Could it be that one relationship is over on The Bold and the Beauitful, opening the door for another relationship to take its place?
We pick up where we left off, with Hope (Annika Noelle) awaiting Liam’s (Scott Clifton) answer. Hope admits she lost her way and made some choices that she can’t change. She still loves Liam and she knows their marriage is worth fighting for. So she asks him for another chance. Liam, for his part, doesn’t answer quickly.
Finn (Tanner Novlan) arrives and is grateful that Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) made time for him. Of course she’d see him, he’s her husband, she says. He begs her to come home. He wants to make things right, and that means they need to go home.
Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) walks in to find Eric (John McCook) sitting at his desk. Eric reminds him that it’s his office; he thinks Ridge is avoiding him. Ridge tells his father he’s been busy with Steffy, but Eric points out that Steffy is safe. No, Ridge is avoiding him. But why?
Steffy tells Finn she loves her family. That hasn’t changed. She’s just trying to figure out how to keep her family safe.
Liam is at a loss for words. He appreciates that Hope knows she lost her way with Thomas. But he’s still not jumping on her desire to fix their marriage.
Eric looks back at his celebrated collaborations with Ridge. “Simple. Classic. Pure,” he says, “with a little twist.” He wants to do another collection, the best they’ve ever done. He’s got the ideas, he just needs to get them on paper. Ridge is distracted, and soon he’s telling Eric that maybe he should inspire a new generation so he can sit back and relax.
Steffy tells Finn not to doubt her love, but she still has questions about Sheila and she’s traumatized by what happened. Finn says he hasn’t heard from Sheila since the beach, and he’s vowing to protect them. “I can’t spend another night away from you,” he tells her.
Liam tells Hope that he’ll always love her and admire her, but he can’t forget what’s happened, either. He’s sorry for the role he played in it, too. He admits Thomas is a one-woman man and Liam isn’t. Hope knows she deserves to be with someone who isn’t conflicted about his feelings. “You weren’t wrong about me and my history,” he tells her. She wants to know if there’s something they can do to work through this before they take the next steps. If they worked hard, they could reunite their family. He asks about how she’s always felt that Steffy was a third person in their marriage, and whether she felt it was that way in the early days of their marriage. How would that be different from what she’s feeling for Thomas?
Eric can’t believe that Ridge just wants him to “take it easy” but Ridge says that they have so many more people working for the company now and he should enjoy his time. Eric insists that he hasn’t lost his touch as a designer.
Hope throws the question about Steffy back at Liam. She wants to know how he feels about her. He calls his feelings “complicated” but thinks maybe they need to stay locked on each other. Hope wants to know if he wants to make their marriage work. Do they even try? “I love you,” he says. “And I loved our life together. But I’m supposed to be honest with myself right now, right?” He won’t be able to forget or forgive what happened with Thomas. Hope is stunned.
Finn reminds Steffy of all they’ve done. She never wanted to be apart from him. He understands her concerns. He could move into Eric’s house if that makes her feel more comfortable. He just wants to hold her and protect her, so he needs to be able to be there to do it.
Ridge tells his father he’s not being “put out to pasture” but Eric knows what he meant. Eric says he won’t be trotted out to give Ridge credibility. When he can’t find his stapler, Ridge says it was probably thrown away and Eric wonders if he’ll do the same to him.
Liam apologizes, but he can’t change this. Hope says she must have misread everything. “I love you, Liam,” she says. He looks torn, but he kisses her forehead and says he loves her, too. Then he leaves.
Finn owns his mistakes. He’s holding her hands and telling her they need to work through it. He promises not to allow Sheila near them. “Think about Monaco,” he says, reminding her of what it was like to be reunited. She thought he was dead. “It was a miracle.” He wants to know she loves him and doesn’t want to be apart. She gazes at him, emotion heavy in her expression.
With Hope and Liam’s marriage over (for now at least), we have to think that Steffy and Finn will get back together. So the real question is this: how long will it be before Hope runs back to Thomas (Matthew Atkinson)?
When he said goodbye, Thomas told Hope that he’d always love her. Now that Liam has made his choice, she’s free to do as she chooses. She tried to follow her mother’s advice about Liam and now she can choose Thomas once and for all because he actually wants her — and only her.
Of course, while Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) was pushing Hope to get back with Liam, Ridge was actually rooting for them to break up in his quiet way. If Hope and Liam split, it could open the door for his daughter Steffy to reunite with Liam while his son Thomas could stay with Hope. From a father’s perspective, this was an ideal outcome. Even now, after all Thomas has been through, Ridge is rooting for his son to come out on top since he’s been painted as the villain for so long. We imagine he’s going to give his son a gentle push in Hope’s direction as she makes her way back to him.
The bottom line, though, is that Hope and Thomas seem destined for one another and as soon as the door closed on Liam, we’re guessing she got in her car and immediately went in search of Thomas. It might create a rift with her mother, but she’ll have Ridge cheering for her.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS and the following day on Paramount Plus. Check your local listings to see when it comes on where you are.
