A couple of months ago, I got a new, used car. Inside the CD changer, the last owner had left a Justin Timberlake CD. On it was my favorite Justin Timberlake song, "What Goes Around Comes Around." I am not ashamed to say that since February, this song has played in the car ninety percent of the time.
I didn't feel bad about the owner losing the CD because someone had stolen a CD out of my old car when it had been towed once, and as the song says, "What goes around, goes around, goes around...comes all the way back around." The song asks an important question though. "Tell me, is this fair?" Was it fair that the owner lost their CD and I gained from it? The owner probably doesn't think so.
I want us Scoopers to debate this same question now that all of the "going around" is coming all the way back around on Ridge and Julius. Is it fair to them? Is it fair to Caroline, Sasha, Vivienne, Thomas, or Douglas? While we think of whether or not it's fair, let us remember what Julius said to Sasha this week:
Life is a dream that we're all dreaming and trying to make the best out of it. Can anyone have everything they want without tramping on someone else? You see, there's too many little marvels to fit in all the pockets, so we each dream our little dream...none of us ever getting what we hope for, but getting just enough to keep us happy, all the while, trying to give as little trouble as possible to each other.
There's no easy answer for either of these men, who declare that their actions are to protect their families. Some people don't have a lot of sympathy and think that these men are getting what they deserve. Others cannot stand the two buttinskis, Nicole and Katie, who brought the secrets out. A segment of viewers think that sometimes, sleeping dogs need pillows and blankets, not a cutesy wakeup call from well-meaning loved ones, especially if the last line of Julius' quote is true.
Julius' sleeping dog was more like the dragon from The Hobbit, slumbering in gold as Julius drank California Dreamin' punch at the Sky Lounge, with Maya hand-delivering him refills. Oh, he loves L.A. He wants to tattoo the Forrester logo on his chest. This Beverly Hills thing ain't so bad when Vivienne's working, and all he has to do play putt-putt in the motel and wait for Maya to slip more wads of bills into her mother's purse.
But every rose has its thorn. Julius looks as if he's been pricked every single time he runs into "that girl" at Forrester. Sasha constantly reminds him of what he most wants to forget. She wants him to be proud of her and to support her, as he does Nicole. Sasha probably wishes he'd handle her dating Zende the way Bill handles Liam and Wyatt's triangles. The only way Julius would want to be like Bill is by having money and a private jet to force Sasha to fly home in.
Julius finally thought he'd gotten it to happen when his family jumped behind Nicole's desire to get rid of Sasha, who is Nicole's obstacle to reuniting with Zende. Maya didn't give a damn where Sasha went, as long it soothed her baby incubator. Maya barely remembers Sasha from the past and apparently has no problem putting Vivienne up to getting Sasha to leave town for the incubator's sake.
Maybe that will change if Maya knows that she and Sasha are related, but let's not forget who we are talking about here and who she's married to. Rick is the king of doing unto Ridge before Ridge can do unto him. I laughed when Rick told Zende, "We're family, Zende. Nothing touches that." Apparently, Marone blood can touch it. I can't see Maya caring about sharing half her DNA with Sasha -- especially the Julius half -- if Sasha threatens Maya's happiness. Maya's happiness requires Nicole to be involved with Zende, not stalking the baby's dreams like Thomas does to Douglas.
I wonder what Maya was thinking when Vivienne was feeling sorry for Sasha, who grew up without a male role model. "You know, the way you are with Nicole," Vivienne told Julius. Maya had to be thinking, "The way he wasn't with me." I'd like to know the real truth about "Mr. A-Vant" as a father. The stories of all three daughters and of the parents just don't match up.
I think it's realistic in real life for siblings to have different perspectives of childhood, their parents, and their families, but in fiction, the viewers need a common thread to understand the family dynamics in general. Ever since Sasha first envied Nicole's relationship with Julius, I thought that girl was crazy. Nicole and Maya had made it seem like that had been the worst family to be in.
According to Maya, neither of her parents understood or supported her. Vivienne arrived in town, and suddenly, the mother had been meek but protective against the father. Julius remembers fun times like teaching Myron to drive. Nicole remembers a childhood with a harsh father who didn't even talk at the dinner table. How does Sasha envy that?
