My Christmas present from the Bold and the Beautiful arrived early, and I hadn't even turned in my list yet. All I have to say is don't make Quinn angry. You won't like her when she's angry -- if you're a Katie fan, that is. If you're not, and you prayed for the day that someone would beat Katie down to the floor, then Friday was that day.
I am not a Katie fan -- though I do love the way Heather Tom works -- so Friday was a happy day for me. Quinn beating Katie like a dirty rug was probably a daydream; however, I'll treasure the rewinds and whip out mental flashbacks of it whenever Katie gets on my last nerve.
There were other surprises this week -- some for viewers and some for our favorite Los Angeles residents who were either inspired to have faith, awed by others' faith in them, or who lost faith. Let's scoop on the sudden and dramatic shifts this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Besides the surprise of Quinn unwrapping Katie's skull for Christmas, Rick was surprisingly calm when Eric passed him over as CEO. I would have lost my house and shorts if I'd bet on Rick's reaction to that one. Maybe Rick is in shock, and his real reaction is still coming. I'd be shocked, too, if my niece, who was a baby while I was starting college, got the job over me because of her social media frenzy. But, then again, that's how we elected our new president, so....
It had to be shock or the diaper fumes for Rick because the first thing he asked was why Eric hadn't chosen Ridge. Say what? Rick has spent how many years telling Eric why it should not be Ridge or any other Marone (rest in peace, Joseph Mascolo), for that matter? Rick wrote the book on why Ridge can't be trusted, and Bill published it. I expected Rick to rejoice that Eric finally sees it but to also raise the roof because Eric chose the younger version of Ridge instead of Rick, Eric's namesake.
Eric's a smooth talker, and it's going to get someone in trouble one of these days. He told Rick it was Quinn's idea, and he just seconded it. Then Eric told Steffy that he'd passed over Rick because Rick could run International in his sleep, and Rick's desires had changed since he'd become a family man. Yeah, right.
For one thing, if Rick can run International in his sleep, then he needs a new challenge, and washing baby bottles ain't it. For another thing, Steffy's experience posting selfies and hopping in and out of lingerie doesn't trump Rick's undeniable success as interim CEO. Let me add that Rick hurt Eric the least of the three candidates, but he wasn't chosen. On the other hand, Steffy was tone of the ringleaders and got rewarded.
Eric dismissed Steffy's involvement in the campaign against him and Quinn as Steffy being Scrappy to Ridge's Scooby-Doo lead. I don't know how Eric can say that when Steffy was ripping off faking mustaches and running Quinn down like Interpol before Ridge even knew that Quinn and Eric were a Queric. Yeah, Eric, go on and take those meds because now I'm starting to think something is insane in your membrane, as Cyprus Hill would say.
As a side note, isn't it funny that for months the family kept hinting that Eric was mentally unstable and Quinn was behind all the decisions that Eric was actually making on his own, like the wedding and the power of attorney. Now, Eric makes a choice that Quinn directly led him to -- one that really makes no sense, mind you -- and Steffy thinks Eric knows what he's talking about all of a sudden. Suddenly, Steffy is all "I have to respect Eric's wishes. I can't throw his belief in me back in his face." Ridge backs up Eric's belief in Steffy to her face, even though he said to Eric that she was young and it isn't her time, which is true. Thomas even deserves it before she does, and it should have been Rick's to decline before Eric even got to Steffy. Eric had better watch out. When the diaper fumes clear, Rick might be wielding a candlestick. When he started his family, he was all about building a legacy for Lizzie, not for the Marone clan. Will Rick still be able to cry to mommy for help now that she's with Ridge? Or is he just going to lay low until the position is once again up for grabs?
I'll say this. Eric does know what he's doing, and Eric does know what he's talking about. Eric has his own agenda. It is apparent from what he told Steffy, who was too "star-struck," to use Katie's term, to hear it. Eric told Steffy that he knows the percentages, and if she joined forces with him and Quinn, they'd have control.
Eric has been at this game a long time, and he just figured out how to divide and conquer his opposition but unite at the same time through the naïve Steffy, who is acting like she just won the Miss America pageant instead of realizing what Eric expects from her as a stockholder.
