When spouses squeeze the toothpaste in the middle of the tube, it could be grounds for a divorce. But what do you do if your spouse is the tube, and some fine redhead is squeezing on him, shooting his toothpaste all over the place? You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, and when you call him on his crap, he answers back with, "What's it to you?"
Maybe your toothpaste just ain't acting right, and after learning that he hit his own son, you're worried that he'll haul off and pop a cap in your eye, too. Now you wish you had stuck with Fluoride Ridge instead of making a life with enamel-weakening Dollar Bill.
You figured it out. This is about more than toothpaste. Heck, it might not even be about toothpaste, like Steffy said. It's about being disenchanted with a spouse. Are Steffy and Brooke justified or making much ado about nothing over a little spilled toothpaste? Once the paste is out of the tube, you can't get it back in this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.
In case you missed it, Steffy's running around town, doing more peacemaking than Nikki Haley, but all Liam cares about is making life great for everyone who isn't a Spencer. R.J. is ready to pack his mom's bags for her, but after Bill punched Liam, Brooke tells R.J. not to be impulsive. Charlie should have given that advice to Quinn. Instead, he gave her Sheila's address, and another battle to exhaustion ensued between the women.
With a little detective work, Justin and Wyatt proved that you don't need Sesame Street to learn that "G" is for gift -- a fifty-million-dollar one that comes with a forty percent tax liability. That's an additional twenty million Spencer has to pay in order for Sally to have that barbeque sketch joint. Liam's gift to Steffy was a cockamamie lie that he'd made the building gift for Bill's own good, and when Steffy called Liam on the lie, he asked what it was to her.
Bill told Ridge that there is more to Liam than meets the eye. Liam is transforming into an evil decepticon like his father. Or does Liam horde power and boss people around worse than Bill?
Let's get two scoops deep into how Ridge is petting Brooke like a lost kitten, Bill is stroking Steffy like he's having Still flashbacks, Wyatt is tired of his bully boss, and Sheila and Quinn should start a wrestling league. The new benefits at Spencer will make you want to go into labor, and Sally is paying her employees to watch paint dry, this week on B&B.
My Name ain't "Partner." It's Charlie. Mr. Webber if you're nasty!
Charlie doesn't have time to play games with the nasty girl Sheila Carter. He just wants to live his life and stir the right ingredients into Pam's recipes. When Sheila dialed him up to ask if her partner was keeping tabs on Quinn and Ridge, Charlie told her to stop calling him her partner.
Sheila stated that with her brains and Charlie's brawn, they'd take Quinn down for good. Charlie feels he needs to save his brawn for stirring with Pam. Choosing between the lesser of two evils, he advised Quinn that Sheila was still in town. Quinn stormed over to the hotel to relocate Sheila's residence -- but wound up trying to dislocate Sheila's jaw!
Quinn ordered Sheila to get the hell out of Quinn's time zone. Quinn hopped on the hotel phone -- probably to call for a Briarcliff Manor moving truck. Sheila ripped the phone out the wall. Quinn tossed out the "B" word like a trump card; however, Sheila didn't flip out until Quinn touched her, and the next thing you know, Quinn and Sheila were fighting -- again.
This is the third time around for Sheila and Quinn. Charlie should rent out the jousting arena and sell tickets to these She-Quinn Barbarian Battles. Quakin' Quinn, who is a ten on the Richter Scale for throwing and breaking stuff, versus Stranglehold Sheila, who will choke you out with her hands, a fire poker, or even pillow feathers.
Would you take a front row seat, or are the Sheila and Quinn brawls getting old? While it played on my tablet, I walked off and made some coffee. I didn't even realize I'd walked out on it. It got me to thinking -- could The Bold and the Beautiful be normalizing violence? Is the audience getting too used to it, and is it, as a result, having diminishing returns in audience interest?
If it gives off diminishing returns, the writers will need to add more women to the fight. Up next, it might be Bawling Brooke versus Stranglehold Sheila if Brooke's divided heart threatens to declaw Sheila's catty plan to get Ridge and Quinn to hook up again.
Do you have any idea what I gave up for you?
In continuance with all the violence, Brooke smashed some glass this week while yelling at Bill. She asked him if he had any idea of what she gave up to marry him. I'll give you a hint. He's got scraggly hair and finally shaved for the first time this year.
Just when you think Brooke's excuses to leave Bill can't get any more flimsy, Brooke was all, "If you hit your son, how do I know you won't hit me?"
