The truth is on the table for Hope and Liam, but there are still secrets aplenty on The Bold and the Beautiful and the truth could tear several couples apart.
While at work, Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) has a flashback to her conversation with Hope (Annika Noelle), when Hope said that she deserves more than half of Liam’s (Scott Clifton) heart. Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) arrives and interrupts her reverie, telling her that he can guess why she was so distracted.
Hope checks her phone and sits down when Liam comes home. He asks if she got his text, and she did. And she agrees that they need to talk about their marriage and their future.
Finn (Tanner Novlan) asks Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) if she’s heard anything about Liam and Hope, and he mentions if they figure out their marriage it will help everything, including Finn and Steffy’s marriage. She stares at him, wondering what he means.
Ridge asks Brooke about her conversation with Thomas (Matthew Atkinson). “How did it go?” he asks. She gives him a look.
Hope says that she hates what happened in Rome and that they need to have a very serious conversation about their marriage and their future. “You and Thomas?” he asks. “And you and Steffy,” she replies.
Ridge says that he can’t believe their amazing reunion in Rome was upstaged by Hope and Thomas’ kiss. The joke falls flat. Ridge is grateful that Brooke took the time to talk to Thomas to see that he wasn’t at fault here. Ridge thinks it was too much wine, and the beautiful scenery, and that they’re two young kids and they’ll work it all out.
Steffy says that she can see that Finn wants Liam and Hope to be together. But Finn is worried about how much time Liam spends around Steffy, and while he’s supportive of Liam’s role with Kelly, he doesn’t want him around more than he needs to be.
Hope admits she got caught up in Rome, but she won’t lie that the desire she has for Thomas is real. She also says that Thomas isn’t the only one who has driven a wedge in their marriage. She calls him out, accusing him of doing what he always does: run to Steffy. Liam’s expression says it all, giving Hope the vindication she needed.
Ridge wants to know more about Brooke’s conversation with Thomas. She says it was “surprising, and not at all what [she] expected.” Ridge misunderstands, thinking that she is holding the past against him. He’s trying, Ridge says. Brooke isn’t sure she can look past it, but she doesn’t offer up what really happened when she showed up.
Finn says he trusts Steffy completely, but he doesn’t trust Liam because of the history they had. He’s not worried about his wife, but Liam’s motivations concern him.
Hope says she can guess Liam has seen Steffy and Liam says she’s seen Thomas, so now where do they go? Hope says she owned what she did with Thomas, but Liam has never admitted that Steffy has always been on his mind. Hope says she grew up watching her mother suffer as Ridge went back and forth between two women, and she refuses to be that woman now.
Ridge wants to believe that everything will work for the best. “I hope you’re right,” Brooke says. She wants to believe it, but she says that so many peoples’ lives will be impacted if Hope and Liam can’t find their way back to each other.
Steffy reassures Finn that she is devoted to him. Finn can’t imagine what it must have been like for Liam to see Hope kissing Thomas like that. Maybe some people can’t control themselves, he reasons. Steffy thinks back to her own kiss with Liam and sighs.
Liam says that he has always loved Hope, and was probably naive when he ignored Steffy’s warning that Hope had something going on with Thomas. Hope says that he’s always running off to Steffy and that’s the problem. He reminds her that “You wanted a divorce, fine,” she says, holding up her hand that’s devoid of a wedding ring. “You wanted it, I accept that.”
Liam is shocked that she took the ring off first. He says he really doesn’t understand her, and that’s why he wanted a divorce. But this isn’t on him, it’s on her. She tells him that he’s the one who planted the seeds of doubt and that opened her eyes to so much. She’s sorry for hurting him, but she’s done being with him and wondering who he really loves. “Go find love,” she says. “Hell, go find Steffy.”
There’s a lot to break down here. Obviously Liam and Hope are essentially done, barring some miracle that has them coming back together as a loving couple. But that ship seems to have sailed and it’s never returning to that port again. Ever. The biggest thing, though, is that Hope hasn’t revealed that she spent several hours (days, weeks… do we know how long it was) in bed with Thomas.
Finn and Steffy’s marriage is strong, but Steffy is hiding a big secret from her loving husband: Liam kissed her, twice. His intuition is absolutely correct about his friend. Though he cares for Liam, Finn knows that Liam spending too much time around Steffy is bad news. The poor guy just doesn’t know how bad that news really is, and Steffy isn’t saying anything.
And then there’s Brooke, who walked in on Hope and Thomas during her attempt to go to Thomas’ house and talk to him about what happened. Instead of confessing what she encountered to Ridge, she allows Ridge to apologize on Thomas’ behalf while letting Thomas shoulder the blame when this whole situation came about because of Hope.
Brooke’s secret is the big one here. When Ridge finds out that Brooke hid the truth from him, it could mean the end of their newly rekindled relationship. Once Ridge knows the truth, he’s going to tell Steffy, who will likely tell Finn, who will then tell Liam.
And then somewhere in there the truth about Liam and Steffy is going to come out and suddenly all of the relationships are going to have giant cracks in them — if they’re not crumbling already.
Secrets are dangerous things. Brooke is playing with fire here, and she’s about to burn a lot of people.