The key is Steffy and Wyatt. Eric hasn't decided to distance himself from Liam for no good reason. Liam couldn't even get any face time with Eric at the holiday dinner, and it is because, if Wyatt and Steffy stay married and Steffy is the CEO, Eric has allies. Eric pumped Steffy's head full of all that faith and belief in her non-experience-having butt as CEO for twenty-five reasons. Each one of them has to do with control of Forrester.
Steffy is busily telling Ridge that they won't need Bill's stock to deal with Quinn, but Eric might be corralling her stock for his side, and she isn't even aware of it. He said it himself. He would be her Forrester safety net if she needs it, which we know she will. So if Wyatt's warming her bed, Eric's directing her at work, and Quinn's kept away from blunt objects, ain't no way Steffy's voting her stock with Ridge anytime soon.
Eric likes couples at the helm. At first, it was him and Stephanie. Next, it was Ridge and Brooke, then it was Caroline and Rick, and now he wants Wyatt and Steffy. Ridge knows Eric's proclivity for couples. How could he ever forget that "get your ass back to Brooke" speech he got when he lost the CEO chair because he just had to tie a string on Katie? Back then, Eric didn't have such a noble opinion of that Logan girl.
Katie foiled Ridge's chances at being CEO back then, just to get back at Brooke if you ask me, and she messed him up last summer when she put on her goody truth shoes about Douglas. Now Katie keeps taking her red-lipstick-wearing, shoulders-exposed-dressing, gift-bearing, passive-aggressive-attention-seeking behind over to the mansion all the time.
How is busybody Katie going to affect Forrester this time, I have no clue, but Katie is probably the very reason Quinn wants to stay at home with Eric and that Eric wants to be at home and available for all these gift-bearing visits. Eric likes his women two ways -- young and Logan. He has a history of cheating, flirting, and charming the panties off them.
It's exactly what is happening to Katie as she stands there listening to Liam warn her about needing a guard dog when she's the one sniffing Eric like a dog in heat. Katie isn't braving the wrath of Quinn to visit Eric for adult company as she keeps claiming. She says Brooke is the one who can't be without a man. Well, honey, it must run in the family.
Since the alienated Liam didn't have any time with Eric on Thanksgiving, he asked Katie if Eric was acting like himself lately. Did you hear what Katie told him? It was proof positive of what's she's up to.
Katie got all flustered and said she was probably the wrong person to ask because she's always been star-struck by Eric, who was accomplished but unimpressed with himself at the same time. It wasn't her experience with most men. The next words out of her mouth almost made me kill myself on the video game I was playing as I listened to her.
"And he can kind of sees right through me, you know? You can't hide anything from him. Never could. So he makes me feel a little flustered, and I guess -- well, that's normal. So, is he acting normal? Then, yes, I would say that he is," Katie told Liam.
If she said it to me, the first thing out of my mouth would have been, "Katie...are you having feelings for Eric?" Those were quite a lot of emotional, personal things to say about a friend, and Liam's question didn't warrant her swimming in her deep feelings about Eric's effect on her. My "friends" get promoted to boyfriend if they start making me feel giddy like that.
Surprisingly, it went right over Liam's head. Back when Katie was sniffing around Ridge, Liam did pick up on it from her, but I guess he can only process so much since he cracked his head. He didn't even have the presence of mind to set up the play date with Will at Will's new house, so he could see where his little brother lived or this house Katie thinks is so great.
The rescue ranger part of Liam's brain is working, at least. Liam warned Katie about a hundred times to get home security against Quinn. Too bad he's not picking up on the crush vibes from Katie, or else he'd be able to figure out that Quinn is the one who needs turrets to keep Katie out of Quinn's house. To keep Liam and Steffy out, too, for that matter.
Did you see how Steffy just waltzed into the mansion and how Liam was just lurking behind Quinn in the kitchen? Steffy and Liam know good and well that Quinn can't have free reign to roam around Liam's house, especially if they don't know she's even there. After Friday, though, people might learn about traipsing over to the mansion at will.