Sasha's take is that Nicole was the apple juice in Julius' punch, but he detested Sasha and couldn't wait for her to leave the house. Viv remembers all these parties, sleepovers, and barbeques that Sasha and her mother came to, but Sasha remembers being un-invited to the house because it was family-only.
We were told that the family was lower middle class, but now Nicole apparently went to private school. Julius worked two jobs to pay for both girls to go, according to him; however, we also heard that he'd been out of work, unable to get or keep jobs because of rumors about Myron. Let Sasha tell it, after he was let go from his father's business, he was always at home, putt-putting. She'd know, since she was cutting public school until he enrolled her in Nicole's school.
Maya called the school a parochial school. My little brother went to a Christian academy in grade school. They wore uniforms and learned regular subjects, but the school also taught its students a value system. To my memory, Maya never said she went to one of these schools. It makes me wonder if Julius decided to douse his family in religion after he spied little Myron dreaming a little dream of being a bride?
Did Lucy "loose legs" wave her lace panties like a hankie at him from the back pew? Like mother, like daughter. Just compare the stories. I imagine that Vivienne was pregnant with Nicole. Maya was probably going through puberty. It had to be a nightmare for Maya to watch her body become even more male when she wanted the exact opposite. There had to be all kinds of tension and confusion in the Avant household at that time....but not at Lucy Thompson's house...
My theory mirrors the warning Julius gave Zende when he tried to get Zende to talk Nicole out of the pregnancy. Julius said that Nicole would be as big as a whale, and Zende would be attracted to women who weren't. Of course, my theory is only conjecture. I have to make up my own story because Julius' story has too many holes in it.
Julius told Nicole that she didn't know what it had been like before she was born, after she was born, and when Myron had run away. He said Viv had turned from him. "Then where did I come from?" Nicole asked, and he warned her to watch her mouth. To Vivienne, Julius said that the "affair" had been over before it began, and he hadn't told Vivienne because they had kids, meaning more than one.
The only way for the affair to be over before it began, for Sasha and Nicole to be around the same age, and for Julius and Viv to have had more than one kid at the time would be if Viv had been pregnant with or had just given birth to Nicole. Though Julius remarks upon when Myron ran away, it would make no sense for Sasha to be born after Maya left. It would make Nicole, who had vague memories of a brother, much older than the wine-drinking Sasha.
At this point, I'm like Viv. I don't know what's real after her thirty-five years of marriage, either, but I do know that she threw Julius out of the mansion as if she owned the place. It was after Nicole had finally forced him to confess. Vivienne's bellow to get out made the eyebrows on Stephanie's portrait raise. I could imagine Stephanie smirking and saying, "I think you'd better do what she says."
Stephanie always enjoyed a man getting a good mental or physical knee in the balls, and her spirit probably popped some popcorn and took a front row seat for Vivienne's rant on Julius -- right after Stephanie wondered what these people were doing in her house after Ridge had reclaimed it from Rick.
The Avants were at the mansion because Sasha had apparently driven the car bought with her modeling money over there to pick up some papers that she'd left. Pam told Julius where Sasha was, but just like her sister's aunt-in-law, Nicole knows how to GPS track folks down. She satellite located Sasha at the mansion and took Vivienne over there to force Julius' karma to come around, even if it completely destroyed everything her mother had ever known for decades. Happy Mother's Day, Viv!
Somewhere along the way, this storyline took a turn into left field. How did it go from the Avants planning to ship Sasha to model on Pluto to being all about poor Sasha? Katie had better hurry up, write her life story, and hand it to Nicole with an autographed clue about sisterhood. If the Logan sisters are any model for it, Nicole can bet Sasha won't stop competing with her for men.
Julius tracked Sasha down to say she hadn't told the whole truth, which was that he'd taken care of her financially. He'd given his daughter and his wife to her. He'd only asked her to keep her mouth quiet. Sasha had been too selfish to do even that, and even though she was his child, she'd never be his family.
In Julius' view, without him, Sasha wouldn't have her new career, her new boyfriend, or her new car. Without him, she wouldn't be breathing, as I see it. She said no one asked to be born, but on the other hand, is she complaining about the sperm donation? Sasha wasn't too butt-hurt about the disowning to thank Julius for sleeping with her mother when Vivienne wouldn't have him. In Sasha's view, he might have given her life, but she'd given him his big, fat lie of a life by living as half of a person.