First of all, Brooke, why are you slamming glass as if it can't land in Bill's eyes? Second, when has any man physically abused his wife on this show? Bill had this look on his face like, "Excuse me? Do I look like a wifebeater to you? Did you ever hear of me jacking up your sister?" After the brush with Amber, Bill is too gentlemanly to slam a bitch himself. He'd have Justin hire someone to do it for him.
I wonder why spousal abuse wasn't a concern of Brooke's back when Bill and Ridge were punching each other or when Bill dumped Ridge out of the helicopter. There was a time when Brooke spazzed out when Ridge hit Rick. Brooke left Ridge over that punch, and if you give Brooke a dab of dish soap, she'll be leaving Bill over punching Liam out.
In case you missed it, Bill was over at Brooke's house, pleading for her to go back home. The whole time he talked, she was secretly tugging on her ring. Bill was like, "What are you doing?" Brooke kept twisting it with a telling look on her face. "You better not be taking that ring off!" Bill warned. Brooke just kept twisting.
Grabbing her hand, Bill ordered Brooke not to even think about taking off that ring. Oh, she's gonna take it off, Bill, and you don't even know what she gave up when she put it on, do you? If you don't, that makes two of us, because the last I remember, Brooke walked out on her wedding to Ridge over some kisses with Quinn, not to be with Bill.
Bill reminded Brooke that they were supposed to be committed during good times and bad, but Brooke was ready for a marriage refund. If Bill doesn't want to give it to her, he'll be staring down a fraud chargeback for giving her a marriage not-as-described on their wedding day.
Steffy tried to tell Brooke to support her husband, but Brooke doesn't have time to build a life with a man who might wind up on a wanted poster. Brooke wondered why Steffy wasn't supporting her husband. The answer is because Steffy's husband is wrong, too. Bill shouldn't hit Liam, but Liam has no business taking it upon himself to decide who gets justice, who doesn't, and how that justice gets dispensed.
Steffy isn't happy with the changes in Liam, and she wants her quiet, Erkel honey-do back. She didn't sign up for the heroic hypocrite who buys fifty-million-dollar gifts for other women, and she certainly isn't interested in the man who basically told her that it was none of her business when she questioned the gift.
There's an old adage I just made up, and it goes like this: The couple that slays together stays together, but when they start to slay each other, it's time to find another. The spousal knives came out in the Spencer feud, and I was right there to hand a blade to Steffy after Liam said he didn't see how the choices he made in his family business affected her.
Liam tried to reason to Steffy that gifting the building to Sally was a cover for when the actual firestarter got arrested and turned on Bill. Liam claimed he was being a loving son because it would save Bill's hide by throwing suspicion off Bill for the fire. Liam claims that Bill manipulates people, but Liam went on the darkside of the darkside to come up with a mindbender manipulation like this one. And he actually thought Steffy would believe it.
Well, Steffy is smarter than we all think. She shoveled that crap right to the side. Liam's next defense was that Sally would repay him, but Steffy said he couldn't be serious about that one, either. That's when he got mad enough to ask Steffy what it was to her what he did at Spencer and insisted that Sally would pay him back.
I'm interested in why Sally plans to repay Liam, not Spencer. That wasn't Liam's money. As Wyatt emphasized this week, "We spent fifty million dollars on a building, and what do we have to show for it? Absolutely nothing!" Liam tried the payback line on Wyatt, too, and it got me to wondering how Liam would cook the books to put the money back into Spencer and if Sally would pay back the twenty million in taxes.
Liam didn't even believe the Sally repayment line himself. When Steffy asked why he hadn't just let Sally leave town, Liam tried to guilt her, saying he knew she wasn't suggesting that "we" take advantage of a criminal act just to get rid of Sally Spectra.
Wait a minute, Liam. First, what's with this "we"? You said Steffy's name is Bennett, and she's not in it, as far as your business is concerned. Second, you did take advantage of a criminal act to get rid of someone -- your father!
Steffy reminded Liam that Sally had affected her business and was a criminal. Liam claimed that wasn't his lane, but he could give back ill-gotten gains in Bill's situation. Liam is tripping. Bill hadn't even gotten any gains yet. Plus, was he in his lane anytime he wedged his nose up in Forrester business? How many times has Liam been at Forrester, telling them who could work there, what diamonds to display, and who Quinn was allowed to email her naughty selfies to?
Steffy noted that Liam's new office and title were ill-gotten gains. Liam pulled the old "I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm sorry you see me that way" deflection guilt trip. Yeah, Liam does need to be sorry she sees him that way. If he hadn't slipped in and extorted Bill's life work away from him, she wouldn't have to see Liam that way.
Power absolutely corrupts, and it corrupts absolutely. Liam loves being the one in control. He makes the decisions, and they just have to deal with it. Liam's newfound self-importance and sense of obligation to Sally is wholly unattractive to Steffy. While Liam pats himself on the back, Bill is petting Steffy on the head.
