After Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) dropped a bombshell on Hope (Annika Noelle) on The Bold and the Beautiful, she has been rethinking her relationship with him. She’s getting input from her mother, too. But are her feelings for Thomas rooted in her own defensiveness?
When Hope’s relationship with Thomas first went public over the summer, after their kiss in Rome led to Liam (Scott Clifton) pushing his wife away for kissing the enemy, everyone was shocked that the kiss turned into so much more. The secret came out after Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) went to talk to her daughter about the situation and instead found Hope and Thomas in bed together. (That wasn’t the only time she’d end up walking in on them, either)
Since that moment, Brooke has been pushing Hope to end the relationship — and she’s not alone. Liam, Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Finn (Tanner Novlan) have also pushed her to call things off. And Thomas’ father, Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), has been pushing Hope to either be all-in with his son or let him go.
Hope has always defended her relationship with Thomas, telling everyone it’s none of their business. While she can’t tell him that she loves him, and even though she rejected his marriage proposal, she wants everyone to know that she’s her own woman and can make her own decisions, and she loves that Thomas loves her so much. She doesn’t have to compete for his love and attention.
Is it healthy for her to be sleeping with the man who stole her infant daughter and told her the baby had died? The same guy who was so obsessed with her that he literally stopped at nothing to win her over? Well, that’s not for us to say. But Hope thinks everything is fine, and that’s that.
Over the past week, however, Hope was left reeling after Thomas revealed that he had actually been behind Emma when she crashed, and while he wasn’t responsible for the accident (he maintains that she was texting or distracted), he lied and said he hadn’t been there when he’d seen her car crash. It’s a secret he’s been keeping for years, and now it’s out in the open. Though she’s having trouble processing this information, she still believes Thomas is telling the truth and she knows he’s a new man.
When Brooke arrives at Hope’s house, she instantly recognizes that something is very wrong. Hope doesn’t tell her what Thomas revealed, but Brooke knows that Hope’s agitation is coming from something that happened with Thomas.
Brooke knows Hope has fallen for Thomas, so she suggests that Hope let him go now, before it becomes too late. Better to do it now, she says.
Hope isn’t ready to give up on Thomas. She told him she believes his story about what happened the night Emma died, that he wasn’t involved in her death. And she truly believes that he’s not the same man he was before.
But is she saying all of these things because she truly believes them, or is she being defensive?
From the very beginning of her relationship, Hope has been defensive about Thomas, but in reality her defensiveness is more about defending her decision to leave Liam and do what she wants. In that sense, being with Thomas right now seems more like rebellion than anything else, and now that she’s all-in, she can’t back out now.
Will THOPE last after this major bombshell? Only time will tell.
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.