Sasha kept quiet throughout her childhood, but what kind of mother teaches her to keep secrets? Viv said Lucy never made decisions, and her life had been one long accident. Viv just found out this week that Lucy made at least two decisions. Lucy refused to "do the right thing" by leaving town, and she apparently didn't abort Sasha, either, though no one has yet to say if it had been an option.
Sasha first revealed that her motive in threatening Julius was to get his help achieving the life that Nicole and Maya had. Additionally, she was "tired of being ignored while Nicole gets all of your attention." No matter what a bad father he's made out to be, Sasha wants Julius to acknowledge her place beside Nicole. For Sasha, it's still a competition with Nicole. I suspect Sasha wanted to reconcile with Nicole because Sasha had taken Zende, which makes them even because Nicole has Julius.
I wonder if Sasha would no longer need Zende if she finally got validation from Julius. However, in true "what goes around" fashion, Sasha would wind up in Julius' shoes with a baby from her "mistake" relationship with Zende. According to Soap Central's spoilers -- and a recently published interview with Reign Edwards , who plays Nicole -- another pregnancy is in the works.
Nicole arrived, holding her belly and putting the unborn child under stress, to force Julius to tell Vivienne the truth. Like something out of a comedy skit, he pointed out some "mistakes" of Viv's that he'd had to live with over the years. She'd bought the wrong-sized refrigerator, and he'd put up with seeing it in the dining room instead of the kitchen. She'd gotten him nonrefundable bowling shoes when he'd wanted golf shoes. He said they could look back and laugh on their stupid mistakes.
"Sasha's my mistake," Julius revealed. Vivienne didn't get the analogy. "Her mother was my mistake," he said. Oh, Viv got it then, and her face crinkled up in wretched pain. I frowned, too, thinking, "Are you seriously comparing a baby to golf shoes?" People get on me for comparing my huskies to children, but Julius...come on now....a child to a refrigerator? To his credit, he'd gotten Sasha by mistake, she didn't fit in the family, but Viv had had to look at Sasha daily because she was nonrefundable. Makes sense, right?
Viv asked the question on everyone's minds -- how long had it been going on? Julius claimed it had been over before it began. Funny thing about that is, back in January, Sasha asked Julius to say how many years he'd promised Lucy that he'd leave Vivienne. I suppose this is how he gained Lucy's silence, but if he'd promised to leave Viv for Lucy, I can't imagine Lucy waited for him with no intimacy. Then again, I can't imagine that Lucy let Julius be intimate with her but treat her daughter like a bowling shoe.
Julius blames it on Maya's gender conflict. I don't have children, but I have heard and seen that pregnancy and raising kids can be stressful. Serious disagreements about child-rearing can destroy a family. Is it fair that Julius loses his family when he did all he knew to do to keep it together?
If we listen to how his daughters talk down to him and realize how many times he tells them to respect him as their father, does it give us a clue to what his life was like in the Avant house? He lived with opinionated, self-determined women, and until Myron returned in a dress, no one had validated Julius' feelings, manhood, or fatherhood except Lucy.
Viv was in mama bear, protective mode over Myron until he ran away. The church, Julius' father, etc, said that if he was a man, he could fix Myron. Viv wouldn't allow him to "fix" Myron -- not that Myron could be fixed, but Viv stood by Julius when Myron returned home in a dress before his eventual surgery. That might have been when their marriage began to heal, but it hurt Viv to her core to turn her child away. She raged about having to do it now that she knows Julius' secret was right in her face.
To err is human. To lie for over twenty years, that's Daddy Avant. Nicole thinks the truth will help Viv, but it just ruins the peace and happiness Viv had finally achieved in her family. Was it really fair to dispel the little dream Julius said they'd each been dreaming? Maybe Nicole should have gotten this sleeping dog a blanket and a pillow and let it keep lying for Viv's sake. Or at least until the baby was born.
In other paternity blow-ups, Katie wasn't about to let a sleeping dog lie. In fact, when Ridge asked what he could do for her, she said he could apologize for lying to her about the donor. Whoa...somebody tell Katie that the teddy bear string was cut long ago, and Ridge doesn't answer to her.
