Finally, some new blood on The Bold & the Beautiful! From the moment I read that Don Diamont was joining B&B as Bill Spencer, Jr., I've been anxiously awaiting his appearance. Well, this was the week and Don did not disappoint. Bravo, Brad Bell, for the new character. Bill Spencer came on like a house on fire, fresh - as in brash and insolent - and up to no good. He couldn't have shown up at a better time, too. The Ridge/Brooke, Rick/Steffy, Nick/Bridget vicious circles have been wearing, don't you agree? I mean, how many times can Ridge and Brooke question whether he's her destiny and he wanders back to Taylor? And, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ridge have a clear chance to reunite with Taylor when she returned from the dead, but he chose Brooke and raising R.J. and Hope instead. Remember that?
Taylor doesn't. She can't seem to get over that rejection and it's defined her ever since. She's had other men - Thorne, Nick, Rick - but still has this fixation on Ridge. Why didn't his rejection set her off in another direction? It would have for me. Once burned, twice learned, but not for the super smart Dr. Taylor Hayes, it seems. I know I've said this before, but Taylor needs therapy right now. Her obsession with Ridge has completely occupied her life to the point where she's not seeing patients (unless it's off-camera and not mentioned) and she has completely forgotten about her baby son, Jack. Is it really so hard for a multi-tasker like Dr. Hayes to find some time to care for all her children, not just Thomas and Steffy? She's taken compartmentalizing to an extreme. Here's what I would like to see this week, Nick comes to see Taylor with little Jack. Nick needs to remind Taylor that even if she doesn't have custodial care of the boy, she needs to see spend time with their son. What thoughts are going through little Jack's head when he sees the brunette lady with the watery eyes?
Yes, little Jack is going to be one very confused child. He's had surrogate mothers since day one, and now that Nick has flip-flopped on his love for Katie, she'll be "exiting - stage left." That will likely mean another round of Bridget and Nick, the other destiny duo that's got me climbing the walls. I mean, seriously, do we really want Bridget and Nick to do that dance again? How many times can they keep getting back together? And what the hell happened to Katie and Nick? I liked them together. It seemed like Nick could be more himself with Katie, less a romantic idyll and just a regular guy. What went wrong? It's hard to believe that Jackie's undermining of Katie really had that much an influence on Nick, but there's no other explanation. They never fought or drifted apart. It's not credible...
Jackie needs to be slapped. I don't normally advocate violence, but her treatment of Owen this week was despicable. It made me uncomfortable. Also, it was blatantly illegal! Owen was a para-legal (right after private detective and before surf line creator on his resume), so he might just be building a case against Ms. Marone. She's taken unfair advantage of the young (hunky) man. Before you know it, Jackie M. could be in court defending her actions and trying to get a judge to believe that Owen forced her to sit in that bubble bath and was coerced into scrubbing her back! By next Christmas, Nick and Bridget and Jackie and Clarke could all be working for Owen because a sexual harassment suit would go in his favor.
Of course, that's assuming that Spencer Communications isn't running everything very soon. Bill is a man with an agenda. He's already made a brilliant collaboration with Stephanie, getting her to web cast "The Logan Chronicles" in which she dishes all about her favorite family! I thought it was great to see how the web page was put together, giving Stephanie a platform to really spew her venom and get back at Eric. And, believe me, she is doing a masterful job. Those web videos are perfect. Bill may be using Stephanie - although I doubt that she's not aware of how they can help each other - but I'd suspect that his overall agenda is bigger than just tweaking Eric and the Logans. Propositioning Donna was just an appetizer for a player like Bill. He's going after bigger fish than Donna. I can see him cutting a swath through the ladies of B&B, including every one of the Logan ladies before he's done!
And yes, that includes Brooke, because she's on thin ice with Ridge especially now that Taylor's on the verge of telling her ex that he's not really "legally" married to Brooke. A single Brooke could be quite the catch for Bill, not to mention that Nick will probably resurface as a potential suitor. I'd bet that Bill and Nick won't give a hoot about Rick the way Ridge does. Ridge's hatred for Rick is epic. He cannot and will not trust anything Brooke's son does. Even after watching the poignant video he created to honor Phoebe, Ridge saw it as an evil trick to use Phoebe's memory to manipulate Steffy.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think Rick did make the DVD to manipulate Steffy. He is working his way back into her heart, which started by acting like a good guy and letting Thomas go to work at Forrester, a gesture he claimed he did for Steffy. So, clearly, Rick is out to win her back. And Steffy sure was ready to fall again; only Ridge and Taylor's conniption fit stopped her. But it isn't over, you wait and see. Rick is going to continue pursuing Steffy and she's vulnerable to him. I predict a wedding for those two. They'll probably run off and get married and deal with the family freak out after the fact. By then, Steffy will be preggers and all hell will break lose. What fun! You think Ridge's hair will turn gray? (Not as long as there's Grecian Formula!)
One last thought about B&B; did you hear that Rick Hearst is coming back to the show as Whip Jones? Dan wrote about it on SoapCentral.com this week (go read it). He'll be back on the show in July and I'm expecting big things from the character this time around. His first tenure was a bit of a washout, but this is a new time and Rick is too good an actor for the powers-that-be not to write him a great story. And how exciting is B&B going to be with all that talent interacting!
So, keep watching and keep reading. Feel free to email me with your thoughts and check out my Soap Central's daily blog - Lathered Up. I love sharing my thoughts with you about all our favorite soaps, including B&B!
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