But back to Ridge. Ridge knows Eric wanted Ridge and Brooke to run Forrester as a couple, so Ridge thought he could slink into the house, drop a Bridge Scooby snack at Eric's feet, and Eric would say all was forgiven. Eric wasn't impressed that, years later, Ridge did what Eric had asked him to do. While they talked, I could hear Johnny Mathis and Denise Williams singing, "Too much, too little, too late to ever try again...Too much too little, too late, we knew it had to end...It's over..."
Eric needs things to happen stat, and that's why he turned to Statt. Eric advised Wyatt that he wasn't divorced, and it wasn't too much, too little, too late for Steffy and Wyatt. Eric inspired Steffy to go after the CEO seat, he had Katie feeling all vulnerable and exposed, and he hyped Wyatt up so much about his marriage that Wyatt let loose on Liam the "Morality Police," who tickets the wrongs of everyone but himself.
Bro, you live with your brother's wife. Shut up. I'm #teamwyatt all the way on that one, and I wish Liam had heard Steffy call their sacred abode "Liam's house" while talking to her father about Eric and Quinn's offer. She confused me with that one. No wonder Liam repeats himself. She can't get stuff through her head.
How many times has Liam said the cliff house was Liam and Steffy's special place? How many times has he talked about all the memories they have there? But when he's out of earshot, she calls it "Liam's house." The kick of it is, she was standing inside it when she told Ridge something like, "I came straight to Liam's house" in response to Ridge asking why she hadn't told him about the job offer sooner.
Why didn't Steffy say she went straight "home" or "came straight here?" I'm stuck on the word choice because I think it's a hint to the direction the storyline might take. Steffy shifted viewpoints like the ground after an earthquake after her talk with Eric, who had also set her straight about her role in her marriage like no other person in her camp would dare do.
Eric is so persuasive because he seasons the listener with zesty compliments and gently kneads in the hard truth. Steffy wanted to know the rules of the job and how much control she'd have. Eric let her know that the job title means exactly what it is. She got an attitude about having to work with Quinn, and Eric let her know right away that if she accepted the job, a few things had to change -- like her language, her temper, her stubbornness, and basically, her whole nasty way of dealing with people.
Of course, Eric was much more eloquent than I wrote here, and it seems he made Steffy want to be a better person. If their conversation is any indication of how Eric talks to Quinn, then it's no wonder Quinn wanted to be better for him, too. Part of putting Steffy under his self-improvement spell was telling her that she was victimizing herself by blaming Quinn for her wedding vows, and he urged her not to let her hatred for Quinn cloud her thinking.
Eric took Steffy's negatives and gave her a way to surmount them, which endeared her to her grandfather even more. Ridge, inartful at language to say the least, won't be able to break the spell of empowerment. He was even stunned when Steffy said, "Maybe Quinn really has changed." She cited that Eric and Wyatt believed it -- as if they hadn't been telling Steffy the same thing since Monaco. What's different now? Why is Steffy finally listening to reason?
I liken it to be tired of being afraid. You all know that I had those snakes in the basement. I dealt with it for a long time because I was too afraid to go down there. Finally, I just did what I had to do down there, snakes or no snakes. We found the snakes. I confronted the fear. There are no more snakes. Same thing applies with Steffy.
Steffy has been afraid for so long, I don't even really know what she's afraid of. What did she need? Eric's validation of her place in his life before she could accept that he had a new wife? Why is she now doing the things she should have done months ago? She is being reasonable. She is listening and making a plan to be in place if need be for the company's sake.
I'm relieved because Steffy has finally got a train of thought I can follow. All her whining and blaming with inaction was weak, pointless, and nothing to root for. A conflicted person in the opposite camp opens up story possibilities for the new year.
Liam and Ridge are worried about what Quinn has in store for Steffy, but all Quinn seems to be doing is offering the job to solidify herself in the family and reunite Wyatt and Steffy. I'm with Quinn when she says "big deal." I'm also with Liam, though, when he asked Quinn when he could expect to get shoved in a river or locked in a cabin.
I love anytime that Quinn and Liam are bantering on-screen. The chemistry is explosive, in my opinion, and Liam seems to only be riveting when he's at her throat. Any other time, he's kicking back beers. This week, he was with Zende since Thomas and Caroline left.
