more in the week ahead because I love hearing from you. You can contact me at any time by using the email link below and maybe your comments will appear here next time around. And, if you want to offer your own opinions on The Bold and the Beautiful (or any other soap), head over to our Blogs!
If I were Taylor and Brooke, I would tell ol' waffling Ridge just where to go. He can still parent the little ones even though he's not with their mom. Besides, most soap characters never spend time with their kids anyway... -- Telisha
You are so on the money with your comments. Brooke stood by Steffy at the expense of her marriage to Ridge, understanding the power of love, but bratty Steffy had no loyalty to Brooke's love for Ridge. Yes, where is Rick? I want to know, too. When Ridge was around, you couldn't get rid of Rick. - Elaine
The wedding was such a farce. All these weeks "Widge" has been longing for Brooke. I feel sorry for Taylor because you can tell by the look on his face he doesn't care for her. And what was with that horrible wedding dress? She looked like Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? If I was Hunter Tylo, I would've refused to wear it. Ridge should move to Utah and buy a big piece of property, build two homes on it and put one family in each home then just go from one to the other. Either that or he could start his own compound in LA. That would solve all his problems. - Jerilyn
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