Oh, wait. Rick just reminded Ridge and Katie of it on Friday. Rick chuckled like the Joker and predicted that what goes around was gonna come back around. He even claimed to hear karma's heels clicking just before Katie arrived. Rick ranted about Ridge getting his comeuppance -- this time, over Ridge's treatment of Taylor and Brooke. Rick added Katie to the list and left, probably to retrieve some popcorn of his own to eat while watching the Ridge family fireworks show.
It all started up again with Katie reading an article about Wolin's death. Why it's still news and photo-worthy, I don't know. The news ought to be on to investigating and speculating about Wolin's business dealings and recreational habits, not still reporting that he was hit by a truck. Rick's friends aren't even talking about it anymore, so we know it's stale news.
The article's picture showed bystanders looking down at the street by the truck. Katie zoomed in and saw Ridge across the street, heading toward the accident. This is where Katie's detective license gets revoked and where the writers need to send demerits to the show's visual department. Instead of Photoshopping Ridge into a picture, why didn't they just take a picture of where Ridge actually stood that day? It was on the same side of the street as the accident, about fifteen feet away from it.
From either vantage point, Ridge was clearly too far away to have pushed Wolin into the street. Even if the photo Katie saw was actual, why can't she figure out that if Ridge is across the street, facing the accident -- the one that people had gathered around -- then it's impossible for him to have pushed Wolin and run across the street without being seen?
Circumstantial inconsistencies and lack of motive be damned. Instead of going to work, Katie pulls on her green jeans and trucks it over to Forrester to question Ridge about the photo. She's certain someone will zoom in, see him in it, dig into Wolin's files until they uncover Ridge's sterility secret, and figure out that Douglas isn't his. She just wants to help, and she's got a great legal team.
Like Forrester does not have a great legal team? Well, I have been looking high and low for Carter these days...But what is Katie thinking -- as if Ridge would use lawyers from the gossip empire? Besides, for anyone to discover all that Katie's saying, that person has to actually give a damn about Ridge and Wolin and obsess as much as she did over a photo, jump to conclusions, and rifle through Wolin's confidential files, wherever they are. This person would have to believe Caroline is a cheater and that Ridge didn't get a second opinion.
The only person in the world besides Katie who would fit that bill is Rick, and he can't even figure out who dinged his car. Ridge has the patience of Job. I would have grabbed Katie, slammed on the nearest wall, and in the deathly calm tone of Liam Spencer, told her to "get out before I..."
Suspecting Ridge is hiding the paternity is one thing. Katie knows Ridge isn't a murderer. Just because he was there when Sean shot himself, and he threw Sean's body off a boat, means nothing. Yeah, Ridge was there when Andy the rapist got electrocuted and when Sheila fell into a boiling vat of liquid. Yes, Ridge lied about shooting Grant, and Ridge shot Thorne while sleep-walking. Where does Katie get the idea that Ridge would kill the doctor over one hundred thousand dollars?
When Katie started questioning Ridge about the reversal procedure, he just broke down and told her the truth -- most of it, anyway. I was shaking my head because he ought to know enough about the reversal procedure to bluff his way through. Even Brooke knows what it takes after clicking through Google University. And why it's Katie, not Brooke, in this storyline, puzzles me. Brooke was there when it started "going around." Why isn't she around when it comes back around?
Ridge left Thomas' name out of it and said there had been a donor. We can always count upon Katie to keep digging until she finds a landmine. She strode herself into the other office under the guise of needing a baby fix and started chatting Caroline up about babies. Katie wants another baby, but Bill won't let her entertain the idea because of her heart. If Ridge needs to tell the truth, Katie, so do you.
Bill doesn't want a stillborn marinated in vodka or to have another child with an unbalanced woman. He made that mistake already. To his shock, he just figured out the other week that he did it again with Katie. Bill would be crazy to impregnate the kitchen bartender now. She can't even show up to work. No wonder he wants Liam back at Spencer so badly.
Caroline said Douglas would be her only child, and Katie remarked about how hard it had been to get Douglas. I swear Caroline stopped breathing. Katie closed the door and lied that she shouldn't have brought it up. Katie claimed Ridge had told her about Douglas' paternity, and Caroline frantically blurted out that Thomas was the father. "Caroline..." Katie said in her judgmental way, "he has to be told."