What was with the private encounter between Steffy and Bill? Out of the blue, Bill stroked her hair and said Liam doesn't deserve her. She seemed startled by Bill at first, but her eyes softened as if it was the first time she'd had a loving touch since Liam took over the business.
Yeah, Liam, you keep getting high off power, and Brooke, you keep worrying about what you supposedly gave up to be with Bill. When Bill and Steffy stop chasing them, Liam and Brooke will wind up walking in on Bill and Steffy rolling around in bed like Taylor did years ago.
Knowing Liam and Brooke, they'll find ways to play the victims as they run off to get petted by Sally and Ridge. One person who isn't playing the victim is Wyatt. His role is the disgruntled heir who can't figure out who died and made Liam God. Wyatt foretold that, just like in the Book of Revelations, their father is coming back, and judgment day is gonna suck for Liam.
Are you seriously telling me that I have to make an appointment to see you?
Wyatt isn't having it out of Liam. Wyatt vacationed on Katie Island for a week, but he's back at work and refusing to hail to the fake chief. Wyatt didn't have to make appointments to see his father, and he wasn't going to start any mess like that for Liam.
I've joined the chorus of Wyatt and others in asking Liam, "Who are you?" Wyatt was quick to say his brother sure isn't Bat Liam because Liam acts nothing like a caped crusader. Wyatt likened the behavior to Robin Hood but pointed out that Liam was robbing from his own family.
Liam contended that the company made hundreds of millions of dollars. "Not if you keep giving it way, Super Dummy!" Wyatt informed Liam. As the vice president of Spencer, Wyatt felt he deserved to know what Liam planned to do when Scrooge McBill's vault was empty the next time Liam went to go swimming in it to hand out giveaways.
Not only had Liam given away what amounted to seventy million dollars of Spencer money to Spectra, Liam also decreed that employees could have six months of maternity/paternity leave and a total of a million dollars in college scholarships -- awarded at Liam's discretion. At least, I guess it's his discretion because he handed out one without posting it so other students could complete for it.
Employees also no longer have a retirement age requirement. With Spencer covering a hundred percent of the health care, the employee perks bill alone is astronomical! Hey, Liam, not every single employee rule is evil. Just remember that when your one-hundred-year-olds won't retire and need you to build a nursing home annex beside your daycare, so they can work and sleep at the same time.
When I heard employees could get six months fully paid maternity leave and full medical benefits, my water broke, and I'm not even pregnant! I'm letting Liam know in advance that I'll be taking another maternity leave in nine months. Liam might not need to get Sally's repayment in writing, but I gotta lock my leaves of absence in on paper before Bill gets back. Oh, and I'm gonna need two college scholarships, too, while I'm at it.
What Spencer employee wouldn't get pregnant right away with Liam offering treats like these? I wouldn't be surprised if Alison wound up married and pregnant by the guy in accounting, just so they both can get a six-month paid vacation. Is Liam really just fulfilling a dream of doing right by well-deserving employees, or is he punishing Bill by spending all of Bill's beloved money?
Bill could use a reckoning, but Spencer Publications has exchanged one dictator for another. Once Karen sees the bottom line shrinking, will she overthrow the priggish Liam and make Wyatt the CEO? Karen can't do it alone because Bill holds controlling interest in Spencer. Will Bill call Liam's bluff and join in with Karen to formally ask for Liam's resignation?
Liam could play his blackmail card, and Karen will be disgusted that Bill burned down Spectra and used a fake illness to unite Thomas and Caroline. I just don't think Liam has the guts to be responsible for tearing Caroline's family apart, or he would have done it already to "right the wrongs" done to Sally Spectra. What other power move could Bill and Wyatt possibly make?
There is only one other thing I can think of. Once Wyatt finds out what Liam has on Bill, Wyatt could appeal to Steffy that she owes him one for helping her get rid of Ivy's Murdah video. In return, Wyatt needs Steffy to delete Liam's recording of Bill's confession. I don't think it will be that hard to convince Steffy, who is not loving her tyrant husband's attitude.
I'm confused as to why Liam is angry at Bill but treats Steffy and Wyatt like garbage. And even if Liam is upset at Bill, does Liam have to act like he never plans to speak to the man again? Steffy said Bill was important to Liam. "Used to be," Liam retorted. What kind of crap is that? Bill is Liam's father. Liam's response to that was -- yeah, well, his mother kept him away from his father, and she was right to do so. Liam can tell that to his cliff house, his cars, and all the money Liam is spending.