Zende had heard that Bill lost Brooke. Apparently, R.J. was spreading it around the building. Zende also heard that Liam and Steffy were back together. Once Zende finished with all the water cooler gossip, Liam continued on his one-track mind about Steffy. It would have been more entertaining if Liam had congratulated Zende on making it to the Mile-High club. Zende would ask how Liam knew. "Oh, Sasha's spreading that one all over the building, too," Liam would reply.
With Liam in Quinn's orbit, it's no wonder that Quinn was all riled up by the time she witnessed Katie in the living room, patting Eric's knee. No one can ruffle her feathers like Liam. If you really want to know if Quinn has changed, sic him on her back every day to see if she cracks. After dealing with him, the last thing Quinn needed was exposure to her second weakness -- any woman near her man.
There Katie was, gushing about how much Eric helped her and kissing him on the cheek. He went upstairs, and Quinn was on Katie like white on rice. Quinn had maintained her composure with Liam, so I was shocked that she was ripping on Katie. I bought it until Quinn starting asking Katie who'd put her up to it.
The first person Quinn suspected being behind Katie's flirtations with Eric was Brooke. When I heard that, I was shaking my head, thinking, "Nope. Brooke is not even in this storyline. Something is fishy." It cinched it for me when Katie admitted to being after Eric. Nope. Katie never admits anything until the damage is already done. She's so much like her sister, it's unbelievable.
Katie called Quinn crazy, and I guess Quinn decided to show Katie what crazy really is. Quinn's eyes electrified like David Banner's, and the next thing we know, Quinn was beating the hell out of Katie with a candlestick holder until Katie was prone on the floor with a pool of blood around her head. The floor is white marble with red swirled in, which made it look like a bloody mess in that foyer. Quinn checked Katie's pulse and look horrified.
I want this to be real, and it would be what Katie deserves in soapland. Well, maybe not to die, but to at least land in the hospital. It's what Ivy got for hanging around Liam. Although I think Quinn is imagining Katie admitting to going after Eric, all the signs are there. I mean, come on. Why is she going out of her way to get an engraved box of sketch pencils for Eric? You don't just pick those up at Walmart. And why couldn't it have waited until Christmas? Oh, because she needs a Christmas excuse, too.
Katie deserves this candle clobbering because she just went through this with Brooke. How could Katie go balls-to-the-wall crazy thinking that Brooke was after her husband and then do the same thing to another woman? Katie knows how this feels and what it can do to someone, whether it's real or imagined. It's why I say Katie has bipolar or whatever condition Jodi Arias has, because the two act just alike.
Don't tell me I'm exaggerating. Moved to be closer to the man. Check. Keeps showing up at the man's house with gifts, needing something, or being "helpful." Check. Developed exaggerated feelings for the man. Check. Touching the man and kissing on him even if his girlfriend is there. Check. Being warned to stay away but still hanging around. Check. Brown hair. Check. See where this is headed?
Is Katie alive? Unfortunately, I think Quinn will snap out of this daydream. She'll probably be gripping the candlestick holder, and Katie will be all like, "What are you doing? Are you okay?" But like I said earlier, at least I got some good footage to medicate myself with as Katie continues to fray my nerves. If I'm wrong, I'll lose my house and my shorts.
What do you think? Even if it is a dream, does it signify that Quinn's crazy is about to launch again, as Liam predicts? Does Quinn have anything to be upset about with Katie, in your opinion?
And what of Eric? He kept insisting that Katie was welcome in the house at any time and didn't even have to call. Isn't that a little insensitive to Quinn, considering that she was honest with him about her feelings surrounding it? I think it's just a little much to insist that Katie's welcome and go on about how he had expected to see more of her. That's just inviting unnecessary stress into the home, and as you can
Tell us what you think about the surprising behavior this week. And here's a helpful piece of advice. When it's time to leave, do not let the candlestick hit you where the good Lord split you, and may all of your friendly house calls be bold and beautiful, baby!
What are your thoughts on The Bold and the Beautiful? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