Yeah, yeah, Katie. When Brooke said Bill had to be told about your drinking, you begged Brooke to shut up. Katie said Brooke couldn't wait to spill the beans to Bill, but it looks like Katie broke Brooke's speed record on this one.
Katie marched over to Ridge for her lie apology. It mattered not to her that Ridge was under the impression that Thomas had taken advantage of a drugged Caroline. Katie believed that secrets had a way of destroying people, and Ridge had to tell it for his own good. She could already see that it was destroying him. What Katie saw was how she was destroying him, not a secret.
Before Katie pranced in there with that mess, he and Caroline were having fun, breast-feeding the baby and, later, joking with Thomas. Now Ridge's whole family is in jeopardy because Katie took her nose out of the granola bar box and stuck it in his business.
What I've learned from Julius and Ridge about secrets is that, as long as everyone keeps their mouths quiet, the problem is solved. Now, instead of a Forrester logo tattoo, Julius needs to start looking at scarlet letters, and Ridge has to come to terms with being a grandfather. Each without DNA tests.
Ridge took Thomas aside tell him the news. He started out by buttering Thomas up about mentoring him to take over the business. It was everything Thomas' dreams were made of. Ridge said that Caroline had vowed that what was hers was Ridge's, and Ridge hoped Thomas respected it. Then Ridge revealed that he knew about that night and what had happened in the hotel room.
That's when Thomas looked like he'd stopped breathing. A gush of apologies flowed. Ridge believed that apologies were good, but actions had consequences. Without Ridge speaking another word, his demeanor communicated the secret to Thomas. Thomas couldn't believe Ridge was saying it. Ridge tilted his head, and Thomas said that Douglas was Thomas' son.
I hate how the story climaxed through Katie, but I loved the way Ridge told Thomas without a word. Thomas is head-over-heels, stalker-crazy about Douglas. He feels more connected to that child than Elliot was to E.T. On top of it, Thomas fawns all over Caroline and covets the family Ridge has. Did Katie orchestrate this to end Carridge? Will Katie get in the car and find a Justin Timberlake CD in the stereo carriage? After all, Caroline was the reason for Kridge's demise.
Katie doesn't like to just hurt men. She likes to take children and companies away, too. According to the Soap Central spoilers, Kate teams up with Rick to go after Forrester. Et tu, Katie?
I thought Justin Timblerlake told you, Katie. What goes around comes all the way back around. It happened when Bill screwed Katie, literally and figuratively, to get Spencer back. It will happen again if Katie teams up with the brat king after swearing to want what was best for Ridge. When it happens, I really hope Ridge is there to say what he has to say without uttering a word.
It's coming around sooner than Katie thinks. Check our spoilers page for details about Bill's next move regarding Will. There's also a montage video of the week ahead that shows Thomas desperately driving with Douglas in the car. I hate to say it, but on B&B, drivers and drama spell trouble. It will serve Katie right to have Ridge's sons in a crash on her conscience. After all this mess, Douglas will need something he can only get from Ridge, and finally, the paternity storyline is over!
Deacon's waiting on some "goes around" to come back around on Quinn, and stupidly, he's not the one bringing back around. Does anyone know why Deacon is back to convincing Quinn to be with him when she'd been the one begging him and promising to be what he wanted if he escaped with her? Maybe Deacon's still on his own come-around wheel over what he did to Becky and Bridget.
Bill finally broached with Liam the uncomfortable topic of Quinn abusing Liam in the bedroom. Bill looked surprised that when Liam said she'd cared for him and treated him like a husband. Liam also admitted that he'd loved Quinn like a wife. "No whips? No handcuffs? No kitchen whisks?" I imagined Bill asking. He also shocked by Liam's news that Quinn had visited Liam, and Liam had let her go. Liam was strangely calm about it until he admitted that he could have killed Quinn. Sounds to me like Liam needs another trip to the neurologist.
Instead, previews indicate that Liam will be back on the Steffy-begging train. Bill will dole out marriage advice to his former mistress Steffy, and Steffy will get an unexpected visit from her mother-in-law. Will Quinn ask Steffy to go back to Liam, or will Quinn say that if Steffy doesn't want him, she should convince him to go to Quinn? Steffy had better decline any and all Mother's Day hiking invitations.
Tell us what you think, and until we scoop again, may all your karma be bold and beautiful, baby!
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