Liam needs to think about the fact that he wouldn't exist if Bill hadn't loved Kelly. I feel Liam's struggle to have to keep his mouth shut about Bill's underhanded deeds, but Liam needs to go take a dump right now, because he's just a little too full of himself.
I never hugged a CEO twice before
Sally giggled that she'd never hugged a CEO twice before, and if Liam's wife has anything to say about it, Sally never will again. Liam thinks he's so busy that Wyatt has to make appointments to discuss misappropriated funds, but Steffy can waltz in whenever she feels like it.
You know who else can waltz in Liam's office at will? Sally. How is Sally getting wifely privileges? Next thing you know, Sally will arrive when Liam is out, find Steffy's opera house gift to Liam, and throw it in the trash can. Mark my words.
Sally is all heart-eyed over Liam's generosity. She even called him her angel and silent partner. I hadn't known it had reached partner status. If so, why didn't Liam use his own money to help her remodel instead of suggesting that she take out a loan on Spectra to rebuild it?
Anyone know just how many days it has been since Liam signed over the property to her? Maybe I just don't understand what gutted, destroyed, and a pile of ashes really means, but I can't figure out how the reconstruction moved so fast. I don't know a thing about property damage, but I assume that between the water and fire, the old building is not structurally sound. So what the heck kind of construction company is building on top of it?
I thought the whole thing would be bulldozed and redone from the ground up, but as it turns out, people are trotting in and out of there. Sally is paying her staff to watch the plaster and paint dry until they can do some real work. I guess Liam put a gag on the media to keep them from going over there and asking Sally how she got the money to staff a burned-out building in the middle of a rebuild when she didn't have two pennies to rub together.
Tidbits of the week
The only thing going in Liam's favor in my eyes this week was how fine he was in that fitted gray shirt. If Liam's new superhero outfit consists of stretch-fit business shirts, I can live with that.
On the other hand, I almost fell out of love with Thorsten Kaye because he shaved this week. Lucky for me, the stubble started growing back by Friday when Ridge was taunting Bill about Ridge's certainty that Brooke was done with Bill.
Weren't Katie and Wyatt cute this week? Katie handed Wyatt some coffee and said he could probably use something stronger. "Well, you know, I have something stronger," he responded and kissed her. Wyatt will need all the Katie he can get to help mellow him out because his "nonprofit brother" is really power-tripping.
Did anyone else's brows crinkle when Coco said Grams left Coco alone to watch the construction guys? Nothing against construction workers, but who leaves a teenager or young woman alone in an empty building with dudes? I shouldn't be shocked. After all, Sally and Grams left Coco in Florida and were surprised to see her turn up in L.A.
Did anyone catch that R.J. was sleeping until midday, but adults were at work? How old is R.J. at this point? Did they forget to tell us that he graduated? Maybe that's what happens when a teenager lives with his brother instead of either of his parents.
In a look ahead
I took a quick look into the crystal ball Beatrice gave me, and I predict the same thing I do every week: drama, backstabbing, fighting, and breakups. Here's what to look forward to:
Somebody's got to pay
Bill refuses to give up on his marriage, but Brooke already has two feet out the door. Look for her children and sister to weigh in on her marital problems. Will Brooke be all hush-hush about what Bill did as she was about the reason she left Ridge?
Bill has lost everything but the model skyscraper that Liam had Alison deliver to the house. Bill fumes that someone has to pay. Wyatt warns Liam that a vengeful Bill is a dangerous thing. The only person on Bill's side is Steffy. Will Bill find comfort and revenge at the same time?
Relationship transformations
Ridge has a new chance to woo Brooke, and Eric is ready talk to his son. Sheila gets a job that puts her in Eric's proximity. I can't even imagine Eric will put Quinn's enemy inside Forrester -- again. Will Ridge jeopardize his relationships with Eric and Brooke to support Quinn?
On the Spencer front, Liam gives Sally yet another gift. It's probably Anti-Steffy spray, and it's the least Liam could give Sally now that Steffy is on her twenty-four/seven. Wyatt and Katie's relationship becomes public knowledge. Wyatt didn't think this was the best time to reveal it because of his family turmoil, but will Bill even growl at it after all he's lost?
Let us know what you think about the shifting relationships and fraudulent spousal behavior. Should Brooke end her marriage or try to help Liam and Bill work through it like the devoted Steffy chooses to do? Maybe Steffy should follow Brooke's lead and file a wedding chargeback over her husband's fraudulent ways.
Until we scoop again, if you're someone's husband and you give another woman a fifty-million-dollar gift, the lie you put on the expense account has got to be bold and beautiful, baby!
Chanel
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